If you have troubles, it means that God loves you
“If you see that you have undisturbed peace, be careful that you are not on the right path!”
You are, therefore, somehow giving the enemy free rein; he does not touch you because he has you in his power. If you have a good time and do not have many temptations, it means that he holds you, and you do not even understand that you are in his power. Behold, these spiritualists of ours are in the power of fallen spirits, but they do not understand it. They do not want to come to their senses at all. They never want to listen, to renounce this evil, for they are under the rule of the spirits of cunning. The enemy tempts the pious on the right. He will not strike suddenly from the left, for he knows that he will be rejected, but like this (that is, from the right).
And then he stands aside and seeks to see if they will receive what will be shown to them. He shows himself in the form of an angel, in the form of the Lord, and the saints, and “reveals” various mysteries and events. All these are his deceptions. You see that people also play tricks, and even more so, evil spirits play spiritual tricks! People cannot understand from the beginning. They can, but they have to suffer a lot. A special grace of God must work on them, and much prayer is needed for them, but this is a very difficult thing. If we pray for someone who is completely possessed by evil spirits, then we must bear this burden - the spirits from under the heavens will then turn to us, because we desire and ask the Lord to snatch the captive from their power. Every man has free will to decide. We have been given judgment, so that we can see what is good and what is bad. And, since we are not perfect, the Lord works through His Holy Church.
The priest may have bad behavior, a bad life, but he is not allowed to preach anything except what the Holy Church preaches. The Holy Church, guided by the Holy Spirit! But our spiritualists do not want to listen to what the Church tells them; they listen to what they are told at their meetings. They do this, and it is a work of fire. The spirits take possession of them because they do many good deeds, looking from the outside. We are called to do good deeds, but we are not saved by deeds. For if we were saved by deeds, there would be no need for the Lord God to come to save us. We are saved only by the mercy of God. The grace of God saves us. The Lord saves us. For the work of virtues, we receive a reward, but salvation is the Lord's!
When a man is in the power of devils, then there is a long and false peace in him; he has no temptations, and the devil does not touch him. We, however, have temporary peace and tranquility, but then, for a while, war again. The Lord allows this so that we may be strong fighters and know how to overcome this evil. Some time must pass before we acquire the spiritual skill to reject, to overcome the evil trait, which from childhood has taken root in us and shows itself very often. We need skilled people who themselves have gone through these stages of purification, to clarify for us how and in what way to overcome, how to regain and maintain inner peace. Saint Isaac the Syrian tells us: “Keep inner peace in every way. Do not give up your inner peace for anything in this world. Make peace with yourself, and heaven and earth will be at peace with you.” Inner peace is found where there is no longer any concern for this world, no interest, not even in what concerns one’s own person (we have freed ourselves, that is, from ourselves and this world). Then there is peace. There are no thoughts...
Abbot Tadei of Vitovnița Monastery
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