When you wish to access a particular web site on the internet, you need to go through a few steps. First, of course, you need to turn on your computer and locate your internet access icon. Then you may need to enter your password as you log on. Once you are online, you click on your browser icon and go the home page. Then you can type in the address, hit “enter” and, voila! You have accessed the desired site.
Suppose you are trying to access God. Are there certain techniques or steps you have to follow in order to connect with Him? If you do this, that, and the next thing correctly will you automatically get online with the Divine? To hear some people talk and to read certain pieces of spiritual literature, one might think so. But two questions arise here. Can God be so routinely “accessed” by anyone who has learned a technique? Are those people who use such techniques really connecting with the true God?
We have to realize two basic facts when we speak in the present context of our seeking God in prayer and meditation. First, there are a few steps we ordinarily do need to take if we wish to prepare ourselves for an encounter with the Lord. And second, even if we do so, our actual meeting with Him depends not on our “access procedures” but on his will alone.
It should be clear that if we’re sitting in front of the TV or are having a couple beers with our friends we are not in those moments prime candidates for mystical experience. So, ordinarily we must remove as much noise, activity, and distraction as we can so as to be able to attentively listen and await the presence of God. This may mean going to a particular room where it is quiet. It may mean doing other things to create a sacred environment and to promote relaxed attentiveness, like lighting a candle, burning incense, breathing rhythmically, and slowly repeating the name of Jesus. All these things may be helpful, but none is infallible in facilitating an experience of God or even in bringing us into his presence. Why? For one thing, He is already there, and we don’t need techniques to attract Him. But more importantly is the fact that God, being sovereign and free, decides if and when and how He will manifest Himself to the one who comes to Him. God is the One who loved us first; He is the initiator. It is within his power to allow Himself to be experienced or not. You may meditate for hours and not find Him, or you may splutter your opening “O my God…” and be inundated with the awareness of his loving presence. It’s up to the Lord, precisely because He is the Lord.
God cannot be manipulated; His divine energy cannot be “tapped into” at will by the spiritual technician who has completed his courses. There is no metaphysical necessity for God to be accessed by anyone proficient in spiritual disciplines who tries to do so. There is only divine grace and love, freely given to those freely chosen by God to receive this gift. Why? Because God is personal and not some sort of cosmic “force”. God is not merely the anonymous Source of varied spiritual energies waiting to be discovered and used for the benefit of individuals or of mankind. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and He has personally revealed Himself as such.
God knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows what will help us grow and mature as human beings and as his disciples and friends. Even though He dwells within us, there will be times at which it will be in our best interest that He not manifest his presence to us. There will be times when we need to experience his absence so as to overcome our complacency or our taking Him for granted. God may also wish to increase our desire for Him by making Himself more difficult to find in our prayer. He may even wish to call attention to any unrepented sin that itself is keeping us from communion with Him. Whatever the reason, God is personally working all things for our good.
What about those who say they can access God more or less at will by means of certain techniques? We would have to ask whether it is the true and living God they experience or simply an altered psychic or spiritual state. There is much we still do not know about the inner world of human beings, and there are levels of consciousness and various powers that can be accessed which may be quite extraordinary. But we cannot presume to equate such states or experiences with actual communion with God. There are also more aggressive ways of inducing extraordinary experiences besides meditation techniques. But we have to ask again: can we say that these induced altered states are true mystical experiences or connections with God?
This is an area in which distinctions have to be made, in which confusion and even deception can enter in. Remember, “even satan disguises himself as an angel of light” (2Cor. 11:14). There is a danger in seeking spiritual experience for its own sake, because there are spiritual experiences available that do not proceed from the Holy Spirit. This is where many seekers lack the necessary discernment and prudence. I do not doubt that many who practice various forms of meditation or prayer actually do attain a “higher consciousness” or experience various spiritual or psychic phenomena. But I would not automatically arrive at the conclusion that therefore they have accessed God.
To assess the validity of anyone’s spiritual experience is a complex undertaking, but from a Christian perspective we can safely (and generally) say that the basic criteria are true faith and morals. If there is nothing contrary in one’s experience to what God has revealed and required us to believe, and if one’s behavior reflects that which God has revealed as pleasing to Him, chances are that one is on the right track and may indeed be in communion with the Lord. We should expect that one who has direct experience of God will manifest the fruit of the Spirit in his or her life, and will not manifest the works of the flesh (see Gal. 5: 19-23).
Do you want to access God? Come to Him, believe in his love for you and in his presence in and around you, wait for Him patiently, and be confident that sooner or later the Lord will choose to access you.
