PORNOGRAPHY - A DEMONIC WEAPON IN THE SPIRITUAL WARFARE

when ill health or anxiety or one of the many ways that we suffer threatens to overcome us people often wonder why God has permitted this to happen people may even question whether God has abandoned them or perhaps what have I done to deserve this why is God allowing this to happen to me but this state of mind is entirely contradictory to authentic Christian understanding Christian spirituality we modern people struggle to even understand how alienated we really are from a true Christian understanding of Our Lives because we have allowed a worldly mindset to enter us so as Christians we must ask ourselves how should we understand our Temptations our trials our struggles and of course we begin by asking how have the Saints responded how have the Saints understood these trials these Temptations have they responded to suffering what is the the true Christian understanding of these difficult times in our lives well first of course we may say the most basic the most basic reality is that we are only able to approach God when we first passed through trials we must pass through these trials these Temptations If we hope to approach God as the psalmist said in Psalm 65 we must first pass through fire and water God examines and tests our hearts this isn't of course because God lacks any knowledge of our heart it's in in fact quite the opposite only God knows the the true disposition of the depths of our soul the the good and evil that that truly sits within each of us only God sees the full depths the true depths of us those true depths that we we work so hard to hide from other people and indeed sometimes knowingly sometimes without even a being aware we hide from ourselves we hide the true depths of the Good and Evil Within us from ourselves because it is so painful to face and the Saints teach us that it takes bitter medicine for the truth of our inner condition to be revealed for this this hidden reality of our soul to be exposed requires bitter medicine so that of course God then may restore us to health it requires an exposure the light of God to enter the the darkness within us the concealment within us just as Christ entered the home of zakus so too Christlike must enter us and expose us that we may be healed that we may be restored to health and of course without this healing none of us can enter the kingdom of God God allows trials and temptations to be us out of nothing but love for us it is God's love that permits these trials to be fall us his desire for us to return to him and only God knows knows the the nature of the particular trials each of us needs to be restored to health we don't know and we certainly don't know each others only God truly knows the medicine required for each of our hearts God even allows the demons to attack us he allows the demons to attack us that we can respond and go into battle spiritual battle and in every battle God supports us he gives us Grace to to fight he permits us to taste this this spiritual combat in order that yes we may may be Warriors spiritual Warriors but that he may Crown us Victors he calls us to the spiritual warfare in order that we may be crowned Victors the spiritual warfare has a common nature throughout all of history but there is a new form of attack a new weapon that the demons are equipped with in our Modern Age there is a new battle facing our young people especially we may say young men young men growing up in a world of of Screams of of Technology of of continuous access to the internet they are exposed to the possibility continuously of pornography this new weapon that the demons use to to incite lust of course the demons have have always incited lust in men particularly men and women too of course but this is a new weapon the availability of pornography is a new phenomenon for mankind and many young men even we may say boys young boys are growing up enduring this assault this assault on the soul something Unknown by so many generations of men and so often we hear young men say they feel they don't have the strength to fight this temptation they feel defeated by this particular attack of the Demons those who are afflicted in this particular way must understand must understand the B battle God is calling them to we must see this particular assault within the context of the whole spiritual warfare and carnal Warfare first of all requires a a longing to repent a genuine true longing to repent a longing to be free to change but however much we may desire to change change cannot take place without the grace of God when lust is stirred when whenever we are exposed to any kind of image that may stir up lust we must immediately hear God's voice calling us to fight calling us to enter the spiritual battle we must recognize also in every Temptation the opportunity God is giving us to become a spiritual Warrior and a spiritual Victor true spiritual wisdom is only acquired through struggle we cannot acquire spiritual wisdom unless we struggle it is acquired through battle through spiritual warfare as we begin to to learn the strategies as we acquire the the skills the skills of spiritual warfare it's then we begin to grow in in true wisdom spiritual wisdom it's it's a wisdom unlike anything that the world can teach or or even that the world recognizes the world cannot recognize true spiritual wisdom we may recall St Anthony of the desert St Anthony the great who we are told was illiterate he was an illiterate man living out in the desert and yet he became a spiritual Master he was filled with spiritual wisdom spiritual wisdom that not only taught those in his own time but through the centuries and continues to teach us who live today a spiritual master uneducated in the world and we every one of us we we we have no need of worldly philosophy we have no need of the teachings of the world the wisdom of God is acquired through faithfulness faithfulness In the Heat of battle spiritual warfare spiritual struggle when Temptations are stirred when the demons attack us us when the world attacks us when the flesh attacks us this is our opportunity to acquire spiritual wisdom if we want God's healing the healing of the passions that that we feel enslave us we must accept the treatment the treatment that can so often be painful bitter medicine if we run away from the pain if we if we get angry with God if we demand that God does things our way that we want our lives to unfold the way we would like them then the spiritual sickness that afflicts us will remain we will shy away we will turn away from the bitter medicine that is required to heal us let us yes show God our our willingness but and our longing to be healed we must we must reject first of all all all evil thoughts evil fantasies so that the heart can be purified the heart must be purified and this is particularly true in the battle with lust the battle with lust can can never be won until we purify the heart but how how do we do this well we must guard ourselves we we must we must tame the imagination the imagination if it is allowed to run free will not be free it will be enslaved by the things of the world world it is a lie that the world teaches us about Freedom the true nature of Freedom we must guard ourselves from the the bombardment of of images of noise that the world will will throw at us and we must learn to recognize evil the true nature of evil we must learn to recognize the evil even as it it attempts to enter us something the the church fathers call watchfulness we must remain watchful over our senses watchful over the senses where Temptations may enter us and then watchful over the heart the movements of the heart the fantasies the images the ideas that we can catch before they grow within us none of this of course can be achieved if we allow ourselves to feel self-pity or or resentful over these trials or even over the the bitter medicine that God offers us as Christians we must enter the battles God calls us to and we must trust that however bitter the medicine we are in the hands of the Divine physician

Channel: Father Spyridon

Views: 195,162

Keywords: Orthodox Christian

Id: _wEshGg9w24

Length: 14min 29sec (869 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 19 2024