God gave us eyes for seeing, noses for smelling, ears for hearing, tongues for tasting, and fingers for touching. We need these to live in and relate to the physical world. We can become more tactile, more visual. and so on, but none of these sensory abilities make us aware of the spiritual dimension beyond them.
There is a “sixth sense” which is instinctive, but that’s all. To enter the spiritual dimension beyond the senses, we must be “born from above” — “born again” in the words of Jesus — by the Spirit of God. So many who have had this experience have exclaimed: “After I turned to God and gave my life to Jesus, God forgave my sins — and everything changed! The next day, the sky was bluer, and the grass was greener!” (My own father, who as a young man gave his life to Jesus in a Methodist Mission, said very much the same.)
What if priests who entered the dark forests inhabited by pagans had believed that Jesus would not only forgive their sins but also heal their sick? What if they had released them from spiritual torment as well, and had seen them rejoice, after receiving the assurance of sins forgiven? Or had witnessed God’s power in other ways for the first time? But sensual religion cannot save us or heal us — only faith in the Lord Jesus can bring the Lord’s saving, healing power.
These days, some churches are as dark on the inside as German forests were in those ancient times, and their sensual religious approach may also be offensive to the Spirit of God. Brave priests entered those dark forests with faith that was mixed with fatalism. Each one knew that he might have to die before an unexpected or inexplicable tragedy, such as the death of a tribal leader’s only son, would cause him to wonder if he had offended the unknown God preached by the priests killed at his command.
Then again, what if an unknown Christian were to enter one of today’s darkened church buildings and shout — “Let there be light!” — and then claimed that “The Light of the World” had sent him! I enjoy “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs”, whether backed by a keyboard, electric guitars, and so on, or the harmony of voices such as heard in Welsh churches. And, I must add, the “singing with (or in) the spirit” (as well as with the understanding) as at Ormiston Christian Faith Church, where we worship.
If you worship God with the senses, you may enjoy it emotionally, or with the mind, psychologically. But if you desire to worship God as Jesus said we would, you need to do so spiritually; i.e., with your spirit in the Holy Spirit. Your mind will not understand it but your spirit will delight in it. (Read the Apostle Paul’s teaching on this matter in 1 Corinthians 14:)