Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ – Jeanne Guyon – 5 Stars

Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ – Jeanne Guyon – 5 Stars

Title: Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ

Author: Jeanne Guyon

Publisher: Christian Book Pub House (Mass Production)

Year: Originally published around 1700 – Mass Production Softcover 1981

Rating:  5 STARS!!! (One of my all time favorites)

 

Price and Purchasing Options: This book is very available.  You won’t see this at Deseret Book or your typical LDS retailer – and it hasn’t had much penetration into the LDS community - so second hand options like Deseret Industries are not going to be an option.  However, it has had three hundred years of publication and is considered to be a Christian Classic.  This means you can usually get it off Amazon for less the $10 – and you will find a million copies on eBay (here) for cheap!  You can also find this on your kindle and any other electronic reading platform.   If you really are desperate not to pay anything you might find it for free on Google Books!  There is no reason you cannot access a copy of this book.

Review: This is one of my favorite all time books, and one which has had a significant impact in my personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  I am going to say this again later – but they don’t write books like this anymore.

Quick story – I found myself sitting next to Jason Hewlett (the Entertainer) on a plane back from an event we had both worked on.  After the flight took off – he took out his journal and started writing, and I took out my book (at the time I was reading Turner’s new biography on Brigham Young).  He noticed, and we started talking – apparently he is quite the reader, thinking, and all around friendly guy.  I asked him for a book recommendation (a common thing I do when I actually find someone who reads).  He stopped and without hesitation said “Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ by Guyon has changed my entire relationship with prayer.” 

I decided to give it a shot.

A little bit of background on the book (and I am not going to do it justice, but give you just enough of a feel for it).  Jeanne (or Madam) Guyon is considered to be a Catholic heretic from the 17^th Century.  This is primarily because she believed, wrote, and taught that you could have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  Today this sounds beautiful, but at the time it was against Catholic teachings that you could go right to Christ, and not go through the Church.  She was eventually imprisoned for one of her writings… and well, it is not really surprising to anyone how the rest of this is going to go… there is a lot of misery, persecution, etc.

As for the book itself, let me tell you why this is a great read.  First of all, if you didn’t have any background on the writing or history you would read it and think that the book was written in the last few years, that it was sold at Deseret Book, and the although you wouldn’t see strong LDS references you wouldn’t be surprised to find out if she was a member of the Church.

Second, this book is different than books that are written today.  Most books discuss theology, concepts, and general application about thinking though a principle – sometimes with the hope that your increased understanding of the principles will change behavior.  This book is written as a “how-to” book.  It is an instruction book on prayer!  It was designed to teach people how to have effective personal prayer.  It details what prayer is to her, and what it is to God.  It gives a perspective, where you say “I believe that – but I never thought about it like that, either.”  It helps align, what prayer is, the relationship of scripture to prayer, and how to develop your ability and prayer skills to EXPERIENCE PRAYER. It also addresses what it means and how to experience Christ through your prayer.

This is a remarkable read.  It is moving, and insightful.  It changes your paradigm on prayer – and not in a weird questionable way.  This book doesn’t challenge doctrine, but almost uses common sense to help us wrap our minds around prayer and its role and actually how to use it.  Nothing in this book will challenge anything you already know about prayer, or have been taught – it will take what you know and add an depth to it that wasn’t yet considered – but you will feel is so naturally correct it should have been there the whole time.

Because I know that many of you will not actually read the book – I will put in here one of the greatest lessons I learned and hope that it might inspire you either to read the book or apply the principle in your life.

At one point Guyon discusses how we usually pray for the sake of prayer, rather than to experience prayer and increase our relationship with Christ.  When we pray to pray – we work through the prayer to get it done, and in doing so we at times will feel the spirit.  When we feel the spirit, she points out that we feel something, and we keep moving in our prayer.  She asks us to change this…

Guyon says when we are praying (with the intent to align with the Spirit and with Christ), and we have those moments where we feel something in our head or in our heart and bosom… rather than keep praying – she asks us to STOP!  Stop saying or thinking anything, and just FEEL IT.  FEEL the Spirit – Experience the SPIRIT and let it come to you.  Rather than talk over it, pause and listen, feel, and embrace it!  She says when you start this you can only do it for a little while, but we eventually begin to develop the habit and muscle – and allow us to feel more and experience more – and WE WILL!

WOW!  I loved this book.  This is a 5 Star book – with real-life application, and life changing results.

Suggestions:  Just get the book and read it!  No other suggestion, but experience what she is writing about.  There is a reason why this unknown book in the LDS community is a Christian Classic to the rest of the world!

I hope you have enjoyed this review, and I encourage you to follow this blog as I update more reviews in the coming days, weeks, months, etc.  Please feel free to also follow my YouTube page – however, I enjoy writing more than being on camera!

Review #25

Tags: Experiencing the Depths of the Jesus Christ, Jeanne (Madam) Guyon, 5 Stars, Prayer, LDS Book Review, Ryan Daley