The Temptation of Christ
Ary Scheffer, 1854
As I sit to write the first part of a series on the adversary of our souls, Satan, I realize that I am part of a world that, for the most part, does not believe such a being exists.
This is his greatest deception.
You cannot fight an enemy unseen, particularly if you do not believe one is there. Yet look at the world around you. Where does all this evil come from?
Before I go any further I think it will be helpful to quote the words of Pope Paul VI, found on this website under Spiritual Warfare:
15 November, 1972
“What are the greatest needs of the Church today?
Do not let our answer surprise you as being over simple or even superstitious and unreal: one of the greatest needs is defense from that evil which is called the devil.
Evil is not merely a lack of something, but an effective agent, a living, spiritual being, perverted and perverting. A terrible reality…
It is contrary to the teaching of the bible and the Church to refuse to recognize the existence of such a reality… or to explain it as a pseudo-reality, a conceptual and fanciful personification of the unknown causes of our misfortunes…
That it is not a question of one devil, but of many is indicated by various passages in the Gospel (Luke 11:21, Mark 5:9). But the principal one is Satan, which means the adversary, the enemy; and with him many, all creatures of God, but fallen, because of their rebellion and damnation; a whole mysterious world, upset by an unhappy drama, of which we know very little…”
“This question of the Devil and the influence he can exert on individual persons as well as on communities, whole societies or events, is a very important chapter of Catholic doctrine which is given little attention today, though it should be studied again. Some people think a sufficient compensation can be found in psychoanalytical and psychiatric studies or in spiritualistic experiences.
People are afraid of falling into old Manichean theories again, or into frightening divagations of fancy and superstition. Today people prefer to appear strong and unprejudiced…
Our doctrine becomes uncertain, obscured as it is by the darkness surrounding the Devil. But our curiosity, excited by the certainty of his multiple existence, justifies two questions:
1. Are there signs, and what are they, of the presence of diabolical action?
2. What are the means of defense against such an insidious danger?”
Origins, De. 7, 1972, Vol. 2, No. 24, P. 391-393
As I have mentioned before, I have, for some reason, been gifted with many spiritual and supernatural experiences, many of them occurring in the dream state. As all of this has been unfolding over the past nine years or so I have been (thank God!) solidly under the Spiritual Direction of a retired exorcist in the Catholic Church. He has confirmed these experiences repeatedly and it is because of his direction that these experiences are now coming to light in this website.
And to quell any musings before they begin I have to report that it is not because I have had a retired exorcist as my director that I have subsequently experienced his experiences re-hashed in the dream state. We never discussed his experiences, as I was going to him for spiritual direction. It was always the case that I brought my experiences to him for discernment, which he would then explain to me, with the occasional relevant example from his experience. On the contrary, I think it is because of the things God has granted me to experience that he specifically placed me under such a solid priest’s direction.
This series on Satan and his cohorts, the demons, will be just a little ray of light illuminating an area of great darkness. In essence I have a feeling the sharing of my satanic experiences, which will be done in chronological order, will illuminate 1) that these beings exist, 2) a little knowledge of the ‘how’ they try to operate to prevent souls’ climb to holiness and 3) a partial picture of the nature of this unseen evil. The chronological sharing will show how the tactics of these evil beings change as one climbs higher in the spiritual journey.
I know that this subject is not pretty or comforting. I, for one, was always quite happy to believe things like this were not real. I can remember watching the odd satanic horror in my youth, such as The Omen and Poltergeist, and being quite happy to tell myself it was only a movie…And let us not forget the recent release of The Exorcism of Emily Rose, based on a true story. Because of what I have seen and know I cannot bear to even watch it. Let’s just say I have been mightily enlightened these past nine or ten years and I share this to help you do the same.
However, you do not need to not fear! If you are reading this you already have everything you need to protect yourself from such beings and you are already stepping out of their grasp. Invoke the protection of the Precious Blood of Jesus over yourself right now as you read this and you will be protected from everything evil that you do not wish to even think for a moment could exist. Arm yourself! Even if you just do it out of superstition or to err on the side of caution, you have already made a great step out of harms way. Forgive me if this writing and the many to follow will not be soothing or popular. I share these things to lovingly urge you to wake up. Each and every one of us is in a great battle for our souls. Choose the good, reject the evil and make the decision to stand for God, Who is Love, today. Our spiritual life is ongoing, so it is important to nourish it daily with prayer to help accomplish this.
Last week I shared with you a Prayer to Discern Spirits, and shared an example of how I used this in my spiritual life to discern a good spirit – an angel of God. I promised I would show you the use of this prayer that showed the opposite, and when I set to do so I realized now was the time to write the series I promised a while ago, The Face of Satan. In the end I cannot say I have all the answers. Sitting firmly as we are in the physical world, we are accustomed to handling our day to day lives as they come at us visually, temporally, and rarely see the spiritual truth behind the scenes and just see and feel its ramifications. These experiences, which will unfold over the next several weeks, are my ‘toe into the spiritual realm’, where I have seen good and bad. The following dream experience, one of those peeks into this realm, is offered for your information and discernment. May it and this series of writings be of aid to you in your unfolding spiritual journey:
October 11, 2000
(Dream of who ‘appeared’ to be Jesus & my deceased Grandmother)
I dreamt I was in a kitchen trying to convince my husband that I really did get the signs (real life supernatural incidents that happened in December & January) about my Grandmother (who passed away December 10, 1999 – see My Angel Story). I may have asked for him to get a sign that she’s around so I can prove it to him. He was sitting in a chair. All of a sudden he goes to get up and an invisible hand pushes him back down. It happens again. I say “See, she’s here!”. Then she starts to hug me (she’s still invisible). Because I am not afraid she turns visible and I am so happy to see her. We start talking about things. My husband was no longer there.
We go outside and are in a garden. As we’re talking Jesus is all of a sudden there too. As we come back inside I’m telling both of them how happy I am to be serving the Lord and that I’ve enjoyed my work helping people at the YMCA, but now I feel called to study Theology and say that I’m starting to read theological books, etc.
Then Jesus says to me:
Yes, God is happy with you, but I don’t know why you are planning to study theology. He never asked you to do that. You’re serving Him just fine where you are.” (bold added for emphasis).
I stop, surprised and say:
God has not asked me to study theology?”
Jesus answers ‘no’, very sweetly and emphasizes that I am fine where I am – I don’t need to do more. (This is ultimately a great lie, for we can all grow continually in holiness until we die). I start to get suspicious. Jesus and my grandmother are sitting at the kitchen table now and they’re talking. I start sifting in my purse for a prayer my friend gave me to discern spirits (the one I have shared on this site, approved by Father Joe Kane). I can’t find it but start to recite it from memory (they keep talking). I complete it, but know I’ve missed a part. I dig frantically in my purse, but all of a sudden my purse is overflowing with prayers of all kinds and I can’t find the right one (in real life there is just the prayer to discern spirits – which I have since memorized!). I start reciting again. Jesus is looking at me as I recite it, smiling. I complete it again, but get it wrong again. I’m still frantically searching. He and my grandmother are still talking. The third time I say to myself ‘Okay, concentrate!’ I start reciting again. This time I remember I’ve forgotten to say the part ‘by His Holy Wounds’. As I say these words Jesus stops talking and looks at me worriedly. I complete the prayer properly and they both disappear. (Father Kane has told me that in addition to the Precious Blood of Jesus, there is also great power in the Holy Wounds of Jesus.)
I become very afraid for I realize it was not Jesus and my grandmother, but of the devil. I try to leave, but all sorts of problems are placed in my ability to get away and then someone is trying to lead me back to the garden, and I don’t want to go. I say firmly NO, I must leave. I wake up and as I recorded the dream I wrote: ‘Wow – there is a real war going on for souls!’
I realize it will be very easy for many to dismiss this as a nightmare. I was tempted to do the same. However as I continued to climb the difficult path to holiness and wholeness – living by God’s will – the law of love – my experiences of Satan escalated dramatically. Many of them were downright terrifying and horrifying. I have a feeling they escalated so dramatically precisely because I would be sharing the things I have seen and experienced in this website! Through it all though, I realized that all the power they may have had over me was already broken by my awareness, discernment and armour of prayer and the strength and protection of God, Jesus and the Holy Angels. Of these angels, St. Michael the Arcangel is particularly charged with defending God’s children against all things evil. Prayer to invoke his protection is also of great value.
So, while I am sure I will look like Chicken Little again to many, it does not matter. The truth of good and evil underlying our physical reality is only too real! This series of writings may not be one you can appreciate at this time or at this stage of your spiritual journey, but I have a feeling there may come a day when many will be very thankful for the information shared in this website…
Please tuck this away solidly in the back burner of your memory for a time when you, personally, may need it. There is so much we do not know! I urge you to wake up and see the signs of the times all around you and grow in your preparedness for them. As you read the unfolding series on Satan with me I ask you to keep the following questions of Pope Paul VI in mind:
1. Are there signs, and what are they, of the presence of diabolical action?
2. What are the means of defense against such an insidious danger?”
In the normal growth of Christians, through attendance at church, prayer and the reading of the Bible, there is inherent protection against the side of evil, by growing in good. As we advance in our spiritual growth and become more ‘front line‘ in the spiritual battle, our need for protection increases, therefore as I pray always for you, I ask for your prayers and the protection of the Lord in this front line battle.
Karen
The Deliverance Ne†work 
I haven’t read your blogs in great depth but I did want to comment as I have had some similar types of experiences and, as you say, it is difficult to convey certain thingswithout being thought of as ‘mad’ or ‘deluded’ or with some hidden, self-serving agenda of trying to ‘convert’ someone.
While I am aware of the links between enhanced spiritual perception and some mental illnesses, I have never been diagnosed with schizophrenia or anything like it. I do a pressurised full-time job and I hold a masters degree from Oxford University, yet I find I have to hide such a huge part of myself from the world, which sees on the surface of me a ‘normal’ ‘attractive’, relatively ‘successful’ person…..not some fruitcake who sees angels and demons. But I do; and a lot more besides.
I have some truly wonderful friends but it is hard for me to get to know people because my experiences throughout my life (I’m now 34) are so far removed from that of the typical person in England. My earliest living memory was of a terrifying malevolent force which attacked me while I was a tiny child – even a baby – and every single dream I had until the age of 16 was of this entity. Otherwise life passed pretty much at normal, until I left home as soon as I possibly could to escape what I now know for sure is a badly haunted house.
Had I been religious or had a religious upbringing I might have known how to deal with it, but my parents were very liberal and I didn’t know a thing about religion, apart from the fact that I’d been baptised a Christian (the one time I was taken to church as a child). I did, however, end up dabbling in the occult, like a lot of kids do, perhaps because of the succubus-like force that preyed upon me.
I ran for a long while from this demon, devil, whatever it is, until it finally caught up with me when I was 21. It is a really long story so I won’t detail it here, but basically it launched a serious attempt to possess me, in an attack which lasted for approximately an hour between 1 and 2 in the morning. By that point in my life I had had one or two out of body experiences (not voluntarily, but with other people involved and so I had sufficient ‘proof’ for my own mind of the reality of the spirit/soul, though did not associate this fact with a God). During the attack I was force out of my body by what I can only describe as an intensely violent, hurricane-like wind, which only subsided when it had pushed me as far as the door, with my back to my body on the bed. The struggle seemed almost impossible and it was only after an hour or so, as I said, that I finally ended up staring at my spirit-self in a full length mirror (yes, that was REALLY scary) and managed to spit out a few words. The sound of my voice terrified me – it sounded demonic and the words I spoke, were said as a last resort as I didn’t believe in anything.
“God help me.”
In the twinkling of an eye the demon was banished completely and I was sitting up in bed thinking, Christ, I need to see a priest. I slept well that night but the next day I did something I’d never done before and tried to find our college chaplain. As it happens, he was not in, but I had set my foot on a path that I would never stray from, with Christ as a seal on my heart. I fell in love for the first time as this was happening, a fact which I am certain made it possible for me to comprehend the meaning of the life of Jesus Christ, as I simply did not understand before, I was closed. Being ‘converted’ or ‘initiated’, or whatever, was akin to being turned inside out in a split second (I quite literally saw the light and that was it, my life was transformed).
Over the next few months I did not just have ‘visions’ or ‘dreams’, I had what might be called and ‘enlightenment’ or ‘revelation’, in which all kinds of things about various world religions were ‘shown’ to me. Strange things that I did not understand, I just noted (I kept very detailed records of it all so I wouldn’t forget). A vision of the Holy Trinity that I later realised was connected with the hebrew letter Shin; spinning like a Sufi, a profound comprehension of the sorrowful and passionate mysteries of Christ….the list went on and on, the visions didn’t stop for 3 and a half months.
This was in 1996. During this time I interacted with a being that I could not see but which was clearly there and could affect me in a physical way. At the time I saw it as being God/the Holy Spirit and it is impossible to describe the experience properly in a message like this…..I”m sure you can imagine.
I spent the next 10 years trying to make sense of what happened (the visions/enlightenment faded after that initial time, leaving me feeling bereft). You could say that I spent almost every minute of every day of that time praying. I had made a promise that even though I knew the Holy Spirit had to leave me (as it does everyone at some point), I would be ready and waiting in case I was ever called again.
In 2006 I fell in love for the second time and by the middle of last year I could no longer deny that I was being called again. I left my job as I could no longer concentrate and knew that my commitment was about to be tested. I think that a lot of religiously conscious people experienced something similar last year, as if we were all being called to unite in prayer to avert grave danger in the world. Whether anyone knows the full story of how and why, I’m not sure.
The point I am finally getting around to is with regards to the discernment of spirits and the necessity of having to ‘face up to’ the devil and trample the beast underfoot. I would have considered myself to have about as much faith in God as it is humanly possible to have, for the simple reason that I had enough proof to convince myself (if no-one else) that God not only existed, but loved me enough to save me, despite the fact that I lived a pretty sinful existence, I guess, by many standards. Nevertheless, what I saw and experienced of the ‘spiritual realm’ between July 2008 and about April of this year almost blew me apart and I got to the point where I totally lost faith in my own ability to discern between an angel and a demon.
It is a very, very sad fact of life on Earth, that the enemy does not always appear as a horrendous or obviously terrifying presence that any reasonably sane person would wish to avoid. The most insidious, dangerous beast that there is can appear to be more beautiful than any figment of the imagination, and can inspire feelings of tenderness, joy, even love….by deception. With me I became so weakened and afraid that I decided to shut down my spiritual sight so that I could not be led astray. I felt devastated, as if somehow I’d sacrificed my allegiance to Christ by allowing myself to be deceived. It is hard to explain to somebody who does not believe how this can feel, but I’m sure you will understand.
I am now just coming round to the fact that this type of thing happens to a lot of people and does not mean that Jesus will kick me out of his crew, but it was another very sobering and life-defining moment. I think that a lot of people who are actively engaged in serious spiritual meditations need to be warned of what can happen, of the forces that can be unleashed, the effect on your mind and heart. I see people now who are where I was at 6 months ago and have no way of knowing how to warn them. I feel like saying, “Put on the blindfold, brother, you’re going to need it….”
Peace
Cx
I feel like I love the lord and that I would not trade god in for the enemy and will praise no one other than jesus christ my lord and my savior.