About the devil (spiritual experience of the ascetics)

[Daniel Hoseini]

I would like to present ascetic experiences about the devil. Hopefully it will help you to be more on guard and better serve our Lord Jesus through your life. Translation originally from Greek. If possible, I will regularly add new posts to this topic. The Greek website from which I translated this text is unfortunately blocked on the Internet. https://isychastis7.webnode.gr/peri-diavoloy/
But I already made a Dutch translation of its section 'On the devil'. (Over de duivel (uit geestelijke ervaringen van de asceten) - Geloofsgesprek.nl)
So now I have to translate from Dutch into English. And this is a lot easier than translating from Greek or Russian.

I don't know who wrote the information underneath, but I think it is the best to start with.
"The devil once called a world assembly of demons. In his opening speech he said to them, among other things:
- We cannot prevent Christians from going to church. We cannot stop them from reading the Bible and knowing the truth. We cannot even prevent them from having a living, close relationship with their Savior. Once they have this connection to Jesus, we lose all power over them! So all we have to do is steal their time! Let them go to church, it doesn't matter, let them have their banquets there and everything else. Let them have work and activity. Only let them not have time to develop this living relationship with Jesus. This is what I want from you. Distract them from their Savior and prevent them from having a warm and close relationship with Him throughout the day. Let's lead them into a weak relationship with Jesus, a formal relationship, without real faith and love for Him!
- How can we do this? the demons then asked.
- Get them busy with trivial things and find countless ways to occupy their minds, replied the devil. Tempt them to spend, spend, spend and borrow charging their cards. Have women work long hours outside home and men for 6-7 days a week, 10-12 hours a day, so that they can fit their lifestyle. Prevent them from spending time with their children. So if their family falls apart, soon the house will no longer be a refuge for them from the hustle and bustle of work. Always keep their minds so full of stimuli that it becomes impossible for them to hear the still and soft voice of God.
1. Have them play the radio and cassette player when they are driving.
2. Make sure they have their CDs, videos, TVs and computers turned on at all times.
3. Turn on music in every store and restaurant they enter and let it play non-stop. This will cloud their minds and weaken their communion with Christ through prayer.
4. Fill their tables with magazines and newspapers. Make of them over-consuming creatures so that they buy and spend without having any real need for it. So that they occupy themselves, tire themselves out, and distance themselves from Jesus Christ.
5. Pound them incessantly with news 24 hours a day.
6. Fill the streets with billboards so that you don't leave them in silence for a moment while they driving or walking.
7. Flood their mailboxes with unwanted ads, clothing catalogs, gambling, and anything else that promotes false hopes for wealth.
8. Put skinny models on the covers of magazines and on TV so that men will see them as beauty models and not be satisfied with their wives' appearance.
9. Give women fatigue so that in the evening they will not be able to rejoice as couples with their husbands. Give them headaches so that men get complaints, bitterness and go elsewhere for their pleasure. As a result, families will quickly fall apart.
10. Promote Santa Claus to divert children's attention from the true meaning of Christmas.
11. At Easter, spread the bunnies and red eggs instead of the message of the Resurrection and the victory over sin.
12. Push them to the limit even during their entertainment. So that they are a corpse of fatigue when they come back from vacation and regret their choices.
13. Do not let them go into nature and see what God has created.
14. Send them to amusement parks, stadiums, cinemas, playgrounds and concerts instead.
15. Always keep them overworked. So that they do not think, do not investigate thoroughly, do not worry (about philosophical questions).
16. And when they meet for spiritual companionship with other believers, make them leave with a troubled conscience.
This plan will definitely work!'
The demons were quick to put all this into practice so that Christians would have neither the time nor the need to seek the power of Jesus in their lives."

Over de duivel (uit geestelijke ervaringen van de asceten) - Pagina 4 - Geloofsgesprek.nl

Christ triumphs over the devil by His resurrection.

 

[friend of]

Interesting. Thanks

 

[ArmyMatt]

a lot of good points I must say

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

The next sayings are mostly from renowned ascetics. So you have to concentrate your attention more in order to understand their meaning. The fact is that they are useful even today, because devil (=demons) is the same now and then. He changes through time only in his progression in evil. Isaac the Syrian, 7th century ascetic from what is today Qatar and Bishop of Nineveh:

"How cunning is the enemy! He binds us not with ties we hate, but with ties we like, and so we rejoice to be bound!

The eagle is killed with arrows made from its feathers. And Satan destroys your soul by means of infirmities which he acquires from your plumage, from your abilities and virtues which you have left behind to become infirmities and passions.

The neglect of prayers and of the study of the Holy Scriptures and the abstinence of Holy Communion bring demons into us and they rule over us. If you don't distance yourself from the causes, the devil gains opportunities and the right to fight against you."

Saint Theodore, Bishop of Edessa, 9th century:

Perfect ("holy") hatred with all our heart teaches us to have David against the demons, because they are enemies of our salvation; and this hatred is well suited to the work of virtue. So who is the one who hates his enemies with perfect hatred? He who no longer sins in deed or in thought. As long as the conditions of friendship with the enemies, that is, the causes of the passions, are in us, how shall our hatred against them succeed? Because the lustful heart cannot contain this hatred.

The fox is a resourceful and cunning animal. When he is hungry and finds nothing to eat, he goes to warm places, falls on his back and pretends to be dead. And when the vultures come down to devour him, he suddenly jumps up and catches them. The devil does the same trick to trap the believers. He presents a pile of sins as innocent and harmless pleasures, and the Christian, tempted into various passions, suddenly becomes his prisoner and is lost forever. (Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis, 4th century)

When you are brave and unyielding against all the pleasures of life, the demons quickly make the sympathy for you in your relatives and make them cry and mourn for you in front of your very eyes. But you will understand this truth if you remain steadfast against this demonic temptation, when you will suddenly see them ignite against you with anger and hatred and abhor you as an enemy they do not want to see. (Simeon the New Theologian, 10th century)

Just as robbers hide in dark places to rob passersby, so the devil hides behind pleasures to take over our souls.
This is the devil's method: he frightens the coward and softens the brave. (Basilius, Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, 4th century)

Evil spirits incite us to evil, but they do not force us to practice it. If they could force us, there wouldn't be a man who wouldn't sin with all kinds of sin. But just as they have the ability to seduce us, we have the strength and freedom not to accept them. It is therefore absolutely certain that the demons have no power over us unless we surrender our will to them. (John Cassian, 4th century)

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

We should know that each demon exercises a specific passion, which he first sows in the human heart and then cultivates. Some demons exercise the passions of debauchery, while others the passions of blasphemy. Others provoke anger and wrath. Others plunge man into sorrow, and still others cause arrogance and pride. Each of them strives to conquer the human heart with the passion that satisfies it. However, not everyone pours in their poison at the same time, but one by one and depending on how much, where and how the human temper and defense allows it. For example, it does not happen that a person becomes obsessed with foolish and obscene laughter, while at the same time sinking and being devoured by sadness. Therefore there is some cooperation between the demons, although, as disorderly and unwise they are, they cannot maintain discipline and order among themselves.

The demons today do not have the same strength that they once had when they burst out with ferocity against the old fathers. Now they don't openly oppose us by taking on horrific forms, but they attack us invisibly and inflict more damage on us. However, we must know that not all demons have the same power, nor the same cruelty, nor the same evil. Beginners and weak people are fought by the weaker demons. But when Christ's athletes triumph over their first adversaries, they will gradually face stronger enemy forces. Christ, however, as the most lenient arbiter and overseer of these contests, keeps the balance between us and our adversaries, restrains the undue impulse of their attacks, and besides, along with the temptation, also gives us the strength, so that we can victoriously and definitely face them. If we didn't have this help, the demons would surely have destroyed us.

Evil spirits do not know the nature of our souls and cannot penetrate it. However, they can discern its condition from our works, our words, our deeds, our inclinations. Thoughts that have never come from the depths of our souls are impossible to perceive. Even the cunning thoughts which they themselves suggest to us, they do not know whether we have accepted them or not. They can only infer it by carefully observing our particular outward expressions or body movements. For example, they attack us with thoughts of wrath and anger. When their torment touches our heart, they distinguish it from a quiet commotion, from an indignant sigh, from the contraction, pallor, or blush of our face. These are the means by which their subtle intelligence distinguishes which man has surrendered to a passion and to which passion exactly. And this is not paradoxical, since an intelligent person can also have the same ability. In other words, if he sees the appearance or behavior of a fellow man, he can accurately determine his inner situation. How much more, then, can demons do this, who as spirits are much more sensitive and perceptive than humans?!

The demons, having not the weight of the flesh, have nothing to justify their wickedness; because this evil is not caused by external factors, as it is with us, humans, but solely by their perverted will. So their sin is unforgivable and their wickedness incurable. So there is no mercy for them, but also no opportunity for them to repent.
The number of evil spirits is innumerable. Divine Providence, however, has ordered things so that these spirits escape the sight of men. So terrible is their aggression and the forms they take every time are terrifying. The sight of it would surely cause great commotion among the people and make them faint with fear. The human eyes cannot resist such a sight...

Lucifer believed that he had received the greatness of wisdom and the beauty of the virtues with which he was adorned, not from God, but from the power of his own nature. Therefore, filled with arrogance, he considered himself equal to God and believed that he could attain eternal bliss through his own power. This thought alone brought him down. He fell like lightning from Heaven from the grace of God, which he believed he did not need. Though he believed he could usurp the glory of God with the power of his freedom and his personal ability, he eventually lost what he had received as a gift from the Creator. Lucifer was therefore overthrown from Heaven merely because of the passion of pride. Second came the passion of envy. He fell into this sin when he saw the creation of man. Then he still had a chance to get up! However, his envy compelled him to deceive the first created man with his tricks. He saw that man, who had just been created from the dust of the earth, was given the calling to glory equal to that which he, as lord of angels, had enjoyed before his fall. Because of this second sin, God's righteous judgment finally brought him down. From the sting of jealousy he was destroyed himself, as the first maker and "prince" of evil, having also dragged the others into his death. Ultimately, the devil is a murderer of himself.

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

Demons tend to withdraw temporarily with deceit, so that man is discouraged (in watchfulness), thinking that he has become unpassionate and neglecting himself. And then suddenly they jump on his tormented soul and grab it like a sparrow. And if they slay her, they cast her into every sin worse than that for which she first asked forgiveness. So let us stand in the fear of God and guard our hearts, doing our ascetics, while keeping the virtues that are an obstacle to the wickedness of the demonic enemies. (Isaiah the Solitary)

All the strife and care of the enemy is concentrated in withdrawing the mind from the memory of God, His love and fear of Him, and deceiving him with earthly baits to take him from the real good to the supposed good. (Makarios of Egypt)

God, who knows the power of man, also allows the power of the devil to work differently in each person. Because the devil is also a slave and a creature of God, he does not tempt according to his decision, nor does he bring as much grief as he wants, but as much as God permits him. The Lord knows the strength of each of us and permits the trial accordingly. This is what the Apostle Paul assures us, saying: "1 Corinthians 10:13 No more than human temptation has come upon you. And God is faithful: He will not suffer you to be tempted beyond what you can bear, but He will with the temptation also give the escape to be able to endure it.'

According to Divine Economy, the evil devil was not sent directly to the hell that he chose, but was left for the testing and examination of man and his autonomy. And this, unwillingly, to make the saints more worthy and righteous by their patience, and so that he may become the author of greater glory to them. But for himself, with his conscious malice and cunningness against the saints, to justify his own damnation even more.

It often happens that satan speaks to you in your imagination and says to you, “Look how many evil deeds you have done. Your soul is full of iniquities, you are burdened with many and grievous sins." So do not be mocked by satan under the pretense of humility, for he drives you to despair. For from the moment that evil through transgression entered man, satan has been given the power every day to speak to the soul as a man to a man in a certain way, and to whisper inappropriate things to him. So answer him, «Yes, but I have the written assurances of God which say, 'I desire not the death of the sinner, but that he repent and live" (Ezek. 18:23-33:11)". Why then did God want to come down to earth, if not to save sinners and enlighten those who dwell in darkness, and to give life to the dead through sin?»

Let us observe with great keenness the tricks and deceit and schemes of the enemy, who cares and does everything in their power to lead all to damnation. Thus satan pretends to pray with those who pray, to deceive them under the pretense of prayer and make them arrogant. With those who fast, he pretends to fast with them because he wants to entice them into the conceit of fasting. He does the same with those who have knowledge of the Scriptures, because he wants to divert them from the right path under the pretense of knowledge. With those who were found worthy to have Divine light revealed, he acts in the same way, that is, he turns into a luminous angel to deceive them by presenting his own false light and bringing them closer to him. And in general, thus he appears to each in a different manner, taking the appropriate form, so that by the likeness he may subdue everyone and lead them to damnation through a plausible pretext. And look, how far the arrogant Satan reaches and dares: he wants to cast down even those who already have God with the knowledge of truth.

The enemy devises a thousand and two ways to distract us from the hope and love of Christ. That is, either he brings inward grief to the soul through evil spirits, or causes shameful and impermissible thoughts, which evoke the memory of old sins, to lead it to slackness and despairing thoughts that it is not possible to find salvation. He also wants to make the soul believe that these thoughts are born of it and are not secretly and maliciously whispered by a hostile spirit. So either he does these things, or he inflicts physical pain, or he plants sorrows and slanders from people. But the more the evil one shoots these fiery darts into us, the more we must stir up hope in God, and know exactly that His will is to test the souls that love Him, to see if they really love Him.

He who tempts us (i.e. the devil), does this without knowing whether man will obey him or not.

After the devil had deceived Adam and took control of him, he took away his power and called himself "the prince of this world" ... But the prince of this world and lord of the visible was originally man, appointed by the Lord. Because neither fire burned him, nor water drowned him, nor beasts devoured him, nor serpent frightened him. But after he surrendered to the devil's trickery, he also gave him the control he had. For this reason, wizards and charlatans with diabolical energy and by God's permission become miracle workers. That is, they master the reptile snakes and defy water and fire (firewalkers).

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

There are four main attacks of the demons against us: the war they wage against our faith, the despair, the vainglory and the transformations of the demons into angels of light.
The devil has a great affinity and familiarity with fantasy and of almost all the powers of the soul he uses it as the most suitable instrument to deceive people and to activate his passions and vices. And the devil deceived Adam by means of fantasy, by introducing the imagination of God-likeness into his mind. (Nicodemus the Athonite).

Know well why demons sometimes predict certain things and they happen: a) because you do not steadfastly believe in the Lord, but in demons, and because of your own unbelief, God makes happen what the demons foretell (even though they do not know the future) and b) Because you, who love the devil's works and passions, are slaves of the devil, and he has you under his power, and whatever he foretells you, he also does with deeds. And just as a criminal who has a prisoner in his power can tell him whether he will die or live, not because the criminal foretells the future, but because he has the prisoner's life in his power, so does the devil.

If the devil had given us his poison with a bitter herb, we would not drink it. But because he gives it to us with the honey of pleasures, we gladly take it.

When the devil keeps a man in bondage to sin, he cares nothing more than to blind him even more, by giving him evil thoughts and inciting him to the same sin or other greater sins, preventing him from knowing his very unhappy life...

The power with which demons are defeated comes from a lack of faith in ourselves and our hope (trust) in God.

The devil is accustomed to rejoice in every confusion and turmoil of our hearts, just like the wolf rejoices of winter and windstorm. And this is because, when a soul is at peace, it does a lot of good work, while resisting whatever happens to it. On the contrary, when she is confused and anxious, she does some imperfect works, gets tired quickly, and finally lives a torment without benefit. Therefore, if you want to win and not let the enemy spoil your goods, you must be especially careful, do not let your soul disturb and be confused, even for a moment.

The devil is so cunning and evil that he can often do evil even out of good. He has great envy and fights more against those who have good thoughts.

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

John Chrysostom:

The devil promises not to give, but to receive.

The thief does not come wherever is reed and grass and wood, but wherever is gold or silver. Likewise the devil does not attack wherever is sin, but wherever is virtue.

The pirates at sea when they see a ship full of gold, devise every trick to sink the ship and grab the treasure. Likewise the devil, when he sees you full of virtues and having a strong love for God, he bites and gnashes his teeth. Like a pirate, he uses infinite tricks to find a small entrance and drill holes to destroy your spiritual wealth.

Our enemy, that is the evil devil, when he sees that spiritual riches are concentrated, is gripped with anger and sharpens his teeth and always waits to find the right opportunity to remove something from what is kept in us. No occasion is suitable for him except our own indifference. Therefore, we must be constantly vigilant and completely block the entrances to him and protect ourselves from his attacks from everywhere.

God has always turns against his own head that which the devil intrigues against us and uses it for our salvation...

...such is the devil: he does not show evil to those who are not sober until it is done, so that he would not repent who has benefited from it.

As soon as the devil sees that he achieves nothing, he immediately leaves, fearing that he may cause us more crowns. That is, if he sees something sickly, he makes an effort. When he sees something powerful, he runs away.

If the dog sees that you give him nothing to eat, although he is waiting to be fed by you, then he leaves, because he sees that he is waiting in vain. The devil does the same. If he sees that you are not giving him "food" - an opportunity for him to storm you - but on the contrary, you continue to please God, then you kill him with hunger and force him to leave you.

Nothing is more able to fend off the demon's attacks on us than constant prayer and supplication.

The Lord calls the devil strong, not because he is strong by nature, but to show his original power, caused by our own indifference.

The devil takes us away from God through various passions, through the desires of the flesh, through the curiosity of the eyes, through the temptations and snares of the world.

The devil has studied nothing so well as to convince the human soul that neither for sins is a man subject to punishment, nor for his achievements is he worthy of praise and crowns, in order to weaken the readiness of those who exert (in virtue) and to intensify the negligence and slackness of those who are already despondent (in sin)...

If we are vigilant, the devil can do us no harm. But he can unwittingly benefit us, increase our virtue. Notice what happens when someone picks up a reed and blows with it on fire. At first he seems to extinguish it. But in the end not only does he not extinguish it, but even strengthens it.

Let's turn our backs on the devil, not only with words, but with our deeds. Not only with our mind, but also with our actions. Don't do anything he likes.

If we see a snake nesting in our bed, we definitely try to kill it. But now that the devil has settled in our souls, we take no action, but remain indifferent.

Dry grass can withstand the flame of fire better than the devil can withstand the flame of love.

The devil throws his poisonous arrows to ravage us with sin, and if we repel these arrows and do not sin, these arrows return and strike his head...

We don't need the devil to perish, as long as we envy and chase each other.

The devil does us two evils: he pulls us along into sin and hinders us from repenting.

The devil certainly does not cause all evil. A lot happens out of our own idleness. If the devil is the cause of evil anywhere, it is because we allow it. Please tell me: when did the devil prevail over Judah? The evangelist says that satan entered into him. But hear the reason: "He was a thief and he took away what was put in the treasury." Judas in all his comfort let the devil in. Therefore the devil does not make the beginning, but we accept him and call upon him, if we are not careful.

The devil is bad for himself, not for us. For we have much to gain from him, if we want, without his own will, of course. Thus the wonder is magnified and proves the greatness of God's love for humanity, for when we improve, the devil is grieved and suffers; when our improvement is in fact due to him, he cannot bear his misfortune and bursts out of his evil.

The devil is useful to us, if we use him in the right way and he benefits us the most and we gain from him not small profit. We have proved this many times from the case of Job...

If we want, the devil becomes the cause of many good things! For when we fear his intrigues, we pay close attention and remember God. For whoever sees the enemy standing next to him, turns to the one who can help him. As in the house of a soldier who is constantly armed, neither a thief, nor a burglar, nor another suchlike criminal dare to break in, so is also the case with our souls, none of the passions that enslave us will easily be able to penetrate us.

Even in the hypothetical case where the devil could defeat all people and lead them into damnation, we should still not be surprised if God has released him for his destructive work. Because his victory and his rule over us depend on us. We become his slaves voluntarily, not by force. This is proved by those who have conquered him to this day. And that's not a few. But in the future there will also be many who will overcome him.

Demons have as partners the people who are ill-disposed towards their fellowmen. So if they hadn't worked with the demons, most of the demons' plots against humans would have failed.

The word about the devil is not pleasant. But spiritual safety is the correct teaching about the devil. Because he is a great enemy and adversary. It is of a great safety to know well the things related to the enemies.

The enemy does not fight us openly, but with tricks. He uses cunningness to deceive and with deceitful ingenuity he tries to defeat us. For if he would openly tell us to forsake Christ, we would easily protect ourselves.

Do not listen to the demons at all, even when they say something right.

With Eve as a virgin, the devil killed Adam previously. With the Virgin Mary as a virgin, Christ defeated the devil afterwards... By a woman the devil triumphed and by a woman he was defeated.

If the devil used the Scriptures, did it sanctify his lips? Of course not! He remained the devil...

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

Maximus the Confessor, 7th century:
God allows the demons to fight against us for five reasons. The first reason is, by fighting us and us against them, we acquire the discernment of virtue and evil. Secondly, to acquire virtue by struggle and effort, and thus to keep it firmly and surely. Thirdly, not to fall into pride, while making progress in virtue, but to learn to be humble. Fourthly, after we have come to know evil with our suffering, to hate it completely. Fifthly, the most important reason: after we have achieved passionlessness, not to forget our own weakness, nor the strength of the One who helped us.

Nothing is more pleasing to the devil than to see a man punished.

It is right and just for the devil to punish those who have gladly accepted his bad advice for conscious sins. Because the devil sows pleasure with voluntary passions and causes pain with involuntary suffering.

Without Divine permission, the demons themselves cannot serve the devil in anything.

The devil, having envied us and God and convinced man that God envied him (Gen. 3:5), caused him to disobey the divine commandment. He envied God by not letting His glorious power to deify man be exercised. He clearly envied man by not letting him partake of divine glory through virtue. Therefore the most unclean one (devil) is not only jealous of us, because of the glory that God gives us for virtue, but also of God, because of His glorious power for our salvation.

Gregory the Theologian, IV century:

Why blame the deceitful devil for everything, since we give him power and justice by the way we live?

The insidious one examines and observes you from all sides. He carefully spies on you so that he discovers an uncovered side of yourself and there he beats and injures you.

Mark the Ascetic, born in 360 in Athens, which is now in Greece:

- He who says he knows all the tricks and schemes of the devil shows us that he does not fully know himself. When the mind is freed from bodily cares, it accordingly sees the slyness of the enemies.
- When the devil sees that the spirit has prayed with the heart, he attacks with great and deceitful temptations. Because he does not want small virtues to overthrow them with great attacks.

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

Porphyrios the Kavsokalivite (Mount Athos), XX century:

This is what the devil managed to do: He turned the earth into a labyrinth, so we don't get along. What have we suffered and not understood? See how we've strayed? We have turned our earth and our time into a real psychiatric hospital! And we don't understand what's going on with us. We all ask ourselves, "What happened to us, where are we going, why did our children take to the streets, why did they leave their homes, why did they give up life, why did they give up their education? Why is this happening? ?" The devil managed to make himself invisible and get people to use different names. Doctors, psychologists often say when a person suffers: "Oh, you have a nervous disease! Oh, you have a depression!" and suchlike. They do not admit that the devil stimulates and inflames selfishness in a man. And yet the devil exists, he is the spirit of evil. When we say he doesn't exist, we deny the gospel that speaks of him. This is our enemy, our adversary in life, the opposite of Christ and is called antichrist. Christ came to earth to deliver us from the devil and to give us salvation.

When the devil cannot defeat us, he attacks us "outwardly" to frighten us, with various events, allowed by God.
Pay no attention to the devil. The more you give him attention, the closer he gets to you. If you want to drive him away from you, stop paying attention to him. Ignore him. He is only worth ignoring. Once he gets it, he will start to withdraw until he eventually flees. Ignorance is the second weapon, after the Holy Cross, against the devil! And he is literally afraid of the Holy Cross, he trembles before it and takes a disorderly flight from it. And he can't stand the ignorance (it can also mean contempt). Because he is arrogant and bursting out of evil! After all, this arrogance was the cause of his fall and what he has become. He got his punishment...

The devil sometimes does not burden people with temptations, who are subordinated to him by some passion, thinking that they are doing well. Sometimes when he himself causes a disease, he comes later and takes away the cause of the disease after various non-Christian incantations and prayers, so that the people who judge superficially, may think that man, being his tool, has a miraculous power. Thus it seems that healings come from magicians and other instruments of temptation.

Don't give the devil rights. That is, I leave no thought of resentment in me, nor any thought of selfishness, so that satan may not find an open window. The window is the right. When you turn away from God, you are in danger because satan will find you "pure" and will rule over you.

The devil tells you ten truths and one lie, to make you believe that the eleventh he tells you is also truth.

All of this - the subject of UFOs, aliens, and life on other planets - are fantastic, demonic things. There is no life on another planet...

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

John Climacus, the author of the Ladder of the Divine Ascent, VII century:

- Any war of demons against us is generally due to 3 causes: a) our negligence and lasciviousness b) our pride and c) the envy of the demons. The first war is pitiful, the second - miserable, and the third - blessed.

- In all our God-centered efforts, three pits are secretly dug by the demons. At first, they struggle to let the good fail. Then, after being defeated in the first stage, they fight that the good that has been achieved would not be quite God-pleasing. But if the demons fail in this goal too, they quietly approach our souls and praise us that we act in all things as God wills. The adversary of the demons in the first war is the systematic preparation for death, in the second - the submission and humiliation, and in the third - the intense and constant self-rebuke.

- The devil directs all his zeal, art, impetus, slyness and ingenuity to lead a man more to unnatural sins rather than natural sins, because unnatural sins bring greater punishment.

- Demons are afraid of single-mindedness, like the thieves are afraid of dogs.

- Let's strive to be not only wrestlers, but also fighters against the demons. Because the former sometimes strike and sometimes are struck by demons, while the latter always pursue the enemy.

The demons, as some claim, are pleased with nothing more than the stench of fornication, and with no other passion than the uncleanness of the body.

- For a short time the evil demons hide and do not fight against us. And this to make us fall into negligence, whereby we see the great passions as small and thus fall into an incurable disease. There are other cases where some evil and jealous demons voluntarily withdraw and do not wage war against the saints. And this in order not to give them victory crowns in the war, in which they expect no victory.

- The evil of our enemies is great. The mothers of virtues they turn into the mothers of evil! And the causes of humility they make causes of pride.

- It is impossible for the devil to fight against those who do his will. Thus the proud man needs no devil, for he has become a devil and an enemy to himself.

- The demons do not know future from a predictive power. For then also the magicians would have been able to predict death to us.

- As long as man is an ordinary citizen or an ordinary sailor or peasant, the king's enemies do not fight against him so much. But as soon as they see that he has received the anointing and the shield and the dagger and the sword and the bow and has put on the military uniform, they gnash their teeth against him and try to kill him in every possible way. So let's not fall asleep.

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

Elder Païsios the Athonite, a charismatic monk from Turkey/Greece of the XX century. Because God's grace worked in him in a special way, he helped many people in their spiritual private lives through his wise teaching. The following many statements are his.

- Christ has deprived the devil of the right to do evil. Only if man gives him rights can he cause harm. If one sins and does not participate in the sacraments of the Church, he gives the right to temptation and is confronted with a demonic influence... Repentance and confession cut off the right of the devil. On the one who is faithful - leads a church life, confesses his sins, goes to communion - the devil has no power, no dominion.

- The devil after Christ's crucifixion is like the serpent whose venom has been taken away or the dog whose teeth have been taken away. The poison has been taken from the devil, the teeth have been taken from the dogs, the demons, and they are now disarmed and we are armed with the Cross. Nothing, nothing can the demons do to God's creature, if we don't give them rights. They just make noise, they have no power.

- Humility has great power and scatters the devil. Where there is humility, the devil has no place. And where there is no devil, subsequently there are no temptations.

- The devil... makes the negligent more negligent, the harsh more harsh, the oversensitive more oversensitive, and so on. In the one he hinders his spiritual progress with self-justification and the other he grabs with hypersensitivity and plunges him into despair. However, the devil is getting worse. His anger and envy are increasing.

- We must have spiritual prowess to despise the devil and all his evil telegrams, - the thoughts - and not start a conversation with him. Even though all the lawyers of the world come together, they cannot resist a little devil (in the art of polemics). In order to cut ties with temptation and avoid it, it helps a lot to stop the discussions with him. Did something happen to us? Have we been wronged? Have we been insulted? Let's see if we were wrong. If we have no guilt, then we have a reward (from God). You don't have to continue (with the negative thoughts).

- The devil can bring down a giant, but he can also be defeated by a little girl with humility!

- The devil has 3 tentacles: for the poor he has communism, for the faithful he has ecumenism and for the rich he has freemasonry.

(By ecumenism, I don't think he means interfaith dialogue, but reconciliation with other religions, which are then seen as equal paths to one goal.)

Just as the enemy, before attacking with artillery, bombards the fortresses with the air force, to break them, so the devil first bombards man with thoughts and then attacks him. If he does not corrupt man's reason, he does not attack, for man defends himself with good reason.

- There are demons who will not let one speak (dumb demons) and others who will not let one listen (deaf demons) to the advice given to them by the spiritual fathers.

- You would become a hero during the occupation if you did not greet a German. In our time you become a hero if you don't greet the devil. The devil first bombards man with thoughts and then attacks him. If he does not corrupt man's reason, he does not attack, for man defends himself with good reason. The devil is a great craftsman and he tries to get everyone, somewhere, by constantly whispering bad thoughts.

God, if he wills, can even now pick up the devil and cast him into hell, but he leaves him for our good, for with the blow he deals us he dispels all our dust, and our dusty souls are dusted. Or He lets Him chase and bite us, so that we turn to Him. Only when it has good effect does He allow the devil to tempt us. If it doesn't have a good effect, He won't let him in. God allows everything for our good. Let's believe in that. God always calls on us, but most of the time we turn away from God and only when danger threatens do we flee to Him. When man becomes one with God, there is no room for the evil one to enter, but neither is there any reason for God to allow the evil one to tempt man so that man is forced to take refuge in God. Therefore the evil one does us good and helps us to be sanctified. That is why God tolerates him.

(Païsios' way of saying is very witty and humorous, so you should not take certain expressions too literally, but figuratively.)

Satan once appeared to me and said to me: I am the Christ, worship me (bow, fall before me). I answered him: I always worship my Christ. And if you were the Christ, you wouldn't have asked me to worship you...

- The devil is now trying to win over the whole world. He says, "If I have more followers, God will eventually have to take pity on all His creatures and will take me into account too!" He thinks so. Therefore, as much as he can, he wants to gain as many followers as possible. Do you see where it's going? And he says, "I've got so many on my side! God will be compelled to have mercy on me too!” Without repenting…!

- I once prayed for the demons on my knees and said: "You are God and if You want You can also find a way to save these miserable demons..." While I said this, praying with pain, I saw a dog's head next to me sticking its tongue out and laughing at me. It may be that God allowed it in order for me to understand that He wants to save them, but they do not repent.

- The devil is very jealous of God's creature, man. The demons cry, "We have sinned once and you oppress us, and those who sin so often, you forgive." Yes, but people repent. While they were angels they became demons and instead of repenting they become more cunning and evil... The devil gets worse the further he goes. He progresses into evil and envy.

- We did not realize that the devil had set out to destroy the creatures of God. He is very furious, because he knows that his activity is short-lived. Now he acts like a criminal who, when surrounded, says "I have no rescue! They're going to get me anyway!" and destroys everything. Or like the soldiers in wartime, when they run out of ammunition, they pull out their spears or swords and attack no matter what. He would tell you, "We are lost anyway, so let's kill as many enemies as we can."

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

- Often I hear some people say that temptation is to blame when they suffer, whereas it is their fault for not doing things right... Don't burden it all on temptation. A novice, living with his elder in a hut, once took an egg, put it on a key--it was one of those big old keys--and lit a candle beneath it to bake it. The elder suddenly enters and sees him. "What are you doing there?" he tells him. “Yes, Elder, the temptation has prompted me to fry an egg here,” his novice tells him. And then a wild voice was heard: "I did not know this art - I learned it from him"! The devil sometimes sleeps and we wake him up...

- Reincarnation suits people, especially atheists and unbelievers. It is the devil's greatest slyness. The devil keeps them in the life of sin, thinking that the soul comes and comes back into this world. "Well, if you fail this time, says the devil, you come back to life and succeed next time. And if you fail again, you come, you come again, you will progress... » So they say, "It doesn't matter if I commit this sin" and they bring it out. They live carelessly, they don't repent. See how the devil blinds them and hooks them to hell! I have seen no greater slyness and art of the devil to take the people to hell! And if the devil hooks you once, will he let you go back?

- God's love does not allow man to see the devil! Oh, most of them would die of fear!

- The devil enters man, when there is mud in man's heart, he does not approach the pure creature of God. When the heart is cleansed, the enemy leaves and Christ returns. Like the pig, if it finds no mud, it grunts and departs, so the devil does not approach the heart that has no mud. What job does he have in a pure and humble heart? So when we see that our house - our heart - is an old house and inhabited by the enemy, we must immediately demolish it, so that our evil tenant can leave, namely the devil. Because if sin lingers in man, the devil naturally gains more rights.

- The devil does not know our thoughts and meditations. He perceives only a few from experience, but even herein he is mostly mistaken. And if God does not allow him to understand it, then he is constantly mistaken in everything, because the devil is dark, his visibility is zero!!! He doesn't know, shall we say, a good thought of mine. If I have a bad thought, he knows it, because he plants it himself. Now if I want to go somewhere to do a good deed, e.g. to save a man, the devil does not know this. But if he instills in someone a thought and says, "Go and save that man," he will at the same time put him in pride, and therefore he knows this thought. These things are very delicate.

- The devil has experience. As, for example, an engineer, when he sees a house in danger of falling, can say how long it will remain standing, etc., so too he sees how a person goes through life, and with the experience he has, he says how he will end. The devil has no intelligence, he is very stupid. He's a total mess, you won't find any sharpness in him. He acts crazy and daffy. His tricks are fat. God has arranged it so that we can understand him. One must be very darkened by pride, in order not to understand him...

- The devil's stupor is like the poison with which a snake poisons birds or rabbits in order to paralyze them and swallow them up without them reacting. The devil, when he wants to fight a man, first sends a devil "anesthesiologist", to first make the man numb and then he goes himself to bring him down, he does what he wants. But the 'anæsthetist' comes first. He injects us with anesthetic and we forget things. You see, the monks promise to endure insults, mockery, etc., and in the end temptation sometimes confuses us and we do the opposite of what we promised. Otherwise we start and otherwise we end. We started going elsewhere and we're going elsewhere. We are not careful...

The devil often mocks us in this way: the icon of the angel we revere with great reverence, but the angel in the flesh, our neighbor, who is the image of God, we hurt, scold, etc.

- The devil is a craftsman. For example, if at the time of the Divine Liturgy he imparts to a spiritual man a pitiful thought, he will understand it, shake it off, and chase it away. That is why he brings him a spiritual thought. "This book," he tells him, "writes this about the divine liturgy." Then he will draw his attention to, for example, the chandelier. He will then wonder who made it. Or he will remind him of a patient he needs to visit and see. "Wow! Inspiration at the time of the Divine Liturgy," thinks the man, while it is the devil who intervenes and enters into discussion with his reasoning. And when he hears the priest say: "In fear of God with faith and with love draw near", then he understands that the Divine Liturgy is over and that he has not participated in it at all.

- You see, if you want to cook a frog, you have to pour boiling water on it little by little. But if you suddenly throw all the water on it, then it jerks and goes away, it escapes. Whereas, if you pour a little hot water on it, it will first gently shake it off his back and then he will accept it. And if you water it a little more, it gently shakes it off again and slowly it cooks, without realizing it. "Hey, frog, when they pour some boiling water on you, get up and run!" But he doesn't go away... He keeps getting puffed up and boiled. So does the devil: he broods us little by little, and in the end, without realizing it, we are scalded!...

- Oh, if you saw how the devil is active! You haven't seen it, so you don't understand some things! He does everything in his power not to let people be helped. I noticed that in the hut, when I talk. Once I'm exactly where I want to go in conversation, at the most sensitive moment, to help those who are listening to me, then either some noise is made or others arrive and I stop. The devil deploys them in advance for the hermitage to maunder or look around and gets them to the most delicate point of the discussion so that I change the subject and the people are not helped. Because when the conversation starts, the devil knows where it will end and seeing that he will suffer damage, he sends someone at the most sensitive moment to interrupt me. "Hey, Father, where can we come in?" is being called. "Take lukumi (Turkish delicacies) and water and come in from there," I tell them. Others come in at just that moment, interrupting me, because I have to get up to greet them. Moments later others come and I have to get up again, they start the conversation "where are you from, etc." ... So I'm forced to start over, to repeat the example I told. As I continue, another calls from below, “Hey, Father Paisios, where do you live? "Is the door here?" I must rise again... Evil temptation! He did the same to me six or seven times a day, until I had to put in some…guards! "You sit there and make sure no one comes from there. "You sit here until I finish my work." Starting a whole story six or seven times, to get them to the point where they are helped, while the devils make the scenes again! Bad temptation, what does it do! He keeps turning the switch knob to a different frequency. As soon as the spiritual warrior gets a little interested in something - click clack, the devil turns the switch the other way and he forgets it. Does he remember something spiritual again - click clack, he reminds him of something else, he makes him squirm in a loop. If a man comes to know how the devil works, he will give up many things...

 

[ArmyMatt]

good, sobering posts for Lent. keep it up!

 

[Lukaris]

These posts are wonderful and needed to our forum during this Lenten season.

 

[ArmyMatt]

These posts are wonderful and needed to our forum during this Lenten season.

agreed

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

Our enemy attacks with savage and terrible temptations, when he realizes that the soul has reached great measures of virtue. This is made clear both by the words of the prayer and by our attempt to rise above the material duality of flesh and senses. The man-hater tempts us with so much jealousy that we despair of this life. The wicked one apparently knows not how much good he causes us: thereby he makes us tested with patience, and weaves our wreaths more brilliantly. (Theognostos)

Just as it is impossible to go to war with a naked, unarmed body, or to swim in a vast sea with your clothes on, or to live without breathing, so it is impossible without humility and constant pleading to Christ, to learn the imaginable and secret warfare and to pursue and strike skillfully the imaginary enemy (devil).

- The jealous demons often hide and conceal the imaginary war from us, because these monsters envy the benefit that comes from battle and knowledge and ascension to God. They want to make sure we don't worry and then suddenly grab our minds and eliminate the attention from our consciousness. Because the constant aim of the demons and their struggle is to make our hearts live with no attention at all, because they know the riches we accumulate from it in our souls.

- Look how with fantasy and lies and empty promises we are overcome by the enemy demons of our salvation. And satan himself fell like lightning from heaven, because he set forth in his imagination to become like God. And Adam was separated from God by satan, by suggesting to him in his imagination that he would become like God. And so he, - this liar and the deceitful enemy, - goes on to deceive (with the power of imagination) all those who sin. (Hesychios of Jerusalem, the priest)

- The devil fights in various ways those who fight him. So before committing sin, he diminishes it in their eyes, and when they commit it, he magnifies it, to bring them to despair. (Ephraim the Syrian)

- Every evil deed arms the devil and when he is terribly armed, he uses his weapon against those who armed him. (Nilos the Ascetic)

- If you are threatened by demons that suddenly appear in the sky and surprise you and distract your mind, don't be afraid of them. Nor show special attention and concern to their threat. Because they scare you trying to figure out if you pay them any attention or totally despise them.

- If you favor someone, someone else will try to hurt you. And this to make you say or do something indecent and to scatter so ugly what you have collected so well. This is the goal of the evil demons.

- We often understand and see the blows inflicted upon us by the hostile devil, visible or invisible. But the suffering and pain which the enemy suffers from us because we sometimes succeed in virtue, or repent of our sins, or have patience and courage in sad circumstances, or pray and do all the like, whereby he gnashes his teeth, weeps, gets punished and struck, all this we do not see through Divine economy (order), so that we do not fall into slackness (blandness and idleness). (John Karpathios)

- The demons, that hate our soul, instill some of us, to give us some cold praise. Then they urge us to rejoice over it. Then when we grow weak with self-importance and give way to vanity in us, the demons don't make much effort to capture us.

- Especially during the holidays and when one goes to Holy Communion, the demons rush to defile the warrior with dirty fantasies and with the flow of sperm.

 

[ArmyMatt]

thanks again!

 

[Swan7]

Yeah. This has been known for a very long time. Satan will do whatever it takes to take all down with him, except those that belong to Christ Jesus.

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

- Do you know, my brother, how God wants you? Just as you do not want your wife to have intercourse with another one, so God does not want you to have a share (relationship) with the devil. Do you like it when your wife commits fornication with another? No. And if someone else kisses your wife? You don't want that either. Likewise, God doesn't wants you, my brother, to have intercourse with the devil. (Cosmas of Ætolia)
- The devil can bark, he can provoke, but he cannot bite, except whoever wants it. (Augustine)
- The devil uses pride, as the last and greatest weapon at his disposal, to fight man. Just as experienced warriors, when they see themselves defeated, eventually use and activate their best weapon, so the devil, after vainly using all his weapons against man, makes use of his most powerful weapon, which is pride. (Synklitiki)

The devil, wishing to twist everything to torment us, tries to hide from the eyes of the warriors and zealous ascetics their sins, causing them to forget them, to drive them to pride. On the contrary, by the starting and unstable souls, he exaggerates their sins in their eyes in order to drive them into despair.
- Yawning during prayer belongs to the demons. (Niphon)
- The likeness of our way to good or evil makes us children of God or of satan. (Thalassios)
- The devil does not know what is in the human mind, only God knows. The devil tries to understand the will of the soul from the movements of the body. (Isidorus of Pelusium)
- The spectacle of the devil is theatrical obsession, horse racing, hunting and every similar vanity. (Cyril of Jerusalem)

- The first demons to resist and fight in practical asceticism are the demons entrusted to the temptation of people with gluttony and greed and those who stir up vainglory (the conscious striving for a good reputation among men, ambitiousness). The other demons come after them and pick up those attacked by the first. For one cannot fall into the hands of the demon of fornication unless one falls first into gluttony. And the anger cannot upset him unless he fights for food, money, or fame first. And one cannot fall into the hands of the demon of sorrow, unless one suffers the deprivation of all this first. Nor will anyone escape pride, which is the first scion of the devil, if he has not banished the root of all evil, greed, for according to Solomon, "poverty makes man humble." And in general man cannot fall into the hands of a demon unless he is affected by the aforementioned predecessors and demon leaders, that is, from gluttony, greed and vainglory. Therefore the devil fought with these three thoughts against the Redeemer Christ in the desert. First he suggested to him to turn the stones into bread, then he promised him the world if he would fall down before him and worship and a third time he told him that if he would listen to him, then he would be glorified because nothing would happen after the fall. The Lord became supreme in all things and commanded the devil to go back, teaching that it is not possible to ward off the devil if we do not ignore these three thoughts. (Evagrius Ponticus)

- If you see another spirit fighting with your spirit, humble yourself and the war will end. If you see demons, don't be afraid, but humble yourself and the demons will disappear. But if you become afraid, you will not avoid evil. Be brave! Remember, the Lord sees you when you put your hope in Him. But to obtain rest from the demons for the soul, she must humble herself and say, "I am the worst of all, I am more miserable than every creature and beast. (Silouan the Athonite, by this he means the humiliation of the selfish megalomania)

- When the devil himself cannot do what he wants, he finds the right person and makes him do it, so that he does not understand. He does it like a fisherman and hides the hook in the bait. He lures man with it and the devil himself hides then in man. (Anthimos of Chios)
- The devil is an ant, but if you give him the right and he catches you in his claws, he becomes a lion and will devour you. (Anthimos of Chios)
- The demons ask of Christ not to send them to the abyss, but to be allowed to remain on earth. And the Lord lets them abide on the earth, to make men more tested by contending with them. For if there were no adversaries, there would be no races. And if there were no races, there would be no wreaths. (Theophylaktos of Bulgaria)