Encountering the Divine - June 21

 “Encountering the Divine”

Rev. Alison Longstaff, June 21, 2015

Bath Church of the New Jerusalem

Exodus 3: 1-7, 10, 13-14; Matthew 17:1-8; AR 56

Many pastors across this country are preaching about racism today as the United States reels from yet another violent slaughter.  Here I am, a white pastor in front of a white congregation in a very white town in one of the top four whitest states in this country.  It is easy to feel removed from the racism and violence, as if it is somehow someone else’s problem somewhere else.

But if we could imagine such a thing happening here, perhaps it might help us to pause and to walk beside the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in sorrow and empathy.  The black populations of this country live with the daily possibility of such violence in a way most of us (all of us?) here simply cannot imagine.  So sit for a minute and be with the possibility.  Imagine a visitor coming to worship with us, and we welcome him, and he spends time with us. Then this visitor pulls out a gun and shoots nine of us dead right there in front of our eyes. Go ahead. Look around. Pick a random nine. One would be me, because the pastor was killed.  Which other eight? These loved people can’t be dead just as a concept, imagine their bodies slumped where they were sitting, their blood splattered on the walls.  I’m sorry.  But there’s no polite way to go there.

Please, just sit with that for a moment. How enraged and vengeful would you feel?  Could you forgive the shooter within days?  Whatever your emotions, let us all take a moment to surround the whole Charleston, South Carolina community with love and empathy.

I will now continue with the sermon I did write, and pray that the miracle of God’s encompassing love can bring some insight and healing to the helplessness and pain of that event.

“He put His hand on me saying, ‘Do not be afraid.’” This symbolizes spiritual encouragement, and then, because of deep humility, profound adoration. Genuine holy fear comes over us when the Lords life encompasses us, pushing aside our feelings of being in charge. Such an experience can cause an inner trembling and even our hair to stand on end. When we are full of our own sense of life (being in charge), we look at the Lord from our own perspective. But when we are filled with the Lord’s life, we see all things from the Lord’s perspective, (yet somehow retaining a sense of separateness). When we are so encompassed by the Lord’s life, we realize that we are nothing, and that the Lord is everything. (Emanuel Swedenborg, Apocalypse Revealed #56)

“The (false) suspicion that we can somehow be separated from God is the root of every form of anxiety in the universe, and the cure for it … is the knowledge that nothing can tear us from God, ever.” (Eben Alexander, “Proof of Heaven” p 76)

Would you say you have ever had an encounter with the Divine?

If you have, how did it affect you?

My very first class in seminary was “Christian Doctrine.”  It was required for my degree so I had to take it despite being sure, as a (young and arrogant) Swedenborgian, I had a thing or two to teach the professor but very little to learn from him.  I was wrong.

We had to write a four page paper every other week for Professor Kelly.  The course was two semesters long, so we ended up with twelve papers, the final one being, “Why Am I Christian?”  After we handed in each paper, we divided into groups to read and discuss our papers with each other.  I learned and learned and learned.

When discussing, “Why Christian?” it turned out that all three of us in our group were Christian because we had experienced what I can only call a “Divine Encounter.”  Each one of us not only was Christian but was in seminary because we had had a transcendent experience that left us changed, and left us longing for more.

When our small groups returned to the main classroom I began a quick survey of how many other classmates were in seminary for the same reason. Of over twenty-five students in the class, about ninety percent named some sort of Divine encounter as their main reason for being there. It was an epiphany.  I realized that I was not alone. 

When I was thirteen something profound and life altering happened to me, but I rarely speak of it.  It is a sacred memory still, and feels private.  I share the story rarely, and only when it feels safe and worthwhile. 

I was going through some very hard and lonely things.  It was the middle of the night and I was weeping and praying, when suddenly I was in the presence of something wise and loving and powerful beyond imagining. I knew without doubt that I was utterly loved, completely understood, and that every single thing would be okay.  I could see in some unimaginable way how everything would work out, and it all made sense. I felt “the peace that surpasses all understanding.”  And ever since that moment forty years ago I have longed to encounter that Presence again. I also felt completely clear that there was nothing more important than to serve that Presence and help others find it too. 

Many people who have had such experiences have tried to describe it, and they all end up saying that our earthly language is utterly inadequate. And yet we cannot but try to put words on these experiences anyway. My heart shouts with joy and recognition whenever I find these attempts.  I recognize the experience, and it is like hearing a deeply familiar description of a beloved but long-lost friend.

Neurosurgeon Eben Alexander writes about his encounter with the Divine in his memoir, “Proof of Heaven.” 

… the “voice” of this Being was warm and—odd as I know this may sound—personal. It understood humans, and it possessed the qualities we possess, only in infinitely greater measure. It knew me deeply and overflowed with qualities that all my life I’ve always associated with human beings, and human beings alone: warmth, compassion, pathos . . . even irony and humor.” (p 47)

I absolutely know and absolutely love that God has a great sense of humor.

Renowned life coach and frequent Oprah contributor, Martha Beck, writes with her own humor and candor about her several profound spiritual experiences:

If there were a drug that could reproduce the same effect, I would be on that drug right now, and damn the side effects. Imagine a blend of all your favorite things…. Picture these … combined, boiled down into their most concentrated elements of pure joy, then multiplied by trillions and injected into every one of your cells. That might begin to help you imagine what I felt when the sense of Something Bigger emerged in the hurricane’s eye of my life…. The peace and joy were so dazzling, so potent, that I thought they would never fade.” (Leaving the Saints, p 26)

Is it any wonder prophets and angels fall prostrate before this Being?  It isn’t fear that throws one down, it is adoration and genuine humility.  One is swept away by love, encompassed by peace, and able to comprehend the answer to every single “why” ever asked.  Remember this the next time you hear an account of someone falling on their face in “fear” before an angel of the Lord.  Perhaps they are actually afraid.  But just maybe it is an entirely sensible response to finding oneself in the presence of the Source of all Love and Wisdom. The overwhelming sense of great love and care tends to result in worshipful adoration.

There are more marvelous descriptions of these spiritual encounters.  Here is another from Eben Alexander:

Communicating with God is the most extraordinary experience imaginable, yet at the same time it’s the most natural one of all, because God is present in us at all times. Omniscient, omnipotent, personal—and loving us without conditions. (p 161)

Alexander sums up the Divine One’s message to every one of us this way: “You are loved and cherished. You have nothing to fear. There is nothing you can do wrong.” (p 71)

 

The first time I read this, I found myself abruptly sobbing. I think it was the sense of recognition, and the deep homesickness for that Presence.  But it was also relief.  Though I have known this truth; though I have experienced this truth; I continue to find myself unable to believe it.

This message of unconditional love is available to each one of us at every moment.  It is we who are unable to hear it—we who are unable to believe it.  I am not even sure this inability is our fault.  It is as if the nature of these bodies dulls our spiritual senses—the density of this physical plane produces heavy static on our spiritual tuners.  But for whatever reason, probably connected with Providence and our freedom, most of us miss the message most of the time.  If I could find the frequency of that Divine Being again, I would do everything in my power to stay tuned in as long as possible.  There is a deep longing to feel that Presence again that has never gone away. This residual longing seems to be a universal legacy of a Divine Encounter.

Accounts of an encounter with God are everywhere, if one is open to finding them.  This is another description from Eben Alexander:

… the answer came instantly in an explosion of light, color, love, and beauty that blew through me like a crashing wave. Thoughts entered me directly. But it wasn’t thought like we experience on earth. It wasn’t vague, immaterial, or abstract. These thoughts were solid and immediate—hotter than fire and wetter than water—and as I received them I was able to instantly and effortlessly understand concepts that would have taken me years to fully grasp in my earthly life. (p 46)

A sense of being deeply loved.  A sense of being completely safe.  Every horrific injustice is made right and everything ever lost is restored for all time.  “No more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, nor any more pain.” (Revelation 21:4)

“You are loved and cherished. You have nothing to fear. There is nothing you can do wrong.”  

Have you had a Divine Encounter?  How did it leave you changed? 

Amen

The Readings

Exodus 3: 1-7, 10, 13-14

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.  And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.  Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.”

So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!”

And he said, “Here I am.”

Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.” 6 Moreover He said, “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.

And the Lord said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.  Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”

Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?”

And God said to Moses, “I AM the I AM.” 

Matthew 17:1-8 

Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.  And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.  Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!”  And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid.  But Jesus came and touched them and said, “Arise, and do not be afraid.” When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.

Apocalypse Revealed 56

“He put His hand on me saying, ‘Do not be afraid.’” This symbolizes spiritual encouragement, and a resultant profound adoration from deep humility. Genuine holy fear comes over us when the Lords life encompasses us, pushing aside our feelings of being in charge. Such an experience can cause an inner trembling and even our hair to stand on end. When we are full of our own sense of life (being in charge), we look at the Lord from our own perspective. But when we are filled with the Lord’s life, we see all things from the Lord’s perspective, (yet somehow retaining a sense of separateness). When we are so encompassed by the Lord’s life, we realize that we are nothing, and that the Lord is everything. 

“The Intimacy of God's Love” a sermon

“The Intimacy of God's Love”

Genesis 28:10-19a; Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24; True Christianity 498:1

By Rev. Alison Longstaff

Bath Church of the New Jerusalem

Revised For Feb 16^th 2014, preached March 2^nd 2014

“Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not.’”

Today’s story is about an “aha!” moment.  But this isn’t your average, run of the mill “aha!” moment. This is the sort of aha! that makes the hairs rise on your arm, and your stomach drop. This sort makes one feel shaken and profoundly humbled.  We have all had such moments.  For some of us they can be as dramatic as this dream of Jacob’s.  For others they may be more subtle.  But they come to each of us.  These are encounters with the Divine.  They are moments in which we walk in a “thin place”—a place in which we can see beyond the veil—and by which we are moved and changed.

Today’s story starts out with movement.

 

“Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran.”

 

In Swedenborgian thought, Jacob signifies our attempts to live our beliefs. Jacob isn't just a desire for God (Abraham), nor an active intellectual curiousity about God (Isaac).  He is the fruit of these: the way these two produce changes in our behaviour.  The north/south continuum in the Word is describing our intellectual side, where the east/west continuum is describing our motivational side.  So, since Beersheba is on the southernmost boundary of the Promised Land, it could be said to represent a time in our faith-journey where we have gone as far as we can go using just our intellect. 

Haran, which is the direction in which Jacob decides to head, was the land of Jacob’s family of origin and so represents our spiritual state before we began our journey with God.  Beersheba is in the middle of the desert, but it has a well. Leaving Beersheba means Jacob is heading into the desert first, which represents a wandering in faith.  So Jacob leaving Beersheba to go toward Haran implies that he is entering a time of spiritual regression.  Perhaps the well there ceased to be enough to satisfy his needs, the way using our intellect alone in our faith journey eventually ceases to be enough to satisfy our spirit. 

Swedenborg describes Haran as representing “idolatrous worship” which implies that you and I at this point are beginning to revert to some old survival techniques for comfort.  This could be something as simple as avoiding facing something uncomfortable in our lives, or as serious as a full-out relapse in an addiction.  It is all the not helpful ways we seek to get away from our problems.  These are escape attempts, and not actually solutions.  We have lost our spiritual focus and have begun looking for quick-fixes to our spiritual emptiness.  In any case, in our story, Jacob is on the move. 

“So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set.”

The Hebrew word for “came” here has a definite meaning of arrival.  It has a sense of meeting or encounter.  This cues us to know that Jacob has arrived at a significant place in his journey.  The English translation here says that the sun has set, but the Hebrew word is actually more like “arrived,” or “done its thing.”  So in the story, the sun could be said to have arrived and done its thing.  Since the sun represents the Lord, this could be saying in the spiritual meaning that the Lord has drawn near and this has done what the presence of the Lord does.  It produces a change.  The Lord drawing near tends to do that.  And like most of us, Jacob doesn’t even see that anything is different.  In fact, it seems to him that the sun has “set,” and he is more alone than ever. How wrong he is.

“And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep.”

It is so interesting to see how the translators handle some of the unusual Hebrew wordings.  The Hebrew here is more literally translated, “and he took a stone of that place and used it for his head-place and lay down in that place.”  There is a using and re-using of the word for place.  It is the Hebrew word makom, which is no average Hebrew word.  The Hebrews have a way of saying “Let us go to THE Place,” and they are using this word makom.  When they say that, they are meaning, “Let us go up to The Temple.” This “place” isn’t just any old place.  This is an important place, a holy place.  The use and reuse of the word here is telling us that this is a very significant moment in Jacob’s story.

 

“Pillow” here means literally “head-place.”  There are a myriad implications in that meaning alone, but we can simply know that this story is still all about Jacob’s head, not his heart so much.  This is about the intellect-journey so far.  We are reading about a significant moment in each and every person’s faith development.  Jacob’s laying down implies a humbling in his spirit, very likely as a direct result of God’s having drawn near.

“Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.”

Oh, this is so beautiful.  This is the beginning of an intimate spiritual moment for Jacob.  It is showing him that there is a direct connection from where he is to the very dwelling place of God.  The word for “reach” here in the Hebrew carries the meaning of arrival. The ladder didn’t just reach toward heaven, it arrived.  There was a touch down.  “Houston, we have contact.”  Jacob realizes that God is very near.  Angels are coming and going from his very location on earth to the presence of God.  And there is contact.  Jacob is touched.

The Hebrew word for angel really means “messenger,” or communicator.  Frequently in the Old Testament, angels are God’s voice and face and hands on earth.  When an angel shows up, it is God.  So God is no longer “up there” but right in the presence of the characters in the story.  This communication is way beyond prayer.  This is an encounter.

Now notice something:  The word used for the God at the top of the ladder that Jacob saw is “Elohim” which is an ancient word carrying the reminder that we once worshiped many Gods.  It is implying that, at the beginning of the dream, Jacob hadn't really understood God.  The God that Jacob knows is pretty much still in his head.  His heart has yet to meet God.  So, from Jacob’s point of view, the God at the top of the ladder is still an intellectual concept.  He hasn't actually met God.  This will be a time of significant change for Jacob.

And behold, the Lord (Jehowah) stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God….”  (Jehowah-Elohim)

Jacob sees “Elohim” at the top of the ladder, but it is “Jehowah” who speaks to him. The Hebrew word translated “Lord” here is Yod Heh Vav Heh, the four sacred letters of the name of the Divine which the Hebrews are forbidden even to pronounce.  It is vocalized by non Hebrews as Jehovah, or Yahweh.  These four letters stand for the very Divine, the Source of all, the God of Love. This is the God of our heart and soul, not just our heads.

“I am Elohim-Jehowah.” The Divine identifies Itself as the God of both head and heart, of Love and Wisdom.  Up to this point Jacob knew God only intellectually, but this encounter touches his heart.  He is deeply moved, and he realizes into every cell of his body the overwhelming intimacy of God’s great love for him.  This is about a profound shift in our relationship with God.  An encounter with the immensity of God’s love, tends to have that effect on us. 

Let’s continue. “Jehowah … said….”  The Hebrew word for “said” here holds the meaning of a vow, an absolute promise.  Let’s face it, whenever God says something, it is a guarantee.  There is no pussy-footing around here.  There is no dodging this one or interpreting it differently.  God is indelibly impressing upon Jacob that He/She is Love and Wisdom inseparable.  And God is about to promise a whole lot more.  So it is time to listen up.

I am the Lord God (Elohim-Jehowah) of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Quick translation? The God of every step of our way, from our earliest beginnings and through all our growing, plans to use our new awareness, this realization that the God of Love is the foundation and crown of our spiritual life, to springboard us into our future. We will grow spiritually in every direction now, in kindness and fairness, in great love and great wisdom, until we are blessed beyond measure. This is the promise.

But wait!  There is more. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised for you.

To rephrase this according to the spiritual meaning: “Now you realize that I am with you. I will never leave you.  I treasure you, and will guide and protect your every step.  Even if you wander very far from the path, I will turn you around.  I will bring you back.  I won’t leave you.  There is nothing you can do to turn me away.  I will stick with you until every good thing which I have promised comes to pass.”

Wow.  That is God’s promise.  This is God’s unconditional, unequivocal promise.  What God promises, God will do.  God will bring us home.  God will bless us.  This is profoundly personal.  This is as personal as it gets.  The God of all the universe, the Source of Love and everything Good will never leave us.  No matter how alone you or I may feel, God is always immediately present.

 

“Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”

Jacob awoke.  This is a wake-up moment, a transformative spiritual event. Jacob in the story, and you and I in this stage of the spiritual journey, will never be the same. This is a new spiritual day.

There are so many layers of meaning here.  I am just skimming the surface of all that there is. Up to this point in our spiritual journey, God and faith have mostly been intellectual activities.  But this encounter wakes us up to the reality that God is not just “up there.”  God is right here, right now, in this place, in this moment.  “The Lord is in this place, and I didn't know it.”  This place.  This one.

Here is that Hebrew word makom again. Place.  It is that same word used to refer to the temple.  A sacred place.  Because if God never ever leaves us, every place is a sacred place. 

"Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”

We are always in God’s presence.  We never leave it.  We mortals decided there was a separation between the religious and everything else, between the sacred and everything else, between what is holy and everything else.  But there really isn't.  God doesn't need that.  It just makes us more comfortable to have those divisions.

And he was full of reverence and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!" Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel.

How cute is that?  God just finished declaring to Jacob and showing him that God is right with him at every moment and will continue to be with him no matter where he goes, and Jacob decides that that physical place is the house of God.  Awww.  Oh well.  It is what we do.  Of course we do!  We all have a God-hunger in one way or another, and whenever we find something or some activity or some place that evokes that sense of nearness to God— tremendous well-being, peace, joy, reverence, great beauty—we tend to want to nail it down somehow.  That way we can repeat it, you see.  It is as if we can just name it and mark it, then we can access it at will.  This is still under the illusion that it will go away.

…and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel.

Bethel means “house of God.”  Jacob names that place House of God, and sets up a monument right there.   What is fun is that there is a play on words in the Hebrew which shows up in the English too.  In English we read that Jacob’s pillow became a pillar.  In Hebrew his mer-ah-ash-aw becomes a mats-tsay-baw.

Pouring oil on the stone is yet another image of love joining with faith, of heart with head.

Jacob’s story, like every story in the Bible, contains a message for you and for me.  Jacob is lost and wandering.  He’s even kind of regressing, spiritually, because face it, we all do from time to time.  He arrives at what he thinks is a pretty empty place, with nothing but a stone for his head.  He has no idea that it is actually the house of God.

This is your story and mine on so many levels.  How much are you aware on a daily basis that God is right with you in every action and every moment?  If you are like me, the answer is: “Not aware much at all!”  In fact, I believe that many of us kind of squirm at the idea of God being right with us in the very flesh of our lives.  God is with us in church, but not in the bathroom! God is with us when we are singing beautiful Bach choruses, but not when we are burping! Right?

Well guess what, God became incarnate for a reason. Our connection with God is absolutely and always rooted in the right here, right now; in our breath; in our heartbeat.  God’s love is always with us and then deepens and becomes grounded when we live that love into action with our voices, hands, and lives.

Never forget it.  No matter where we go, God’s protecting love is right with us.  There is nothing so terrible that we can do, that God cannot forgive and heal.  There is nothing so horrific that we can suffer that God cannot transform into a greater power for love in the world.  We may give up and lose hope, but God never will.  God will turn us back and wake us up to beauty and love again and again and again, until we realize we are whole.  How is that for an aha!?

God’s immense and intimate love is right here, right now. 

Amen

Revised from a sermon called “Surely The Lord Is In This Place” preached July 10^th, 2011

Genesis 28:10-19a
10 Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11 So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. 12 Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: "I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. 14 Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you." 16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it." 17 And he was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!" 18 Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it. 19 And he called the name of that place Bethel;
Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24
O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether. You have hedged me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it. Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, "Surely the darkness shall fall on me," Even the night shall be light about me; Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You.

TCR 498:1

My paraphrase

True spiritual freedom resides in each person's soul in full perfection. From the soul this freedom flows into both parts of the mind—the will and the understanding—like a fountain of water into a pool. And through these it flows into the body and into the speech and action. There are three levels of life in each person: the level of the soul, the level of the mind, and the level of the physical, sensate body. All the perfection of the higher levels flows down by degrees into the lower levels, affecting them.  Each person enjoys such perfect spiritual freedom, and the Lord’s Presence can be felt by means of, within, and because of this freedom.  The Lord presses to be received without ceasing, but never sets aside or does away with our freedom, (because nothing which a person does without spiritual freedom can last). It could be said that it is this very freedom itself which is the Lord’s dwelling within a person's soul.