Note: This article was written a while ago, in the midst of my deconstruction, at a time when my beliefs were rapidly changing. Since writing this article, I no longer exactly agree with the language of 'experience' as presented here. I have come to value direct, personal experience of God over all else. However, I still very much agree with my past-self's core argument, and see it as a stepping stone between a dogmatic faith, and an experiential one. So, instead of rewriting the entire thing (or more likely, scrapping it) I am publishing this in its original form as a way to preserve the process and smoothen out the transition a bit.
Without further ado...
I want to start out with a simple question. Does your fruit match your theology, or does your theology match your fruit?
The question is, what drives what? What influences the other? Does your experience shape what you believe, or does your belief shape your experience?
Far too much doctrine and theology has come about out of an attempt to understand the teachings of Christ and the Will of God through natural understanding. Because we cannot understand something, we rationalize it and stuff it down into a box that makes sense, call it doctrine and say, 'No more questions, we have this thing figured out. If you don't believe this thing, then you're going to Hell forever."
The good news is, looking at the fruit of a thing will tell us whether it is good or bad. So, if you believe something that isn't producing good fruit, get rid of it and reexamine where it came from. Chances are, it came from an attempt to understand the divine using the wisdom of man.
However, if you throw something away because you weren't seeing fruit, examine it, and find that it is a Holy and Right belief, than absolutely pick it back up. Looking at it with fresh eyes, you will see the fruit that has come, or is coming.
Hold fast to Christ and in Him know the Truth that will set you free. Hold fast to Him and walk in His ways and He will make your path (experience) straight.
Let your theology be Christ, and let that theology shape your life (experience), rather than letting your experience in this broken world define your understanding of Christ.
Look at the world around you (experience) through the lens of Christ, instead of looking at Christ through the lens of the world.
Nothing can threaten God or his Church, but lies can blind His children. The deepest lie that I see hidden in plain sight within the Church today is a lie wrought out of trusting our experience rather than God's Truth. The lie goes a little like this, "God says that I am free in Christ, but I don't feel free. So, I must not be free. So, God must mean that I am already free but not yet. Yeah, true freedom from the flesh doesn't come now, that comes later. After I die."
That is lie that bares bad fruit. Christians, set free, but walking around looking through lenses that superimpose chains that aren't really there.
Take off the glasses of bad doctrine and theology that says that Christ didn't really overcome the world right now, and walk in the light of Salvation. Right now your are free in Christ. Open your eyes and see the gift that has been given. The Kingdom of Heaven is here, now. Walk as Princes and Princesses, Sons and Daughters of the King of Kings.