Page:On The Spiritual Battle.pdf/22

 wickedness in us most of all through spiritual goodness according to how he sees a person–what his marital status is, what generation he is from, if it is a woman or a man, what a person is inclined towards, what appeals to a person’s mind, what a person is good at, and what kind of habits a person has for good or evil. He approaches according to such things and has his origins in our lives from a distance, seeing how he should move our adulterous hearts according to how he knows us in these things. Because of that, he braids like with a rope, leading us into something and from that into something else until a habit takes hold in us in something helpful to him. Because of that bondage into more serious things, and because of that entrance to grounds for license and becoming entangled, he always brings about his intentions. The devil carries these things out so sanctimoniously that we will not see or suspect anything evil in it until he prospers by it further in what matters to him.

However, it holds true for us that we can learn faith from God’s commandments. When we understand that, then we can be careful of our hearts and observe its promptings, desires, and ideas and what they lead to. If it will lead against faith or God’s commandment, or urge us into some dangerous thing, then we will know that such promptings in our hearts are from the devil. We can guard against the devil’s wickedness when we have the knowledge of faith and God’s commandments within us, but he deceives many people because they do not have the knowledge of faith or God’s law. That is why they do not know about where those things or the heart’s promptings come from, cannot recognize where the devil is going with those desires, and fall into wickedness because of them. Other people, even though they understand faith and God’s commandment, neglect to guard themselves carefully in all things before the devil. Instead, they become entangled in harmful things and practices that are helpful to him, and they fall into sins when they do not take heed at the beginning of his cunning approaches. Though the devil is a spiritual enemy and works against us because of spiritual hatred, we are not spiritual but physical, and that is why he leads us into the desire of our flesh or heresy contrary to faith and God’s words. A person can know all of this when he pays attention, because the devil’s work is not far away from a person. Evil desire lies within man himself, and he should beware of it when he uses discernment through faith and God’s commandment.

The apostle further says:

The apostle also says that we should fight against the powers of this dark world because they are the devil’s works in all the people in the world. First of all, if they are pagans or Jews, he blinds them so that they don’t have the knowledge of God. He easily blinds pagans and Jews when they are blind in themselves, living without the law. That is why he leads them to visible wooden idols and to other overt wickedness like foolish beasts. He also blinds and darkens those people who are in the faith so that they err differently. Speaking grandly to God to impress people, they do not know Him and reject Him abominably like pagans. The devil will have rule on the earth when he blinds people in this way. He occupies many spiritual and worldly positions with spiritual hypocrites, who help him drive many people to hell through spiritual things such as plotting the devil’s works, leading them astray with spiritual teaching, and neglecting necessary instruction. Everyone will fall into wickedness for the negligence of those hypocrites when they do not know God’s pure ways through true instruction. Worldly authorities too, who heathenishly lord it over people, do not do anything for the common people out of selfimportance and for their own gain. When the devil has both these great powers on his side, he easily ushers all his subjects into great darkness. For, being in great positions, spiritual hypocrites make their own laws for themselves–laws that are hateful to God’s law and pleasant for themselves. They lead people in them and, because of that, they repudiate God’s law and put Him who is like light in the world’s