What exactly does “Experience Jesus” mean?

I believe there are tens of thousands of “Christians” who have never experienced Jesus. A true Christian is a follower of Christ, not one who merely believes in Jesus or even God. James 2:19 tells us that even the demons believe and tremble. Acts 16:31 says to, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.” To believe “on” the Lord Jesus Christ is to believe everything that He was and is.

If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and responded to conviction of the Holy Spirit in your heart to acknowledge your sins and surrender your life to Christ. You did not experience Jesus. You experienced God’s grace and mercy upon you through the debt that Jesus paid for your sins on the cross. You may or may not have expressed emotions at the time that you prayed and asked Jesus into your heart. This is why I said that there are tens of thousands of “Christians” who have never experienced Jesus. They have accepted Christ as their Savior, maybe they go to church regularly, but they have yet to truly experience Jesus.

To experience Jesus we must follow Him, participate with Him. What did He tell us in Luke 9:23? “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (NKJV). What does that mean, to “deny himself, and take up his (or her) cross daily”? This whole verse is a call to discipleship. Jesus never said this was going to be an easy life. In fact, He said just the opposite. He said that people will persecute us and hate us. Jesus also said, in John 16:33, that in this world we will have tribulations: “but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (KJV). Praise God!

Before you can take up your cross, you must deny yourself. That means put aside all of your selfish wants and desires and put Jesus first in your life. You know, there are a lot of selfish Christians in the church today. They go to church and take, take, take; but they never give. Sure, they may give money, but they don’t give of themselves. They come in, take a bulletin, take in the singing (what most of us call worship) and they take in the Word. But they don’t pour anything out; they don’t volunteer in any ministry; they don’t stay after for fellowship; they don’t participate in other church events unless it’s something else that they can par-“take” in. They have not denied themselves so how can they possibly take up the cross of Christ and follow Him? James tells us to “prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves” (NASB). If you’re just going to church and hearing the Word but not acting on what you hear you are a deluded Christian. You are deluding yourself: delude means “To deceive; to impose on; to lead from truth or into error; to mislead the mind or judgement; to beguile. We are often deluded by false appearances” (Webster’s Dictionary 1828). NKJV uses the word, “deceiving.” You can read the rest of what James says about this James 1:21-27

Jesus said in Mathew 6:24 that “you can’t serve two masters.” If you don’t deny yourself, then you are self-serving and self-seeking and you cannot serve Him. We are all self-serving at times, but if you are focused on yourself all or most of the time, then you are not focused on Him and therefore you are not following Him and you will not experience Him. Get your focus on Him, seek Him and start serving Him, then you will be able to truly follow Him.