Ascent to God

The ascent of the mind to God, or the drawing toward Him, is formed as the inner practices are strengthened. It is born in them like a seed and matures on them as on soil. Guarding this inner work, in order to awaken more quickly the drawing toward God, one must in this:

Accustom the mind to walking before God. Let a person strive unceasingly to see God, as if standing at His right hand, and rise to the feeling that he is seen by God. Cultivation in this is the door to God, the opening of heaven to the mind.

Do all things for the glory of God and in nothing—neither outwardly nor inwardly—have in view anything other than this glory: it must be the measure of your undertakings and set its seal upon them.

Do all things according to the awareness of God’s will for this, walk in this will and obey it in all things and submit with all your soul. Action according to God’s will embraces all that comes from a person, while obedience to it embraces all that comes to a person. Whatever you do, strive to see what God wants from you in this deed; whatever meets you, receive it as from the hand of the Lord. A person, a thing, an event, joy, sorrow—receive all with gladness, submit to all willingly, peacefully, with delight, despite opposition.

Through these spiritual practices, the mind increasingly will gain sight toward God and be established in beholding God—it will become accustomed to stand in mind in the vision of God with His infinite perfections. This vision is given mostly during times of prayerful standing before God and grows through this same prayerful standing before God. It is the beginning of ascent to living communion with God.

At the same time with beholding God appears and is perfected a reverent adoration of God in spirit, when the spirit, in anguished crying out to God, falls before Him in self-abasement as a creature, yet not with a painful feeling that it is trampled and rejected, but with the awareness that it is received, have mercy shown to it, and blessed.

As a result of this, there will appear irresistible impulses inward and rapture toward God.

Striving toward God is the goal. But at first it is only in intention, sought after. One must make it actual, living, like a natural drawing, sweet, willing, irresistible. Only such drawing shows that we are in our proper station, that God receives us, that we are going to Him. When iron is drawn to a magnet, this means that the magnetic force touches it; the same is true in the spiritual sense: only then is it evident that God touches us, when there is this living striving—when the spirit, passing over all else, rushes toward God, is caught up in rapture. At first this does not happen—the person striving is wholly turned toward himself, though for God’s sake, but this regard for God is only mental. The Lord has not yet given him to taste Himself, and the person is incapable because he is unclean. He serves God, so to speak, without relish. Then, as the heart is cleansed and corrected, he begins to feel the sweetness in a life pleasing to God, to walk in it with love and willingness—it becomes his delightful element. The soul begins to separate from all things as from cold, and strains toward God, who warms it. The beginnings of this drawing are laid in the spirit that is zealous for divine grace. Through its gifts and guidance, it grows amid the order indicated, being nourished even without awareness of one’s own action. The sign of this birth is: willing, quiet, unforced inner remaining before God, accompanied by feelings of reverence, fear, joy, and so forth. Before, the spirit forced itself inward, but now it establishes itself and stands there immovably. It is joyful for it to be there alone with God in withdrawal from others, or without attention to anything external. It finds within itself the Kingdom of God, which is “peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17). Such immersion inward, or immersion in God, is called noetic stillness or rapture toward God. It happens transiently, but must be made constant, because in this lies the goal. God is in us when our spirit is in God truly, for this is not mental communion but living, still, withdrawn immersion in God. As a ray of sun carries off a drop of dew, so the Lord catches up the spirit by touching it. “The spirit took me up”, says the prophet (Ezek. 3:12). Many of the saints were constantly in rapture toward God, while the spirit came upon others temporarily, but often. Thus such drawing, or entry into God, is conceived, grows, and is perfected by divine grace in one who seeks God sincerely, conscientiously, earnestly.

The essential condition for this is the purification of the heart to receive the God who draws us: “the pure in heart will see God” (Mt. 5:8). Therefore, all the struggles, exercises, and works indicated up to now are the necessary, unavoidable preparation for this. But all of them must be undertaken properly, and precisely with this direction. The chief thing here is guarding the heart: the treasure of the striving spirit is within; the condition of the reality of struggles, exercises, and works is that they proceed from within, progress in the struggle only from within; the best way to form the drawing toward God is internal. Consequently, inner work is the central source of spiritual, truly Christian life. Therefore, among the holy fathers it is the only way to perfection. “Be watchful” and “be alert, stay awake and pray”, says the Lord (1 Pet. 5:8; Mk. 14:38). Watchfulness, or guarding of the heart, is the principal struggle. Among the holy fathers, everything is directed here: everything is in the heart, for what is in it will also be in deed.

The decisive step in ascent to God, the very threshold of communion with God, is complete self-surrender to Him, after which He is the one acting, not the person. What is the full strength in, or what are we seeking? Communion with God—that is, that God would dwell in us and begin to walk in us, clothe Himself, so to speak, in our spirit, rule by His mind, will, and feeling, so that both “to will and to do” in us would be His work, so that He would be the one acting all in all, while we would become His instruments, or would be acted upon by Him, in thoughts and desires and feelings and words and deeds. This is what the Lord, Master of all, seeks, for He alone does all things in creatures through creatures themselves. The spirit that has come to know itself must seek the same.

The condition for this indwelling of God in us and His reign, or the reception of His all-encompassing action, is the renunciation of our freedom. A free creature, by its awareness and determination, acts from itself, but this should not be so. In the Kingdom of God there should be no one acting by himself, but God acting in all things, and this will not happen while freedom stands by itself—it denies and rejects God’s power. And only when our freedom, or self-directed and personal activity, falls before Him, will this stubbornness against God’s power cease, when man utters the decisive prayer: “You, Lord, act in me as You will, for I am both blind and weak.”

It is at this moment that God’s power enters the spirit of a person and begins its all-encompassing action. Thus the condition for God’s indwelling in us is decisive self-surrender to Him.

Self-surrender to God is the innermost, most hidden act of our spirit, momentary like all others, but not achieved in a moment but ripening gradually, for a long or short time, depending on the skill and prudence of the Christian laborer. Its beginning is laid in the first conversion, for there the penitent, making a vow, necessarily says: “I will flee evil and do good; only You, Lord, do not abandon me with Your gracious help.” With this disposition he enters upon the path of ascetic struggle and acts earnestly in it, in expectation of receiving God’s help. But it is evident that here his zeal goes first, while God’s action follows. This is necessary both by the disposition of the beginner and by God’s intention. The beginner wants to labor for the Lord’s sake, to serve Him—and he labors. This forms in him good hope and, as it were, boldness in his regard for God. But it is clear that it should not remain so. It is necessary for the person to follow God’s drawing, extinguishing self-willed zeal. Consequently, a person must not remain in his first disposition but, without weakening that same zeal, must subject himself to God, place himself under His direction, become accustomed to follow His promptings and drawings. This is hinted at cryptically when it is said to Peter: “When you were young, you dressed yourself and walked where you wanted, but when you grow old, another will dress you and lead you where you do not wish to go” (Jn. 21:18). At first the person himself is zealous, but later he says: “You Yourself, Lord, by the judgments You know, arrange my salvation. Like one bound I will go where You command.” This is the act of decisive devotion to God. The first kind of activity is so beautiful and fair—so many fruits! Therefore it can bind one to it forever. But this must be feared, because it will be the same as toiling over ungrateful soil: much sand and stones, and no vitality. One must strive to depart from it and pass into God-surrender. True, it can in some way grow during the time of the first laboring, but one must watch this growth and help it or rather receive what is being formed and nurtured. Actually, even then God is the one acting, for without Him we are nothing, but the person says: “I chose, I wanted, I labored, and God helped.” Both the wanting and the choosing and the labors are also good works and consequently God’s works; but in his preoccupation and efforts, the person thinks that here lies his strength. Therefore, the transition occurring within from zeal to zealous God-surrender is nothing else than the unveiling and revelation to our consciousness of God’s action in us, or in the arrangement of our salvation and cleansing. The zealous one is taught about this through frequent failures despite all effort, unexpected successes and great ones without special exertion, errors and falls, especially instructive ones, as withdrawals of grace. Through all of these a person is brought to the thought and faith that he is nothing, and all is God and His almighty grace. This is the final point of the preparatory course to God-surrender. It is possible only when a person feels that he is nothing. On his side, a person can apply the following: contemplation of deeds and events, as they are arranged, to see God’s power in them; deepening with strong faith in the conditions of justification, to the cry: “By the judgments You know, save me”; vision of the countless multitude of enemies, the concealment of the path, darkness before his face, the countless crossroads, the hiddenness of God’s determinations. These mental preparations gain especial strength from active practice, namely: giving away all one’s possessions, self-surrender to universal mockery (in foolishness for Christ), enclosure, desert living. These are such turning points of life, after which there is nowhere to turn but to God. All such directly cast themselves into God’s hands and are received by Him. In this regard invaluable is the help of a spiritual guide, if he, invisibly to the one being guided, places him in such circumstances from which only invisible divine help can deliver him. The ancient fathers said: one must provide the disciples with crowns. This feeling of one’s nothingness and surrender to God is formed best by continuous sorrows and especially by extraordinary trials and crosses sent by God, which we have mentioned above.

The one who has surrendered himself to God, or received this gift, begins to be acted upon by God and to abide in Him. Freedom is not destroyed but exists, for self-surrender is not a final, fixed act but is repeated constantly. A person casts himself upon God, and God takes him and acts in him, or through his powers. In this lies the true, divine life of our spirit. The one who casts himself into God’s hands receives from God and acts by what he receives. This is a living union, life in God, establishment in Him by one’s whole being: by mind, heart, will. It appears through self-surrender. But as self-surrender grows gradually, precisely during the continuation of the first action, at the same time the reception of God and the abiding in Him must also be elevated. It is so; it elevates itself. But again, on our part something must contribute to it or its more rapid ripening. The domain of communion with God, the region in which it is formed and acts, is noetic spiritual prayer. The one praying abides in God and consequently is very ready and capable for God also to abide in him. But this prayer is not the same as praying; it is a special spiritual action, not so much guided as silently ripening, both for the one being guided and for the guide. In it, one might say, is the final limit of the rules of ascetic practice (see Symeon the New Theologian). For when this prayer is established and confirmed, God is one with our spirit. And the rules touch only its beginning, but what happens in it when perfected is hidden, becomes unseen, as Moses behind the cloud.