About the devil (spiritual experience of the ascetics)

[Daniel Hoseini]

- Not thinking of God is the devil's first success with man. His second success is the attachment of the human heart to something earthly and the captivity of its feelings and thoughts to it. This is the worst (for us) success of the enemy. The way to avoid these pitfalls is one: Do not distract attention from the Lord and the awareness of His presence.

- "After every good deed come thoughts of pride, and after every sin come thoughts of despair for my salvation..." These are the common attacks of our imaginary enemy, the devil. How are you going to fend them off? In the first case, with the remembrance of your sins and weaknesses. And in the second, thinking that there is no sin that overcomes the mercy of God. The Lord's death on the Cross was the price of the atonement for all sins, without exception.

- Strive to preserve the remembrance of God and the remembrance of God. These... neutralize the tricks of the cunning.

- When the devil realizes that a soul is brave, unafraid of his attacks and unconvinced by his satanic suggestions, he immediately disappears. (Theophan the Recluse)

- The devil acts visibly through men and things from time to time, while at other times he invisibly penetrates man with his thoughts. Sometimes the adversary openly, with a violent and ruthless assault, appears as an enemy, while sometimes he disguises himself as a friend, who flatters but seduces with slyness... (Nikolay Velimirovich)

- There are six things the demons fear the most: a) abstinence from food b) abstinence from water c) the Jesus prayer d) the sign of the cross (if made correctly) e) the frequent Communion of the Precious Mysteries (if one partakes of communion worthily) and f) unshakable hope in God.

- God allows the demons to fight against us so that we would recognize our weaknesses and not be proud.

If the enemy has no other way of beating us and preventing us from living a virtuous life, he strikes us with unbearable grief. He usually sends people to us who obey his commands, and by using them as means, he tries to overwhelm us with the shame, insults, curses and humiliations of the people. (Paisy Velitskovsky)

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

- Many have been tricked by demons to ease our struggle and make us fall into negligence. Therefore, they sometimes cause a pulsating pain in the arms and legs, such as from a fist fight, but also strong stings all over the body. Sometimes they cause pain in our throat, as if someone is squeezing us with pliers, but also pain in the head to bring darkness into our mind. At the same time, they bring sadness and discomfort. While with those who are particularly passionate, they stir up the passions by touching our bodily parts!

- The demons strive to put our mind out of action, to make it indifferent to the work of salvation, to turn it away from the high prayerful desire of God. And if they could, they would give us the kingdoms and riches of the whole world, to burden us with cares, and thus distract our minds from the remembrance of God and the love of Him, that is, from the unceasing prayerful remembrance, the unceasing prayer.

- Demons follow us, like hunters the prey. They watch us closely and try to unravel our thoughts. And then they serve us their own fantasies, similar to our own thoughts.

- The demons instill in us thoughts like: ''This or that thing is absolutely necessary. Do it!” In reality, however, there is no need at all to do what they tell us to do.

- The cunning spirits fight man with such cunning that the thoughts and fantasies they instill in him seem to be born of his own soul, and not of these spirits, who do their work secretly and try to go unnoticed. To fight the enemy, you must necessarily see him. If you don't see the evil spirits, you can't fight them (I think he talks about spiritual awareness of demonic activity and presence). You can only imagine them and submit to them submissively.

- Demons don't know the future. This is known only to God and to all His rational creatures to whom He will reveal it. But just as intelligent and experienced people, based on past or present events, can predict what will happen in the future, so evil spirits, cunning and experienced as they are, can sometimes correctly guess and predict the future. They are often wrong. And even more often they lie. Sometimes they announce that something is about to happen that was already foreordained in the spirit world, but has not yet happened in the human world. For example, before the temptations came upon righteous Job, the demons, who had been given God's permission to cause these temptations, knew about them beforehand.

- The demons conclude more than predict what events are going to happen. Therefore, if they ever say something that is true, even then no one should admire them. For even the doctors, who are experienced with the diseases, when they discover that a person suffers from a disease which they had previously encountered in others, remember it and predict its development by habit. But shipmasters and farmers do the same. Seeing the atmospheric conditions, they predict from experience the development of the weather for better or worse. It cannot therefore be said that they predict from Divine inspiration, but from experience and habit.

- Evil spirits operate against us: a) through thoughts b) through fantasies and c) through direct contact. (Ignatiy Brianchaninoff)

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

Satan usually enters us when we participate unworthily in the Sacred Mysteries, and in every way tries to plant his lie, it est, unbelief, in our hearts. Because disbelief equals lying. The destroyer of people tries in every possible way to destroy us with his lie and with different thoughts and desires.

The clearer and stronger are the means which unite us with God, that is, prayer and repentance, the more devious and destructive are the actions of the cunning one against these means.

All the cunningness of the devil is to induce men to love the world and worldly things, that is, vanity, riches, glory, honor, and earthly pleasures, to turn from God, to despise the soul and its needs and not to think of eternity, God, and union with Him.

The enemy is trying to irritate you, arouse your human passions or instill suspicion and fantasies in your heart.

The devil has a habit of attacking us when he finds us in need.

The demons tremble at the sight of the Cross and much more at the making of the sign of the Holy and Life-giving Cross. Because the Son of God was nailed to the Cross and sanctified it. The demons tremble much more before the All-Holy Mother of God, even when they hear Her name. (John of Kronstadt)

 

[Lukaris]

Thanks again for these treasures of wisdom.

 

[ArmyMatt]

Thanks again for these treasures of wisdom.

indeed!

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

- Put on the armor that God gives so that you can face the devil. You can't imagine how cunning he is! Be careful !!! It is not in his best interest for one to become aware of his existence, for an enemy unknown and hidden is more dangerous than a visible enemy. (Luke the Doctor)
- By God's permission, because of our sins, the devil can approach us and take our hearts in his hands and put him under duress. To keep the believer's heart pure, he often has to recite the "Heavenly King". (Amfilochios of Pochaev)
- The enemy's nets are thin and not easy to see. Only humility can avoid them. (Makarios of Optina)
- The enemy devil fights us incessantly. First from the left, that is, with the passions and sinful desires. If he fails from the left, he attacks from the right, that is, he spreads his nets within our good works. (Parthenios of Optina)
- The closer you get to God, the more the enemy will preoccupy you. Therefore, if you decide to be close to the Lord, be prepared for temptations. The enemy sows his tares in all that is good. The enemy brings despondency to every soul that wants to be saved. (Parthenios of Optina)
- Satan knows not with what passion the soul is defeated. He sows, but knows not whether he shall reap: Sometimes thoughts of carnal sin, and sometimes thoughts of condemnation, and likewise other passions. But whatever passion he sees the soul leaning towards, he brings to it corresponding thoughts. (Abbas Matois)

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

Divine Providence has so ordered things that evil spirits escape the sight of men. Their aggression is terrible and the forms they take every time are terrifying. Their sight would surely cause great commotion among the people and make them faint with fear. The human eyes cannot resist such a spectacle...

Demons do not know the treasure that people have in their hearts or not. But they can find out about it by the way each human being reacts and handles every insult and temptation that befalls him. (Abbas Serinos)

I asked satan: Why are you so furious with us humans and fight against us with such fury? And he answered me: To have many companions in hell, and to boast before the Nazarene that I am not the only transgressor, but look how many others are with me...!

The evil devil as a craftsman sows thoughts of hatred and disgust towards our Elder and our virtuous brothers in general, so that by yielding to them (evil thoughts), we render inactive their prayers they make for us and the devil can more easily rule over us and make us his subordinates. It's one of his methods...

We have the adversary devil, who is a strong craftsman, and because he is a spirit, he easily mixes with the spirit God has given us and takes over our little machine (our spirit) and moves it as he pleases. He sees where our soul's lust is inclined and how God helps it, and he immediately devises the corresponding counter-plans...

The devil sows evil thoughts to weaken the fervor of the soul.

The demon has no power or authority over us unless he finds us in pride and hard-headedness.

The more time passes and he reaches his end, the more the devil fights and rushes with extreme fury to doom us all.

The mangy (devil) is denervated by Christ and does not have the power that he had. He only stirs with imagination and fear...

Jesus prayer scorches the devil, while fasting cuts his nerves, drives him mad. (Elder Joseph de Hesychast)

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

It is a law of God that the greatest war of demons is fought by the humble, while the unrepentant proud have no war at all. And the enemy knows everyone's Achilles heel. He knows where to strike us to cast us into sin and make us suffer more. He is not a stupid person and to achieve his goal he attacks us with the accompanying "subtle" thoughts. He prefers to knock us out all at once and not with multiple effort, because of his selfishness. And if he finds that in temptation we keep our weapons and defenses to the end, he will think very carefully whether he will fight against us. It becomes problematic for him. Because he won't give us wreaths and awards by fighting us.

It is one thing to fight against the devil, because we are guilty of sin and have given many rights to the devil, and it is another to fight, because we progress in virtues.

The demons after their fall are accustomed and very fond of being mainly in the liquid element and in the sea, because the sea is the opposite of heaven. When Saint John the Theologian went into exile to Patmos, he found there some thermal baths, the so-called hammam. The height of the water in these pools was about 10-20 cm, but because people in these waters did many lewd and carnal perversions with each other, the demons seized power and seized the people and drowned them in a drop of water!

Many demons are concentrated in some seas and exert electromagnetic properties, as is the case for example in the Bermuda Triangle, with the result that all ships that approach these seas disappear! It's a pure demonic synergy! Many all over the world drowned that way! Therefore, when we travel at sea, let us make the sign of the cross with faith and pray.

The greatest achievements of the devil on earth are: a) the fact that he is worshiped as God by some people and b) the fact that he has convinced people that there is no devil and if he does not exist then everything is allowed.

We must know that the devil is the enemy of man, but a defeated and slaughtered enemy. It is a dragon whose head has been cut off, only its tail continues to tremble. He was defeated by Christ forever and will never lift his head again. The fact that there are so much devilish going on in the world does not mean that the devil lifted his head, but that people have lost their right will and went to him voluntarily or with their lives they gave him the right to fight them. Before Christ, the devil was like running a spiritual store and somehow blackmailing people into buying his products. With the resurrection of Christ, Christ has imprisoned and chained the devil in this little shop of his. But the choices of the people are such that people go to the devil's shop. They break open the door and enter to buy the devil's products. That is why we say that we must not give the right to the enemy, because he will use it even to the last antenna.

The devil enters man through his senses. The 3 most important ways to enter are: a) imagination b) eyes and c) touch. (Elder Ephraim, hermitage of Saint Andrew, Mount Athos)

This is not Ephraim, but another ascetic from Mount Athos whom I mistook for elder Ephraim. Nevertheless he is impressive enough and seems warmhearted, so I decided not to delete his picture.

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

The demons do not accuse Christ for their fall, that He is unjust, that He is a lawbreaker, that He is evil, but they say this to us indirectly, by thoughts, to make us hate God.

The angels knew through the Holy Spirit that they were created relatively perfectly and not immutable. They also knew how humble God is. Knowing all this and having so much grace of the Holy Spirit that God has given them, they are unjust to think and imagine their equality with God. However, the devil "invented" it, made the thought of his absolute equality with God, handed it over to his order of angels, and no devil has protested against it. All agreed! There is no justification for the fall of the devil, the commander-in-chief, and his order, when they were assured with so much grace from God, with such a high position of God's knowledge, while he and his angelic order were the teachers of the 9 other orders. Thus they became demons from angels. God did not punish them, but they punished themselves. Therefore, they do not blame God for their downfall.

To the spiritual novices the devil, because of his excessive selfishness, does not make himself appear clearly, but he appears in the form of thoughts. To the spiritually advanced, the devil even appears transformed. Satan never likes to appear as an angel of light, but he only does it when, in his opinion, he is trying to deceive a very spiritual man. It is the most dangerous and extreme state of war that satan wages.

The devil knows all the books inside and out, all the languages of the world, and is the most cunningness of all. All the cunning of all men, of all times, does not make a spoonful of the devil's cunning! He who has fooled all the nations, how can he be fooled by one man? He knows everything and has nothing to envy us. He is the most educated of all. For these reasons, we don't occupy ourselves with him or mess with him. We can overcome him only by the grace of God, humbling ourselves. The problem with the devil is that, although he knows, he does not apply what he knows.

The devil watches how each person thinks and then makes a photocopy of this way of thinking. And on this basis he suggests to us thoughts, as a second our selves, while man thinks that these thoughts are his own, with the result that he accepts them and thus harms himself. The devil watches the souls of men to see who has grace and who does not, and fights them accordingly. It is very difficult for man to discern which thoughts are his own and which are of the devil. He will achieve this only with the gift of discernment.

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

As smoke drives out bees, so frankincense drives out the devil, for the smell of frankincense reminds him of the smell he himself had when he was once in paradise. After his fall, he lost grace, making him very smelly.

The great powers and glories of this world are in the hands of the devil, by Christ's permission, of course. And the devil gives them to everyone who worships him and surrenders his soul to him. That is why many people - organs of the devil - have taken key positions and great positions - positions in the society in which we live. I knew of a case of an actor in America who had signed a contract with the devil with his blood, in order to obtain a great deal of money and fame in exchange for his soul. In five years, the actor achieved what he wanted. In the end he screwed up with the devil and the devil took revenge on him. Do you know how? He pulled off his skin and dressed him upside down with it! His people found him covered in blood in this miserable condition. The man eventually died. See how the devil treats his own... If that's how he treats his own, how will he not treat us?

The Church Fathers say that no one should provoke and tamper with the enemy devil, no matter what spiritual level he is at. To provoke the enemy is pride and because of this God withdraws His Grace, with the result that man is humiliated....

When the devil transforms himself as an angel, he cannot make his light white and make him like the uncreated white light that the real angel radiates, whose light is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. The devil, deprived of the grace of the Holy Spirit, is an imaginary darkness and is forced to take on a created display of light, whereby he appears not as white, but as yellow.

The devil is called the prince of this world, not in the sense that he rules the world, but that he rules the realm of sin and the men who sin without repentance and are therefore the workers of the devil. In theology, the word cosmos (world, universe) sometimes means sin and sometimes man.

The devil has only one thought: to grieve God by damning people. He does not regret what he does, although he knows that what he does will doom himself. He only thinks cunningly and cannot make good thoughts because he lacks humility. And humility scorches him so much that he cannot even hypocritically humble himself!

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

The devil cannot stand true contempt because of his excessive selfishness. He wants man to value him. There was an elder to whom the devil appeared in the form of a wild lion. The old man remained calm, he immediately understood that it was the devil, and in a tone of contempt and ignoration he said to the lion, "Ah, we'll stop with the puppies!" And even before the enemy attacked, with this old man's expression the devil became invisible! It takes courage and bravery of soul, for if anyone had said the same words of the elder with fear, the devil would not have gone away.

The devil is a source of lies, but sometimes he is forced to say things that are true, e.g. by the possessed. Even if it's true, we shouldn't believe them. We must not learn the truth from the source of lies. It's like drinking rippling water from a dirty well.

Wherever innocent blood is shed, that's where the demons make their "hangout". This is how things are and then we say that there are ghosts and haunted houses, when we don't know.

The first carnival player is the devil, who transforms into God's angel, into Christ (except the form of the crucified and risen Christ) and into the Virgin Mary! The devil and all demons can take any shape and size, deceiving our eyes, turning themselves into animals, such as snakes, lizards, etc. All carnivals have devil as their leader, that's why we are not allowed to wear a mask and participate in carnivals. Carnival is a satanic invention. We should also not change our voice and imitate someone else's, when the other person does not see us, in order to confuse him or her. In the same way the devil changes his voice so that we do not understand him. Masquerade players and mimes are severely punished by God, the first punishment being the loss of reason (rationality) from them and then the control of consciousness is noticeably diminished and one loses one's sanity.

Those who have seen Christ in dreams and visions always see Him with the marks of nails in His hands and feet. And because Christ always blesses, the hole in His hand is visible. If the spikes of nails do not appear, then it is the devil turned into Christ. The devil can never take the form of the crucified and risen Christ. When the devil takes the form of Jesus Christ, he says: I am Jesus Christ! And he says it to the one to whom he appears, that he might worship him and become possessed. When Christ appears, he never says such a thing, because He is humble and simply says "I AM", knowing that he to whom He appears has the discernment to recognize Him.

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

The devil comes and beats me mercilessly. He says to me, "Don't tell them so plainly. Let them sleep. Don't let them wake up..."

God has satan, just as man has a dog. He lets go of the rope a bit, to see how long you can hold it. And then he pulls it, when he sees that you cannot keep the war against satan for long. (Elder Ambrosios Lazaris)

Do you know what kind of craftsman the tempter is? The smallest things he makes big. He uses big politics.

Don't be oppressed by the devil. He appears in sheep's clothing, that he supposedly wants the sake of your soul... (Elder Amfilochios Makris)

The devil has 2 weapons, with which he gives the sinful man the last straw. For the sensitive he has the weapon of despair and despondency and for the insensitive he has the weapon of indolence and rebellion. The devil approaches sensitive people and sows thoughts like, "What have you done, now there is no hope of salvation for you, no one can save you!" On the contrary, he says to the insensitive: 'Come on, poor you, you are good! And what did you finally do to repent of? You didn't kill anyone! I wish everyone was like you!!!' (Elder Ephraim of Arizona)

The devil fights fiercely and furiously against 2 things. He fights against the monk on the one hand to cause him to be rejected, and on the other hand against the married man to make him divorce.

The devil works on the weaknesses of every person and on that basis he creates scandals and bad situations.

The sight of demons is frightening. The Fathers say that if there was a big cliff next to the sight of the demons, man would rather fall into the cliff than see the sight of demons!

The devil with his wickedness, with his cunning, with his pressure, with his art, managed to gain the upper hand in the minds and desires of men.

We modern people have the same wars, because they are the same demons, they have not changed. So they come to fight us like the old fathers. But they were brave warriors, because they won and grew up. We have it bad. They bring us thoughts, e.g. against our brother and we don't fight against them, we sit and accept them. Why did he say a word to me, why did he look at me obliquely (suspiciously), why did he not serve me, we weave and we weave thoughts and thoughts. And then what happens? We go from bad to worse. We also waste our time and the devil, who is very cunning, rejoices. "Let me fool him now, he says." Time passes and all that is ugly settles in us. It will grow and grow from an ant into a lion! Then he becomes a big lion and when we realize that he has already taken us for a walk and wrapped us up for good, we will stand up, ostensibly to resist, but we will encounter the strength of a lion. And Saint Ephraim says: 'Have you undertook to fight a lion? Be careful lest he crushes your bones!"

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

The devil's "war" will not come by itself if we do not give it a cause. Our passions are at fault, we neglect and do not fight against them. Because we do not avoid the causes, there is no other way, war is coming.

You must learn the cunningness of temptation to escape it, so that it can do you no harm. And beware: when he cannot cast us down with the deeds, he casts us down with the thoughts. He tries to throw man down and then brings reproachful thoughts to him to drive him to despair. Know these things... Never, I emphasize it, accept despair for anything. And say to the thoughts that arise from the tempter: "And if I go to hell, I'll be in a better position than you! I am not afraid, because I can repent and God is all Love''. Never and for nothing despair! (Elder Jerome of Ægina)

Demons can do no harm to us, they can only paint fantasies in our minds, instill in us fantastic and graphic thoughts. They do not present sin to us in its reality, but as it suits them, because they want to imprison us. That is, they make pleasure more figurative. For example, the cunning one tells you, "If you steal this money, you will build an apartment building." You steal them, you start building and you find that you can't continue because there is not enough money. So the cunning one lies, distorts things, just to present us the temptation attractively ...

For example, you are sleeping and you have a bad dream and you panic because you feel that you have sinned. But when you sleep, you do not sin, because you have no will, you do not understand what you are doing, you do not do it. Who made you think you had sinned? The devil. He told you so that you would get upset. But the moment you get upset about it, you really enter the path of sin and failure, because your strength is crushed. (Elder Emilianos Simonopetritis)

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

Hate the demons with all your might, said one of the saints, and be hostile to the body. Of course one thing is hate and another is enmity. If I hate someone, I don't speak to him, while if I'm in enmity, I hit him, I chase him, I attack him. (he does not mean literally destroying the body, but the hard struggle against the fleshly passions through asceticism - constant prayer combined with fasting, night-vigil and prostrations)

If we invoke Christ constantly and tirelessly, He does not give the devil the right to attack us, even with the slander. In other words, He does not allow Him to show us an imaginary figure in the mirror of our intellect, nor to say the slightest word to us. (Emilianos Simonopetritis)

Satan's deception of the right is to instill frustration as a necessity; this devilish dark cloud that clouds the mind, extinguishes the will and makes man capitulate unconditionally.

The devil has no capacity for foresight, nor does he know what man thinks. He infers it from the movements of the emotions and accordingly stimulates the limbs and the senses with impassioned stimuli. When he sees the lust tending towards the image, whether of the thing or of the idea, of which he has instilled the fantasy, he understands that to this goes the desire and intention of man, and then he brings forth the right reasons for subjecting his victim. (Joseph of Vatopedi)

The devil helps us to give alms, to fast, to keep virginity, to build churches, because he knows he can throw us down in pride in this way. Only two things will the devil not let you do: to say, "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me" and to confess. (Nikon Neoskitiotis)

The devil is afraid of the humble, while he loves the proud because he belongs to him. (Elder Eumenios Saridakis)

The devil looks terrible, he is also a coward. He is an ant-lion, as the fathers say. If you give him rights and you are afraid of him, he becomes a lion. But if you fight humbly and ask for the power of the Holy and Life-giving Cross and the Saints, he is an ant. You do it like when we accidentally step on an ant and you scatter them. Therefore be indifferent (to the devil). And if a sin is committed, go to confession quickly, without many words. (Elder Eumenios Saridakis)

With three things the devil takes us to hell: carnal, heresies and magic! (Elder Modestos)

The devil seems to do anything to occupy us as long as our minds are not on Christ and prayer. He hunts to obscure our minds and make us "die" by slackness and negligence. (Elder Makrina Vassopoulou)

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

I recommend that you use 4 irresistible weapons to protect yourself from satan's fiery darts. With these weapons, if you use them with great caution, skill, willingness and courage, you will not only remain invulnerable and harmless to the arrows and traps of the devil, but you will also defeat and destroy him. a) The first weapon against the enemy is the sense of God's presence. “I saw the Lord before me continually, that I should not be shaken” (Psalm 15:8; Acts 2:25). He who day and night in every circumstance thinks and meditates well that God is omnipresent and always before him, cannot sin. b) The second weapon is to get used to praying unceasingly: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” Begin to say this prayer as soon as you get out of bed in the morning. Say it when you walk down the street and when you get into a car, train, ship, plane; and also while you work, eat, drink, and at every hour and every occasion. But say it with your heart, with faith, reverence, love, desire, and force. Not that the mouth says "Lord Jesus Christ", while the mind and heart say otherwise, something devious and opposite c) The third weapon against the devil is humility, it est do not be arrogant, but keep your mindset humble. Have the realization that what you have is not yours, but God's. That is, your body and soul, health and strength, wisdom, wealth and everything else you have, even the virtues, the charity deeds, the prayers, the fasting, the almsgiving, everything, are all gifts of God's grace, without Him we can do no good. So if you have a humble mindset, God will keep you and protect you. Because God is moved by the humble and watches over them, as the Holy Spirit says in the book of Proverbs. If the Holy Spirit rests in the hearts of humble people, how is it possible for the devil to approach? and d) Finally, the fourth weapon against the snares and temptations of the devil, is love, the pure, the true, from the whole soul. Whoever has this love has God with him, who is Love: "God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him" (1 John 4:16). If man has God as his protector and helper, whom shall he fear? Wherever you go, the darkness goes away; where the truth is, the lie flees; where God is, the devil vanishes like lightning. Use these 4 weapons and beg God to help and support you. And if you as a human are affected by the devil, run immediately to the doctor, to confessor, for repentance and confession. Ask for therapy and you will have it... (Elder Filotheos Zervakos)

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

The devil tempts us on 8 points which are the following:
1) The temptations from above, which are of 2 kinds: The first kind arises when we begin to engage in an unruly and reckless exercise beyond our powers, e.g. excessive fasting, many prostrations, etc. The second kind of temptation occurs when we study the Bible without being in the right frame of mind, with the result that if someone does not guide us in it, we fall into heresy and blasphemy
2) The temptation from below: He tempts us with indifference and laziness to accomplish the works of virtue and the commandments of God.
3) The temptation from the right: This temptation is again of 2 kinds: the first kind is when we do the good works with bad intentions, while the second is when we accept the appearance of demons in the form of angels and saints, or in the form of Christ, the Virgin Mary and other forms from heaven
4) The temptation from the left: the devil tempts us from the left when we know sin, but with our will we decide to do it anyway
5) The temptation from the front : the devil tempts us in advance when he presents us with thoughts and fantasies about things that should happen to us in the future. All this is brought into our minds by the imaginary enemy to disturb and trouble us with what we think will come upon us.
6) The temptation from behind: We are tempted from behind when the demons trouble us in our minds with the works we did in the past, when we were children or young people, and with the sins we committed
7) The temptation from within: We are tempted from within by the tingling of the passions that come from our heart. We are liberated from the passions of our heart through the unceasing prayer and tears of repentance
8) The temptation from without: It comes from the passions, which enter our soul through the five (physical) senses or as they are called the windows of the soul. (Elder Cleopa Ilie (from Romania))

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

God allowed the devil to tempt man, in order to make him stronger in faith, to put all his hopes in God alone and not in his powers, and that man may receive greater rewards from God. God allows satan to tempt man, but He never allows the devil to bring temptation beyond the power of man's faith (1 Cor. 10:13).
The Christian can remain invulnerable to the snares of the devil when he performs good works, especially prayer, fasting, humility, love, confession, repentance, almsgiving, and long-suffering.

Satan has no power or authority to rule, deceive, or force the will of man to sin. He simply leads him into temptation with various tricks, fantasies and memories, with the senses, with the weaknesses of nature, with the pleasures, with the thoughts. Satan never reveals his face to man, he does not immediately reveal himself as man's enemy. But he fights secretly or openly through evil men, using all kinds of tricks so that he does not reveal himself, for his goal is our fall and our damnation. He is called the tempter and the father of lies, because he wants to lead us to sin with his temptations and lying snares. Satan thereby blackmails our will, arouses the passions and carnal desires of soul and body, creates opportunities for committing sins, always turns our minds to our falls, but has no will and permission from God to compel us to sin, for then we would have no guilt, nor punishment, and none would be delivered from his snares. (Cleopa Ilie)

If we reject the evil proposal (to sin) of the devil, then this "negative" thought returns to him with great speed and great force and strikes him! The Holy Fathers say that when we reject the evil proposal of the devil, we gain the victory, without even fighting!
Demons are invisible, but we lend them our bodies by accepting the thoughts they present to us so that they become visible in us.
The devil even teaches young children to oppose their parents. Because he knows that if people oppose their parents from an early age, they will easily be led by him for a lifetime. (Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnitsa, Serbia)

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

The evil spirits fight us mainly in the following ways: Firstly, with the passionate thoughts, by which they capture, darken and persuade the mind to consent to sin. Secondly, with the passions that are within us, with which they take the opportunity to stir up passionate thoughts. Thirdly, with the bodily senses—hearing, touch, taste, smell, and especially sight—through which, as through the doors, various external stimuli pass to the soul, arousing our passions and driving us into sin. Fourthly, through other people, whom they use to either dupe us and wrong us, or to drag us into sin. Fifthly, through sorrow, suffering and disease.
However the demons fight us, they can do us no harm at all, because with the divine mysteries of baptism and anointing we have received the grace and gifts of the Holy Spirit; because we have deep faith in God and because we struggle for obedience to His commandments with fortitude and courage, with humility and patience, with prayer and fasting, with regular confession and frequent Holy Communion.

Each sin is committed with the admonition or even synergy (cooperation) with a particular demon, and each passion is sustained by a particular demon. Thus the leading demons are eight, as are the deadly passions: of gluttony, fornication, greed, sorrow, anger, slackness, vainglory, pride. Every evil spirit that fights against us acts in its own way, depending on the passion it supports. However, all demons work together to immerse us in as many passions as possible and to make us slaves to sin, to separate us from God and lead us to eternal death. Of course, the power of demons is not uncontrollable and their activity is not unlimited. They fight us only as God permits them and just as much as He permits them, never beyond the limits of our endurance (1 Cor. 10:13), to try our will, our faith, and our love to Him, to see if we give them rights over ourselves by our negligence, our slackness, our carelessness and most importantly our pride. (Elder Efstratios Golovansky)

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

If your thought tells you to "steal" and you obey, in this way you give the demon power over you. If your thought tells you "eat a lot, until you are full" and you eat a lot, then the demon rules over you again. And so, if the thought of every passion overcomes you, you will become the abode of demons. But if you start with due repentance, the demons will begin to tremble and they will be forced to leave.
If you ever see demons, don't be afraid, but humble yourself and the demons will disappear. But if you are gripped by fear, you will not avoid evil. Be brave. Remember that the Lord sees you when you put your hope in Him. (Elder Sophronius of Essex)

The devil never starts the battle from the great and grave sins. He prefers to contend to convince man to make a small transgression in a small mistake. He has a better chance of success here. It is easier to achieve a small subordination. Thus begins the dismantling and descent. The small leads to the bigger. And slowly man reaches the ultimate misery... Why? Because he didn't pay attention to the first mistake. Judas did not immediately become a traitor. He started by stealing a small amount, went on for bigger ones, became a prisoner of greed, was led to the betrayal of His Master. The beginning of the greatest evil always happens in an imperceptible way. The great burglars started by stealing an egg. And the big scammers started their work with some harmless lies. What seems small and insignificant is indeed the most dangerous. Saint John Chrysostom, speaking on this subject, said that precisely because people think that sin is small, he regrets it and is more concerned. The devil's terrible and successful trick is to push us toward apparently minor mistakes. He seeks a first subordination. If we give it to him, he makes a kind of occupation in our souls and weaves the nets of our captivity. Small and insignificant detail in the whole mechanism of the car - the pin that holds the wheel. But if it is missed, the wheel goes away and misfortune follows. A battle was once lost by a nail. A nail was missing from the horseshoe of the horse the general was riding. During the fight, due to the looseness caused, both the second and third nails fell off. Then the whole horseshoe fell off. The horse without a horseshoe stumbled, fell, threw the rider underfoot and killed him. The headless army was defeated ... (Archbishop of Athens and all Greece Christodoulos)

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

Very often when a Christian fights in the right way, he is attacked by the demon. The first attack he will make on you is the so-called "stiffening". He grabs you, squeezes you and stiffens your whole body! Like an ant that we hold between our fingers. There is nothing a man can do if he is seized by a demon. But the soul that utters the name of Jesus Christ makes the devil not to endure it and goes away... (Markellos Karakallinos)

Many people suffer great damage in their lives, e.g. in their company. And if they are financially ruined, do they say that God has punished them, when in fact the devil has punished them. They started the business with the devil and the devil is ruining it for them. God simply allows the devil to ruin it for their benefit. (Nikolas Fanariotis)

The devil tries to rob us of our love by not being patient with one another. And if he succeeds in cooling our love, he easily separates us from the love of God. Then we are naked of Divine Grace and easily attainable... (Stefanos Anagnostopoulos)

We don't easily understand the devil's cunningness and let's leave out the many words, because every day we all step on the banana peel (we kind of fall into the devil's pitfalls). The devil takes advantage of our spiritual inexperience. (Stefanos Anagnostopoulos)

Our enemy, the devil, always fights against us. Especially if we don't spoil him. Then from his wickedness he finds... a thousand ways to tempt us. (Dimitrios Gagastathis)

In the past, the thieves would knock the horseshoe backwards on their horses to deceive their pursuers, who searched for their tracks. Satan does the same: he wears his shoes backwards and confuses us. Both when he enters our hearts, and when he pretends to leave soon. That's why you need a good greyhound to catch it. The good greyhound is the good confessor. (Gervasios Paraskevopoulos)

The devil has 3 weapons: a) surprise b) surprise attack and c) disappointment. (Athanasios Mytilineos)

The devil fights against us with 3 weapons: the unreasonable anger, the irrational desire and the above all - shameless fantasy. And we resist it with 3 weapons respectively: prayer, fasting and faith. (Athanasios Mytilineos)