Is experiencing God important?

Bill Johnson pastor of Bethel Church, Redding California believes so. In his book "When Heaven invades Earth," he writes: '...God cannot be known apart from experience. Randy Clark puts it this way: "Anyone who doesn't have an experience with God, doesn't know God." God is a person, not a philosophy or a concept.'
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The Bible from beginning to end is about people who experienced God. They talk with Him. Are healed by Him. They experience miracles. People prosper in drought times, defeat great armies, are saved from impossible situations, all because they know God.
God is part of their lives. Actually, most of the people in the Bible first got to know God through experiencing His intervention in their lives.

I grew up in a Church which focused on having an "objective knowledge" of God. That is knowing about God from the Bible and the Church's doctrines. Personal experience was looked down on. It was preached that we no longer needed miracles or personal experience because we now have the whole Bible. Because of that many people in the Church looked outside of God for help when sick or in need. God was seen as only a last resort.

The sad thing is that God wants to be known. It is His will to heal, to save to set free. God wants to intervene in financial situations and in relationships that are breaking down. God has the miracle needed for your situation. He wants to do these things because he wants you to know Him personally. The only way this can happen is by experience. You need to experience God.

God is closer then you think
Bob Lipsys