Interpreters of Spiritual Experience

Spiritual experiences are rocking people's lives.

I know of a Neo-Pagan who had open vision of Jesus appearing in the middle of her living room on the cross. I sat for coffee with Fiona Horne, one of America's most famous Witches, as she retold her story of "the Christian God" speaking to her through a falcon. It landed on the ground in front of her, spread it's wings and spoke as man. Fiona retells this story in her book describing an event during the time she was filming "Mad, Mad House" for the Sci-Fi channel.

These are the kind of stories which rock your world and leave you grasping for footing, or reaching for answers.

Spiritual experiences are like clues to crime scene. They hint an answer, but remain mysterious without a fuller body of evidence, or a confession of a perpetrator. Spiritual experiences are like pieces of a puzzle. They are small glimpses of a larger, beautiful picture; but by themselves they are odd shaped pieces of color. They are like sign posts to a destination. They may give hints as to their ultimate meaning, or point the direction, but are not the actual destination.

The value of legitimate spiritual experience is great, as is a sign post on a long lonely stretch of road to a destination one has never before traveled. But, experiences are often few and far between, and this may be purposely so, as part of the plan of God.

There are people on earth who though they have not reached the ultimate destination on that path toward God, have seen more clearly ahead into the distances. Scripture gives us a clearer picture than our experiences often - if interpreted well, and those who know the scriptures, and know their God will see the path of spiritual growth and enlightenment more clearly than those who have only mystical experience to navigate by.

Believing that this is true it leads to me to believe that those who know the scriptures and know their God (the two are not necessarily connected) have the potential to become interpreters of the mysterious spiritual phenomena, which often confound people experiencing them today.