Anyone who resists the divine working forfeits an indescribable grace, for he rejects God Himself Who wants to impart His strength to the human being. The influx of divine strength is not felt by the body to the same extent as it is felt by the soul, indeed, the body is often even forced to renounce earthly pleasures and rebels against it, i.e, the soul is pushed towards the spiritual within itself by divine strength, while the body likewise demands its devotion to itself, and thus the human being is in a battle with himself, and now the will must not waver, the body must not gain supremacy, for it would mean the loss, the drying up of the flow of strength from God and endanger the soul extremely and bring about its spiritual standstill or decline. The human will cannot be forced, and therefore it must decide for itself; it must release the soul of its own accord, it must support its desire to make contact with the spiritual, but it must not let the body speak first.... He must not simultaneously flirt with the world and force the soul to participate in the desires of the body. The influx of spiritual strength can in turn only be consciously requested, and the desire for the world often prevents people from asking for spiritual good. And so the human being resists a gift from above, he does not receive it gratefully but only reluctantly, and this quiet resistance results in the divine source of strength drying up, and the human being is subsequently in a pitiable state.... he seeks worldly pleasures and does not find them. But he does not desire spiritual good, and therefore it cannot be offered to him. And even if life passes by without deep excitement, he finds no satisfaction in it, he sees nothing beautiful in it, because he is poor in spiritual good, but has already experienced its gracious effect. A person should sincerely and humbly request the strength from God, but every rejection is a resistance to this strength and therefore God withdraws it, resulting in emotional hardship but never in spiritual progress....
Amen