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Place of Refuge
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 TEST ALL SPIRITS
- By Philip Yuson
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“Do not trust every spirit. Test the spirits to see whether they come
from God...”
1 John
4:1
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Today's
culture seems to put the devil in the background – often times, making
him look cute. Just look at Halloween celebrations. People dress
children up like ghosts, witches and demons thinking that it is supposed
to be cute. The children may be cute but what they represent is not.
This is one of the reason
 s
why my wife and I never encouraged our children to celebrate Halloween.
We do celebrate All Saints' Day but never Halloween – in the present
cultural sense.
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One good
thing about this present cultural phenomenon though, is that there is
some truth in the way they present the devil. He does not come in a
scary way. He does not come with horns and tail and pitchfork. He often
comes in a beautiful package. He was, after all, the angel of light – so
he comes as a beautiful angel. He is capable of giving us false
consolation, which will mislead us to think that it is from God.
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In his
Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius tells us that there are two spirits
fighting to get our attention: the good spirit - which comes from God -
and the evil spirit. Whereas the Spirit of God never lies, the evil
spirit has no qualms of lying to mislead us from doing God's will. If
the choice is between good and evil, it will be easy to know since we
always hold these before the teachings of the Church, which are ALWAYS
based on Scripture. The problem is the choice between what is good and
what is best.
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God
wants us to have the best. But the devil does not. So he will do
everything to make us fall short of what the Lord has planned for us.
Often times, the devil gives us false consolations to distract us and
prevent us from doing and getting the best. We therefore should be
careful to discern whether a consolation is from the Lord or not. Just
because we feel good about something does not mean that it is good. When
a man looks at a beautiful woman, he feels good. But that does not mean
that the good feeling is from the Lord. If that man is not careful, that
good feeling can lead to adultery or fornication.
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This is
why St. John tells us to test all spirits because not all spirits come
from God. Being in ecstasy, seeing visions, praying in tongues do not
always mean that these are from the Spirit. I am not saying that these
are not from the Spirit – what I am saying is that we need to test the
spirit. We cannot say that because we feel good when we had these
consolations and because it is for the Lord that it is from the Lord.
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St. John
of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila said that these consolations should
not be taken seriously. Experiencing these consolations do not indicate
a person's level of holiness. In fact, giving these consolations more
attention than they deserve will often lead to pride – thinking that one
is holier than the other. To prove this, Blessed Mother Teresa of
Calcutta lived in spiritual darkness for more than 50 years – without
experiencing consolations from the Lord. Does this mean that just
because she did not experience consolation, she was not holy?
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Let us
then pray that we will be able to treat these consolations as what they
are – signs of God's love and nothing more.
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- TELL US LIKE IT IS!
- Has something
wonderful and unique happened in your life lately? Did God answer your
prayer in a very unexpected way? Did you, like Isaiah, meet God’s
whisper?
- Have you felt His
powerful hand working in your life recently?
- Everyday, people are
experiencing God’s mighty Word in their lives and it is a pity that very
few know about it. Do you have a story to tell? Some Good News to
share?
- E-mail us (genesis@catholic.org) or fax us
(021-6627384), and tell us about it. That’s right! You don’t have to be
a great writer to do this. We can help you write it – just tell us like
it is!
- Don’t forget to write
the subject: “Let Me Tell You A
Story”
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moment to sign our guestbook.
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IN THIS ISSUE:
HIS Servant
by Bro. Pete Lapid
Our Faith
By Fr. KJ Veeger, MSC
Place of Refuge
By Philip Yuson
Surabaya Corner
By Ramon Martillano
Inspirational
Community Life ~ Here's the Latest
By Beth Manibog
Genesis Chronicles
By Chen Manabat
Surabaya Sharing
By Bombet Malinao
Straight from the Heart
By Carolle Bautista
On Focus
By Sansu Garin
Saint for the Month
Source: Catholic Online
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