Energy (Divine and Spiritual)
- Jun 10
- 4 min read
“The further you move away from God, the closer you get to the devil. The Holy Fathers speak about this very clearly. There’s mathematical precision in this: When you depart from God, you lose the sense of the Divine presence, Divine consolation, Divine energy, and you find yourself as if exposed and vulnerable to the devil’s influence.” (Metropolitan Athanasios)
“Sin is, in fact, an energy that has not been rightly directed and that requires redirection. For example, a person who suffers from hatred towards other people should redirect that energy into hatred of the evil he perceives within himself; a person who longs for passing human glory should redirect that energy into striving for imperishable, eternal glory, the glory of the Kingdom of God; a person who constantly thinks about what others will say about him and how to attract their attention should redirect that energy into the effort to attract God’s attention and to please Him. The energy of sin, therefore, must be transformed into the energy of virtue. This will often not be an easy task, and in order to succeed in it, it is essential that we have spiritual guidance from those who are experienced in the spiritual battlefield.” (Rev. Dr. Oliver Subotic)
“The grace of God never abandons us completely. But God wants us to turn away from sin and regain the fullness of His grace through repentance…Grace is an uncreated divine energy of God through which persons may find their fulfillment in holiness as those created in the divine image and likeness. Grace does not obliterate the nature of human persons, but restores them to the holiness for which God created them. They become “partakers of the divine nature” as they become personally radiant with the divine energy of grace and share more fully in the life of God (2 Peter 1:4).” (Metropolitan Serafim Joanta, Fr. Philip LeMasters)
“Energy is not only a concept spoken of in the realm of physics or the holistic healing world, it permeates the universe, it permeates our very bodies. Let’s put out good and positive energy into the world. Energy whose intention it is to heal. To comfort. To be kind…We should think of love as a kinetic energy, and symbols as a medium through which this energy passes. When one prays for another, he typically refers to him by the symbol of his name. This sign serves as a conduit through which his love can reach its referent. So, when someone says, “I can feel your prayers,” perhaps he is not trading in cheap sentimentality, but is expressing a genuine experience of this energy.” (Jackie Morfesis, Dr. John Amir Azarvan)
“Experience teaches that our self-centered and distorted desires can quickly rear their ugly heads when we face trying circumstances. Sometimes it does not take much at all to set us off…Other times we face circumstances so grave that they call us into question from the depths of our souls and tempt us to fall into despair about the meaning and purpose of our lives…most of us do not have to look far for opportunities to take up our crosses as we struggle to find healing for our inflamed passions…to find that healing, we usually do not have to do anything particularly dramatic or extraordinary…it is normally a matter of refocusing ourselves on the basic practices of the Christian life, such as refusing to accept sinful thoughts in our hearts, forgiving those who have wronged us, and trusting that nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 8:39) The more that we open our souls to the Lord’s healing strength through prayer, repentance, and serving our neighbors, the less time and energy we will have for stirring up the impassioned thoughts that lead to sinful actions. The struggle to undertake this way of life is at the very heart of taking up our crosses, denying ourselves, and following Christ.” (Fr. Philip LeMasters)
“…the whole of creation is permeated by God’s presence through His divine energies; everything declares God’s glory, as the Psalmist says, and the human being leads this cosmic chorus of glorification to the Creator as the priest of creation.” (Metropolitan John (Zizioulas) of Pergamon)
“To speak of divine energies is to speak of God's actions in relation to the created world. The relationship of God's energies to human freedom and self-determination has obvious ethical implications…though God is Lord of history, he does not coerce or force obedience and conformity to his will. Coerced conformity is dehumanization, whereas fulfilled humanity - which is the divinization of human life - must be free, since God is free.” (Rev. Dr. Stanley S. Harakas)
“If you want to know true peace and true joy and true healing, then you enter into the house of God and engage yourself in the power of what is happening. And in doing all this, we discover true freedom. This is not the “freedom” of getting something for free, like the free gift you get when you open a new credit card. This is not the freedom of being given a license to do anything you want. Rather, this is the freedom of being filled with divine energy and power from on high: being made capable of perfect love, powerful enough to know perfect peace, and strong enough to know unending joy.” (Father Andrew Stephen Damick)
“Christian contemplation is not "ecstatic," that is, outside ourselves, but it takes place within the Christian person who is the "temple of the Holy Spirit." The divine energies are "within everything and outside everything." All creation is the manifestation of God's energies.” (Rev. George C. Papademetriou)
“Everything we do in the Christian life with the right heart – worship, prayer, study, service – deepens our union with God and in doing so we partake of His divine energy. We are in fact part of His divine energy because we are His created beings. But our sense of this reality is dulled by sin. When we engage in these activities we are drawing near to God (James 4:8) and being re-energized in a sense. It’s like opening the curtains of a dark room and letting the light in.” (Sacramental Living Ministries)
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