Living from the Spirit

How do we begin to live from our inner center––that place know as the "inner temple"? That is, how do we begin to live from our spirit? 


Saint Theophan offers some thoughts on this question:

Inner regulation begins only when you choose the side of Grace, and make the ways of life in the spirit of Grace the inviolable rule of your life.  From that moment, as the decision is forming inside you, a center will also form within you, a powerful center, which will begin more and more forcefully to draw you toward itself.  In this center will be Grace, which has taken hold of your consciousness and free will (or, your consciousness and free will combined with Grace)...  Then the Grace of God will begin to draw toward this center all of the other forces of your nature, both intellectual and spiritual, and govern their entire action, retaining within them that which is good, and destroying that which is bad... (The Spiritual Life p 130)

Jesus Christ put it this way, 

"He that believes on me, as the Scripture said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." (John 7:38)

This is our work as Orthodox Christians.  We need to open our hearts to the Spirit that lies within.  We must learn to control our mind and resist all its distractions so that we can put our attention where the Spirit resides within us.  This is the aim of our Orthodox Way of Life.