“What Is a Mystic?”

September 8, 2019

This is week one of our new study.

Notes for the Message: “What Is a Mystic?”

A mystic is a person who has a direct experience with God.

1-What happened to mysticism? 

2-What is the point of mysticism?
The point is TRANSFORMATION—for you to live a different kind of life; for you to be changed to be more like Christ. Experience is not the point—transformation is. 

3-What are the guardrails for mysticism? Wesleyan Quadrilateral—Experience is important and powerful, but safeguards are necessary.


4-How can I be a mystic?

    A-Start with dissatisfaction. 
PRACTICE: Fasting. When I fast from something, I am not saying, “This is bad.” I am saying, “This is not what I get my satisfaction from.” Or “I will not let this control me.” 
DO THIS: Pick one thing for a month and fast from it for a period of time. For example:  TV or video games-set aside a day or night each week that you will not watch TV or turn on your game. Food-choose one meal per week that you will fast. Phone-choose a period of time (each day?) during which you will turn your phone off.

    B-Continue with repentance. Repentance is not meant to remind myself how bad or unworthy I am, but to remind me how much I need Jesus. We seek to maintain a posture of repentance.
PRACTICE: Pray the Jesus prayer for a period of time or number of repetitions each day.
PRACTICE: Continue the practice of reviewing your day that we learned in our Three Simple Rules series.

    C-Realize your body matters and how you live in this world matters. The point is NOT to get you OUT of this world, [via flights of the mind or ecstatic prayers] but to live like Christ IN it. 
PRACTICE: The fasting practice mentioned above or the reviewing your day practice [download below] would both work well here. 

    D-Get connected. You cannot do this alone. You need your local church body and you need “the great cloud of witnesses”. Other people are the best sandpaper for your rough edges.
PRACTICE: Attend worship and really mix with people–don’t avoid them—even the annoying ones.

    E-Be apart. To connect with God, silence and solitude are critical. There is no substitute.
PRACTICE: Determine a time every day that you will spend in silence and solitude with God. You can continue the pattern [download below] we learned in Three Simple Rules, but add one thing: an unstructured time of sitting with God.