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LISTENING TO THE SCRIPTURES
8Three times I begged the Lord to make this suffering go away. 9But he replied, "My kindness [grace] is all you need. My power is strongest when you are weak." So if Christ keeps giving me his power, I will gladly brag about how weak I am. 10Yes, I am glad to be weak or insulted or mistreated or to have troubles and sufferings, if it is for Christ. Because when I am weak, I am strong.
*II Corinthians 12.8-10 (CEV)
RECEIVING SACRED TEACHING
The following dialogue is from the eminent German mystic, Jacob Behmen (Jakob Boehme, 1575-1624), in The Way to Christ, from 1622. Read slowly his words, and then I will share reflections applicable to every spiritual person:
Disciple:
But being I am in Nature, and thus bound, as with my own Chains, and by my own natural Will; I ask you to be so kind, Sir, as to tell me, how I may come through Nature into the Supersensual and Supernatural Ground, without the destroying of [my] Nature?
Master:
Three Things are necessary to do this. The First is, You must resign your Will to God, and you must sink your SELF down to the Dust in His Mercy. The Second is, You must hate your OWN Will, and keep from doing what your own Will urges you to do. The Third is, You must bow your Soul under the Cross, heartily submitting yourSELF to It, that you may be able to bear the Temptations of Nature and Creature. And if you do so, know that God will speak into you and will bring your resigned Will into Himself, in the supernatural Ground; and then you shall hear, my Son, what the Lord speaks in you.
Disciple:
This is a hard Saying, Master; for I must forsake the World, and my Life too, if I should do this.
Master:
Be not discouraged about this. If you forsake the World, then you come into that out of which the World is made; and if you lose your Life, then your Life is in that, for whose Sake you forsook the world. Your Life is in God, and from Him it came into the Body. And as you come to have your OWN Power faint and weak and dying, the Power of God will then work in you and through you.
*Language modernized by this writer.
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