Meditation, fasting etc

[christian-surfer]

This is something that I have thought about. I heard some stories that people had practiced some form of meditation and then they said satan or some negative force appeared to them. They them took it to mean that they should not practice meditation. However, Jesus went out in the desert for 40 days and fasted and then satan appeared to him. Given the same logic, why would you spend 40 days in the desert fasting if the end result is that satan is going to appear ? If you meditate and satan appears then you can say “I cast you out Satan “ but by the same logic, I am not sure that it means meditation is bad. Of course there are many different ways to meditate and I have also heard that many people have wrong ideas about it or how to practice.

 

[David Lamb]

This is something that I have thought about. I heard some stories that people had practiced some form of meditation and then they said satan or some negative force appeared to them. They them took it to mean that they should not practice meditation. However, Jesus went out in the desert for 40 days and fasted and then satan appeared to him. Given the same logic, why would you spend 40 days in the desert fasting if the end result is that satan is going to appear ? If you meditate and satan appears then you can say “I cast you out Satan “ but by the same logic, I am not sure that it means meditation is bad. Of course there are many different ways to meditate and I have also heard that many people have wrong ideas about it or how to practice.

Satan will want to attack Christians whenever they do anything spiritual, whether it's praying, reading the bible, meeting with other believers, evangelising, fasting. That is why we need the heavenly armour described in Ephesians 6.

 

[prodromos]

This is something that I have thought about. I heard some stories that people had practiced some form of meditation and then they said satan or some negative force appeared to them. They them took it to mean that they should not practice meditation. However, Jesus went out in the desert for 40 days and fasted and then satan appeared to him. Given the same logic, why would you spend 40 days in the desert fasting if the end result is that satan is going to appear ? If you meditate and satan appears then you can say “I cast you out Satan “ but by the same logic, I am not sure that it means meditation is bad. Of course there are many different ways to meditate and I have also heard that many people have wrong ideas about it or how to practice.

Or perhaps Jesus knew He was going to face Satan, and the 40 day fast was preparation for the encounter. Remember the demon the disciples were unable to cast out? Jesus said that kind only comes out through prayer AND fasting.