@god_stories - Though Whitefield was certainly gifted with oratorical skills, this effect of his preaching was something far and above anything man-made or man-orchestrated, and can only be attributed to the hand of God Himself. We have to keep in mind that Whitefield was steeped in Biblical truth, and God graciously sent down the Holy Spirit to embolden him as he preached and to prick and open up the hearts of those who were listening. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, and He is grieved and quenched by error. Many people can be zealous and skilled in speaking, but if they're preaching falsehood, God is not going to bless that. Throughout the Bible, God makes an example out of false shepherds and false prophets.

@god_stories - It's difficult to explain Whitefield's experiences. It's far above and beyond his being jazzed up, more than getting an emotional high and letting that affect him, but the Holy Spirit of God actually coming down to animate him, to impart spiritual power to him and give authority to his words, and to bring conviction and the gift of repentance to his hearers -- much like what happened in Acts 2, where the Holy Spirit empowered Peter to preach without fear and with great authority and boldness. "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

You may find Martyn Lloyd-Jones' (ML-J's) video about Whitefield helpful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhN2VgdJp_c., as well as some of ML-J's sermons on the Holy Spirit, e.g.: http://www.mljtrust.org/search/?q=holy+spirit. If you have opportunity, I'd encourage you to check out the rest of the MLJ Trust website - http://www.mljtrust.org/. There are over 1600 sermons available for streaming or for free download. Also, I'd recommend your reading Jonathan Edwards' Religious Affections if you've never done so: http://www.jonathan-edwards.org/ReligiousAffections.pdf.

You are definitely correct that the Holy Spirit is grieved by a lack of love, so I appreciate that addition. We always need to hold both love and truth together, e.g. - I Cor. 16:13-14, Eph. 4:15.

@god_stories - I recommended those sermons because I think Martyn Lloyd-Jones does a wonderful job of bridging the gap between orthodox, intellectual Christianity and experiential Christianity. He's Scripturally sound (rooted in Reformed theology), but he doesn't deny the activity of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer to witness to Scriptural truths in the heart (e.g. - Romans 8:16).

We always need to be testing and trying all things against the Scripture (including our own experiences). That's why I recommended your reading Edwards' "Religious Affections." He wrote that as a guide to help to differentiate between true affections and false affections. During the First Great Awakening, people were claiming to have experiences, but anyone at all can have experiences (we read of Christians, as well as people from all sorts of religions, claiming to have come to a knowledge of truth and higher enlightenment and true insight and understanding, etc.), but that doesn't mean all of those experiences of all those people are true and valid and pure, and that doesn't mean all of our own experiences are true and valid and pure. There's also a real danger of seeking an experience (an emotional high) rather than seeking God Himself. Experiences of God will include not only fullness of joy but also profound humbling, rebuke, discipline, etc.  - e.g. - Heb. 12:6  For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.

In writing to Christians, the apostle Paul warned them that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, meaning we all need to be on guard. The devil is a liar and the father of lies. That's why I continue to emphasize the importance of doctrine and Biblical truth. The devil tempted Eve by twisting the Word of God, and Jesus Himself was tempted in a similar way in the wilderness, and He used the Word of God to battle.

Christianity is an experiential religion, but it is rooted in historical facts and a body of truth. In the Old Testament, God's people were constantly rebuked and disciplined for when they did not trust in and bow down to God's truth, but rather trusted in "deceptive (or lying) words" (Jeremiah 7:8)... Reading later on in that same chapter:

23  But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’ 24  But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. 25  From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day. 26  Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers.

27  “So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you. 28  And you shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the LORD their God, and did not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.

Yes, George Whitefield had experiences, as did the apostle Paul, but their central aim was to magnify Jesus Christ through the peaching of the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Genuine Holy Spirit experiences will propel us to serve God just as they did those men. The Gospel (and not our experiences) is what is of first importance, but sadly, too many professing Christians and churches and denominations have forgotten this.

I Corinthians 15:3  For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4  that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5  and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6  Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7  Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8  Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9  For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10  But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 11  Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

Christians should have experiences of and with the living God, and there may be times that we might share those experiences with others, but those experiences are never to be about us, and those experiences are not given to us so we can make much of ourselves or of our experiences –– but true spiritual experiences are about God, and they are given to us so we might make much of God, for all things are to be about God and His glory ~ Romans 11:36. True spiritual experiences will humble us profoundly and cause us to rejoice with trembling as we see His beauty and glory and majesty and holiness and lovingkindness and righteousness and sovereignty and might, etc., etc.-- all the manifold perfections in His character and in His workings –– and then, in stark contrast, we see ourselves as totally depraved, dust and ashes and worms, deserving nothing at all from Him, and that all we have and all we are is all of His grace and all to His glory alone, for we were all His enemies, all dead in our sins and transgressions, and helpless and hopeless apart from the grace of God in Jesus Christ. And true experiences will cause us to press on to know Christ more, to love Him more, to make Him central, to cast off our idols, to mortify sin and to seek to be holy as He is holy, to praise and glorify God more, to love His Church, to love our enemies, to be His witnesses and preach the Gospel and make disciples of all nations as He commands for the sake of His name, for we love Him and His glory and we long to see His glory cover the earth as the waters cover the seas, so all the nations might indeed praise Him, for He alone is worthy!

No matter our experiences, we always need to remained rooted on the foundation of the blood of Jesus Christ as an atoning sacrifice and a propitiation for sin. There is no redemption from sin and no reconciliation to God apart from the blood of Christ. To talk about experiences apart from that foundation is tripping over the chief cornerstone.

Colossians 1:13  He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14  in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Our understanding of the love of God is incomplete if we don't understand and submit to the Biblical teaching the God so loved the world that He sent His Son to save sinners from His just wrath. John 3:16-21, 3:36, I John 4:9-10.

God is love, but He is also a God of wrath, and Jesus Christ will come again to judge and living and the dead...

Revelation 6:12  When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, 13  and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. 14  The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. 15  Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16  calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17  for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

Everyone who doesn't trust in Jesus' blood and isn't covered with His perfect righteousness is eternally condemned and will be cast into outer darkness into everlasting punishment, where their worm will not die and the fire is not quenched. That is Jesus' very own teaching from the Gospels. We can't really appreciate the love of Jesus as we ought, unless we see that the blood of the Lamb saves us from the wrath of the Lamb.