When we experience the depth and intensity of suffering, awe, or silence, we discover an Indwelling Presence. It is a deep and loving affirmation, an “amen” that has always been innate, though dormant, within us. This inner presence is the Holy Spirit: God as immanent, within, and even our deepest and truest self.
Saints and mystics described this presence as “closer to me than I am to myself” or “more me than I am myself.” This is what Thomas Merton called the True Self. It is inherent in all of us, yet it must be awakened. The purity of God’s love is such that His respect for us is so immense that He awaits with excitement for us to receive and accept His gift of Himself. The Spirit is naturally indwelling from the moment of our conception (Jeremiah 1:5); it is our inner being with God.
Our True Self does not choose to love as much as it is love itself already (see Colossians 3:3-4). Loving from this core of your being is experienced as a river within us that flows of its own accord (see John 7:38-39). From this more spacious and grounded place, we naturally connect, empathize, forgive, and love everything. We were made in love, for love, and unto love.
Our deep inner “amen,” is our love response to God; the precious amen, our loving Him back, that God so delightedly awaits.
1 Corinthians 3:16 “Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.”
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