Recently, I attended a Christian mental health conference in which a well-known Christian author spoke about how we can experience greater intimacy with Jesus—how we can experience more than just closeness with God but also how to enter genuine union with Him.

He did an excellent job of describing the dangers of a mere fact-based, cognitive, doctrinal approach to Christianity—the pitfalls of knowing facts without knowing Jesus—and explaining how the “left-brain” approach to focusing on the correct understanding of Bible truths is not the same as the “right-brain” connection of intimacy, love, and union with Jesus. He correctly pointed out that there is a difference between knowing about Jesus and actually knowing Jesus.

He also did a beautiful job of describing how we are created in the image of God and designed to be living temples in whom Jesus dwells by His Spirit. He rightly described how Jesus never forces His way into any heart but stands at the door and knocks gently with truth and love, and that He only comes in when the person freely chooses to open their heart to Jesus and invite Him in. Then, when that happens, the person moves past cognitive knowledge to experiential knowledge, to actually forming and building a relationship with Jesus in which they are known and daily come to know Jesus more fully.

As I listened to this presentation, it was so validating to hear this well-known Christian speaker describing truths that I have known and experienced and taught. As I sat there, I rejoiced and thanked the Lord for this inspiring message, the beauty of Jesus, the love He has for us, and His plan for restoring us into union with Him.

But then a subtle, very subtle, change happened—something spoken with incredible gentleness, kindness, and passion. I could feel the sincerity, compassion, and longing coming from the speaker as he introduced his method for deepening our union with Jesus—a method that I realized would actually cut one off from Jesus rather than bringing us into union with Him, a method that when practiced is very much like putting a frog in cold water and then slowly turning up the temperature—the slow, gradual, and subtle changes are not recognized and, just as the frog boils to death without ever realizing it, this method causes the soul to slowly sever its connection with Jesus while experiencing an emotional sense of peace.

As I describe the evidence and reason for my conclusions below, detailing the methodological divergence from Scripture, I must say that I do not believe the speaker was in any way trying to deceive or had any evil motive. In fact, I believe the speaker to be sincere and is advancing what he believes is the kingdom of God. However, sincerity of heart motive does not mean the method is sound.

The doctors who treated George Washington, the first U.S. president, for pneumonia bled and leeched him to bleed out the evil humors. Washington was highly esteemed, and I am certain the doctors had hearts motivated only by love to heal and save, yet their method was contrary to objective reality, violating the laws of health, and instead of helping his body overcome the infection, they destroyed his immune system and accelerated his death. This is how I perceive what was presented by the speaker—complete sincerity but with a method that is contrary to objective reality and God’s Word. If embraced and practiced, it will lead one away from intimacy and union with Jesus while the individual believes they are coming closer to Jesus.

What Happened Next

After the speaker described the truth that we are designed to be the temple for the Holy Spirit, he then described that after a person opens their heart and allows Jesus to come into their heart via the Holy Spirit, the way one develops, enhances, advances, and matures their relationship from a mere cognitive knowledge about Jesus to an intimate union with Him is to turn the mind’s eye inward, to go inside oneself to commune with Jesus and unite with the Spirit of God that now lives in us.

He then led the group in a classic Eastern meditation ritual—but presented it with Christian language. He had New Age-style, relaxing instrumental music playing, and then he instructed the audience to do some relaxing deep breathing. He began talking in a calm, gentle, hypnotic tone about relaxing, looking inward, and finding the connection with the spirit that is inside oneself. He instructed that if other ideas or concerns intrude, we were to gently push those away and focus inward on finding and experiencing the connection with the Spirit of God that is now inside. This went on for about ten minutes. Then he said, like an effective hypnotist, that it was time to come back into the moment and to gently return to the present. (For more information about differentiating Eastern from biblical meditation, see our Meditation Guide.)

As the music stopped, his voice returned to normal, and everyone who participated lifted their heads and opened their eyes.

The vast majority of attendees were Christian mental health professionals (psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurses, licensed professional counselors) and pastors, and of the people I could see from my seat, everyone participated. The speaker also received a resounding ovation when he was done.

But was this method Christian? Was this exercise the application of biblical principles? Was this meditation in harmony with God’s design and how He restores us to unity with Him?

Or was this a subtly distorted and ultimately harmful counterfeit that actually severs one from the power of God and intimacy with Him?

To know the truth, we must differentiate facts, objective measurable truth, from either feelings or opinions; we must separate declarations, descriptions, claims, proclamations from reality, from what is actually happening. One of the ways people are deceived is that they believe what they are told without evaluating the evidence and facts for themselves, especially if the person telling them is sincere, compassionate, and comes across as truly caring and wanting to help. But the discerning person must separate objective reality from another person’s beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and motives. A person can be sincerely motivated to bless and help and sincerely believe what they are saying is right, but their sincerity and belief do not determine reality—the doctors who bled Washington did not promote healing even though they were sincere in their desire to help. Despite their love, sincerity, and motive to help, they promoted Washington’s death because their method was contrary to the laws of health, how life and health are built to work by God.

The Law of Worship

The law of worship is one of God’s design laws, which in Scripture is described as “by beholding we are changed” (2 Corinthians 3:18). We are changed both neurobiologically and characterologically according to what we meditate upon and worship. This is why the Bible always instructs us to meditate upon some aspect of our infinite God:

• “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it” (Joshua 1:8 NIV84, emphasis mine).
• “But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:2 NIV84, emphasis mine).
• “Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love” (Psalm 48:9 NIV84, emphasis mine).
• “I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways” (Psalm 119:15 NIV84).
• “Let me understand the teaching of your precepts; then I will meditate on your wonders” (Psalm 119:27 NIV84, emphasis mine).
• “I lift up my hands to your commands, which I love, and I meditate on your decrees” (Psalm 119:48 NIV84, emphasis mine).

Humans are God’s crowning work of creation; therefore, there is nothing on Earth we can worship that will ennoble us. It is only by beholding our infinite God that we advance and develop in godliness and are changed to be like Him. When we worship the created rather than the Creator, the mind becomes darkened, depraved, and futile—see Romans 1:18–31 or, as Jeremiah 2:5 says, “They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves” (NIV84).

Meditation practices that turn the mind away from the objective truths provided to us by our infinite God and, instead, turn inward do not ennoble or elevate but slowly erode. Such meditations, instead of enhancing a living relationship with God, replace that life-giving connection with the Creator with a self-induced emotional counterfeit that causes the person to falsely believe they are getting closer to God while, in reality, they are cutting themselves off from Him.

We can illustrate this by using the biblical example of marriage. Marriage is used in the Bible as an object lesson of the intimacy and union believers are to have with Jesus—He is the groom, the church is the bride, and we are to be “one” with Jesus like a husband and wife are to be “one” (John 17:20–23).

Consider, then, how a godly marriage is established and maintained. The husband courts the wife with love and truth, thereby “knocking” on the door of her heart. She must decide how she will respond to his entreaties: say yes and open the door to her heart, or say no and keep her heart closed to him. If she says yes and opens her heart, she enters into union with her husband. He enters her heart, and she enters his. They live in a new reality in which they both live in each other’s hearts, just as believers in Christ experience when we open the heart and let Him in.

Now, after the spouses surrender their hearts to each other in love and enter into this intimate union in which both live in each other’s hearts, how does the relationship and intimacy between them grow? Does genuine intimacy grow by turning their minds and heart’s focus inward, looking inside their own emotions and heart and having a conversation in their imagination?

Or does the relationship grow by actual, reality-based external focus and engagement with the objective individual to whom one is married, which brings new truths, new reality-based evidence and experiences about them into your heart and mind? And it is from those objective interactions that we respond in our heart with greater love and appreciation for them and we grow in the cognitive and experiential knowledge of their beauty, kindness, virtue, love, and every other attribute that makes them, in truth, in reality (not in our imagination), worthy of our love!

What would happen if we instead practiced in our marriage the method of, after opening our heart in love to our spouse, going inward and simply spending time each day in our own hearts and feelings about our spouse but we don’t base those internal meditations on ever new and unfolding objective, reality-based truth and experiences? Will our relationship actually grow? Will our knowledge of our spouse actually deepen, or will we slowly, over time, know them less but still feel very close to them? Do you see the danger and counterfeit of this method?

Are people who practice this counterfeit method the ones Jesus described with these terrifying words?

Many will say to me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?” Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!” (Matthew 7:22, 23 NIV84, emphasis mine).

Don’t you think these people who are doing ministry in the name of Jesus imagine that they have a close relationship with Him? How could they imagine this? Perhaps they practice a form of meditation that makes them feel good while cutting themselves off from objective truth.

Union Based in Reality, not Imagination

Jesus demonstrated that His method of leading people to greater love and trust in Him is through the Word of God, the truth that the Spirit of truth inspired to be recorded in the Bible.

On the road to Emmaus, after His resurrection, Jesus walked with two disciples who were confused and discouraged. Notice the method Jesus used; He did not use miracles; He did not use the weight of His personal testimony—a declaration of truth; He did not lead them into an internal meditation to commune in their imagination with the Jesus that they had previously allowed to enter into their hearts. No, Jesus used the truth from Scripture!

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself (Luke 24:27 NIV84).

And what was their reaction?

They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32 NIV84, emphasis mine).

God is the source of all truth, and all truth leads back to Him, which when internalized into the heart transforms, heals, and deepens our emotional experience with God. Satan is the father of lies; he has no truth to support his position. Thus, the enemy of good must get people to discount, neglect, ignore, or deny the truth, such as seeking an emotional meditative experience with God that cuts out the truth. But godly meditation is built upon the truth and will not lead away from it. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, and it is by the truth that the Holy Spirit frees us and transforms us.

Jesus said,

God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:24 NIV84).

Genuine union is experienced only by genuine knowledge—real-life experience with God, who is a real, intelligent being with His own individuality, personhood, identity, character, ideals, values, methods, preferences, and experiences. We cannot have intimacy with God by turning our hearts away from the truth, by turning inward to our own feelings and imaginations about God. We must turn toward God, we must unite our hearts to Him in reality, through the truth revealed in Scripture, through the truth revealed in nature (Romans 1:20), and through the truth revealed in our own experiences with Him as our hearts and minds are enlightened by the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Jesus said,

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth” (John 14:16, 17 NIV84).

“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13 NIV84).

And notice the method Jesus describes the Holy Spirit utilizing:

But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid (John 14:26, 27 NIV84, emphasis mine).

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth and works via the truth, bringing to our hearts and minds the truth that Jesus has brought us. This is the same Spirit who inspired the Scripture, which is the truth that testifies of Jesus, who said,

I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever (John 6:53–58 NIV84).

Jesus is not talking about cannibalism here; this is a metaphor pointing to the Word of truth. As the Bible says,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us (John 1:1, 2, 14 NIV84).

Jesus used the object lesson of flesh and blood, which was replaced with new symbols of bread and wine, to teach reality. As we eat food (flesh or bread), that food becomes building blocks for our physical body.

Likewise, as we ingest into our minds the words of truth (the Word became flesh), the truth becomes building blocks that form our beliefs, ideas, constructs, understandings, and ultimately leads us to the point of decision—do we trust Jesus and open the heart to Him—or not? When we respond to truth and open the heart to Him, then we ingest, internalize, the blood (the life is in the blood, Leviticus 17:11), receive the life of Christ, the living, animating, motivating power of love, and we are reborn in a genuine union with our Creator God. This is possible, however, only by internalizing both truth and love.

What we choose to believe gets encoded into the substructures of our brains, and truth by truth, belief by belief, we are changed, transformed, and renewed. The truth sets us free from lies, but also, the truth believed changes us such that our brains resonate in harmony with the Spirit of truth. We come into closer alignment with the Holy Spirit and are more sensitive to His movements. Conversely, if we reject the truth and believe lies, then the lies become embedded into the substructures of our brains and we harden our hearts; our spiritual animating energy moves away from God, and we become less like Him.

The left hemisphere of our brain processes truth, and the right hemisphere processes our connections with others. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth and love and will always restore godly balance to one’s life, meaning activation of both left and right sides of the brain.

Satan, however, works to divide, to separate, to break union. He undermines truth with lies, and lies believed break love and trust. Eternal security requires being settled into the truth of God both intellectually and spiritually. Being intellectually settled requires that we comprehend, understand, agree, and choose the truth of God, His kingdom, methods, and principles to such a degree that we cannot be deceived into believing a lie about God. And being spiritually settled requires that our hearts are reborn with the Spirit of God such that our love, our trust, our motivation is beyond betraying our loyalty to our Creator; i.e., we would rather die than break trust with Jesus.

Even those who have sinless love but have not settled their minds into the truth are not secure. Sinless angels and sinless Adam and Eve had pure love in their hearts, but they were not secure. Lies deceived them, and they broke their bonds of love and trust with God. Yes, we must be restored to faithful love to God, but what makes our love unbreakable is not the emotional intensity, but the truth—that our love is an intelligent love, a reality-based love, a knowledgeable love, a love built upon divine revealed truth.

Eastern meditation, which is the method used by the speaker, activates the right brain while suspending the activation of the left brain, resulting in a powerful emotional experience of “love and unity” but an experience that is disconnected from truth. This meditation turns the mind inward, not upward, toward self, not toward God, despite the guise of Christian language and the pretense of connecting with Jesus in one’s spirit temple.

A Biblical Method of Meditation

This method stands in stark contrast to Lectio Divina, which is a biblical method of meditation.

Lectio Divina always starts with the inspired Word of God and has four distinct actions or steps:

• Bible reading
• Meditation upon the passage read, which means reflecting on its meaning
• Prayer (conversation with God) about the passage
• Contemplation or experiencing its application to the inner workings of one’s heart, attitudes, motives, and affections—i.e., abiding in and experiencing the Holy Spirit applying the truth to the heart.

This form of meditation engages your left cortex and requires deep thinking, reflection, active thought, and communion/prayer with God. It is not an emptying of the mind, nor is it a repetitive mantra. It is not a journey inward using one’s imagination disconnected from eternal truth. It is a journey upward. It requires expanding one’s understanding through the internalization of divine revelation from God’s inspired Word. The result of this biblical meditation is the expansion of our finite awareness, both cognitively (left brain) and experientially (right brain), of our knowledge of God, so that we may know God for ourselves just as Jesus prayed that we would (John 17:3).

Therefore, I counsel you, if you find this subtle but distorted form of meditation entering your community, don’t participate in it. Instead, share the truth of God’s methods with others. For you will know the truth—both intellectually and spiritually—and the truth will set you free!

For more information about differentiating Eastern from biblical meditation, see our Meditation Guide.