The Spirit of Prayer

A Prayer for Salvation [Pryr-1.2-56] Oh heavenly Father, infinite, fathomless Depth of never- ceasing Love, save me from myself -- from the disorderly Workings of my fallen, corrupted Nature, and let my Eyes see, my Heart feel and Spirit find, Salvation in Christ Jesus.     [Pryr-1.2-57] O God, who madest me for yourself, show forth your Goodness in me.  I humbly beseech You, that you manifest the Life-giving Power of your holy Nature within me; help me to  a true and living Faith in You.   Allow me Strength of Hunger and Thirst and allow the Birth, Life, and Spirit of your Holy Jesus into my Soul, and that all that is within me, so that it may be turned from every inward Thought, or outward Work, that is not You, and towards your holy Jesus, and thy heavenly working.  Amen. *  the end of part i.

[Pryr-1.2-52] So when the first Spark of a Desire for God arises in your Soul, cherish it with all your Care, give all your Heart into it, for it is nothing less than a Touch of the Divine Lodestone, that is made to draw You out of the Vanity of Time & into the Riches of Eternity. Get up and follow it as gladly, as the Wise Men of the East followed the Star from Heaven that appeared to them. And It will do for You, as the Star did for them,: lead You to the Birth of Jesus, not in a Stable at Bethlehem in Judea, but to the Birth of Jesus in the dark Centre of your own fallen Soul. [Pryr-1.2-53] I shall conclude this first Part, with the Words of the heavenly Illuminated, and blessed Jacob Behmen.     [Pryr-1.2-54] "It is much to be lamented, that we are so blindly led, and the Truth withheld from us through imaginary Conceptions; for if the Divine Power in the inward Ground of the Soul was manifest, and working with its Luster in us, then is the whole Triune G...

[Pryr-1.2-51] Oh my God, just and good, how great is your Love and Mercy to Mankind, that Heaven is thus everywhere open, and Christ thus the common Savior to all that turn the Desire of their Hearts to You!  Oh sweet Power of the Bruiser of the Serpent, born in every Son of Man, that stirs and works in every Man, and gives every Man a Power, and Desire, to find his Happiness in God!  O holy Jesus, heavenly Light, that lightest every Man that cometh into the World, that redeemed every Soul that follows your Light, which is always within Him! O Holy Trinity, immense Ocean of divine Love in which all Mankind live, and move, and have their Being! None are separated from You, none live out of your Love, but all are embraced in the Arms of your Mercy, all are Partakers of your Divine Life, the Operation of your holy Spirit, as soon as their Heart is turned to You! Oh plain, and easy, and simple Way of Salvation, wanting no Subtleties of are or Science, no borrowed...

[Pryr-1.2-50] [Pryr-1.2-50] Now there is but one possible Way for Man to attain this Salvation, or have the Life of God in his Soul. There is not one way for the Jew, another for a Christian, and a Third for the Heathen. No for as God is one, human nature is one, Salvation is one, and the Way to Him is one; so too is the way to Him is one and that is via a true Desire of the Soul to be turned towards God. When this Desire is alive and breaks forth in any Creature under Heaven, then the proverbial lost Sheep is found, and the Shepherd can put it safely upon his Shoulders. 1 Through this Desire the Poor Prodigal Son leaves his Husks and Swine, and hastes to his Father: it is because of this Desire, that the Father sees the Son, while yet afar off, that he runs out to meet him, falleth on his Neck, and kisses him. See here how plainly we are taught, that no sooner does this Desire arise, but the Operation of God's Spirit answers to it, cherishes and welcomes its first Beginnings...

[Pryr-1.2-49] For there is but one Salvation for all Mankind, and that is with the Life of God in the Soul.  God has but one Design or Intent towards all Mankind, and that is to introduce or generate his own Life, Light, and Spirit in them, that all may be as so many Images, Temples, and Habitations of the Holy Trinity. This is God's good Will to all Christians, Jews, and Heathens because They all equally Desire his Heart, & so his Light continually waits for an Entrance into all of them, and his Wisdom cries out. And  she putteth forth her Voice, not here, or there, but everywhere, in all the Streets, of all the Parts of the World.

     [Pryr-1.2-48] But does this Man have any Ground for Pride, or a high Opinion of himself, because of his Share in Restoring Hand?  Can we by the same not, think by our own Activity, that we are responsible for our salvation like this Man with his outstretched his Hand?  and that the Work of Christ was superfluous?   No.  While we can only do living Works of Christ when we are  born again, it is because we are able to say with the Apostle, "This is not I, but the Christ that lives in me." But to return, and further show, how the Soul that feels the Call of God to Repentance, this stirring of the Divine Power in the soul may have its full Effect, and bring forth the Birth of the new Man in Christ Jesus because it is the Seed of the Divine Nature within us, but it can only grow by its own Strength and Union with God because, and this is important to remember, this Seed is Divine, and therefore can grow from nothing but Divi...

[Pryr-1.2-47] There is no avoiding this fatal Error, except to deeply realize the great Truth, that all our own Activity and Working has no Good in it, & can do no Good to us, unless it leads and turns us to the Light and Spirit of God.  That is the only way to bring Life and Salvation into the Soul: Stretch forth your Hand, said our Lord to the Man that had a withered Hand; he did so, and it was immediately made whole as the other.  --------------------------------------------------------------   9 Departing from there, He went into their synagogue.   10 And a man   was there  whose hand was withered. And they questioned Jesus, asking, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—so that they might accuse Him  of impiety and breaking the Law. . 11 And He said to them, “What man is there among you who has a sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out?   12   So  “How muc...

[Pryr-1.2-45] Hence by doing all the above, we learn the Reason, why many People not only lose the Benefit, but are even worse for all their Mortifications and it is because they mistake the whole of Nature as their self-worth. They practice these things for their own Sakes. They become poseurs, and love the creation but not the Creator. They see good in others but not where it comes, and finally they think that goodness exists apart from Him instead of Him and slowly they fall into the pitfalls of Self-esteem, self-pride, and Self-admiration, justifying their actions instead of humbly offering them up for service. Slowly but all too surely, they become judgmental, and haughty as they find that they are Self-sufficient needing no one, nothing, but their own reflection to give them validation…and so despite all their Mortifications they fall short of the true effort and fail. It is a sorry trap. ------------------------------------------------------------------- [Pryr...

[Pryr-1.2-44] Hence by proclaiming our Love and Belief in Our Father, we may also learn the true Nature and Worth of all Self-denials and Mortifications. We see for what they are truly worth, their Nature, and like a torch shining on our foibles, we realize them for what they are:  shackles that separate us from Goodness & see that they are not real Food or Nourishment & have Quickening, Sanctifying Power in them; but that their only Worth consists in this, that they remove the Impediments of Holiness, break down that which stands between us & God because we spend too much time tending to them and not enough listening and following Him.   As in our Creation, we had only that Degree of a Divine Life, which the Power of God gave us; as then all that we had, and were, was the sole Operation of what God in the Creation imparted to us; & so in our Redemption, or regaining that first Perfection, we lose all that we thought meant something to us, because o...

    [Pryr-1.2-42] Honestly, though, all that is in the Creed.  It is only bringing forth of this Dying and Death to all and every Part of the old Man*, that the Life and Spirit of Christ may be formed in us. *Old man or Old Nick, Beelzebub, Satan, the Devil, Lucifer, the Beast,the evil one,  the Wicked One, Apollyon,   --------------------------------------------------------- In England, the Devil was often called the Old Man because he was thought to be a primal being, he was "older than dirt"  and what the first Light of God destroyed so that we may have life. But there are other names as well: Bogey Man, Old Bogey, Old Scratch, Old Nick, and even Old Nick Bogey.   There is great speculation of why "Nick" and from all I have read I believe because the Archangel Michael (Mick) was the leader of the Armies of God, in rhyming slang, Old Nick would be his counterpart. Satan “And He was there in the wilderness forty days, temp...

[Pryr-1.2-43] So following this logic, then Our Redemption is the new Birth or if one want to counts the early baptismal, then it is our Re-birth where as adults we stand up and proclaim that True, We are his Soldiers, His Followers, his disciples. For if this is not done, or doing in us, we are still unredeemed, we must state it loudly and clearly and not worry who is to hear, because confirmation is strength. So until then though the Savior of the World is come, He is not come in us, He is not received by us, is a Stranger to us, is not ours, if his Life is not within us.His life is not, cannot be within us, but so far as the Spirit of the World, Self-love, Self-esteem, and Self-seeking, are renounced, and driven out of us.

 [Pryr-1.2-41] It is this Loss of Love, that was in truth the Fall of Man, for it opened in him a Kingdom of Self, in which Satan, the World, and the Flesh, could bring forth their own Works & delude Man that they were his own. If therefore up to Man is to rise from his Fall, and return to his Life in God. There is an absolute necessity that Self, with all his Brood of gross Affections, be deposed, and the first Love of his Maker may be born again in him. Christ came into the World to save Sinners, & destroy the Works of the Devil, part of that is the Self, for it is not only the Seat and Habitation of Sin and Sloth, but the very vehicle that spreads that wrongheaded idea about. It has to be understood, that the Works of the Devil are all wrought in Self; this is his peculiar Workhouse, and therefore Christ is not come as a Savior from Sin, as much as Destroyer of the Works of the Devil in any of us. If it is literally true, what our Lord said, that his Kin...

[Pryr-1.2-40] If all created Beings are only to be loved in and for God, then how is my Neighbor to be loved, as I love myself, if I am not to love myself bu God? A tricky question you may think, but no so.  For the answer is simple:  I am to  love myself, as I love my Neighbor, or any other created Being, as an extension, a part of God and so we love ourselves because we part of him, not a separate island unto itself.    In this manner, the Commandment  of loving our Neighbor as ourselves, stands firm, while at the same time all Self-love is plucked out by the Roots. But what is loving any Creature, only in, and for God mean?  This is when we love it because it God's Work, His Image, and His Delight, for then we love it merely because it is God's, and belongs to him that He shares with us.  It is when we remember and honour him for his gifts, and not tell ourselves that this what we have wrought; just what we have tended in His stead. ...

 [Pryr-1.2-38] Because all this turning towards Self is in reality turning from God, and as much as we have of Self-love, is a hellish and earthly Weight, that it must be taken off, or there can be no Ascension into Heaven. But you wilt perhaps say, if all Self-love is to be renounced, then how do we Love of our Neighbor? (Leviticus xix: 18; Mark xix:19)  Isn’t that too renounced because the Commandment is, only to love our Neighbor as ourselves. The Answer here is easy, and yet no Quarter given to Self-love. There is but one only Love in Heaven, and while the Angels of God do love one another in this manner, they also love themselves as well, yet they do not fall under the Spell of Self-Love because they adhere to a greater and more supreme form.  It is this form that is unchangeable & pure and is the Law to all intelligent Beings of all Worlds, and the Law for now & all Eternity:  God alone is to be loved for himself, and as all other...

[Pryr-1.2-37] Only a short time passed after the Age of the Apostles, before Satan and the Self got footing in the Church, and set up Merchandise in the House of God. Yet this one Heart, and Spirit, which first appeared in the Jerusalem Church, need not have been lost had every Christian made it his great Care and Prayer, to have it kept it alive in himself. For if that had been done, no matter when or where that Man was born, whether in the Dregs* of Time, or living in Babylon, he would be as truly a Member of the first heavenly Church at Jerusalem, as if he had lived in the Days of the Apostles. For this Spirit of Love, born of the celestial Fire, with which Christ baptizes his Disciples, is the only way that one can enter into Heaven.  For no one can enter in Heaven, until he is made heavenly, that is until the Spirit of Heaven has entered into him. And that can only be done as our Lord said:  by the parting with all that one has in this Earthly Life because befor...

 [Pryr-1.2-36] Thus when our Lord says, unless a Man forsake all that he has he cannot be my Disciple ;(Mark x:21) the Reason is plain, and the Necessity absolute. It is because all that the natural Man has is the Possession of his own Self-love, and therefore this Possession has to be absolutely forsaken, and done away with.   For all that man has, has to be put into other Hands, or the natural Man cannot be changed into a Disciple of Christ. This is because Self-love is an earthly, sensual, and devilish thing.  It must have all its accessories taken away from it; because just feeding it a bit will give it energy, and then the natural Man will find that his heavenly yearnings are for naught and he is back to where he was: nowhere with nothing left, to lay down at the Feet of Jesus, and then all Earthly Things become common, and Self-love loses its love of its former Possessions. For then as a Disciple of Christ, though having nothing, because the natural M...

 [Pryr-1.2-35] Secondly, in quiet you make your Soul he true Ground of that universal Mortification and Self-denial as you are ignoring your Senses, Appetites, Tempers, Passions and Judgments. That is necessary for your whole Nature, has fallen from the Life of God, and is currently in a State of Contrariness to the True Order and End of our Creation; it is a continual Source of disorderly Appetites, of corrupt Tempers, and false Judgments. It is feasting on an earthly banquet blind to all else. So, every Motion must be mortified, changed and purified from its natural & current State, so we can enter into the Kingdom of God. "Except a Man hated his Father and Mother, yea, and his own Life, he cannot be my Disciple", so our Lord and Savior told us, and this was the best of advice, because while our Tempers are carnal, and full of the Imperfections of our fallen Nature, we are cut off from him and cannot Hear him. The Doctrine is just and good; not hated; but ...

[Pryr-1.2-34] A child that obediently denies his own Will, and own Reason, and is guided by the Will and Reason of a truly wise and understanding Tutor, can never be said to make himself a Fool, because he is giving up the Benefit of his rational Nature, and instead allowing his own Will and Reason work in his behalf as a true Blessing. 

[Pryr-1.2-33] So from all this, we may gather these following Truths: First, the true Ground and Reason that when the Call of God to Repentance arises in your Soul, you should be retired, silent, passive, and so that you are humbly attentive to this new risen Light within You.  By wholly stopping, and disregarding the Workings of your own Will, Reason, and Judgment you will hear his voice clearly. This is necessary because of all the false Counselors, sworn Servants, bribed Slaves of your fallen Nature, Born and Bred in your Kingdom of Self will try to shut Him out. Therefore, if a new Kingdom is to be set up in You, if the Operation of God is to have its Effect in You, at all, these natural Powers of Self must have silenced and suppressed, till they have learned Obedience and Subjection to the Spirit of God. Now this is not requiring You to become a Fool, or to give up your Claim to Sense and Reason, not at all, but the shortest Way to have your Sense and Reason deli...

[Pryr-1.2-32] This is Christianity, is a spiritual Society, not because it has no worldly Concerns, as long as we are of this World, we will always have them, but because all its Members, are born of the Spirit, and they are kept alive, animated and governed by the Spirit of God. The Peaceable Kingdom by Edw. Hicks c. 1845, American at the Brooklyn Museum This constant discourse is with our Lord, and the Kingdom of God, or as we know it best, Heaven, because all its Ministry and Service, is done in Obedience as we Subject ourselves to that Greater Spirit by which Angels live, and are governed in Heaven. Hence our blessed Lord taught his Disciples to pray, that this Kingdom might come, that so God's Will might be done on Earth, as it is in Heaven; which could not be, but by that same Spirit, by which it is done in Heaven. The short of it all, is this: The Kingdom of Self is the Fall of Man, or the great Apostasy from the Life of God in the Soul; and everyone wherev...

[Pryr-1.2-31] All the Sacrifices and Institutions of the ancient Patriarchs -- the Law of Moses, with all its Types, and Rites, and Ceremonies, is all to this end:  and that is that they were the methods of Divine Wisdom for a Time, so as to keep the Hearts and Minds  of Men from the Wanderings of Idolatry, busy in a State of Holy Expectation upon God, and so that they could keep the first Seed of Life in a State of Growth, and make Way for a further Operation of God upon the Soul; or, as the Apostle himself says, to be as a Schoolmaster unto Christ, waiting patiently for the Birth, the Death, the Resurrection and the Ascension of Christ, should conquer Death and Hell, opening  a new Dispensation of God, and baptize Mankind once again  with the Holy Ghost, and Fire of Heaven. Church of the Pentecost, Romania c. 1672 That day – the Day of Pentecost, a new Dispensation of God would come forth; which on God's Part, was to be the activity of the Holy Spirit v...

Lot and his daughters leaving Sodom -- Guido Reni [Pryr-1.2-30] On the other Hand, all that is Grace, Redemption, Salvation, Sanctification, Spiritual Life, and Birth, is the Operation of God found  in the Soul.  For it is Man come back again into his Centre or his Place in God, which had been broken off.  This Beginning is the new again: it is the Life of God in the Soul, as it was when first made, when the Mercy of God inspoke into Adam a Seed of the Divine Life, & should have bruised the Head of the Serpent, instead of embracing it as its human Nature.  And so while the Kingdom of God is only a Seed, it was still a piece of the Divine, which if cultivated rightly, would overcome all the Evil that was in us, and make every fallen Man a new born Son of God.

Grayson Perry -- Fleeing Eden [Pryr-1.2-29] The reason for all of this, is that Man, by his Fall, broke off from his true Centre, and lost his proper Relationship with God.  Once that happened then that singular relationship with Him was no more, but broken. For with the Fall, Man left a Life in God and instead  went into a Life of the Self, -- one of animal self-narcissism, fantasies, and other vain escapes and lost all touch with his Source. As self-esteem, and self-seeking, through the vehicle of Pride becomes their own ends & ultimate Enjoyment, the Natural State of Man, became now a grasping, wanting, self-absorbed animal. He was now an Apostate from God,  as his natural Life became all Idolatry, and the Self became the Greatest Idol of all --  worshiped, coddled and encouraged instead of following the path of devotion, responsibility and love of something greater and better than himself : God.  So it is easy to see, that ...

[Pryr-1.2-27] So that you may do all this the better, and be firmly assured, you’re your Resignation to, and Dependence upon, the working of God's Spirit within You, is right and sound, I shall lay before You two great, and infallible, and fundamental Truths, which will be as a Rock for your Faith to stand upon. [Pryr-1.2-28] The first one is that through all the whole Nature of Things, nothing you can do, would be better for you Soul, than to devote yourself to the  Operation of God upon it.  Secondly, that all the Dispensations of God to Mankind, from the Fall of Adam, to the preaching of the Gospel, were only for that end:  to fashion,  prepare, and dispose the Soul for the Operation of the Spirit of God upon it.  It is these two great Truths, when they are well and deeply apprehended, will put your Soul in its right State, and in a continual Dependence upon God, so that you will be in a Readiness to receive His Goodness and allow it t...

[Pryr-1.2-26] So now that you realize that all your faith and belief truly depends on your Submission and Obedience and not God forcing you into enslavement, (Islam means I submit) that God can start speaking in your Soul. To do this, stop all this Self-ness activity.  Do not listen to the various Suggestions of your Reason much less someone else’s, and do not going running around on your own Will searching for something that is lost, but instead be retired, be silent, & be passive. Humble attentiveness is the key to this new risen Light within You & so do nothing but Open your Heart, your Eyes, and Ears, to all its Impressions. Let this Voice  enlighten, teach, frighten, torment, judge, and condemn You, as it pleases, but do turn not away from it. Hear all it says, & seek for no Relief from food or spirits, ut with a Heart full of Faith and Resignation to God, pray only this Prayer, that God's Kingdom may come, and his Will be done in your So...