To Christians that felt the devil's presence when you converted, how did you overcome it? Did the devil ever leave you alone? What did you have to do?
:::: POOF FIRE AND BRIMSTONE::::
All evil no matter how bad is just an act of immaturity.
With evil its always a war, a fight, a battle. It always claims its a fight and swears up and down its good.
With good there is no war. Its a brother trying to help another out.
Im the Devil. They call me Accuser. my job always involves blaming, finger pointing, fault finding.
When you decide to hand me back my tools........and stop doing my job for me.....then you prob will feel me leave you.
Maybe then God can hand you his tools.
God is kindness, love and compassion. his tools are kindness, love and compassion.
To rely totally on kindness is to rely totally on God.
Anyone who can tell the difference between kindness and God is immature of both, cause they are the same.
Life is not about you getting beat up, and God just testing you or just watching you get hurt.
Its not so bad down here at the bottom of hell.......... no matter what direction i look its always towards God. Im so evil........ no matter who I meet...... they are kind and loving saints.
But we stop believing in God........ A good father is a father first something else after.... When you see him who is the father, you'll know there is no God but God.
Now if one of my minions is torturing........try asking nicely for it to leave.
The more you listen the less drama the mind speaks.
To Christians that felt the devil's presence when you converted, how did you overcome it? Did the devil ever leave you alone? What did you have to do?
It has been many years since my 'awareness' of God opened up, you can call it conversion. I do not remember devil being in the picture at all. The mind can NOT hold both at the same time, God and devil. But in my temptations I have been conscious of evil presence and had to pray and fill my mind with anything good and uplifting, be it music, doing something good for somebody, reading things that uplift the mind including the Scripture of course.
We pick up too many things throughout life and some are hard to get rid of. God cares and He will help. Devil is another name for all that is evil and destructive.
Behold Ockflorp! The tentacled god from Neptune now reigns over the Earth as all can plainly see....
What's that? You say there's no such being as Ockflorp? Well, that's how little you know! Ockflorp is as real as the Devil!
There is no Devil (I leave it to True Believers to duke it out as to whether "Lucifer" and "Satan" are names for the same fallen angel or two separate fallen angels). The Christian notion of an evil counterpart to God is self-contradictory in that the Devil is, purportedly, God's own creation and therefore perfect, yet he rebels, which is the act of an imperfect being; it also implies that God is inept, first in creating a being who would rebel (an event that omniscient God should have known) and second in failing to swat down the upstart with a flick of his divine finger and thus allowing this upstart to derail his entire "plan." The absurdities involved in notions about the Devil are simply breathtaking. The Jewish view of Satan fulfilling his God-assigned role as accuser is less incoherent if interpreted literally, but an allegorical interpretation makes much more sense.
Evil in the world is not the work of an evil superbeing. It is the result of people ignoring or repressing the spiritual presence of God within themselves, and thus acting like destructive juggernauts instead of like human beings created in the spiritual image of God.
I prayed for deliverance from the hard world of facts and logic to the happy land where fantasies and prejudices reign. But God spake unto me, saying, "No, keep telling the truth," and to that end afflicted me with severe Trenchant Mouth. So I'm sorry for making cutting remarks, but it's the will of God.
Behold Ockflorp! The tentacled god from Neptune now reigns over the Earth as all can plainly see....
What's that? You say there's no such being as Ockflorp? Well, that's how little you know! Ockflorp is as real as the Devil!
There is no Devil (I leave it to True Believers to duke it out as to whether "Lucifer" and "Satan" are names for the same fallen angel or two separate fallen angels). The Christian notion of an evil counterpart to God is self-contradictory in that the Devil is, purportedly, God's own creation and therefore perfect, yet he rebels, which is the act of an imperfect being; it also implies that God is inept, first in creating a being who would rebel (an event that omniscient God should have known) and second in failing to swat down the upstart with a flick of his divine finger and thus allowing this upstart to derail his entire "plan." The absurdities involved in notions about the Devil are simply breathtaking. The Jewish view of Satan fulfilling his God-assigned role as accuser is less incoherent if interpreted literally, but an allegorical interpretation makes much more sense.
Evil in the world is not the work of an evil superbeing. It is the result of people ignoring or repressing the spiritual presence of God within themselves, and thus acting like destructive juggernauts instead of like human beings created in the spiritual image of God.
Why do people ignore and repress the "spiritual presence of God within themselves".
Why, when they do that, do they act like destructive juggernauts?
The devil can quote Scripture for his purpose; and the text of Scripture which he now most commonly quotes is, “The Kingdom of heaven is within you.” That text has been the stay and support of more Pharisees and prigs and self-righteous spiritual bullies than all the dogmas in creation; it has served to identify self-satisfaction with the peace that passes all understanding.
Seraphim wrote: Why do people ignore and repress the "spiritual presence of God within themselves". Why, when they do that, do they act like destructive juggernauts?
That is a superb question. In a sense, it is the most important and profound question that we can ask. I do not have any sure and certain answer -- certainly not "The Devil made me do it" -- but I believe that people cloak the light of God with all sorts of layers of stuff, such as fear, hatred, envy, and guilt. And when the light is cloaked, they look in the mirror and, instead of the presence of God, they see their own stuff. And they act in ways that fulfill what they mistakenly believe is who they really are -- that is, they mistake their stuff for their essence.
Yes, you can take the same question a step backward and ask, Why do they cloak the light of God with stuff? Again, I don't have any sure answer. Maybe it is culturally imposed. Maybe it is a generational thing, with parents passing along their stuff to their kids.
I wish I had a good answer, because it is the most important question we face.
I prayed for deliverance from the hard world of facts and logic to the happy land where fantasies and prejudices reign. But God spake unto me, saying, "No, keep telling the truth," and to that end afflicted me with severe Trenchant Mouth. So I'm sorry for making cutting remarks, but it's the will of God.
Seraphim wrote: Why do people ignore and repress the "spiritual presence of God within themselves". Why, when they do that, do they act like destructive juggernauts?
That is a superb question. In a sense, it is the most important and profound question that we can ask. I do not have sure and certain answer -- certainly not "The Devil made me do it" (why not?) -- but I believe that people cloak the light of God with all sorts of layers of stuff, such as fear, hatred, envy, and guilt. And when the light is cloaked, they look in the mirror and, instead of the presence of God, they see their own stuff. And they act in ways that fulfill what they mistakenly believe is who they really are -- that is, they mistake their stuff for their essence.
Yes, this is what we Christians call sin.
Yes, you can take the same question a step backward and ask, Why do they cloak the light of God with stuff? Again, I don't have any sure answer. Maybe it is culturally imposed. Maybe it is a generational thing, with parents passing along their stuff to their kids.
And this is what EO Christians call ancesteral sin, a sort of rejoinder to the Catholic original sin.
I wish I had a good answer, because it is the most important question we face.
The devil can quote Scripture for his purpose; and the text of Scripture which he now most commonly quotes is, “The Kingdom of heaven is within you.” That text has been the stay and support of more Pharisees and prigs and self-righteous spiritual bullies than all the dogmas in creation; it has served to identify self-satisfaction with the peace that passes all understanding.
The reason I reject "The devil made me do it" as an explanation for why people do evil things is the same as the reason why I do not attribute thunder and lightning to storm gods. "It's magic, it's the work of the gods" is the ultimate non-answer to any question.
You say that people's tendency to cloak the light of God with rage, envy, fear, guilt and other stuff is what Christians call sin. Although I reject the concept of sin (because it is non-definable -- I have been listening to Christians explaining what sin is for the past 30 years, and their definitions are at best slippery, taking the shape of whatever unpleasantness they wish to condemn), I could accept a non-supernatural use of the term to describe, collectively, all the stuff people use to cloak the light of God within themselves.
Consider the traditional 7 deadly sins: wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony. I could quibble with the exact inclusions on this list but these are certainly examples of things that can cloak the light of God. The reason I oppose the use of the term sin is because of its connotations with respect to salvation doctrine, which I categorically reject for reasons I have spelled out in detail. But if I were to use the term "sin" to describe the stuff people use to cloak the light of God, then I would use the term "salvation" to describe the fact that God is always present within us and therefore we always have the opportunity, at each moment in our lives, to let go of those "sins" and let the light of God shine forth. In that sense, salvation is not a one-time event aimed at eternal life in some next world, but a moment-by-moment opportunity for spiritual aliveness in this world.
I prayed for deliverance from the hard world of facts and logic to the happy land where fantasies and prejudices reign. But God spake unto me, saying, "No, keep telling the truth," and to that end afflicted me with severe Trenchant Mouth. So I'm sorry for making cutting remarks, but it's the will of God.
I didn't feel the devil's presence when I converted, I felt God's presence. I felt the presence of God strongly for years after, yet it faded until I found it again. At first it was given as a gift. I guess so's I'd know it was there, or so's I'd know what it was when I found it again.
I felt the devil's presence 'bout a year ago when someone betrayed and robbed me. How I overcame? I was delivered from evl, like it says at the end of the Lords prayer. What I did was hold my ground as best I could 'til the storm broke. I realize now I was delivered from evil indeed then and now gratefully plan to follow the Lord's lead toward the promised green pastures. When the devil threatens, hold your ground as best you can.
Which devil are we speaking of? Satan was labeled the Father of Lies later on. In the OT, he's at worst just a dick, but he is an accurate dick in his accusations. The character has been merged with so much crap that it's hard to tell exactly whom we're speaking of.
I've met Satan, and was woefully unimpressed with the hellfire and brimstone imagery. I also feel he's gotten a bad rap from people who can't accept when God says He created evil. They turn Satan into the Big Bad so God can walk away scot-free from any issues.
I just see him as a guy who makes you think thoughts about yourself that you didn't want to admit, working as God's employee who has the thankless job of reminding you that you're not all that and a bag of chips.
Knock and the door shall open. It's not my fault if you don't like the decor.
