Soul and Spirit

Elijah and the gentle whisper. In 1 Kings 19, the prophet Elijah is forced to flee for his life into the desert, where he wants to give himself up to death, but is visited by an angel who gives him water and bread to strengthen him, twice, so that Elijah could make the long journey of 40 days to Mount Horeb, following the angel's instructions, to a place where the Lord himself appeared to him, not in person, but as a gentle breeze that caressed him, for before Jesus Christ no one could look directly at the Lord. But Christ is the secret goal of this meditation, indeed, our goal in general.  That God came to the prophet Elijah as a gentle whisper, then spoke to him and gave him important instructions for the future of the people and their faith, would not be anything special in itself, if the Lord, as we read in 1 Kings 19:11-12, had not shortly before, on Mount Horeb, where Elijah was seeking Him, sent a storm, an earthquake, and, as the third violent event, a fire upon Elijah...

God as a fact.  We know God as all-knowing, all-powerful, as the Lord, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, as love, as the eternal and infinite being from whom all existence arises, even as the spiritual sun in heaven. But for firm faith, especially here on earth, God should stand within us as a brightly shining fact, so brightly shining that all the shadows that life casts upon us are dissolved in an instant by its light. The question is: how can I see and carry God within me as a rock-solid fact or truth that can serve me in all circumstances of life, as an infallible protective shield against pain and suffering, so that I never come into temptation to give up my faith in God?  What hinders God as a fact within us and even makes it impossible are our own errors about what God is, what life is, and what we ourselves are. These errors arise from a lack of self-examination, for everything—God, life, and what we are—can and should be found within us. Where else, I wonder? T...