They will say: "Wait, someday admonition will come!" Whoever sincerely and unrepentantly gave himself over into the hands of God and no longer returns to his own ways — for him admonition is a matter of the moment. As soon as he seeks, he will immediately receive, for the Lord is near. Neither from there nor from there do thoughts begin to arise and reveal the truth. It works as if it were its own mind, but at this time it is carried by an outside force. It is the same with him as with a person who knows some place unknown to another: he takes him by the hand and leads him to that place, and he can only call out: this is it! There are people who all their lives, even in ordinary cases, behave according to such admonitions.

It is more difficult to know that the decision that is born in the soul is precisely a guiding admonition from above: this cannot be achieved even by a definitive indication of the signs. Both to sincerely seek such admonitions and to receive them and to discern them is a state that is possible to a certain degree of spiritual advancement. Whoever has attained this measure is clear to him, but to him who has not attained it, it is not possible to explain it. It's like speaking an incomprehensible language. This measure comes by itself after the heart has been cleansed of passions. Then the Spirit of God dwells, the Spirit of truth, who guides all the depths of God: then, according to the Apostle, the anointing itself teaches (1 John 2:27).

Verse one hundred and seventy

"Let my petition be heard before Thee, O Lord, according to Thy word deliver me."

A person who is pressed or tied in some way usually seeks deliverance. There is no one who is not in this position at every moment, but not all are equally in it. others do not give any power to their methods, and although they do not shy away from them at all, they hope for lasting deliverance from God alone, and therefore they turn to Him in all cases, both great and small. It is these alone who act the law.

What misunderstandings are to the mind, so are straits and bonds to life. The perplexities of the mind are resolved by admonition; the bonds of life are helped from above. It is not known how the crowds are parted and the obstacles are removed, the "stubborn" ones are "on the right, and the points in the way are smooth" (Luke 3:5). Everything is obedient to God's beckoning. Submit yourself entirely to the Lord, and every deliverance will be ready for you. "For I trust in Me, and I will deliver, and I will cover, and ... I am with him in his affliction, and I will glorify him" (Psalm 90:14-15), says the Lord. By virtue of this, the prophet teaches us to pray for deliverance: "Deliver me according to Thy word, not claiming the right to deliverance, but only reviving my hope before the All-Seeing."

He who has attained such a measure, in a sense of power from God, "walks like a lion trusting" (Proverbs 28:1). This does not mean that he no longer uses any of his own methods and sits idly by, no, he uses everything in his power, but does not rely on any of them, knowing that everything is as unreliable as a spider's web. He places all his hope in the Lord and recognizes himself as strong from the power of God working in him. Hope, however, is not the cessation of active forces, but the mood of the heart, resting, in strenuous activity, but apart from it, on the right hand of God. In this case, the cry for deliverance is not always necessary, because the very hope without words is already an unceasing cry.

The seeking of admonition and deliverance is mediated in the prophet by the approach and entry of prayer before the face of the Lord: "Let my prayer draw nigh before Thee... let my petition be heard before Thee." This is also among the signs of success. Prayer is then like the smoke of a censer, which now spreads on the ground, then spreads in the air, then rises as a "stalk" of grief (Song of Songs 3:6). The latter depicts undistracted prayer, in which the mind, not engaged in anything extraneous, soberly stands before God, omnipresent and all-seeing. Such a prayer by its very nature draws near to the Lord and enters before Him. It is formed simultaneously with the establishment of hope and love in the heart and is inspired by them, and only it attracts both admonition and deliverance. All this together is a sign of the highest degree of spiritual state, in which the God-given spirit dwells in God, and God dwells in him, having found in him a beneficent abode, because of the purity that has settled within.

Verse one hundred and seventy-one

"My lips shall regurgitate singing, when Thou hast taught me by Thy justification."

They will "regurgitate" by themselves, without any tension and preliminary deliberation. A song to God will be born in the heart, it will be plucked out by the lips and carried to heaven. It is a song of doxology, thanksgiving, and every prayer. If this has begun to happen to you, then know that you are already in your rank, in the rank of angels, praising and singing the praises of the God they intelligently see.

At first, the mind prays with intensity, forces itself to pray by force of will. And this, of course, is mental prayer. Mental prayer gradually warms the heart and leads it into another prayer – a prayer of the mind and heart. The heart, having learned to pray under the influence of the mind and having warmed up, itself begins to move towards prayer and draw the mind into it. This prayer of the heart is a real prayer, as it should be, a prayer that embraces the whole being of man, for where there is a heart, there is the whole man. This state is revealed by the inward gravitation, which occurs during prayer, reading, meditation, and even without all this, it is like this. The latter is higher than the former.

It is precisely this state that St. Isaac understood when he asked: "Does your mind, without the participation of the will, admire the concept of the incorporeal? Does a joy suddenly flare up in you, incomparable with anything else? Does a certain pleasure emanate from the heart and attract the mind entirely?" If so, it is a sign that the person experiencing it has gone far on the path to perfection. Further, St. Isaac describes this state in the following way: "At times a kind of pleasure and joy enters the whole body; carnal language cannot express this. Sometimes this pleasure flows from the heart at the hour of prayer, or during reading, or as a result of the intensity of thought. And sometimes it happens without all this, during activity, and at night, when you are between sleep and awakening, as if awake and not awake. But when this delight comes upon a man, beating in his whole body, then he thinks at that hour that the Kingdom of Heaven is nothing else but the same thing." After this, how can one not "regurgitate" singing to the lips of someone who is in such a state?

But one must know that it is not the fruit of prayerful labor alone, but the consequence of the entire God-pleasing life, all the labors of good deeds and asceticism, and is revealed when the heart begins to approach purity. The prophet points to this in the words: "When Thou hast taught me by Thy righteousness." Justifications are commandments. Learning them does not mean memorizing the written commandments, but active habituation in them, just as one learns any skill. When this happens, then the commandments dwell in the heart and form a constant order that governs all its movements, so that in any case, before any thought, an indication of how to act proceeds from the heart of itself. Such a heart is a holy and pure heart, from which comes only the right and God-pleasing heart. It is this that the prophet provides as a source of regurgitation through the lips of thanksgiving, or praise, or prayerful singing to God. Pray: "Build up a pure heart in me, O God, and renew the spirit of righteousness in my womb" (Psalm 50:12).