There is a way of thinking about faith that appears genuine yet quietly shifts its foundation. It speaks often of experiences—serving Jesus, witnessing what is called miraculous, or participating in what is described as saving others—and then treats those moments as if they were evidence of spiritual growth. Over time, these experiences are collected, remembered, and even measured, as though they form a kind of account before God.
This is not how Scripture defines faith, nor how divine order is established.
Faith does not grow from what a person does, nor from what a person observes. It does not mature through accumulated experiences, no matter how meaningful they may appear. What is often called “my experience with God” can easily become a subtle re-centering of the self, where the individual becomes the interpreter, the measurer, and ultimately the focus.
The text does not permit that shift.
Paul writes, “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20, CSB). The statement is not descriptive of an improved version of the self, but of its end as a source. The verb συνεσταύρωμαι (synestaurōmai), “have been crucified with,” is decisive. It does not describe refinement but termination. What remains is not a strengthened self, but a life now derived entirely from Christ.
This is where the distortion often enters. When experiences are treated as personal spiritual gains, the self—though spoken of in religious terms—is quietly restored to the center. What should be received as testimony becomes claimed as possession. What belongs to Christ is subtly credited to the individual.
Yet even what appears to happen “through” a person is not sourced in that person. Scripture consistently locates the work in God. The Spirit acts; Christ reigns; the believer participates. That participation is real, but it is not autonomous. It does not generate faith, nor does it validate it.
Paul discusses this same inward distortion when he writes, “For by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly, as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one” (Romans 12:3, CSB). The phrase μέτρον πίστεως (metron pisteōs), “measure of faith,” is not something developed through experience but something apportioned by God. Faith is received, not constructed.
This brings the matter into clear view. Faith is not strengthened by what we do for Christ, but is expressed as we live from what Christ has already accomplished. The direction is not upward—from human effort toward God—but outward—from Christ through the believer.
When this order is even slightly reversed, the consequences follow. A person begins to look for confirmation in visible outcomes—signs, results, or apparent effectiveness. These things then become indicators of favor or proof of standing. But once faith seeks validation in experience, it is no longer anchored in Christ alone.
This is why the language of “my experience” must be handled carefully. What is witnessed is not owned. What occurs is not credited. At most, these instances remain testimonies—evidence of what Christ continues to do, not what a person has achieved or accumulated.
John the Baptist expresses the proper orientation with clarity: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30, CSB). This is not a poetic ideal but the actual movement of faith. As Christ increases, the self recedes—not into passivity, but into proper order.
So if faith is being measured by experiences, or if spiritual confidence rises and falls based on what is seen or felt, it is worth pausing. Not to condemn, but to realign.
Because in the end, faith does not stand on what has been experienced, but on who Christ is. And where He remains the source, the measure, and the life, there is no need to accumulate anything at all.
Michael Kovach
Covenant Light Publishing
The Restoration of Divine Order Press
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