Mystery: Helping You Hear the Holy Spirit

What we need in the church and in this movement are more mystics. Unfortunately, most Christians are not mystics. They have forgotten that a relationship with God through Jesus Christ crosses into another sphere of reality. Somehow the casual assumption of God’s accessibility and availability has made many of us forget that we are communing with the cosmic Lord of the Universe. We take what is a profoundly mysterious relationship for granted.

What is a mystic?
Mystics are people of time and eternity. They are right-now and forever people. Their relationship with God crosses two spheres of existence: nature and supra-nature. In other words, their mystical relationship transcends the material world. Mystics lose themselves in their vision of God— enraptured by his love and magnificence.

How to be a mystic?
First, mystics recognize that their relationship with God is a mystery. And they are comfortable with that mystery. G.K. Chesterton compares the mystic to the poet “who only asks to get his head into the heavens.” In contrast, the logician seeks to get the heavens into his head—and as a result “it is his head that splits.” Mystics and poets are sane because they allow for the mysterious.

Second, mystics know that their relationship with Jesus Christ is highly personal— one of knowing, loving and serving Jesus. A child before his father, a union with the risen Christ, a walk with and in the Spirit, a spouse’s love for his or her mate are all images empowering their personal relationship with God. In contrast, many of us view Christianity as a relationship with truth, with doctrine, with an abstraction, or with a cause—not with a person.

Third, mystics are men and women of prayer. Prayer is the most convincing evidence that the Christian life as a mystical dimension. All mystics establish a pattern of personal private prayer. They are attentive to space—both the external space of a quiet surroundings and the internal space of centered thoughts, Scripture meditation, and communion with God. In these spaces, they look to know God— experientially yet mysteriously.

Begin slowly, but begin to explore your mystical, mysterious union with the ascended Christ. Be accepting of mystery; God will never fit in any box you can devise. Make space in your life for Jesus. Converse with One whom you can know and love and serve.