God communicates Himself to pure souls, and blesses, through them, other souls who are in a state of receptivity. All these little rills, which water others — little compared with the fountain from which they flow — have no determinate choice of their own, but are governed by the will of their Lord and Master.
The nature of God is communicative. God would cease to be God if He should cease to communicate Himself, by love, to the pure soul.
As the air rushes to a vacuum, so God fills the soul emptied of self.
✦ The Nature of Air — The Nature of God
Guyon has given us the most perfect image of grace in all her letters. A vacuum does not earn the air. A vacuum does not pray for the air. A vacuum does not perform ceremonies to attract the air. It simply empties — and the air comes. The rushing is not the vacuum's achievement. It is the nature of air to fill what is empty. And it is the nature of God — Guyon says with breathtaking boldness — to fill the soul emptied of self.
This is a staggering theological claim. She is saying that self-communication — pouring Himself into empty souls — is not something God does occasionally when He is pleased. It is something God is. The way heat radiates, the way light shines, the way water flows downhill — God communicates Himself to the empty soul because that is what God is. To stop would be to stop being God. 🙏
So God fills the soul emptied of self — blessed freedom. 🙏
✦ Blessed Freedom
Two words — and they say everything. The emptying of self that Guyon describes is not loss. It is liberation. The vacuum is not poverty. It is the condition for being filled. The soul cluttered with self — self-reliance, self-examination, self-confidence, self-distrust that never arrives at God — that soul has no room. The air cannot rush in because there is no space. But the soul emptied of self — blessed freedom — becomes the place where God does what God does. He fills it. Not because the soul deserved to be filled. Because that is His nature.
"Blessed freedom."
Le · The soul emptied of self — and filled with GodGod communicates Himself to us in proportion as we are prepared to receive Him. And in proportion as He diffuses Himself in us, we are transformed in Him, and bear His image.
O, the astonishing depths of God's love! — giving Himself to souls disappropriated of self, becoming their end, and their final principle, their fulness, and their all.
✦ In Proportion — The Ploughed Field
That phrase — in proportion — appears twice, and it is the hinge on which everything turns. God communicates Himself in proportion as we are prepared to receive. And in proportion as He diffuses Himself in us, we are transformed.
This is not a formula. It is a description of how love works. The rain falls on every field — but the field that has been ploughed receives more than the field that is still hard. Not because God withholds from the hard field. Because the hard field cannot absorb what falls on it. The preparation is not the cause of the grace. It is the capacity for it. A chuva virá, no tempo certo — but the field broken open by years of faithful morning devotions receives the rain differently than the field that has never been turned. 🙏
✦ Disappropriated — The Deepest Word
Guyon reaches for the deepest word she knows: disappropriated. Souls disappropriated of self. Not merely emptied — disappropriated. The self has been removed from ownership. It no longer holds the title. The soul that once belonged to self now belongs entirely to God.
And into that soul — having given up its claim to itself — God pours not gifts, not blessings, not consoling states. He pours Himself. Becoming their end — the destination. Their final principle — the foundation beneath everything. Their fulness — what fills them. Their all — what is left when everything else has been removed. The complete invasion of God into the human soul — and Guyon calls it love.
✦ The Little Rills
And the image of the little rills — streams flowing from the fountain, watering other souls in a state of receptivity. They have no determinate choice of their own. They do not decide whom to water. They flow where the Master directs. This is a boca do justo é fonte de vida seen from Guyon's angle — the fountain overflows not by its own will but by the nature of what fills it. The pure soul becomes a channel — not because it chose to be, but because fullness overflows. That is what fullness does. 🙏
Thank you, Madame Guyon, for your enduring revelations. 🙏
Enduring. Because Guyon wrote these words from the Bastille three centuries ago, and they arrived this morning in Mouilleron-Saint-Germain as if the ink were still wet. The theologians who opposed her are forgotten. The prison that held her has been demolished. Her words endure. Because they partake — as she said yesterday in Cognac — of His own immutability. What is born of God does not decay with time. 🙏
The Vacuum Filled
As the air rushes to a vacuum, so God fills the soul emptied of self. The rushing is not the vacuum's achievement. It is the nature of God to fill what is empty. Blessed freedom — the emptying that is liberation, not loss.
In Proportion
God communicates in proportion as we are prepared to receive. The ploughed field absorbs what the hard field cannot. The preparation is not the cause of grace — it is the capacity for it. Years of morning devotions, breaking open the soil.
The Little Rills
Streams flowing from the fountain — watering other souls in a state of receptivity. They have no determinate choice of their own. The pure soul becomes a channel not by its own will but because fullness overflows. A boca do justo é fonte de vida.
Guyon's fourth day — and she has now built a complete architecture of the interior life across four entries. The religion of the heart (day one). Walk by faith, not by feeling (day two). Assurance grounded in His immutability (day three). And now — divine communications, the nature of God as self-giving, and the soul emptied of self as the condition for being filled.
Proverbs 10:11 — A boca do justo é fonte de vida. This was the very first entry in the journal, from Caldas da Rainha. The mouth as overflow of an interior formed in intimidade. And now Guyon gives us the mechanics of how the fountain works: God communicates Himself to pure souls, and through them blesses other souls in a state of receptivity. The little rills have no determinate choice of their own. The journal itself is a rill. It flows where it is directed — and it waters souls Le may never meet.
Selwyn Hughes: "The love of God is not the fruit of our labor, but the response of our hearts to being loved." And Guyon's vacuum: the soul does not manufacture what fills it. It empties — and God rushes in, because that is His nature. Selwyn Hughes and Guyon arrive at the same posture from different directions: stop producing. Start receiving. The machinery turns when it is properly supplied — and the supply is God Himself.
Ezekiel 34:26 — A chuva virá, no tempo certo. The showers of blessing fall on the field prepared to receive them. Guyon's in proportion is the same truth: the rain falls — but the ploughed field absorbs what the hard field cannot. Five years of rising before dawn — that is the ploughing. The rain comes in its season. The field is ready.
George Bowen — the Potter and the clay: "Our own volitions cannot purify us." And Guyon: "God would cease to be God if He should cease to communicate Himself." The Potter does not wait for the clay to purify itself. He works from the inside — and what He communicates is not instruction but Himself. The clay is transformed not by its own effort but by the presence of the Potter's hands.
Yesterday's assurance — His own immutability holds me. And today: giving Himself to souls disappropriated of self, becoming their end, their final principle, their fulness, and their all. The soul held by His immutability is also the soul filled by His nature. Held and filled are not two different things. They are the same love, seen from two different angles. The God who holds is the God who fills — and He does both because He cannot do otherwise. It is His nature. 🙏