CHAPITRE XVII.
The Transition to Spirit-Led Prayer
The soul must cease its own efforts in petition to allow the Spirit of God to intercede according to the divine will.
1. On Petitions.1 Our own cease in order to make room for those of the Spirit of God.2 2. Here, make room for surrender and faith.3 1. The soul will find herself in a state of powerlessness to make petitions to God that she once made with ease.4 This should not surprise her, for it is then that (a) the Spirit asks for the saints what is good, what is perfect, and what is in keeping with the will of God. The Spirit helps us even in our weaknesses; because we do not know what we ought to ask, nor how to ask it as we ought; but the Spirit himself asks it for us with inexpressible groanings. (a) Rom. 8. v. 26, 27. and Ch. 12. v. 2.
Surrendering to Divine Design
True spiritual growth requires stripping away personal desires and attachments to live by abandonment and faith in God's will.
I will go further: we must support God’s designs, which are to strip the soul of its own operations in order to put His in their place.5 2. So let Him do it; do not bind yourself to anything on your own. However good it may seem to you, it is not so then for you, if it turns you aside from what God wants of you. God's will is better than any other good. Let go of your own interests and live by abandonment and faith. This is where faith begins to work in the soul in an excellent way.
Read the original French
1. Des Demandes. Les propres cessent pour faire place à celles de l’Esprit de Dieu.
2. Donner ici place à l’abandon & à la foi.
1. L’AME se trouvera dans un état d’impuissance de faire des demandes à Dieu, qu’elle faisoit autrefois avec facilité. Cela ne la doit point surprendre, car c’est alors que (a) l’Esprit demande pour les Saints ce qui est bon, ce qui est parfait, ce qui est conforme à la volonté de Dieu. L’Esprit nous aide même dans nos foiblesses ; parce que nous ne savons pas ce qu’il faut demander, ni le demander comme il faut ; mais l’Esprit même le demande pour nous avec des gémissemens ineffables.
(a) Rom. 8. v. 26, 27. & Ch. 12. v. 2.
Je dis plus, qu’il faut seconder les desseins de Dieu, qui sont, de dépouiller l’ame de ses propres opérations pour substituer les siennes en leur place.
2. Laissez le donc faire ; & ne vous liez à rien par vous-même. Quelque bon qu’il vous paroisse, il n’est pas tel alors pour vous, s’il vous détourne de ce que Dieu veut de vous. Or la volonté de Dieu est préférable à tout autre bien. Défaites-vous de vos intérêts, & vivez d’abandon & de foi.
C’est ici que la foi commence d’opérer en l’ame excellemment.
Notes
- 1 ↩Demandes are petitions or requests made in prayer, not merely questions.
- 2 ↩Les propres is elliptical for the soul's own petitions (demandes), as the heading shows; celles looks back to those petitions.
- 3 ↩Abandon is Guyon's technical term for self-surrender into God's hands.
- 4 ↩The French treats the soul as feminine (elle); her is kept for that interior person, not as a human pronoun shift.
- 5 ↩Seconder is to cooperate with or further God's designs, not merely to applaud them. Opérations is kept as Guyon's technical term for the soul's own interior acts.
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