Divine Energies in Scripture and Experience

 

For catechism, we summarize the biblical teaching thus:

• God’s essence remains forever beyond comprehension (“no one can see my face and live,” Exodus 33:20 LXX).
  
  

• God’s energies are His real, uncreated operations (power, wisdom, love, light) by which He creates, sustains, illumines, sanctifies, and glorifies.
  
  

• Scripture speaks of these energies with the vocabulary of ἐνέργεια and ἐνεργεῖν, showing that:
  
  

• Christ’s Resurrection, our sanctification, gifts of the Spirit, living faith and prayer are all divine energies in us.
  
  

• We freely cooperate (synergy) with these energies in obedience, love, and prayer.
  
  

• The same language is used for demonic activity, warning us that we either participate in the energies of God or those of the evil one.

The Biblical Foundation: God's Energy Working in Us

1-3. Divine Energies in Scripture

4. Pauline Texts: Divine Energy in Christ and the Church

5. & 6. Energies and Human Cooperation

7. Old Testament (LXX): Wisdom and the Seven Energies of the Spirit

8. The Transfiguration: Seeing God in His Energies

9. Exodus 33 and Gregory the Theologian: Face and Back

10. Genesis 2:2 and Maximus: Eternal and Temporal Energies 

11. St. Seraphim of Sarov and the Divine Energies 

vFor More information See this article:

https://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2017/06/on-acquisition-of-holy-spirit.html