When Christ ascended, Satan fell. Those clinging to Satan are going with him, and whoever is standing in his way is subject to falling. Do not hold on to him and do not stand in his way. The Devil's only concern is to falsify the image of God in your mind and heart, and falsify your own image in your sight. The devil wants you to know God incorrectly and see yourself wrongly. He falsifies, distorts, and deludes: he tries to magnify you when you should diminish, and diminish you when you should be honored. He tries to stop you when you should walk, and make you walk when you should stop, to make you speak when you should be silent, and to silence you when you should speak. He tries to persuade you to hurry when you should slow down, and to walk slowly when you should hasten. In every case, he wants to mislead you. The Devil is the biggest deceiver; the greatest forger, a vicious crook; Our Lord and Master described him as liar and the father of lies.
Satan never comes in his real image, never does he come under an ugly image: He knows what humans like and are attracted to. He tells you things you like to hear, shows you things you like to see, gives you things you like to touch, and feeds you things you like to taste. When crooks forge gold, they forge it with something that resembles it, yellow and shining; and so too, for the Devil to falsify the image of God – who is Love – he uses the things people call love and mixes them up with God the Love. The feelings arising from instinct, passion, the bonds of affection and the enslaving habits, are all used by the Devil to confuse man about the truth of God, the life-giving Love. Satan's sole concern is to impede those walking toward the Lord. On your way toward the Lord, Satan wants: 1- To push you off the road. He will do this by creating a goal for you that will attract you away from the path, so that you will go astray and be lost. 2- He will cause you to fall so you will stop; he will set you a trap in which you will fall. 3- He will push you back; he will weary you and discourage you, so you retreat and go back. The important thing to him is that you do not make it. Everything that gathers and unites around good is from God, and everything that divides and scatters is from the Devil. The Devil prevails over people through the things of this world. The more man rids himself of them, the more he is shielded against the evil one, and the more he clings to them, the more he would be under the influence of evil. Satan is the master of this world. The more you are submerged in the world, the more you come under his power, and the more you detach yourself from the world, the more you free yourself from him. Do not forget that you are not of this world! Do not immerse yourselves in it! Sail through it, rise above it, and raise it to the Lord by the power of Christ elevated on the cross. In the beginning, the Devil makes a man laugh, in order to make him cry in the end; and he always takes a man to hell while he is laughing; but in hell, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The man who is now laughing with Satan will surely weep in the end. God might make you weep in the beginning, but with Him you will always laugh in the end. God always makes you weep in order to discipline you, while Satan comes to make you laugh and lead you away from Him. When God makes you laugh, Satan comes to make you weep; do not let him fool you. Satan hates the image of God. He hates the man who is taking on the image of God and wants to distort this image that is in him. The only way Satan can deform the image of God in a person is for him to stop the work of God’s Spirit in him. Then, the only image that remains in this person is the image of the animal. Satan's desire is to give to the human being the image of an animal. The first and essential weapon against Satan is truthfulness. Every word of truth you say is an arrow you shoot into the heart of the evil one; and every honest confession of sin is a spear with which you pierce his heart. The next essential weapon is humility. Sincerity and humility mean confession. Confess your sins and you will kill the evil in you. Satan's only concern is to distract you from God. Beware! He tries to distract you from God even in the matters of God. He distracts you from the meaning of the word that you are praying with the word itself, and he distracts you from praising the Lord, with the melody of the hymn with which you are praising Him. He distracts you from God with the prayer that you are praying to Him. Remember well that you cannot withstand Satan if you cannot kneel before God. Satan does not come through the windows and apertures that you keep watch over and close well. The devil comes through the door that you open.
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