The devil has millennia of experience on how to bring us down
Summary
TLDRThis video script delves into the spiritual journey of following Christ, emphasizing the importance of discerning between the Holy Spirit's guidance and the deceptions of the devil. It highlights the value of community and tradition in shaping one's response to temptation and the transient nature of human emotions and instincts. The speaker urges viewers to embrace humility, rely on the wisdom of the church's past, and avoid the pitfalls of pride and self-reliance in the ongoing battle against spiritual adversaries.
Takeaways
- 🛑 The only way forward for salvation is to follow Christ, emphasizing the importance of being a follower in the Christian faith.
- 🧭 There is a misconception in contemporary society that following Christ means following one's own feelings, desires, and instincts, which can be misleading without discernment.
- 🔮 Discerning the Holy Spirit from the spirit of evil is challenging and often only understood in retrospect as part of our spiritual journey.
- 🏆 Discernment is considered the height of all virtues, highlighting its significance in spiritual life and growth.
- 👹 The devil has millennia of experience in tempting humanity, making it crucial to learn from the wisdom of those who have faced spiritual battles before us.
- 🛡 Joining a spiritual community, such as a monastery, can provide guidance and freedom from the reliance on personal feelings and instincts.
- 🤔 The speaker reflects on the transience of human emotions and judgments, illustrating how feelings can change dramatically over time.
- 💔 The speaker warns against founding one's salvation on transient emotions and thoughts, as they are unreliable and can lead astray.
- 🙏 The importance of relying on the tradition and prayers of the church is underscored, as they represent the collective wisdom of centuries of spiritual warfare.
- 🕊️ Humility is essential in approaching Christ and following in the footsteps of those who have successfully navigated the spiritual path before us.
- ⛓️ The speaker advises against the pride that can keep individuals from embracing the church's tradition, which is a treasure of spiritual knowledge and experience.
- 🌟 The Orthodox Church is presented as a source of stability and truth, offering a path to freedom from the fleeting nature of personal emotions and thoughts.
Q & A
What is the main theme of the video script?
-The main theme of the video script is the importance of following Christ and the Orthodox Christian tradition in order to find salvation and navigate the spiritual battle against evil.
Why does the speaker emphasize the need to follow Christ rather than our own feelings and desires?
-The speaker emphasizes this because our feelings and desires can be transient and unreliable, whereas Christ's teachings and the guidance of the Orthodox Church are based on millennia of spiritual experience and wisdom.
What does the speaker mean by 'discernment is the height of all virtues'?
-The speaker means that discerning the voice of the Holy Spirit from the spirit of evil is the ultimate spiritual virtue, as it requires deep spiritual maturity and understanding.
How does the speaker describe the experience of the devil in tempting humanity?
-The speaker describes the devil's experience as extensive, going back to the first man, Adam, and having learned how humanity reacts to temptations and triggers over millennia.
What is the significance of joining a spiritual community like a monastery according to the speaker?
-Joining a spiritual community provides guidance, freedom from dependency on personal feelings, and the opportunity to learn from the collective experience of the community shaped by 2,000 years of Christian tradition.
Why does the speaker warn against relying solely on our own feelings and logical judgments?
-The speaker warns against this because feelings and logical judgments can change over time and may not align with eternal spiritual truths, potentially leading to spiritual instability and error.
What does the speaker suggest is the role of the Orthodox Church in our spiritual journey?
-The speaker suggests that the Orthodox Church provides a stable foundation of spiritual truth and experience, guiding us in our battle against evil and helping us to discern the Holy Spirit's voice.
How does the speaker view the importance of tradition in spiritual warfare?
-The speaker views tradition as crucial, as it connects us with the collective wisdom and experience of those who have fought spiritual battles before us, giving us a strategic advantage.
What is the speaker's perspective on the value of personal experiences compared to the teachings of the church?
-The speaker believes that personal experiences, while valuable, are limited and can be misleading without the context of the church's teachings and the guidance of spiritual elders.
Why does the speaker urge humility and reliance on the church's tradition rather than pride and self-reliance?
-The speaker urges humility and reliance on tradition because pride and self-reliance can lead to spiritual defeat, whereas humility and reliance on the church's wisdom can provide spiritual safety and victory.
What is the speaker's advice for those who wish to follow Christ effectively?
-The speaker advises to approach Christ with humility, abandon personal pride and self-reliance, and follow the teachings and traditions of the Orthodox Church, which have been tested and refined over millennia.
Outlines
🙏 The Call to Follow Christ and Discernment in Spiritual Warfare
The speaker emphasizes the necessity of following Christ as the only path to salvation, highlighting the importance of discernment in distinguishing between the Holy Spirit's guidance and the deceptions of evil. They discuss the transient nature of human feelings and instincts, which can be manipulated by the devil, who has millennia of experience in tempting humanity. The speaker advocates for learning from the wisdom of the church fathers and the community, rather than relying solely on personal emotions, to effectively engage in the spiritual battle against evil.
🌊 The Fickleness of Human Emotions and the Stability of Church Tradition
In this paragraph, the speaker reflects on the transient and unreliable nature of human emotions and thoughts, using personal anecdotes to illustrate how drastically one's perspective can change over time. They argue against founding one's spiritual journey on these shifting sands, and instead, call for embracing the unchanging tradition and teachings of the church. The speaker warns against the pride that can lead to self-reliance and the dangers of following one's own feelings and instincts, which can be easily swayed by the devil's influence.
🛡 The Shield of Church Tradition in Spiritual Combat
The final paragraph stresses the importance of the church's tradition as a shield in the spiritual battle against evil. The speaker prays for the freedom from being enslaved to fleeting feelings and thoughts, and for finding the steadfast truth in Christ that is preserved within the Orthodox Church. They urge the audience to abandon personal experiences that are dwarfed by the collective wisdom of the church's history and to align themselves with the teachings that have been tested and passed down through generations, directly from Christ and the Holy Apostles.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Salvation
💡Discernment
💡Holy Spirit
💡Contemporary Society
💡Spiritual Life
💡Tradition
💡Battle
💡Pride
💡Humility
💡Temptation
💡Fathers
Highlights
The Only Way Forward for salvation is to follow Christ, emphasizing the importance of being followers as part of our Christian DNA.
Contemporary society often confuses following Christ with following personal feelings, desires, and instincts.
The value of feelings and desires is recognized, but only when they are blessed by Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit.
Discerning the Holy Spirit from the spirit of evil is a complex process, often only understood later in one's spiritual life.
Discernment is considered the height of virtues, highlighting the importance of spiritual maturity in understanding spiritual guidance.
The devil's experience in tempting humanity dates back to the first man, Adam, making the spiritual battle a challenging one.
The speaker shares personal experience in a monastery, where reliance on personal feelings was replaced by community guidance.
The freedom gained from not being dependent on personal emotions and logical thinking is discussed.
The transient nature of human feelings and thoughts is highlighted, questioning their reliability in spiritual matters.
The speaker warns against founding one's salvation on transient emotions and thoughts.
The importance of joining the ranks of those who have fought spiritual battles in the past is emphasized for knowledge and experience.
The tradition of the church and the prayers of the Saints are presented as tools for shaping one's prayer life.
The speaker advises against pride and self-reliance, urging reliance on the church's tradition and the teachings of the fathers.
The metaphor of an ant struggling against a lion is used to illustrate the futility of facing spiritual battles without the church's tradition.
The need for humility in approaching Christ and following in the footsteps of his friends is discussed.
The speaker calls for prayer and the keeping of those who do not listen in prayers, while continuing to move forward in faith.
The dangers of being spiritually dead without realizing it are highlighted, warning against distractions and bad examples.
The stability and truth of the Orthodox Church's tradition are presented as the rock and safety in the spiritual battle.
The speaker prays for the release from fleeting feelings and thoughts, seeking the truth of Christ within the church's tradition.
Transcripts
hello my dear ones I'm going to jump
straight into this one because I don't
quite know how to introduce this
topic The Only Way Forward which is
safe for our Salvation is to
follow
Christ hear that word to
follow it's in our calling it's it's
part of our DNA as Christians to be
followers and there is something in
nowadays contemporary Society in our
times that makes many of us think that
somehow to follow Christ is in fact to
follow our own feelings to follow our
own desires and our own
instincts and there is value in our
feelings and desires and instincts as
long as Christ blesses them and as as
long as the Holy Spirit speaks through
them but how do you discern when it is
the holy spirit working through you
speaking through your emotions and your
instincts and so on and when is it the
spirit of the evil
one the very blunt painful reality is
that there is no way we can know that we
can only get to know that much later on
in our spiritual life to the end of our
spiritual life because if you look at
what the fathers are telling us
discernment discernment is the height
the crown of all
virtues don't forget my beloved ones
that our experience of spiritual life is
maybe a year or two or maybe a decade or
two whereas the experience of the devil
goes all the way back to the first man
to ever be created the devil managed to
push Adam into sin and he has learned
how Humanity reacts to his Temptations
to his triggers he knows when to attack
he knows when to withdraw he knows when
to play dead when to play defeated so
that it feeds in US pride and
self-reliance don't forget that you are
entering a battle when you begin to
follow Christ and in that battle you
have a choice to either learn how to
fight by yourself as you go into the
battle or you have to listen to the
generals who have leaved decades
centuries Millennia before you before us
and who have gained experience and have
passed on that
experience you are not struggling in
against another human being you are
struggling against the spirits of hell
and they have Millennia of experience
about how to catch us how to push us how
to trigger our our negative things our
negative behaviors or sins in
us I remember when I went into a
monastery and all of a sudden I no
longer had to rely on my feelings or my
bre or my instincts because I had this
community around me that was guiding me
and I had this freedom of no longer
being dependent upon what I felt and how
I felt I had them to teach me how to
react how to respond to the Temptations
that were coming my way and this was not
some sort of random Gathering of people
this is a gathering that is brought
together within the same church within
the same tradition shaped themselves by
the same experience of 2,000 years of
Christian battle against the
devil and that gave me Freedom it lifted
me up from
this network of of my own emotions and
my own logical thinking I mean think
think about your own life think how
passionately you have loved people in
your life with such passion that you
could have died for them and now think
where is that
relationship has it survived are those
people whom you loved in your 10 years
or your 20s are those people for whom
you you risked everything are they still
in your in your life in your heart do
they have still the same value I know
from my own experience and from the
experience of the people I know from
confession how I think the word is
fickle is that a word how how transient
and how unserious all our feelings can
be and also all our logical judgments
and thinking I know that there were
things I could have died for in terms of
what I thought values of this world and
then my mind changed and 10 years later
10 years down the line I no longer agree
with my own mind 10 years ago and the
emotions I have now no longer agree with
how I was feeling about certain things
or certain people 20 30 years ago I do
not want it's it's an active choice I do
not want you or myself or anyone else to
found our Salvation on these transient
waves of emotions and feelings and
thoughts that come and go and stay with
us for a while and then they leave us
because this is not the way
forward in the battle against the devil
and Christ tells us very plainly that we
do not do battle with human beings we do
battle with the
devil we lack his
experience he has Millennia old of
acquired experience about how to defeat
us we have a few years or a few
decades the only way the only way that
we can be equal in this knowledge about
the spiritual war is for us to join the
ranks of all those who have done battle
with the evil one in the past this is
why we rely on the tradition of the
church this is why we allow the prayers
of the Saints to shape the way in which
we ultimately end up praying with our
own words this is why we pray for our
minds to become the mind of the fathers
because otherwise we are an ant a little
insect struggling to defeat a
lion
don't allow
Pride to keep you away from the safety
of The Treasure of the tradition of the
church don't allow the voices of the
world that preach to us to be
self-reliant and to follow your own
feeling and your own Instinct don't
allow those voices which are just masks
for the voices of the devil to bring you
down the only way forward is to approach
Christ in humility and to follow his
friends it's not by accident that he
calls them his friends it's not by
accident that he sends them forward to
teach the world about how to follow him
it's not by accident that he tells them
those who honor me and follow me will
honor and follow you it's not by
accident that he tells them that those
who do not listen to you
don't even bother just move forward pray
for them keep them in your prayers but
move forward there is an act of being
taught how to follow Christ and that
teaching comes from Millennia of
experience it's not something that you
just make up as you go that's as dumb
spiritually as entering a battle as
going into Ukraine now or going into
wherever there's a major war like the
invasion of of Gaza and trying to do
battle there without you ever having
held a gun in your life you will
certainly
die what's even more
perverse is that in the spiritual battle
you can be dead and not even realize it
because the devil needs dead people who
are
successful in their spiritual lives the
devil needs needs them in the world
because then they become distractions
for others they become bad examples for
others and others will follow them
instead of following the church instead
of following the fathers those who have
lifted up their crosses and moved
forward with patience and with humility
being true followers of the one who
taught us to be humble like he is humble
and to follow him the way he follows the
father without the safety without the
shield of the tradition of the church we
shall be defeated sooner or later it
doesn't matter how alive you may feel in
your spiritual life because our feelings
are made of nothing we are made of
nothing our feelings are just the result
of you know the soups of hormones that
feed our brains they come they go they
change like Seasons they change like the
waves of the ocean that I see outside
there's no Rock no stability no truth in
them that stability and that truth only
belongs to the experience of the church
so if you want to fight the right way if
you want to be sa safe in your battle
against the enemy against our spiritual
enemy abandon your
own
tiny decade long experience and join the
ranks of those who are following those
who came before them who are following
those who came before them and so on and
so forth all the way down to the Holy
Apostles all the way down to the mouth
and to the truth that came out of the
mouth of Christ
himself I pray I genuinely pray that I
myself and all of us get to experience
one day
that release that freedom of no longer
having to follow these fleeting feelings
and thoughts of all
and that we find the safety and The Rock
the truth of Christ himself which is
hidden in plain sight in the Orthodox
Church be
blessed my beloved one be
blessed be
blessed amen amen
amen
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