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The Spirit Of God Like A Fire Is Burning: Mystical Christianity

© Arthur C. Ruger

to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;

To another the working of miracles;

to another prophecy;

to another discerning of spirits;

to another divers kinds of tongues;

to another the interpretation of tongues:

But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.

For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ." -Epistle to Corinthians-

Specific spiritual experiences do not have as their primary purpose a function of promoting faith. In the church of my childhood I was taught that any spiritual experience was a "faith promoting experience" intended by God as personal verification to me that I belonged to the only true church on the face of the earth.

However, over my lifetime I came to understand that epiphany, illumination and flashes of inspiration lead to a greater sense and awareness of prompting and guidance - not in the manner of a human puppet who assumes that he only moves because God pulls the strings - but in a manner of coming to know and understand that the kingdom of God is within.

The kingdom of God within is a beautiful and fully illuminated place where there is constant opportunity to know one's self more completely, a constant opportunity for enhanced personal insight and wisdom, and most importantly, the on-going reality of God.

The kingdom of God within each of us is a place where we can see clearly through the window pane, because, as Watts expressed it, we are not too busy painting on the clear crystal pictures of what we think or what other mortals have told us is inside.

Does not the Spirit suggest that it shall come to pass in the last days, (saith God), that I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy about themselves and their lives, and your young men and young women shall see visions with understanding, and your old men and old women shall dream dreams that reflect what they have done?

If we think we need someone else's approval or assent to live spiritually in this manner, we deceive ourselves.

Within us we are led to God; led to discover union with the God of love and compassion. That is God's Gift of the Holy Spirit to humankind.