The topic of our contemplation last week was “those who flee from God,” and today we would like to continue our talk on the same subject, and on the necessity of meeting with God, and how this can be done.
The fugitives from God

And how we can meet Him
The person who flees from God is a person who has not known God, has not tasted His sweetness, and has not experienced fellowship with Him.
The one who flees from God is either a person ignorant of God or afraid of Him, a person not bound to God by ties of love, far from spiritual experiences.
The person who has tasted God cannot flee from Him; he may go far for a while, but he cannot do without Him. To him, God is more than the blood that runs in his veins, more than the air that moves in his lungs. He is more essential to him than his own self.
The person who has experienced God and His sweetness says, as the Virgin of the Song said: “I held Him and would not let Him go.” He strives after God and seeks Him, wanting to be found in Him, to live in Him, and to abide in Him. God becomes to him the all in all and none other.
The person who has tasted fellowship with God even for a moment, this taste remains in his heart and mind throughout his life.
No matter how far he goes, he wishes to return to Him. And if his love cools, he longs for it to be rekindled again. Those whom Christ met on earth carried within them a special effect from that encounter, even the opposers; Judas Iscariot—because he lived with the Lord for a time—when he betrayed Christ, suffered greatly, and returned the money saying: “I have sinned in betraying innocent blood”—and the torment of his conscience reached the point that he went and hanged himself…
The one who lived with Christ considers Christ the secret of his whole life. He says: “For me, to live is Christ”…
Meaning that if I am far from Christ, I am far from life. My life is in Him. I live by Him, and with Him, and in Him… “In Him we live and move and have our being,” as the Apostle Paul says (Acts 17:8).
The Lord Christ said: “I am the vine and you are the branches” (John 15:1). The branches are fixed in the vine; likewise we in Christ. The sap of the vine flows in every branch, and in everything the branch carries, in every fruit, in every blossom, and in every leaf… And if the sap of the vine does not flow in the branch, it dries and dies… Thus is man in relation to Christ.
Christ is present in the whole life of a person; He permeates his heart, mind, senses, and emotions; He fills him entirely.
The one who lived with God and experienced the work of the Spirit of God in him must continually be filled with the Spirit of God… The Spirit of God fills the heart, fills the mind, and fills the whole person.
The Spirit of God works in him all the work, so that even when he speaks, the Spirit of God speaks on his lips…
Therefore, those who flee from God have not tasted the true taste of God, nor experienced the sweetness of fellowship with Him, nor experienced the indwelling and work of the Spirit of God in them… Thus the Psalmist advises them, saying: “Taste and see that the Lord is good…” Try His fellowship.
Do not look to God as the restraining power that prevents you from carrying out your desires—the One who says to you: No… no… do not kill… do not steal… do not commit adultery… do not bear false witness… do not covet your neighbor’s goods…
No, rather God is the giving power, who granted you existence and talents… then granted you everything. And He is the One who gave you the commandment that says “no” to protect you from yourself and from your desires, and from corruption and loss.
God should be to you the friend, the companion, the beloved, the support, the helper, the keeper, and the shepherd. Do not regard Him merely as an authority issuing orders, but as a great heart overflowing with love, and His commandments come from the abundance of His love.
Do not flee from God, and if you flee, where will you flee?! Inevitably God will follow you; the word of God will run after you in every place… The commandment of God will ring in your ears no matter how far you flee…
So try to meet with God. How do we meet Him? And when? And where?
Meeting with God:
There are ordinary meetings through prayer, meditation, communion, and the various means of grace. And there are other meetings of a deeper kind, historic meetings in the lives of people and in the life of all humanity…
An example is John the Beloved: he says, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day… and I heard behind me a voice saying: I am the First and the Last… and I saw a door opened in heaven… and the throne of God…” No doubt John met God every day in his ordinary spiritual life. But his meeting with Him in the island of Patmos was deep, of another kind.
You can meet with God as John met Him on the island of Patmos if you are, like him, in the Spirit… in the same depth and state—if God sees this as beneficial for you or for others…
Another meeting with God of another kind was Saul of Tarsus meeting the Lord on the road to Damascus… A light shone around him, and he heard the voice of the Lord, and he was changed into Paul, and it was an immortal day in the history of humanity and evangelism.
John—as the beloved—met Christ, and Saul met Him while persecuting the Church… and both received grace…
Many met the Lord in supernatural encounters, such as Isaiah, who saw the Lord and heard around Him the praise of the seraphim… the only one in the history of humanity who saw the seraphim and they touched his lips with a coal from the altar.
Another wondrous meeting: Paul in the third heaven, where he saw things not lawful to utter, whether in the body or out of the body he did not know…
Moses who met the Lord on the mountain, and his face shone so that the people could not look at him… Other wondrous meetings of the holy men of God.
If we cannot meet God in such extraordinary encounters, then at least let us meet Him from afar, even within the heart or in the inner room.
Let us pour ourselves out at the feet of God, asking Him to shine upon us with His light. If we cannot live as beloved ones of God, then at least let us not be His enemies. If we cannot meet God, then at least let us not flee from Him. If we have not attained the promises, then at least let us look at them from afar.
If we cannot see Him face to face, then at least let us see Him as in a mirror… let us know Him, even part of a knowledge, but let us not live as strangers to Him…
And you, O blessed one, have you tasted God and lived with Him and experienced Him? He who does not taste the kingdom of God on earth will not taste this kingdom forever. Here we must begin, and there we complete…
Here we begin the life with God that continues unto the ages of ages, so begin then. For I fear a frightening terrifying phrase, the Lord’s saying to some:
“Amen, I say to you, I do not know you… I never knew you!!”
How is this, O Lord? How do You not know us?! You ate and drank in our homes!! And in Your name we prophesied, and in Your name we cast out demons, and in Your name we worked powers and wonders!!
“Yes, I do not know you. The forms of worship do not benefit you, nor the gifts.”
Thus, there must be true knowledge of God—not the knowledge of books, nor of sermons, nor of the mind alone, but the knowledge of the heart, through experience and encounter.
Job said to the Lord: “By the hearing of the ear I had heard of You, but now my eyes have seen You.” So are you merely a person who hears about God, or have you seen Him with your eyes? Have you met Him, even on the road to Damascus, while you were kicking against the goads?
Sit with yourself for a little, and gather your meetings with God…
Recall in your heart and mind your retreats with Him, your experience of Him, your being moved by Him, and your taste of His sweetness. Do not be a stranger to Him, “like a veiled woman beside the flocks of your companions”… Seek Him continually; say to Him: “Where do You pasture? Where do You make Your flock rest at noon?”…
Periods of fasting are spiritually suitable occasions for meeting with God.
Meet Him on the pages of His book; meet Him in prayer, in communion of His Body and Blood. Meet Him at the altar, in His house.
Leave the forms of worship and enter into the depth of connection with God.
Is it not sorrowful that a person enters the house of God and does not meet God inside His house?!
He may meet in church with the believers, or he may meet intellectually with a sermon or a reading… And he may pray and yet not meet with God in his prayer. His request does not enter the presence of God… It is mere words, like someone talking to himself! And God says in reproach:
“This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.”
You must enter the depth. You must feel the presence of God in your prayer and in all your relations with God… Strive with God. Wrestle with Him as Jacob wrestled. Say to Him: “I will not let You go unless You bless me,” until You reveal Yourself to me, pour Your love into my heart, make me feel You, and make me live as the saints lived—in depth and in fervor… I want to feel that I speak to You, and that You stand before me… I want to say, like John:
“That which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which our hands have touched.” Wrestle with God, strive with Him until dawn. Hold Him and do not let Him go.
Say to Him: I want to love You; I want to love You more than all, more than everything. I want You to grant me this love as a free gift from You. I cannot spend my life with people telling me about You without seeing You…
I want to behold this ladder that joins me to You between earth and heaven. Let it be the ladder of love, fellowship, taste, and experience.

1. Article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – Al-Keraza Magazine, Fifth Year – Issue Thirteen, 28-12-1974

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