Gifts of the Holy Spirit
He who has the Holy Spirit dwelling within him doesn’t exaggerate his virtues, isn’t proud, doesn’t mock others, and doesn’t indulge his passions, but strengthens himself with unceasing prayer, never deceives, doesn’t lie, doesn’t deceive, doesn’t cheat. He tries to do only what pleases God; he avoids all occasions for hostility, avoids evil, willingly forgives insults and prays for his enemies. His conscience doesn’t trouble him, his passions don’t bother him, and envy doesn’t torment him.
Filled with the Holy Spirit, he rejoices in the Lord, rejoices in his salvation!
Spiritual struggle
The holy Apostle Paul writes: For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:12). What kind of battle is this? It’s waged in the thoughts and the movements of the heart.
Whoever doesn’t believe in evil spirits because he doesn’t see them therefore doesn’t struggle with them, because he doesn’t sense them. But is that really proof that such spirits don’t exist? If there are people whom the fallen spirits don’t fight against, it means these people are useful and pleasing to the devil because of their indifference to Christ and disbelief in God. Such a state in people, especially those who call themselves Christians, is enmity against God.
Whoever doesn’t sense the influence and machinations of fallen spirits on himself is dead in spirit, for his spirit doesn’t resist this influence and doesn’t defend the truth against lies and slander. A man who forcibly kills the spirit living in the heart by strength of a deluded mind and the influence of the enemy of mankind doesn’t feel his insignificance, the weakness of his spirit, and therefore doesn’t look for help from the Heavenly spirits and doesn’t call on them to protect him. The Heavenly powers are far from him and therefore seem nonexistent to him!
Our life is a struggle, a battle—and not bodily, but spiritual. Our spirit fights with the enemies of Christ and Christianity, with fallen spirits on earth and in the air who arouse our flesh, our mind, our will, our passions, and the malice of other people against us. And since these spirits are fleshless and more powerful than us, the struggle against them is possible only with the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit and our guardian angel and the Heavenly powers, whom we should invoke in prayer and by our pious lives to conquer the spirits of wickedness.
Not only every individual Christian must fight the enemy of salvation, but entire societies, especially Christian societies, and holy monasteries, if the truth and righteousness of God lives in them. It’s only by a fierce battle against the enemy of mankind that holy monasteries earn their right to exist. And it’s only through sorrows, woes, and severe trials that both individuals and entire societies can prove that they serve the truth, righteousness, and the Gospel.
It can be said that whoever doesn’t recognize the existence of spirits rejects Christianity. Why? Because the Son of God descended to earth to battle fallen spirits and defeat the devil.
But why doesn’t everyone see and feel this? Because many are spiritually blind. Christ said: For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind (Jn. 9:39). Whoever hasn’t studied Christian truths experientially but knows them only by letter, superficially, hasn’t acquired spiritual vision and therefore doesn’t see anything in the spiritual world.
Therefore, he who believes only in what he sees with his bodily eyes is no Christian. This was the belief of the pagans who had no concept of the true God, and the Jews who weren’t enlightened by the light of Christ. Christian faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, says the holy Apostle (Heb. 11:1).
The spiritual life
The spiritual life consists in a constant struggle of the mind, flesh, and spirit, in renouncing the world in everything, in ceaseless labor and spiritual feats. Just as our body gets weak if we don’t move about or exercise, so our heart and soul lose the ability to fight if we don’t exercise our mind and will in spiritual work.
The spiritual life requires gradual growth, as in any other kind of life, but even more careful, for spiritual strength increases only in proportion to our own labors and depends on the strengthening of virtues and the development of purity of heart.
Spiritual victory
Those who desire not to commit any offensive sins and who struggle with themselves by any means available to them—fasting, prayer, the fulfillment of Church regulations, repentance—eventually come to the realization that their powers are nothing, they’re insufficient, ineffective, and that salvation is possible only if Christ Himself commits it by His love and goodness and the grace of God removes the passions and delivers the sufferer from his destructive power. Nothing can be done and nothing achieved without the Lord!
In life, spiritual victory is obtained by enduring sorrows and trials, but with one condition: to bear it all with thanksgiving, without murmuring.
Spiritual vision
Unbelievers have only bodily sight and truly can’t see what is spiritual and holy. Our passions and sins prevent us from seeing Heavenly things, from sensing and understanding the unearthly.
So, the blind don’t see the sun, moon, stars, the things around them, or even the outline of entire cities that were created for them, but does that really prove that nothing exists?
Faith is spiritual vision by means of the human heart, and anyone can easily see how the heart quickly and clearly sees even distant objects of the spiritual world. The freer and purer the heart is from sins and passions, the quicker, further, and clearer it sees.
The Gospel
The Gospel is no simple book; it is rightly called “Holy.” It was not written by human reason, nor compiled by men of science or by followers of imperfect scientific works of the time, but by the will and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, through the chosen disciples of the Son of God. It’s inimitable in the height of its teaching, in spirit, and in style. The Holy Gospel contains the eternal truth of Christ, the word of God. Can such a revelation become outdated and lose its power, truthfulness, holiness, and necessity?
It’s impossible not to believe the Holy Gospel, because in a spiritual sense, the times of the Gospel are eternal. What existed then at the time of Christ, exists now, and will exist eternally, to the end, as indicated by the Son of God.
It’s for this reason that the Gospel is written and preached, so that the people of all times would be able to distinguish eternal truth from doubtful, scientific truth, and be guided by Divine revelation.
Nothing so enlightens, teaches, instructs, and inspires as reading the Holy Gospel and the Epistles of the Holy Apostles, which is eternally new, joyful, and edifying.
