In this corner, hailing from his 13.2-acre farm in the Buckeye State, it’s Dan Edelen!

The Bible provides some basis for making distinctions between wrong and right, while the Spirit fills in the particulars. This is life in the Spirit, and it requires us to know His voice when He speaks to us in our day to day existence. …I can’t read the Bible and not see the mystical. As noted in the passage that starts this post, the Apostle Paul himself thought nothing of mystical experiences, such as being caught up in a heavenly realm where inexpressible realities can be glimpsed. Paul goes so far as to boast about the man who experienced this (likely Paul, as most commentators note).

The prophet Isaiah had a vision of God, the Holy One’s train filling the temple. He saw angels and they symbolically purged his sin with a touch of coal to the lips. Ezekiel glimpsed his famous wheel within a wheel. John fell prostrate before an angelic messenger who delivered a vision of the end of all things. Jacob’s ladder. Abraham entertaining three visitors. The inner sanctum of disciples witnessing Jesus’s transfiguration.

The Bible overflows with the mystical. So how is mysticism bad?

And in this corner, the Pastor of Preaching and Vision at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN… John Piper!

What’s sad is that it really does give the impression that extra-biblical communication with God is surpassingly wonderful and faith-deepening. All the while, the supremely-glorious communication of the living God which personally and powerfully and transformingly explodes in the receptive heart through the Bible everyday is passed over in silence…. I grieve at what is being communicated here. The great need of our time is for people to experience the living reality of God by hearing his word personally and transformingly in Scripture. Something is incredibly wrong when the words we hear outside Scripture are more powerful and more affecting to us than the inspired word of God.

I have to say that, without discounting the Bible’s importance at all, I have to kinda side with Dan on this one. I can have a very deep relationship with my wife through letter-writing when we’re apart, but if she never speaks to me when we’re in person (but rather simply points to appropriate passages in her letters)? Well, unless she’s mute, that’s going to put a strain in the relationship.

Especially if I know from her own testimony in her letters that she’s spoken audibly to others.

For instance… does a publisher like Crossway use some special “Holy Spirit Ink” when printing copies of a Bible? No, of course not. The characters on the page are not themselves the Living Word of God. They are words inspired by God, but without the Holy Spirit speaking to us (audibly or not), confirming what we’re reading as Good and True and “that which is come from the Father,” the printed letters do nothing to us. It is not the “Biblical communication” (that is, the printed page) which speaks to our hearts, but rather the “extra-biblical communication” (that is, the testimony of the Holy Spirit) which makes the scriptures powerful and affecting.

These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. (John 14:25-26, ESV)

I would say that the Holy Spirit’s “extra-biblical” confirmation of the Scriptures is the primary method he uses (at least in Western culture today), but that selfsame testimony will not allow us to pretend that God is silent apart from the Canon, because as Dan points out in his post, the Canon itself tells us many times that God speaks to men and women apart from the written Scriptures.

[UPDATE: It seems my pastor's wife likes what Dr. Piper has to say. What am I missing here?]

[UPDATE 2: Zoanna (below) said, "I think I’ll do a post, since this comment could go on for a while." Well, she did! ]

[UPDATE 3: Laurie posted again to clarify. Cool!]

[UPDATE 4: John Piper's blog has been updated with a clarification of sorts. (HT: Adrian Warnock)]

I believe when we encounter the Lord in this way we should do the following:

• Confess any known sin.
• Ask the Spirit to search our hearts for hidden sin.
• Confess hidden sin when He reveals it.
• Praise Him for revealing sin in our lives.
• Praise Him for who He is.
• Ask Him to prepare us for what we might receive from Him.
• Ask Him to fill us with Himself, His gifts, and His direction.
• Thank Him for meeting those needs.
• Ask Him to transform our lives so that we are better able to serve him, so we leave the church with a greater revelation of Him to share with the community of faith and those still outside the flock.
• Thank Him and praise Him again.

I think if we take these ten steps in the presence of the Lord, He’ll bless us so much more than if we simply bask in Him then leave unchanged after the encounter.

(Source: “When the Spirit Falls,” Cerulean Sanctum)

…and now Scott Morgan:

Like my laptop, the issue is my internal compatibility with Him. Periodically, I need to run some diagnostic questions to check and see if there’s any interference. I ask questions like these…

• What are my motives right now?
• Have I confessed known sin in my life?
• Am I operating out of fear?
• What am I thinking about? Is it true and right and good?
• Am I trusting God in this situation?
• Am I obeying what I know God wants me to do?

This is what King David was dealing with when he prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24, NIV).

Thankfully, our prayer connection can be reestablished when we draw near to God.

(Source: “Connectivity Troubles,” Scott’s Bible Blog)

And they both used unordered lists. That’s the creepiest thing about it.

President Paul A. Rader led the chapel service this morning as students, for the last three days, have converged on Hughes Auditorium for prayer and intercession for the campus and worldwide community.

“God continues to move across the campus,” said Dr. Paul A. Rader. “We have had students in Hughes Auditorium continuously since Monday at 10 a.m. when God came in such power and blessing during our Student Chapel. Last night at midnight there were several hundred in Hughes. Some stayed until 4 a.m. We met for a Prayer and Praise Chapel this morning with an awesome sense of expectation. God did not disappoint us. From the first praise chorus students began coming to the long altar at the front of the auditorium. Soon the altar was crowded with students again. There was incredible freedom in the Spirit as we sang and prayed and shared testimonies of God’s gracious work in the hearts of students.

“It has been wholly the work of the Spirit, who moved numbers of our students to passionate and persistent prayer in small groups over the past several months.”

Are we seeing a new revival breaking out? Stay tuned for updates…

I would like to preface this by pointing out that I, at present, hold nothing in particular as bearing the weight of Scripture beyond the 66 Old and New Testament books.

That said, I have a question for continuationists: Who says the canon is closed until Christ’s return, and on what authority did they say it?

I’m all for wanting to create some distance between my group and “the heretics,” but I think we argue for the completion of the Canon for the same reason cessationists argue for the ceasing of prophecy, healings and tongues: we’re scared of being stereotyped with “the weirdos.”

If there is a convincing argument for the closing of the canon, I’ve never heard it.

I’m one of the folks who risks being branded a “closet cessationist” — if not an outright heretic — for one particular reason: I am fully convinced that if the Spiritual gift of prophesy is active today, it must be 100% accurate.

See Apprising Ministries‘ article on the accuracy of the Word of God, and you may see where I’m coming from.

I long for the days when pastors would get together for months- (or years-) long church councils to hash all this stuff out. This seems about as close as we can get these days.

I believe God chose me and every other believer in Christ before the foundation of the world (4). I believe this was decided without consulting any choice or decision we would make in our lives (5); rather, I believe God’s sovereign election causes our decision to repent, embrace Christ and follow him (6). I believe that in the fullness of time, so that God’s righteousness would be vindicated, he sent his Son as the propitiation for our sin, to reconcile us to God and breathe his life into our souls (7). I belive that no one comes to the Father except by the Son in this manner (8).

I believe we who have been chosen are—in a very real, spiritual sense—crucified with Christ and that Christ now lives in us (9). I believe that this life we live is as the eyes, ears, hands, feet, etc. of Christ (10). I believe that, in the beginning of the New Covenant, God laid out specific roles for the members of Christ’s body, to be powered by his Holy Spirit, and that these roles are outlined in Scripture (11, 12) and still in effect today (13). I believe that cessationism is unbiblical behavior which rejects certain members of the body (14).

I believe we cannot live for God apart from his Holy Spirit residing in us (15). I believe we are the body of Christ in such a sense that, if a brother is in need, we ought to assume Jesus desires to meet his need through us (16). I believe the “good works” we do are really being done by the Spirit of Christ, in and through our bodies (17). Thus, God does all the work and deserves all the glory for our righteousness (18).

I believe God-given prophecy always was, is and will be completely accurate. There was only one test given by God with which to judge whether a prophecy was of God: whether what was foretold came true (19). I reject all attempts to water down this gift into a form of “God-told-me-so” happy-fluffy-talk as false prophecy (20, 21, 22).

I believe God has given a wonderful gift by which we can spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ into all the world: the gift of languages [tongues] (23). I believe all gifts are given to build up the body, and that it maligns Scripture to treat any self-serving function of a Spiritual gift as its primary purpose (24, 25). The glossalia was given to further God’s goal of gathering a people from every people, nation, tribe and language [tongue]. Any other use is second-best at best (26).

I think I’ll stop there for now. I would love to dive further into each of these areas, but if the Lord wills, I’ll live and be visiting family in Miami over Thanksgiving. Perhaps I’ll make a point to come back to these issues in December.