There is no way I will follow that long post or pull out what I am referring to so will just post. Yes, we have entrance into the holy of holies but it is my experience that most have never attained it simply because they are not willing to pay the price of being purged by the fire for it is the Holy of holies and there are rules to entering in and we should always have a fear a nd thremble at standing befoe the creator of everything for does it not say that we should work out our salvation with fear and trembling and it also says that fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Most do not claim to hear God or have visions so how can they enter in when it is spiritual and not physical if they cant hear or see?
You are describing the condition of most Christians, yet each generation does indeed have some who attain to God... The rest of us poor slobs, who have not found the Narrow and Straited Way, do not know God as the few do, and take the word of the few over self opinion... Each according to their calling, and all participating in the Services of the Ekklesia inasmuch as they can... Most are not given the full 10 talents, and of those who are, most do not invest them very wisely nor do they cause them to multiply... But some do... Most are lucky to find themselves with so much as one talent, and if they are able to increase it at all, they are thanking God with tears...
And even those who limit their faith to the Bible are relying on those who have taken the Kingdom of Heaven with Love and Courage and have then by Divine Providence written about it whose writings were recognized by other valiant persons in the Ekklesia so as to recognize and canonize their writings... Not all are called to the High Calling... Most of us simply labor and marry and rear our children in the Love of God that we are able to give them... Yet in the Church there is always a Way to ascend for those who desire to do so, and there are wise men and women one can and will find who can give the boost needed, there are always writings that give the help and encouragement needed, and even in the absence of all these, there is God Himself Who will direct, IF one is willing to cast aside fear and embrace the Way of Christ unto blood...
The Medicines of Immortality are simple and profound - Easy to understand and hard to do, requiring great courage motivated by love... Once established in the soul, they will not permit a person's return to their old vomit easily, if at all... These medicines are love of truth, denial of self, confession of sin, repentance from evil, love of God and self-sacrifice for the sake of others, the giving of alms, the discipline of prayer, and even prayer without ceasing, and the willingness to let God's Will direct one's own will, and to seek God's Willl in all things, and to withdraw one's self from judging others, but to seek their benefit and not their condemnation...
And we can do so little good, and the good we do is so tarnished and weak, and even so to ever pursue it, knowing we will fail, and casting that failure to the winds and keeping on our pursuit, no matter what might happen... The Way requires great courage... Ascending the Cross required great courage... Taking up our own cross calmly with level eyes takes coursge... The cross is an instrument of torture unto death... It is the Cost of Discipleship... It MUST be chosen freely, or it is nothing... And IF it is embraced, it is everything... Willingness of its embrace will vary across a lifetime, through crisis after crisis, according to the person being saved, and God is always with you, even when, and especially when, you cannot sense His Presence at all, for THAT is where you will grow the most, or fall back, or even fall away, God forbid... God does not leave such courage unrewarded... Even where He does not appear to the one exercising it... God does not withold Righteousness from the brave... Nor does He pass it out freely to the cowardly...
For those who are minimalists in the Faith, we go to Church on Sundays, pray before meals, Pray going to bed and upon arising, and do the best we can throughout the day in our labors and projects... We tend to recharge our batteries with vacations to places of rest and play and being served... We tend to live good lives mostly in peace with our neighbors... And some of us, when we have completed this walk, and our children are grown and we no longer are needed for rearing children, withdraw from the world, and enter into a life of extended prayer and labors for God, and get to do what could not be done in the exigencies of worldly cares and responsibilities... And in the sufferings of old age, we find our Peace...
You are right that most are not willing to face the trials by fire that God offers to us, and so do not attain to God right away... But even those who do - The monastic Christians that flee the world to serve God in the Monastic deserts of labors, fastings, sleeplessness, solitude, vigils nightly in prayer, and the daily regimen of Church Services, themselves do not for that reason necessarily have visions or receive Gifts... Yet they would not have their lives any other way, for they know the other way of their own soul, and want no part of it...
One elder had a young monk take a leaky pail to the river each day and bring it back to him with water in it, and the monk did so for several years... Another monk asked the elder what he was teaching the young monk... Every day he gets the water and it leaks out on his way back here so nothing is left when he gets here... And the old monk said: "You are right... It is time we show him the fruit of his labors... And he said to the young monk: "You have brought me water every day which all leaked out of the pail with holes in it, and you never arrived here with any water in the pail, yes?" And the young monk said: "Yes, Elder..." "And look at your pail with the holes in it - What do you see?" And the young monk said: "A pail with holes in it." So the Elder said: "And look over on the side of my hut, and what do you see?" And the yound monk said: "A different pail with holes in it." "And how does the other pail look..." It is totally rusted out and filled with dirt and cobwebs and other things..." And the old monk said: "You have learned well - Even if you do not see any progress in your prayers, you are not being submerged into the disintegration of worldly engagement... This obedience is not completed..."
The work of God in our souls spans decaded - In 50 years we will find but one brick laid up maybe once each 10 years... And we need to pay attention... We can get so caught up in the daily melodramas of our "spiritual" lives that we miss utterly the big moves that slip in un-noticed all that much do not seem to have much immediate impact... Yet they are there, building up over a lifetime... Creating a structure in our souls... Built by God... That we worship Him inwardly in a temple not built with human hands, but by the Holy Spirit... In Spirit and in Truth... Christ IN you... Your very physical body IS the Temple of God on earth... And it needs to be kept clean, which requires living lives of vigil against sin, Loving God with all that we have, and loving our neighbors as our very selves...
And our willingness to do this is 100% our responsibility...
And our efficacy in doing so is 100% God's responsibility...
We must expend our willingness utterly...
That we should fully attain God's...
The thief on the cross attained Paradise confessing Christ...
In the unbearable agonies of his final hour...
Judas Iscariot destroyed himself...
For the sake of 30 pieces of silver...
Arsenios
