And most importantly: you must always remember that in this world there is one and only Savior – the Lord Jesus Christ!!! (To save = to heal, to cure – see details in part II.). We cannot overcome any passion, nor acquire any virtue (= do any good deed) – this is all a gift of the Holy Spirit. (Passions – these are symptoms of the disease of godlessness, separation from God, selfishness, pride, mortality, decay! As long as there is a disease – there will be symptoms! All people are equally sick (godless, spiritually dead – “conceived in lawlessness and born in sins” (see Ps. 50:7)), but the symptoms (passions, lusts) of the same disease manifest themselves differently in each person, in different combinations. One person has one passion more pronounced, another less, or not at all, and another person may have it all the other way around – but they are both dead (godless), equally sick (with mortality, decay, passionateness). So as long as there is a disease (as long as we are godless, not Christians, not healed, not saved, not united with Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit), it is impossible to overcome any passion (the symptom of the disease of sin), destroy it (at most, you can ascetically keep it within the bounds, but that too by God’s mercy; for example, some disease made itself known by high temperature, you lowered the temperature (symptom) with pills, injections to 36.6 °C, and the disease made itself known by another symptom – headache and high blood pressure; you relieved the headache with medications, lowered the pressure to normal, and the disease manifested itself in stomach disorder: vomiting and diarrhea; you calmed the stomach, and the temperature rose again, which, by the way, was normal for a few days… So, as long as there is a disease – there will be symptoms, passions (no matter how you suppress them, try to keep them within the bounds of morality, decency, the Law)! (The most terrible disease is when there are no visible symptoms, noticeable pain. Therefore, the announced, who is properly striving, preparing for baptism-wedding, first of all begins to see-feel the symptoms of sin. Before the announcement, he considered himself normal, healthy, but here it turned out (in the light of God’s commandments, in trying to fulfill them, live by God’s will) that he is seriously ill, a paralyzed cripple of the whole being, all powers (realizes that he can do nothing good). Therefore, the sign of proper preparation for surgery-transplantation (baptism in the Holy Spirit, Healing-Salvation) is to begin to see countless sins, feel his destruction, it is to know his hell and endure in it in feasible humble prayers-petitions, until the Lord Jesus Christ saves-mercy by the Holy Spirit!). Passions, evil in us, lusts (sins as transgressions of the Law) – this is not the disease, these are only symptoms of sin, the disease of godlessness, death, separation from God!), nor to do any good deed! Therefore, we must fight with passions, with evil in us (humble ourselves, know our weakness, our helplessness, our hell and pray for salvation to the Lord Jesus Christ, the only Savior!), and force ourselves to do good deeds (to humble ourselves, to know that without God I can do nothing good – and fervently pray, beg the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior for help!) – acquire humility (know our weakness and prayerfully entrust, give ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, the only Savior!) and mercy, which is the only necessary condition for baptism in the Holy Spirit, that is, Salvation, Healing, acquiring the Body of Christ!
We have repeatedly testified that the Law (God’s commandments) was given to people so that they (fulfilling (trying to fulfill) God’s commandments: fighting with passions and cultivating virtues, trying to do good – fulfilling God’s will) would know their sin (their destruction, their hell-hell), and not to save themselves, heal themselves (destroy selfishness-pride, passions, evil will, lust and cultivate, graft virtues, good will-desire). Therefore, the announcement is the preparation of the heart for receiving the Holy Spirit – it is the struggle with all passions (with all manifestations-symptoms of selfishness-pride) and the planting of all virtues (love-mercy) in the name of Jesus Christ to the glory of God the Father for the sake of communion with all essences-personalities in the Holy Spirit!!! The main thing – faith in the Savior Lord Jesus Christ, Who alone Saves – unites with the Father by the Holy Spirit!
“Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God – you are ready with a humble (prayerful) and merciful heart to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, it remains for you to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and entrust, give yourself to Him… and you will be saved, and all in your house who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior” (see Acts 10). “Your prayers and your alms have ascended before God.” Prayers! What are the prayers of the announced, those who perish, who need salvation? – It is supplication, entreaty! Of what? About what? – About salvation! The prayers of the announced are communion with God (monologue), and the essence of this communion is a plea for salvation, mercy, help, forgiveness! The announced know their destruction (their sin – which manifests itself in sins, as numerous as the sand of the sea), and, as a result, the need for the Savior! The announced know that they can do nothing good (“Without Me you can do nothing good!”); they cannot overcome any passion, cannot not sin! (I cannot not envy, not be angry, not be offended, not judge, forgive from the heart my neighbor… – I cannot overcome the smallest passion). Therefore, the announced has only one thing left – to cry out, to pray for salvation, for help! Therefore, it is said that “your prayers have been heard (remembered before God)!” And how should the announced cry out for “their prayers to be remembered before God,” is said in the parable (about how to always pray and not lose heart – see Luke 18:1-8) about the unjust judge, who although did not want to, but still protected the widow, who bothered him (and even threatened him). “Will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry out to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? I tell you, He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith (prayer, supplication to the Savior Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, desire for salvation) on the earth?” Now people do not pray (do not make heartfelt prayers, supplications to the Lord Jesus for salvation, rescue, but only with their lips, by actions deceive themselves that they “communicate” with God). Communion with the Savior, the Physician of those who perish (drown in passions-sins-sufferings, in the hell of self-ego-pride, can do nothing good, cannot love) has one theme – save, have mercy, heal, rescue! And not: “I thank You, God, that I am not like other people… and other meaningless words” (see Luke 18:9-14). The announced – those who know their sins, their weaknesses – begin to pray for help, salvation! This is a sign that the person has regained consciousness, come to their senses, to the awareness of their ruinous, hellish state (see Luke 15:17). Therefore, only by prayer (humility) to the Savior Jesus Christ is the Holy Spirit received, Whom the Lord sends from the Father! The condition for baptism in the Holy Spirit is prayers (I struggle with some passion, I can do nothing myself, so I pray, call for help with prayers – and the Lord helps, saves from the fire of passion, but not immediately, so that I well realize my weakness, sin, helplessness, until the Lord intercedes for His faithful, who have fought hard and finally realized that they can do nothing good (that all good and victory over passion is a gift of God), and cry out day and night for salvation from evil, thoughts, passions, the enemy-devil, and already protects the humble soon! Such is the pedagogy, the preparation of the heart (so that it becomes humble, broken, merciful) for baptism in the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus Christ, the Savior! Only those who believe (entrust themselves) in Christ the Savior receive the Holy Spirit! “If you believe with all your heart in Jesus Christ, that He is the Son of God, the Savior of all people, the whole world, then you can be baptized – you will receive the seed of the Holy Spirit” (see Acts 8:35-39). And believes with all their heart only the one who has humbled themselves, realized their weakness, sin, destruction and the great love of God for us (when the Lord saves the one who humbly prays from the fire of passions, evil, thoughts) and prays unceasingly (very often) to the Lord Jesus Christ, to save, have mercy! (“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner”; “Lord, have mercy”; “God, be merciful to me, a sinner”…).