The Doctor Within
Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. (1 Corinthians 2:12)
“We know, according to the Bible, that the Spirit of God dwells within us, works there, prays without ceasing, sorrows, desires and asks for what we ourselves do not know enough to ask for; urges us, inspires us, speaks to us in the silence, suggests all truth to us, and so unites us to Himself that we are no longer other than “one spirit with God.”
This is what faith teaches us. This is what the doctors farthest removed from the inner life cannot keep from recognizing. However, despite this knowledge, they tend always to suppose, in practice, that the outer life, or still more a certain insight into doctrine and reasoning, enlightens us within, and that it follows that it is our mind which acts by itself on this instruction.
They do not count enough on the doctor within, who is the Holy Spirit, and who effects everything within us. He is the soul of our soul. We should not know how to form a thought nor a desire except through Him. Alas, how great is our blindness! We act as though we were alone in this inner sanctuary. And on the contrary, God is there more intimately than are we ourselves. (Fenelon, Christian Perfection, 155)
And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. (John 14:16-17)
When the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak, and He will declare to you the things that are to come. (John 16:13)
October 6, 2007 at 2:44 am
Very well said. I have encountered some who distrust this silence and solitude because we may listen to the wrong voice in the silence. Without a guide we may be on thin ice. Therefore they choose to fill up space with teaching, singing, preaching leaving no room to allow the work of the Spirit in the congregation. Our real teacher, who guides us into all truth is the Holy Spirit. Many of my writings lately speak of the need for solitude.
Blessings, scott
October 6, 2007 at 9:36 am
“I have encountered some who distrust this silence and solitude because we may listen to the wrong voice in the silence. Without a guide we may be on thin ice.”
So, did Jesus get it wrong when He said:
“The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice . . . I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.” (John 10)
I think not. Besides, we do have a guide – the Word. True Christianity is not Word without the Spirit, or Spirit without the Word, but Word and Spirit for the Spirit works through the Word, as Jesus said in John 6:63, “The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.”
As Dallas Willard says, if, as the Scripture teaches, Jesus needed solitude and silence (“Jesus OFTEN withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” Luke 5:16) then maybe we need solitude and silence as well.
October 10, 2007 at 3:34 am
I agree. We have lost our ability to enter into solitude. The world around us and our enemy, seek to distract and occupy and keep us running, to prevent us from taking the time to listen to our Shepherd. There are so many things to tickle the ears.
I’ve been enjoying Richard Foster’s book Prayer. He says, “The less we are mesmerized by human voices, the more we are able to hear the Divine Voice. “