The Cure

I am finding it difficult to leave the quotation from the last post (The Aroused Heart) behind.

I indicated in The Power to Expel Demons a reluctance to use literal demons as an explanation for my moral failings.  I also stated that I didn’t think a distinction between literal and figurative demons made much difference.  Either way, the cure (mindfulness of the presence of Jesus) was the same.

Then, in the last post, I tentatively noted that the use of The Jesus Prayer seemed to increase my personal discipline.

In considering it further, I would like to try and better define, for my own sake, what seems to be happening to me.

These words from the last post best catch what I am feeling:

“As it goes still deeper, it gradually begins to act upon all members of the soul and body and to expel sin from every part, and everywhere to destroy the domination, influence, and poison of the demons.”

Somehow, I am beginning to feel the presence of Jesus deeper in my being than ever before.   I am aware of him dwelling not just in my heart, but in my bones, my sinews and in every other molecule of my being.

It is as if I have been living with a sunburn my entire life.  But more than just a normal sunburn.  A sunburn that damages not just my skin, but to use a word from the quote above, a burn that poisons me throughout.

The Name of Jesus acts on me like an aloe cream.  As I repeat it over and over again, I rub Jesus Himself into my skin.  He then penetrates not just my skin, but my entire being.  As He penetrates, he displaces the poisons (the figurative demons) that were embedded within me, and they are forced out.

He cures me.

He rebuilds me.

He transforms me.

The awareness of this process, and of His presence, is lending me a kind of strength that I have never identified within myself before.

Will it last?

I don’t know.  I’ve never been through this before.

But I hope so.