Devil In Mind
Human beings think more than they breathe. In just a breath we can have many thoughts and that is something we don’t conceive of. We don’t consider that all the thoughts we have form our character, our personality. Our thoughts give us our identity, represent who we are. This occurs to such an extend, that an American philosopher says “you are what you think”
Our entire life is a result of our thoughts. With our thoughts we can change our future for example, Our future is not given is not written , there is no “kismet”. We will decide on our future. Our thoughts can make even God’s opinion about our future to change
As outrageous or unimaginable that this might seem, it’s in the Bible teachings (Old Testament) We see it for example in Jonah’s story and the city of Nineveh. The citizens of this big city of the time, were fallen into sin and God decided to destroy the city, “Nineveh shall be destroyed”.
God took a decision for the future of the city Jonah’s went to his fellow citizens and preached for repentance and the whole population did regret and consequently God changed His decision. “He relented and did not bring on them the destruction He had threatened” (Jonah 3) and the population was saved. This is what can happen from a change of mind which can affect our future.
We have to make a distinction here. There is a difference between the word “thought” and the word “logismos” (greek word meaning the thought that insists and keeps coming again and again) Sometimes they do concur and have the same meaning as it means an idea, a thought, a notion But “logismos” is the insisting thought and not the one that passes by, the one that comes and comes again, which keeps bothering us. These insisting thoughts have tremendous power not only in our lives in the present or in our future, but even to our bodies
Let’s give an example of how a thought can affect our bodies.
I was in a monastery ,one father (monk) could not eat sesame paste he detested it , but he loved “halvas” (kind of candy) So he ate “halva” often and it was one of his favorite things to eat, until another monk asked him, “How come that you detest sesame paste and love halva?” And the first one answered “Why? , How do you associate these 2 things , what’s their connection?” “the main ingredient of halva is sesame paste” said the other one. At the moment the first monk heard that ,he felt nauseous and started vomiting. This thought affected his body to react in such a way.
There is a very good psychiatrist in Athens who has a well known dean as a spiritual Father. This psychiatrist had a patient, a lady with a major psychological problem and due to her treatment he brought some very rare and expensive drugs from Holland. He explained to the lady to be very careful to hear and implement the drug therapy with accuracy ,because these drugs were very rare and it would be so difficult to have them again soon. So he gave her all the instructions and steps of the therapy. She heartily thanked him for his concern and efforts that the doctor did especially for her case and she took the drugs and followed the instructions step by step and she was healed. She was cured and she praised God because she was suffering over 10 years with this illness and these medicines made her all well.
What is the main point here? That these drugs were just candies, there were not pills. This is what thought can do, how it essentially can affect the body. Unfortunately it can not only have a positive effect on the body like the lady in this case ,but also negative.
I will tell you another incident which is beyond any imagination but is 100% true. I can tell you the name of the doctor when I finish the speech. This doctor says, that a relative of him went to a magician (one, who saw the future in some crystals) who told him that he had a heart problem and he would die in the next full moon. The doctor’s relative was healthy, full of energy and generally happy but he had a very good opinion for this famous magician and trusted her a lot.
The magician saw a crystal and foretold the future of each person and many of these did really happen. That’s why she had such a reputation and had gained the confidence of the doctor’s relative. In his case she had made a negative suggestion and he accepted this thought. He was terrified and his mind stuck to this idea that he was going to die in the next full moon. He actually started to talk to his intimates as he prepared the inheritance issues, made his will and this terrible submission was finally fulfilled because he believed it completely. He died. He really died without a significant health problem. This is the power of insisting thoughts both for good and for bad.
Insisting thoughts are divided into 3 types , let’s separate them.
First are our own thoughts, our ideas, these that a human mind can produce.
Secondly are these that the devil brings to us. We say for example “a thought came by” and we can not imagine how accurate and spot on we are, by saying this sentence. It’s correct that it was brought to you, literally someone brought it to you. The Devil is a spirit and as that he can brush thoughts in our minds. So there are our own thoughts, thoughts that come from The Devil and thirdly thoughts that good God send us.
How can we distinguish them?
In order to concern for our own thoughts and the thoughts that God send us and reject the ones that devil brings to us?
How can we do this discrimination in our insisting thoughts?
It is very simple . We can not do it. By no means can we make this distinction of our thoughts, God’s and Devil’s. This needs extreme spiritual knowledge, extreme efforts. The Fathers of our church say that the charisma of distinguishing these thoughts is the greatest virtue.
Then how shall we accept God’s thoughts in order to live and reject bad thoughts from our own or by devil in order not to perish?
Generally we accept good thoughts and discard the bad ones It seems simple but it isn’t.
Because immediately two problems arise.
First, how a bad thought is confronted and rejected and secondly when is a good thought is brought by the devil?
How can we know that it comes from the devil to turn it down?
Because, we very well know that the time when the devil appeared with horns and tail is way back.
He has now changed form, He knows to disguise
He comes as a brilliant idea, as a man with many gifts ,as a politician with eloquence, as a cleric who will fascinate you with his speeches.
How can we figure out that the devil is behind all this?
When we have a bad thought it’s easy to reject it but when it comes like a nice idea deriving from the devil what can we do?
In Old Testament it says “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death” (Proverbs 14:12)
There is a path that you start to walk and it seems good and useful and at the end death is awaiting. How can we recognize that, in order not to start this effort that will lead us to death?
For the first one, of how we deal and reject a bad thought, I will give a small plan, a plan of how this bad thought progresses so that you can remember it
Each thought has a development for example, we pass along a brothel or we see a wallet on the ground.
The idea comes, “get in” or “take it.”
This stage of thinking is called “infection”.
It attacks , it strokes us We repel it , deny it, we say “no I won’t go in” or ” I won’t take the wallet I found.”
The thought insists “get in, just to take a look, there could be something awesome” or “the wallet seems overfull, the owner shouldn’t have a financial problem”
We still send away this thought “no” but it still keeps coming.
At this stage, “infection”, we are not responsible before God for this thought, however bad and sinful it is. We are innocent before God.
So, this insisting thought comes again, we repel it , it comes again we reject it and this second stage is called “struggle, fight”
We are wrestling with this idea
So, for the first stage we are not responsible for the “infection”.
But for the second , the “struggle” ,we are not only not responsible, but we will receive a wreath from God. We will receive a spiritual wage from God because we do fight ,reject the bad idea, although it is so difficult to subdue it, to prevail over the temptation and the wish that is trying to lure us.
From this fight for the love of God we will have benefits, we will be saved.
On the other hand, if we start to discuss it over, in our minds and say “ok I will go in just to see if the girl is beautiful, I won’t do anything else and I will exit.” or “I will take the wallet and I will do a charity, there is a lot of money, I will keep a small amount and I will help someone with the rest.”
From this stage and onward our fault begins.
We are not yet guilty, but the sin begins and is called “combination” or “coupling”.
We are trying to find excuses, to make it easy, from that point the guilt begins.
From the moment we say in our mind “I get in” or “I’ll take it” the story is finished.
We are guilty before God. It doesn’t matter if we finally get in or take the wallet, because this can depend on external factors like someone see us at the time we want to enter and we feel shame and leave.
This doesn’t matter as the bad thought has won us in our mind.
These are the four stages of the insisting thought: the “infection”, the “struggle”, the “combination” and the “consent”. From “consent” everything starts.
There is nothing harmful that we can do without consenting firstly in our minds.
There are truly very few bad things or sins or crimes that we can do from carelessness, due to recklessness, inattention or negligence.
Most of the time we must assent to commit the evil thing in our mind first and we do it afterwards.
So if this evil thing doesn’t occur inside us then it won’t ever occur outside us.
That is the meaning of Jesus words “anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:28) and also in Holy Bible it says, “Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer” (1 John 3:15). He will be judged as a murderer and the Fathers of the church speak about envy which can result in murder.
When you envy and are jealous of someone you have already killed him in your heart. It is a potential murder. That’s why Jesus insisted, “First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.” (Matthew 23:26)
Otherwise ,however nice you look externally “You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.”(Matthew 23:27)
That’s why we pay such great attention to these thoughts.
We have mentioned the stages of these thoughts, which are four. We are also going to relate four ways to deal with them. All these might be interlarded, enriched and branched.
We will just refer to a skeleton, a framework and speak telegraphically, just a simple scheme easy to remember.
So how do we fend off the insisting thought? We repel it right from the start. We shouldn’t allow it to take root inside us. At the moment it comes we repulse it straight away when it is obvious that it is evil. Send it away immediately before it strengthens inside you.
It seems like you know a killer is right outside your street door and knocking. If you don’t open up to him he is quite away and you are safe. If you open the street door and let him in, he is now pretty close. Now you have to make much greater effort to send him away from your yard.
If you still open your door and let him in your house, he will step inside and start knocking on your room door and then it’s much more difficult to put him out. If you open your room then you will start to fight against him and it ends up to be an even harder thing to send him away.
The same thing happens with an illness. You are in the first symptoms of it and your doctor gives you some medicines to take, to have a short therapy. You do obey, you are saved.
You don’t obey, you are getting worse. You will then need more pills, antibiotics, greater therapy.
You don’t follow the instructions, then you will need surgery and you don’t know if you will live in the end.
That’s why straight away ,when we are sure that something is evil we have no excuse, we send it away at once.
We don’t want to think badly. We don’t want to accept bad thoughts. Yes but how can that be done?
You see, it needs practice, like everything new we learn it needs practice, with insistence, little by little. We have to learn to be awake, sharp witted, and not to be abstracted.
When someone talks to us we should pay attention to what he is saying. If our mind buzzes off, we must pull it together if I forgot myself, or lost a point that he mentioned. Wherever our body is, there should be our mind also and not elsewhere, the body, ourself and our mind.
There was a communist, a fanatic one. During the civil war the opposite side killed his mother and father, his sister have being raped at the age of nine and afterwards slaughtered along with his brothers. His dream was, as he told father Nikon, to kill a ranger and then die. Not to pass away before killing a gendarme, a policeman.
But human life has inversions, things have been changed and he became a faithful christian. He became a monk and he came to mount Athos.
His body did come but the mind?
His elder was asking him at a time, “Where were we today, my son?” and he replied ” Oh my elder, we were with Lenin and Krupskaya (Lenin’s wife) sermonizing the ideas of communism in this place..” and his elder was smiling.
“say the prayer my son, Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me” in order to recollect the mind
A week later the elder asked, “How are we doing my son, Where are your thoughts?”
“Well my elder ,we are in Greece, we are emending Greece those things shouldn’t happen in that meeting of my comrades, they should have taken other decisions”,
The elder was smiling. After some time, “How is it going my son?”
“My elder, we have arrived in Ouranoupoli “(the city right before entering mount Athos) and the next time, “How is it going my son?” “Well my elder, the superintendency didn’t decide correctly on that occasion”. The monk’s mind had entered into the Holy Mountain affairs. The monasteries should resolve a specific issue differently, he was correcting Mount Athos decisions now.
After a little while “How is it going my son?” “Well my elder we are around our place “skiti” (very small monasterial community).
Little by little only. We can not recollect our mind in a instant, to be in its proper status when in all our previous lifetime had let it go away, to let it get accustomed to that and when time comes for us to pray or do spiritual work or even to read something and absorb this knowledge, then we must pay attention to this task.
It is not easy to gather our mind on this particular moment, when all day long it goes around collecting “trash” and “garbage”. That’s why from the moment we awake in the morning, little by little, we must try to keep the mind in its position.
Where am I? I’m here, What am I doing? I do this work
This may look insignificant, but it is important that you bring your thoughts to here and now and this can be practiced and gotten used to and finally the mind learns to keep this state.
These are things that we have seen, learned, lived and know that it is so and are so simple that you can see by yourself the truth of it.
Alright, but what are we going to think?
The mind can’t stay blank, it has to think of something. We can not think constantly of the paper we read. We have to think of something.
What should we do? Simply put, we will not fill the mind with a thousand of matters.
The mind can’t stay still, immobile, it always needs something.
There is an Hindu saying, about how we can think positively.
It says that if you put an elephant into a room , there is nothing else that can get in.
Exaggeration, but very characteristic.
The Fathers of Orthodox church say “consider positively, so you don’t consider negatively, think good to not think bad, see good to not see bad, listen to good to not listen to bad.
The mind can’t stay unmoving. It needs to be fed, it works ,so you’ll give it good tasks not to be space for evil things.
This is the second way.
There is a petition in Eucharist before Holy Communion that says “bury through my kindness thoughts all the devious consultations”
The mind can’t stay still, but by kind thoughts we will bury the evil cogitations. We shall throw them away, We won’t allow them any space.
The first way ,as we said, is the repulsion, straight away.
The second is not to allow any room for them.
The third is to avoid the causes that give birth to such thoughts.
Beware, we can’t say that I will not think whorish, fleshly thoughts and on the other hand to view porn films, or magazines or open tv on programs that we know what we will see and simultaneously claim that we shall keep our mind clean
We shall avoid the causes that produce the evil thoughts that rule us and we wish to repel.
You can’t say that I won’t think bad, I’ll think good when you hear indecent songs
They will get stuck in your head. You must avoid the causation places.
There is a case in the Bible when God says Lot to leave Sodom and Gomora and go, not only away from them, not to the suburbs, but climb the mountains to be saved.
There was a young person addicted to narcotics who went to elder Paiessios (contemporary Saint, monk on mount Athos who reposed in 1994)
Elder Paisios told him, “What can I do for you my boy as you are like the one who wants to quit smoking and at the same time hangs about the tobacco store. He won’t buy the first time, nor the second, but the third he will.”
You must drive away even from the places which generate troubles for you, apart from looking out for what you think. The Fathers say “get away and get saved”.
When I was an undergraduate (father Nikon) we got ready to see a film , a shameful one and I asked another friend if he was coming with us. The other one asked, “would Christ go to that film?” “What did you say?” father Nikon asked back. It’s easy said the other one, when I want to go somewhere I ask myself if Christ would go there and if my consciousness says yes , I go. Father Nikon was amazed by that reasoning. His friend had found a way to avoid the places that could trap him.
Things are pretty simple, as long as we learn, remember and practice them.
This was the third way, avoiding the causes.
Now, the problem is that we want something but we can’t do it.
We want to repulse the thought straight away but we can’t.
We want to avoid the places that will lead us to a fall but we can’t.
We want to have kind thoughts instead of bad ones but we can’t.
The Apostle Paul says, “I can do everything.” How does he say that? What does he mean by that?
Every human mind has a maximum experience of about 100 years as we usually can’t live more, we die. The Devil has the experience of centuries. How can we confront him, how could the apostle Paul?
“I can do all this through Him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13) he says.
When Jesus Christ strengthens me I can do all things. Jesus Christ said “apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). We can’t do anything without Christ’s aid. Even with our attitude to go to the spiritual father, we bring a wound to the devil’s wishes. The time the priest is saying the absolution prayer, he is gone (the devil).
We can not be humble to the air, there is no meaning in self humility. It is of great importance to be humble before another one for the love of Christ, to preserve Christ’s precept.
Only in practice will you see that these are true. The way, practically, so many millions people in the passage of 2000 years learned them, in this way you can ascertain them by yourself.
We have already said that the time has passed when devil appeared with horns and tail.
Nowadays he’s coming like a nice thought. We can pull through a thought we know is bad, with the 4 ways I told you before: repulsion, don’t leave space, avoiding the causes and the sacraments of church.
But… When the devil comes as a kind thought? When it is coming like a dear friend? How can we then understand it?
Brethren there are numerous species of demons and there are 2 ways of demonism.
There are 2 ways that the devil can totally dominate someone.
There are some thick demons. The demons of gluttony, fornication and avarice.
Everything we feel is not always from natural causes.
In a neighboring monastery there was a father who, all of the sudden, started to eat a lot more than average. He ate 10 loaves of bread per day but he wasn’t fat.
Where did all this food go? 10 loaves of bread per day. Where were they going?
The other fathers were concerned and read prayers over him and after a week he recovered and he, who ate 10 loaves of bread and was still hungry, now he was satisfied with 2 slices of bread.
We can recount a lot of stories on these issues.
Fornication demon, anger demon, gluttony demon ,these are thick demons.
But there are other demons, princes, masters, sharp like blades and alas to him who falls in their hands. There is nothing that can save one from them. If God doesn’t help this man miraculously, he is in great danger.
Such a demon is pridefulness, the demon of heresy, the demon of fallacy.
The one who believes a fallacy can’t deny his fallacy even if his skin is scuffed.
As I told you there are 2 kinds of demonism.
The first one is when the devil conceives your mind, dominates your thoughts and makes you accept whatever thought you have.
This is the way the sagacious are demonized, the clever brainy people as they fall into great pridefulness. The Devil dominates their brain totally and from then on they believe all of their thoughts as correct and true. The terrible thing is that they have no idea that something’s going wrong. All the others near them apprehend that something’s wrong except themselves.
This is the devil’s cunning, craft and ingenuity
Not ingenuity to speak correctly but slyness, because if the devil was clever he would repent and be saved.
Saint Ephrem the Syrian tells how wise the enemy is as he doesn’t bind me with trammels that I hate but ties me with trammels I love and enjoy being leashed; Being beaten, slaved by something and to be happy for it.
There is devil’s slyness.
When he comes as a gift, as a virtue, dressed up in the garment of freedom, “I’m free to do whatever I want.”
That’s why I have mentioned before, that unless God helps the man who is demonized like that and his mind is occupied he can’t ever escape, as he doesn’t have a sense of his condition.
I only know one person, one writer who did understand his condition but he couldn’t do anything about it.
You can’t do anything.
As it is said it’s like the evil is in control of your mind and drives you wherever he wants, instead of your own will.
If a person is demonized like that he can’t do much, as it means that he has given a lot of privileges to devil.
The result in this incident was what?
The devil had persuaded this person that he’s the new messiah and he will save humanity and such a clever man as this writer accepted that. He reached to the point to write to a dean in USA (I have his writings):
“Son of the thunder, let us prepare. We ought, undoubtedly, to establish churches in several places. We are 3, it doesn’t matter”
A companionship of 3, him, the dean and another, they would establish his church.
“It doesn’t matter we are 3 persons”
Jesus Christ needed 12, as He was more impotent. He needed more persons to help Him but this man needed just another 2.
He had such a troubled mind. And he continued in his letter:
“You have to found a battalion in the USA. I will found one in Berlin and one in Poland, the first churches and along is Lefteries (the third one). The apostolic routes will start, the struggles, the martyrdoms. An ecumenical council should take place in 2-3 years.”
Now take notice, in order for the first ecumenical council to happen which meant to gather bishops from the whole world and discuss the first heresy of Christianity it took 300 years but the new religion of this poor man was so much more superior than Christ’s, his philosophy so much deeper, that in only the following 3 years he would be misapprehended.
Which means that in these 3 years his sermon would spread whole over the world, churches would have been founded, and priests would preach his teaching as would bishops and deans and within 3 years he would be misapprehended and an ecumenical council should be necessary.
And you think, is this man ok, is he ok? Is he foolish?
As a matter of fact he is one of the smartest persons in Greece and the whole world.
How did he end up like that?
Fathers of the Orthodox church call this situation “captivity”.
When devil captivates your mind, from then on you are gone; you can’t do much,
He manipulates you as he desires.
That’s why we must not stay alone with our thoughts and point of views.
We must discuss them, we must take advice. We must not try to impose our ideas to the others by force.
We should listen to others. We mustn’t rely on our own thoughts. We must learn to back down. We must accept advice. We should go to the spiritual fathers. We should confess in a simple way without many details. We also have to listen to the advice of the spiritual father.
The Bible says the man who doesn’t accept advice is an enemy of himself (Solomon wisdom)
The person who doesn’t ask things is an enemy of himself, he needs no other enemy.
As long as you don’t ask, you have the one who will destroy you.
The Devil doesn’t fear our smartness or our knowledge, he has much more, nor our virtues, he has more. There is only one he misses and this is deadly for him and we are saved by this one.
Which is that virtue that misses and kills him?
Once, I achieved something and I went full of pride to my elder.
By the way I looked he understood that something was wrong and before telling him a lot he replied, “Why should we brag about my boy? Why should we feel proud because we fast and eat a little? The devil fasts more than us, he doesn’t eat at all. Because we stay up, we wake up at night and sleep a little? The devil never sleeps. Because we have self restraint and keep our virginity? The Devil is more virgin than us because even if he wants to do it he can’t as he has no body”
And so I was brought back to earth again.
Whatever virtues we might acquire, the devil has them.
The virtues that the devil had when he was an Archangel we will never obtain and all these virtues were wasted as he was missing one.
This one virtue we shall try to obtain in order to be saved.
So you ought to have in mind that the devil doesn’t fight us only with sins, but the most with virtues. We can understand sins and try to avoid them, but our virtues we strive to acquire them.
A saint of our church says:
“You want to fast devil helps you. You want to make charities the devil helps you, to build churches devil helps you”
Why is that?
Because he knows that helping you do all these he can drive us to pridefulness and lay waste to everything.
We must have then this virtue that the devil didn’t have. We will be humble
That’s exactly what Jesus did as the Bible says, “He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8)
“He parted the heavens and came down” (Samuel 22:10)
We will become humble, We will learn to have a humble spirit to be humble persons not just talk about humility. Not in words but in life, in our way of thinking.
And this means not to consider other people as inferior of us nor to assume ourselfs
as very important. We will admit that we have good aspects but we’ll say “God gave that to me”.
We have some gifts; “God gave these to me”.
We do a kind thing “by the help of God”.
We will have a shelter instantly, We shall put up a shield and we shall engage God in everything and thanks to Him we get around.
That’s how we keep our humility and don’t fall to pride.
There was a visitor who came into my cell (monastic dwelling) and told me, “oh elder that’s too much ,everything is done by you in here?”
” What do you mean?”, I asked.
”I told your submissive (spiritual son) how nice the food was and he replied “the elder, the elder”
I told him about another thing he replied, “the elder, anything I told him “the elder”, So is everything done by you over here?”
He (spiritual son) had found the right way, He did a kind thing “by the wish of my elder, by help of God”
That’s what we should do too. Whatever we do we’ll have a humble feeling in our minds.
We don’t need to “act” humble. We will also be humble in practice, when it is necessary.
For example if we get involved in a deteriorating situation where we have a quarrel with someone, we should back down.
Back down even if we are a 100% right, when the issue is not of great importance, we should back down.
This is merciful for the soul of the other person too, as you don’t give him to the devil.
It needs attention in such cases.
It’s different to be humble from being coward and not a fighter
One thing is to be humble and another is to be a clout collector.
When you backing down again and again and you realize that the other one is taking advantage of that and wants to overrule you then you will stand up and you will defend yourself,
That doesn’t mean you are not humble.
We must take care of that, we shouldn’t let our yielding to be a cause for the other one to sin.
There are occasions when we shall back down because we are humble and for the love of the other and times when we will stand up and confront the other and still be humble.
Jesus Christ Himself gives us the example, as He didn’t teach us only by words but with His life as well.
When they have arrested Him and beat Him mercilessly and He was bleeding all over while He was at the high priest, a soldier came up and gave Him a slap in the face.
Christ’s words were “If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also” (Matthew 5:39)
At the time the soldier slapped Him on the cheek did Christ turn the other? He didn’t but he turned his face upon the soldier and said “If I said something wrong ,testify as to what is wrong but if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?”
What was His point on that?
Exactly this:
Was it possible for Him not to accept a slap when He accepted the cross?
Did the slap hurt Him when He accepted the nails? and the lance and such a martyric death He accepted?
He wanted to show us exactly that cowardice differs from humility.
We should keep that in mind.
We will be humble and we will know how to struggle at the same time.
Let’s go back again,
We shouldn’t forget the power of our thoughts and the devil we’ve said.
The Prophet Isaiah said ”he became devil by his thoughts” and also “You said in your heart” which means in your mind, you thought it.
“I will ascend to the heavens, I will raise my throne above the stars of God I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights ” (Isaiah 14:13)
The Devil’s fall happened before the creation of the world, God hadn’t create humankind yet The Devil didn’t kill anyone as there were no humans at the time
He didn’t lie or fool anybody as the world didn’t exist.
The creation of the spiritual world and lucifer’s fall happened first and then followed the creation of the material world.
With only his thought then he became the devil. That’s the power of thoughts.
Across from the “skiti”(small monasterial community) I lodge, high on the edge of the mountain there is a cell difficult to discern.
This was the cell of a spiritual monk in the past.
Allow me to read you an amazing story that happened in this cell skipping many details
The spiritual monk’s name was “papa Savvas”
Among the many monks that papa Savvas confessed there was a Romanian deacon who came on mount Athos at a young age and cloistered somewhere in the desert (lonly area in the Holy mountain) not too long from St. Anna.
This happened some many years ago.
“My spiritual father” says one day the deacon sorrowfully said,
“please, don’t forget to memorialize in tomorrow’s liturgy my mother that has her third which means that she died 3 days ago
.Papa Savvas trying to hide his suspense asked him “tell me my son, your mother have died before 3 days, in Romania. How did you know about her death in these 2 days?”
There was a little silence. At the time they had no telephones, like I (father Nikon) do not have electric current in my “skiti”
They didn’t have telephones.
“How did I learn” the Romanian said waveringly “Well I was told”
“Who told you?”
“Well, my guardian angel told me”
“Your guardian angel, have you seen him?”
“I was blessed to see him, not once or twice, but almost for 2 years now.
He comes along and accompanies me while praying. We say together the greetings for Holy Mary, we do penances, we discuss spiritual themes”
The words “2 years” embittered papa Savvas a lot
“and how come you didn’t mention anything to me for all this time my son?”
“My angel told me that it’s not necessary”
“Are you completely sure that this is an angel that appears to you my son?”
“Absolutely certain my father, we do pray together, we do 1000 penances daily we talk about the life hereafter, for the future in heavens, He is my guardian angel” and the deacon seemed assured but he was still receptive, because he had great trust in his spiritual father enlightened by God.
On the other hand he wandered how can a demon reinforce him in prayers, as he is fighting against the praying people.
After a lot of discussions they agreed to resort to some tests. To have some trials for the guardian angel. “Ask him when he returns to say the pray Mother of God Virgin Mary” said papa Savvas “and also ask him to do the cross sign”
But things weren’t so simple
When for 2 years the deacon was wreathed in fallacy, then his eyes and ears were imagining that the angel did what he was asked.
In the next meeting the deacon announced with a hidden joy to the spiritual father
“My elder, things are just as i’ve told you, he is God’s angel, my guardian angel and he prayed the Mother of God and he did the cross sign”
I skip many things.
The saints and Angels know what we think, but beware the devil doesn’t have the powers we think
We shouldn’t exaggerate about his capabilities, as he has great disadvantages, many minuses.
I will not refer to any other thing but this, that he doesn’t know what we are thinking
Take notice on that, the Angels know what we think.
The saints, not only those who are in heaven, but those who are among us when they see us they know what we are thinking. The Devil doesn’t.
What happens with thoughts then?
The Devil puts in our minds a thought, he doesn’t know if we accepted that but if he sees that we are changing our program then he understands that we’ve accepted it.
Let’s say that he puts a fleshly desire, He doesn’t know if we accept it but when he sees our pulse rising, or changing our plans he concludes we’ve allowed it.
He doesn’t know what we are thinking, This is one of his great disadvantages, We’ll talk about others in another time.
So papa Savvas told the deacon, “Listen to what we’ll do. In that instant moment I will think of something”, he thought something against devil, “and I’ll keep that as a secret in mind. You will ask at night the angel to tell you what I thought. If he finds it, he is undoubtedly God’s angel and you should come to inform me”
The deacon was returning to his hut with an unpleasant anxious feeling inside but on the other hand he admired the great idea of his spiritual father.
This situation would face the most important stage. When the angel was asked at night to answer this, a hidden disturbance corrugated his bright face, he seemed discomfit, “but my dear father ,why would an important spiritual person like you, should care for the thoughts of a priest. This is an abjection, poor wishing. Wouldn’t you care more for me to show you heaven and hell, Mother of God’s glory?” but the deacon feeling suspicious insisted ” I do obedience to my father , you have to tell me what he thought”
The angel tried to change the subject again but the deacon persisted and these evasion tactics made him more suspicious.
“You have to tell me what my spiritual father thought, this is a simple matter. Why are you evading this? You don’t know?”
“Watch out deacon, by this petty behavior you are putting at stake my favor on you”
“I don’t know, I ask you a simple thing, do you or you don’t know what my father thought finally?”
At this moment the bright face of the angel was vanished and a horrible figure took its place and as of a beast’s mouth this words came out “You should perish squalid, tomorrow this hour you’ll be in hell and fire, we’ll burn and destroy you tomorrow this hour”
And the deacon stayed alone and desperate. All the sweetness of the 2 years of visions couldn’t counterbalance his bitterness and if it wasn’t for his spiritual father’s cordial prayers from far away who stayed awake and begged for him, the deacon would have gone.
Many hours passed before the deacon came together, his hut couldn’t fit him anymore.
He couldn’t feel secure but only near his spiritual father.
During the route to his father he was hearing in his mind the threat “this hour tomorrow in hell” and was shivering.
He finally arrived at the hut of papa Savvas and grasped the frock of his spiritual father and didn’t leave it even at the time the priest wanted to rest for a very little time.
“Don’t be afraid my son, calm down”
“How can I my father as the time for me is coming, the time to be taken, Jesus Christ save me”
And indeed, at the specific time he was violently attacked by the demons. He shouted desperately “save me , they are taking me , save me” and papa Savvas kneeled and started praying to God to be merciful with his servant and rebuke the demons and his prayer was listened to and the poor deacon was saved from the lion’s mouth.
I skip things..
With time and papa Savvas’ guidance the Romanian deacon calmed.
His spiritual life evolved well. He was ordained a priest and was distinguished for his devoutness.
However these years of fallacy had left him some marks.
The Devil had obtained some rights upon him, as he didn’t offer so many visions for free.
Thus, during his life he was suffering from some annoying temptations.
All the diacritical fathers saw upon him the remnants of the biennial cooperation with the angel who wasn’t an angel.
My brethren and fathers, we don’t have another chance to earn our salvation, from the one we have now.
We don’t have another life, only this one and it’s a pity to perish.
Good God has given everything to us to be saved.
Today the Devil might have many weapons that he’d never possessed before but Christians also, have so many weapons to defend that we never had before.
Christians had never before radio stations like now, they had never before so many Christian books like now and I mean spiritual books not theological, that can help us in our everyday life.
Never before have we had so many tapes, cd’s, dvd’s for someone to hear something beneficial from Fathers of church.
The Devil equips his man, but good God equips His too.
We have everything to be saved and most of all we have the church’s Sacraments
Don’t go away from your parishes, don’t go away from your priests “petrahielie”(Holy confession)
We have no excuse to perish with all these. It will be of our laziness and nothing else
And a father says that it is easier to go in heaven than in hell with all these we have today.
You have to work harder to go to hell than to go to heaven.
We will take care of this.
Everything starts in our minds and nowhere else
The Devil has as much power as we give him.
Why is that he can manipulate some persons and others don’t?
Why can he overrule wisemen, like the example I’ve told you and make them say nonsense to laugh about and they don’t understand a thing?
And talking about churches and ecumenical councils that he wants, making everybody laugh except himself.
Well, as the Holy Bible says before the Ascension of Christ the apostles were gathered at the attic of the place they were staying and received the Holy Spirit.
They were joined together at the highest place of the residence and an Athonian monk says that in the spiritual attic of the body at the highest place of human body which is called “nous” (greek word meaning “intellect” “mind”) and which has the image of the Big “mind”. We are also receiving the grace of the Holy Spirit.
From here depends life and death, heaven and hell, the way up or the way down.
We should make our mind a holy workshop. From here everything begins.
We ought to say a prayer for Holy Mary which is referred to during the Eucharist that has the following words “give us withdrawal to the captivity of our thoughts”, to bring back my notions which the devil captures.
Apostle Paul says “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy- think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8)
And we should praise along with the chanter “and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me” Psalm 51(12)
Amen .With your wishes.
If anybody wants to ask something with pleasure. I thank you for your patience and your love. Things are simple as others succeeded, we can succeed as well.
Question:
In any case of a thought if we say the prayer:
” Lord Jesus Christ,have mercy on me” and does the cross sign work? Does it turns away everything?
Answer: It depends
” Lord Jesus Christ,have mercy on me” is a weapon against devil and not only a plain weapon, but a nuclear bomb.
It blows the devil away; It vanishes him
It’s a tremendously concentrated and powerful wish.
It is included inside all the prayers. You know why?
It’s a mystery, the Bible says that during the Second Advent the name of Christ will appear on the sky and before the name of Christ everything will kneel , everything in heavens – the Angels, everything on earth-human beings and everything below earth – the demons and the devil, everything in the heavens – the Angels, everything on earth-human beings and everything below earth – the demons and the devil.
The Bible also says that there is no other name, but Christ which will save us. So what we do?
We say this name “Lord Jesus Christ”
Your name we name, we know no other God than You
It’s something that the devil tries to persuade us not to do.
Devil isn’t afraid if we believe in God, take notice of this!
However faithful you are, you are not saved. You are not saved if you believe in God.
The Devil is killed, we are getting saved, when we confess that Christ is God, we don’t have another God. This is the scandalous point, and devil’s concern.
There are theological conventions abroad with Christians, Christians, I repeat, who agree not to mention Christ’s name in order not to offend Buddhists, Hindu and all the other participants.
How the devil fears Christ’s name!
And we name Christ as Lord, the thing that the devil tries to prevent being said.
Firstly, the devil doesn’t want you to think about Christ but if you do, think of Him as a great initiate as a reincarnation of Buddha, as a great poet, philosopher, as.., as… but not Lord.
And we say “Lord Jesus Christ” and what else,” have mercy” who asks for mercy?
A beggar, that means that you humiliate yourself, the killing bullet for devil.
That’s why we insist on, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me”
Now if we make the sign of the cross at the same time or not, it doesn’t matter.
When we have the devil in our heart it’s a joke to make the sign of the cross, it doesn’t save us; it’s insignificant.
The important thing is to have Christ’s name in our minds.
It’s a nuclear bomb. You’ll see this in practice.
Simple things, you’ll leave this place, you’ll start walking
There is no one who can stop you saying by yourself, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me” repeatedly.
What obstructs you? What does it cost?
All the other prayers need a silent environment, some icons, vesper time, some books.
This prayer we can say whenever. You can say it when you walk, when you drive.
Make a start and the prayer itself will tell you everything.
We learn these by practice and not by words.
You might hear the words I’m saying and feel good about it but when temptation time comes the devil will attack viciously and nothing from my speech will be remembered.
The thing that you’ll have, is what you practiced by yourself and learn it personally.
This is what no one can take away from you.
This is how you acknowledge if these words are true and that is the way we acknowledge that Christianity’s true, if Christ spoke the truth or not.
People have learned and kept everything from their own lives and not by the priests and monks.
People themselves experience and recount them to us.
You can’t imagine the stories we’ve heard from people who live among the world.
Exactly because it’s a matter of living we can all be saved.
It’s not a case of intelligence, education or knowledge.
That’s why we had illiterate saints, who didn’t even finish school and we pray “saint of God, intercede for us” and on the other hand cultured people who say rubbish. Simple things and with these simple things we go either into heaven or hell.
A pdf version of this post is here: Devil in mind – Orthodox monk Father Nikon of Holy Mountain Athos-pdf
Original YouTube video of this talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQDkAxk2KMk&t=301s
