The second method: I have God in my soul.
Therefore you should not go to the church, because God is anyway in your soul. But this thing is not true!
If God were in our soul for real, then we would have wished to go in that place where everything speaks about God, where His name is glorified, where are His icons, where is found His special presence, His grace. Then we would have tried to live as God commands us to live. And this is His will that we go to the church.
The unseen enemy is very crafty, much craftier than us. He gives us this thought: You have God in your soul! But in fact, it wasn’t God who entered our soul, but our own thought about God and together with it entered the evil one. Like a wolf in a sheepskin. And he flatters us.
But in reality we have so many things in our soul: damnation, irritation and black thoughts – only God is not there.
How to get rid of all these? How to fight with the thoughts of the evil? Only with the help of God.
The man alone cannot fight at all with his seemingly own thoughts, even if he wished that very much.
This thing confirms once again that in reality these thoughts are not ours, but our enemy’s.
Pious Ambrose, the starets from Optina, when receiving devilish thoughts made the sign of the cross and said: “I don’t want it.”
We shouldn’t pay any attention to them. Nor should we hesitate, but reject them immediately. We should say the Jesus prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner. And they will go away.
The Church teaches us that the devil fears especially the sign of the cross, the great holy water and the Body and Blood of Christ that we commune with in the church.
During the Holy Liturgy, in the church it takes place His greatest miracle that is a mystery even for the angels. The Lord Himself gave it to us for our salvation. During the common prayer of the priests and parishioners, over the bread and wine especially prepared in the altar, descends the Holy Spirit and these become the true Body and Blood of Christ. After their appearance and taste, they remain bread and wine, but in reality it is the Lord Himself. The people who commune with the Holy sacraments of Christ know from their own experience that they receive a great sanctifying power, which heals the soul and the body.
That’s why we go to the church in the first place and we partake of the Holy Eucharist so that God may enter for real on our lips, in our body and soul.
The Lord said: He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in me and I in him. (John, 6:56).
Saint Seraphim of Sarov, the great confessor of the Russian land, said: Whoever partakes of the Holy Communion will be saved. And whoever doesn’t do it, I doubt he will make it.
Any baptized person should approach regularly the holy sacraments of Confession and Eucharist. Since we wash ourselves regularly – cleansing our body, it is also necessary to cleanse our soul. The church is even named in this way: spiritual bath.
The third method: I haven’t ripened yet.
Grow up – the devil says. But take your time, get ripened in as much time as possible. Only don’t do anything for this ripening. Don’t read the Gospel, the Law of God, or the writings of the Holy Fathers. Don’t go to the church, don’t ask the priests about anything, even if they are appointed by God to aid the people in their spiritual life. Using this method, the evil likes so much to prevent them baptize and wed.
I haven’t reached to this yet.
For reaching there, you’ve got to go first. So get going.
Where to go?
To the church, of course.
