This is how the Savior's preaching begins. His great Forerunner preached about the same thing. With this, every person who has entrusted himself to the guidance of the Lord Jesus Christ should begin.

As a first step and as a prerequisite for the possibility of perfection, two efforts of will are required: 1) repent! and (2) believe in the gospel!

We know that repentance in the deep sense of the word is not a simple contrition for sins or disgust for one's sinful past, it still less means formal confession: the meaning of the word is much deeper. This is a decisive transfer of life to a new track, a complete rearrangement of all values in the soul and heart, where, under normal conditions, worldly concerns and goals of temporary, mainly material life are in the first place, and everything high and holy, everything connected with faith in God and service to Him, is pushed into the background. Man does not completely abandon these high ideals, but remembers them and serves them furtively, timidly, in rare moments of spiritual enlightenment. Repentance presupposes a radical rearrangement: God is in the foreground always, everywhere, in everything; Behind, after all, is the world and its demands, unless they can be completely banished from the heart. In other words, repentance requires the creation of a new, unified center in man, and this center, where all the threads of life converge, must be God.

When a person is able to fuse all his thoughts, feelings, and decisions with this single center, then from this will be created that wholeness, monolithic soul, which gives tremendous spiritual strength. In addition, a person with such a disposition seeks the fulfillment of only the will of God and in the end can achieve complete subordination or merging of his weak human will with the omnipotent will of the Creator, and then his power grows to the divine power of miracles, for then it is not he who acts, but God acts in him.

This, in general terms, is the process of the development of spiritual power in man.

Why could the apostles receive this power of miracles and the charm of personality and preaching, which made them powerful and skilful fishers of men (Mk. I, 17)? Precisely because God was the single, all-encompassing center for them, and they fulfilled His will as the highest law of life. It is interesting to think about the history of their calling. One word of the Lord, one call: Follow me! - and everything is forgotten and abandoned: the boat, the nets, all the meager equipment of the fishing trade, even the father... It is clear that for these people God was dearer than anything in life, and when His will sounded like a call, nothing could stop them. Whoever knows how to respond so readily to God's call will go far; and whoever is able to surrender to the will of God so completely, so wholeheartedly, without doubt or hesitation, will undoubtedly receive great gifts and great spiritual strength from the Lord.

It must be confessed that at the present time there are very few such whole people, full of deep faith and spiritual strength. When you look back at your life and at the life of modern society, you see with sadness that it is not faith that moves us and God is not the center for us. We have replaced this great life-giving center with others.

The German philosopher Nietzsche depicts a madman who runs around the city with a wild wandering gaze and, panting, shouts: "We have killed God..."

Of course, this is not true. Neither faith in God, nor religious ideas in general can be killed in humanity. But it can be largely replaced. It is absolutely impossible to eradicate religious feeling from the soul, but it can be given a false, one-sided direction. Man often tries to replace God with something else.

Это сделано уже в первом грехопадении. Искушенный человек свою волю поставил на место воли Божией, поставил себя выше и захотел обоготворить себя...через знание. Вы помните, чем искушает дьявол Еву?

И сказал змей жене: подлинно ли сказал Бог: не ешьте ни от какого древа в раю? И сказала жена змею: плоды с дерев мы можем есть, только плодов дерева, которое среди рая. сказал Бог, не ешьте их и не прикасайтесь к ним, чтобы вам не умереть. И сказал змей жене: нет, не умрете, но знает Бог, что в день, в который вы вкусите их, откроются глаза ваши, и вы будете, как боги, знающие добро и зло. И увидела жена, что дерево хорошо для пищи, и что оно Приятно для глаз и вожделенно, потому что дает знание; и взяла плодов его и ела; и дала также мужу своему, и он ел (Быт. III, 1-6).

Если бы Евой руководила только вера, преданность и любовь к Богу, то она сказала бы змею: "Хорошо... Пусть ты прав. Пусть мы получим знание! Но какой ценой?! Нарушить заповедь Божию, пойти наперекор Божией воле, изменить Богу, оттолкнуть Его своим непослушанием! Нет, Господь для нас всего дороже... Дороже твоего знания и за такую цену - за цену разрыва с Богом - нам не надо знания... Знание нам Бога не заменит!"

Ева этого не сказала. Обещанное диаволом знание показалось заманчивее доверчивого и беспрекословного исполнения воли Божией и, быть может, на короткий момент заслонило Бога. Соблазн одолел. Грех совершился.

С тех пор люди постоянно подменяют Бога. Чаще всего подменяют кумирами своих страстей. Они служат похоти, алчности, гордости, самолюбию, тщеславию, любостяжанию и т. д. и т. д. Невозможно перечислить все те кумиры, которым люди поклоняются вместо того, чтобы служить единому истинному Богу.