53. Страсти как помеха духу возгореться любовью к Богу. Они должны быть изгнаны

When your heart is warmed by the warmth of God, from that time your inner transformation will begin. That flame will burn and melt everything in you, in other words, it will begin to spiritualize everything until it completely spiritualizes you. Until that light comes, there will be no spiritualization, no matter how much you strain towards the spiritual. So now it’s all a matter of getting a light. And if you please, direct all your work towards this. But know this, that the light will not appear while the passions are strong, even though they are not favored. Passions are the same as dampness in firewood. Wet wood does not burn. You need to bring some dry wood from the side and light it. As they burn, they will begin to dry out the dampness and, as they dry out, light the damp wood. So little by little the fire, driving away the dampness and spreading, will engulf all the wood laid in flames. Our firewood is all the strength of our soul and all the functions of the body. All of them, until a person pays attention to himself, are saturated with dampness - passions - and, until the passions are expelled, they stubbornly resist spiritual fire. Remember, when depicting to you what is in us, I wrote that there is some kind of disorderly, seething area in us, in which thoughts, desires and feelings are disorderly, like dust thrown up by passions. I place this area between the soul and the body, meaning that passions do not belong to nature, but are alien. But they do not remain here in between, but pass into both the soul and the body, taking the spirit itself - consciousness and freedom - into their power and thus dominate the entire person. Just as they are in a strike with demons, then through them the demons dominate over a person who dreams, however, that he is his own master. What breaks out of these bonds first of all is the spirit. The grace of God pours out. The spirit, filled under the influence of grace with the fear of God, breaks off all connection with passions and, having repented of the past, sets the firm intention to please the One God and to live for Him alone, walking in His commandments. Standing in this determination, the spirit, with the help of God’s grace, then expels passions from the soul and body and spiritualizes everything within itself. So the spirit in you has been torn out from the bonds that held it. With your consciousness and will you stand on the side of God. You want to belong to God and please Him alone. This is the fulcrum for your activity in the spirit. But while your spirit is restored to its rights, your soul and body remain under the influence of passions and suffer violence from them. All you have to do now is to arm yourself against the passions and beat them - drive them out of your soul and body. The struggle with passions is inevitable. They will not give up their possessions on their own, even if they are illegal. Before this, I explained everything to you about the memory of God, about being with God and walking before Him. And you marveled: why am I always talking about one thing? The memory of God is the life of the spirit. It ignites zeal for pleasing God, and makes your determination to be God’s unshakable. This, I repeat again, is the fulcrum for life in the spirit and, I will add, the basis of your strategic operations against passions. Ask: how is this so? When I turned my attention and desire to God, what place do passions have here? But why ask? Look, you still have them in you? You recently wrote that you were very angry. Isn't this passion? But she doesn’t exist alone, there is pride, and her own will, and contempt. And before that they remembered that they had refused something to someone who asked. What is this? Not stinginess? Also: you mentioned that you can’t stand a certain person. Isn't this passion? Why do you like to sleep? Isn’t that a passion for body love? And this was still revealed in passing, but dig deeper into yourself - you won’t find something there. So there's no point in asking. You probably know that passions are in you and that they must be expelled, because their presence is illegal and harmful, since they interfere with further success in spiritual life. And take up arms against them. Don't be timid. The matter is very simple: two or three steps - and that’s it. But more on that for another time. You might be interested in: