Sacred Touch (Day 50 from Sex With God)

The contemplation below is the entry for Day 50 in my Sex With God devotional.

We’ve reached the end of our time together, and have talked about bodies and desire which manifests as a longing to be touched. But we haven’t addressed the actual experience of flesh on flesh, of a palm grazing a cheek, hip, or breast. What I want you to ponder today is the very real connection of our physical and spiritual selves, the oneness of mind, body, and soul.

Let’s look at some Bible passages about the laying on of hands; the tangible action of touch offered not merely as descriptions in Bible stories, but also, frequently, as instructions:

But Jesus said, “Someone did touch me, for I perceived that power has gone out of me.”

(Luke 8:46)

Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

(Acts 8:17)

The father of Publius lay sick of fever and dysentery. Paul entered in to him, prayed, and laying his hands on him, healed him.

(Acts 28:8)

Don’t neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the elders.

(1 Timothy 4:14)

Having been reminded of the sincere faith that is in you, which lived first in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice, and, I am persuaded, in you also. For this cause, I remind you that you should stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

(2 Timothy 1:5, 6)

Jesus used touch frequently to bring about healing. His power was transmitted through his fingertips as they penetrated ears, caressed eyes, and touched the flesh of those who came to him, hungry with need.

You and I are containers of that same power, temples of that same Spirit. We are called to pour it out to the world. Shouldn’t this also mean we are to be fountains of that force for those with whom we love most, in moments of greatest intimacy?

Touch is not empty; it contains all the elements of the universe, and the full force of both yourself and the Spirit which inhabits you. Remember this when you are making love, in holy moments of sexual union. When your hand is on the flesh of your beloved, focus not only on the sensation of skin against skin, but on the power within you. Focus on the energy you can feel stored in your chest, swirling and building into motion. Envision it traveling from your center down through your arms and out your hands, traveling up to leave your lips, traveling even through your genitalia to pour into your beloved.

Pray, as you do this, that God would be there with you, ravishing the one you love with exquisite beauty. Fan into flame the beautiful sexual gift of God.

Used as rocket fuel, sex energy can lift our consciousness to the stars to experience a state of being where love exists in and for itself and has no opposite. On a soul level, this is our natural state.

John Maxwell Taylor