Anguish and Fears. Innocent Diversions. Separation From Bad People. An English ‘Apostle’ From a Sect of Spirit-bearers and His Falsity

May the mercy of God be with you!

Your anguish with its fears is something incomprehensible to me. What is lacking? Everything is in order with you—both in your household and in the affairs of your soul. Bear with it. What else can one do? Pray to God and entrust to Him your own fate and the fate of all who are dear to you. That is the surest path to peace! Have but one care: not to do anything that offends God. From this you will have a firm hope and enduring peace.

That there are some pleasant family diversions—that is nothing. Only do not be carried away by them. Do not forget God, and thank Him for every consolation, receiving that consolation as though from His hands. But then, when you withdraw into solitude, draw more fervently near to the Lord, asking Him for guidance and direction about the paths of your life. It also happens that diversions, even pleasant ones, give rise to anguish, because although they are not sinful, they are not what can truly satisfy the heart. Yet changeable feelings are so natural to us. One must endure and bear with them, concerned only that what must never change—the principal resolution, the aim of life that you have chosen for yourself—should always remain in force.

Or could it perhaps be this? God is finally asking for your heart entirely, and your heart wants God. For without God the heart is never satisfied—it is always restless. Examine yourself from this angle. Perhaps there you will find the door into the chambers of God.

That you have grown apart in soul from one of your friends—the one who, through her agreeable and insinuating manner, was exerting an influence on you unfavorable to the aim of life you have set for yourself—that is very good. You mentioned this influence at some point, but I let pass the moment to tell you to be on your guard. Well, glory to God! Now the matter has taken a good turn of its own accord. In any case, however, you should not allow hostility to enter your heart. Content yourself with no longer trusting her and no longer taking her sweet words to heart. Carry yourself evenly and do not disturb your peaceful relations.

You ask what to think about some English “apostle” of some kind[1]. But in your own words there is already the answer to how to think about him. He says that the Lord appears to him and tells him what to do and what to say. Can you really not see, or do people around you not see, that he is a deceiver? If the Lord were appearing to him, He would not send him to us but, say, to the Turks or to some other unbelievers. Our faith the Lord Himself has confirmed and continues to confirm many times over through miracles, holy relics, and His own appearances and those of His saints. There is no need to teach us. On the contrary, this “apostle” himself needs to learn from us. This “apostle” does not belong to the general English faith, but to a particular one that appeared recently. Not long ago a sect of “spirit-bearers” arose there. It occurred to someone that in the Church of Christ the same things should recur that happened to the Apostles—that is, that the Holy Spirit should visibly descend and visibly act in the faithful. A few individuals believed this—mostly fine-looking women. They began to think about how to achieve this. They thought and thought—and came up with something. By some means unknown, they convinced themselves that the Holy Spirit was indeed acting in them and began assuring others of the same. They invented several obscure miracles and started proclaiming them everywhere. In this way a considerable number of credulous people gathered around them. They separated from the rest, established their own ecclesiastical order. And so—a sect!

Your “apostle” comes from among these people. He expounds endlessly about the Holy Spirit—that every person absolutely must be filled with His grace in order to be saved. That thought is entirely correct. I developed it for you in my early letters. But that is the only truth in his words. Everything beyond it is falsehood! He cries: “Believe—believe, and the Holy Spirit will come.” That is his chief lie! Faith is indeed an indispensable condition for receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, but the actual receiving of the gift comes not through faith alone, but through faith by means of the God-ordained sacraments. That was so even in the time of the Apostles. Here is an instance! Saint Paul came to Ephesus and, meeting some believers there, asked them whether they had received the Holy Spirit. They answered that they had not so much as heard whether there was a Holy Spirit. It turned out they had been baptized only with the baptism of John. Saint Paul then baptized them with the baptism of Christ, and after the baptism laid his hands upon them, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Through baptism they had been renewed, but they had not received the gift of the Holy Spirit. It was communicated to them through the apostolic laying on of hands, while baptism had only made them capable of receiving the gift and worthy of it. As it was with these believers, so it was with all—both in the time of the Apostles and after them. And so it remains to this day in the Church of God, specifically through Holy Chrismation, which the Apostles themselves introduced in place of the laying on of hands.

We who are all baptized and chrismated possess the gift of the Holy Spirit. All have it, but in not all is it active. How to bring it about that it becomes active is described in my early letters. Please take the trouble to review them again. Here I will add only that there is no other path to this.

Now turn to the English “apostle” and ask whether he himself has the gift of the Holy Spirit. He does not. For the English have no sacrament of Chrismation, without which—as without the apostolic laying on of hands—the Holy Spirit has never descended and does not descend. The English have only two sacraments: Baptism and Communion; they have no sacrament of Chrismation. Therefore there is no gift of the Holy Spirit in them. Nor is there in this “apostle.” It follows that he expounds about what he does not know and preaches about receiving what he does not himself possess. In his speeches you will find not even a hint of how the Holy Spirit is received. He expounds only on the necessity of having Him and then cries out: “Believe!” It resembles this: “Open your mouth—and the Holy Spirit will fly in.”

How aptly the word of the Lord applies to this “apostle”: ”Physician, heal yourself!” (Luke 4:23).

Please agree with what I have said and convey my thoughts to others—specifically to the one who speaks with such enthusiasm about matters of faith in your circle. Through him such a view of the “apostle” may spread more widely.

God bless you! Work out your salvation!