Hearing from God

[LemmyC]

I have a philosophy that, any thought or realization that leaves you feeling peaceful is God assuring you that things will be okay, while any thought or realization that makes you feel anxious and worried over something (especially if it’s something ridiculous) is most likely not from God. Anyone else agree?

 

[ljubim]

I don’t know… remember even the devil can do good for his own evil reasons.

Some of it is ourselves too. Not every single thought comes from either God or the devil. Sometimes we’re our own demon.

 

[Shin]

I have a philosophy that, any thought or realization that leaves you feeling peaceful is God assuring you that things will be okay, while any thought or realization that makes you feel anxious and worried over something (especially if it’s something ridiculous) is most likely not from God. Anyone else agree?

I claim no expertise on this, that said…

What you said can often be the case, however, sometimes even good angels inspire fear, and fallen angels peace or a kind of peace. Anxiety is usually to be warred against but not all fear is bad, sometime anxiety is even what was first a proper object of fear misused properly, instead of dealt with properly.

The devil can produce peace for evil reasons, and does so at times. As a rule the test for this is of course, whether that peace itself is leading you into a sin – i.e. a peace about some question of morality, feeling peaceful about the error, feeling peaceful about some sensual passion or indulgence, etc.

For example someone praying over the book of Mormon might feel peaceful about it, someone engaged in sexual abuse might feel peaceful about it, someone trying to get God to give an extraordinary inspiration might feel peaceful about it and yet be presuming and sinning by asking for the extraordinary, etc.

Interior peace is very important to maintain so that you stay able to judge rightly and pray to God continually. At the same time there are deceptive spiritual sources for peace.

True peace is cleaving one’s will to God entirely, and a clean conscience. I think that a misleading peace would be changeable and dependent upon having certain things. Prayer brings peace.

You should I think normally not use the spiritual feeling of peace as a way of determining right from wrong, that is presumptuous.

You use the Faith for that… and if the peace is in accordance with the Faith, then it would generally be harmless and beneficial, barring of course extraordinary situations such as a demon simply trying to accustom you to accepting spiritual communication with it.

The Holy Spirit brings peace of mind, and to clear the way for the Holy Spirit we must strive to be pure of heart and free of passions.

I’m no expert, I am no saint, there are likely flaws with what I just wrote, these are just my thoughts on the matter. I hope we hear more from others.

 

[Shin]

‘Solomon, who tasted to satiety all the pleasures of the world and found them bitter, voiced his disillusionment thus: “But this also is vanity and vexation of spirit.” “A fool,” says the Holy Spirit, “is changed as the moon; but a holy man continueth in wisdom as the sun.” The fool, that is, the sinner, is as changeable as the moon, which today waxes and tomorrow wanes; today he laughs, tomorrow he cries; today he is meek as a lamb, tomorrow cross as a bear. Why? Because his peace of mind depends on the prosperity or the adversity he meets; he changes with the changes in the things that happen to him. The just man is like the sun, constant in his serenity, no matter what betides him. His calmness of soul is founded on his union with the will of God; hence he enjoys unruffled peace. This is the peace promised by the angel of the Nativity: “And on earth, peace to men of good will.” Who are these “men of good will” if not those whose wills are united to the infinitely good and perfect will of God? “The good, and the acceptable, and the perfect will of God.”’

‘O the supreme folly of those who resist the divine will! In God’s providence, no one can escape hardship: “Who resisteth his will?” (Rom 9:19) A person, who rails at God in adversity, suffers without merit; moreover by his lack of resignation he adds to his punishment in the next life and experiences greater disquietude of mind in this life: “Who resisteth him and hath had peace?” (Job 9:4) The screaming rage of the sick man in his pain, the whining complaints of the poor man in his destitution – what will they avail these people, except increase their unhappiness and bring them no relief? “Little man,” says St. Augustine, “grow up. What are you seeking in your search for happiness? Seek the one good that embraces all others.” Whom do you seek, friend, if you seek not God? Seek him, find him, cleave to him; bind your will to his with bands of steel and you will live always at peace in this life and in the next.’

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

‘When our intellect begins to perceive the grace of the Holy Spirit, then Satan, too, importunes the soul with a sense of deceptive sweetness in the quiet times of the night, when we fall into a light kind of sleep. If the intellect at that time cleaves fervently to the remembrance of the glorious and holy name of the Lord Jesus and uses it as a weapon against Satan’s deception, he gives up this trick and for the future will attack the soul directly and personally. As a result the intellect clearly discerns the deception of the evil one and advances even further in the art of discrimination.’

‘Sometimes the soul is kindled into love for God and, free from all fantasy and image, moves untroubled by doubt towards Him; and it draws, as it were, the body with it into the depths of that ineffable love. This may occur when the person is awake or else beginning to fall asleep under the influence of God’s grace, in the way I have explained. At the same time, the soul is aware of nothing except what it is moving towards. When we experience things in this manner, we can be sure that it is the energy of the Holy Spirit within us. For when the soul is completely permeated with that ineffable sweetness, at that moment it can think of nothing else, since it rejoices with uninterrupted joy. But if at that moment the intellect conceives any doubt or unclean thought, and if this continues in spite of the fact that the intellect calls on the holy name - not now simply out of love for God, but in order to repel the evil one - then it should realize that the sweetness it experiences is an illusion of grace, coming from the deceiver with a counterfeit joy. Through this joy, amorphous and disordered, the devil tries to lead the soul into an adulterous union with himself. For when he sees the intellect unreservedly proud of its own experience of spiritual perception, he entices the soul by means of certain plausible illusions of grace, so that it is seduced by that dank and debilitating sweetness and fails to notice its intercourse with the deceiver. From all this we can distinguish between the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. It is impossible, however, for someone consciously to taste the divine goodness or consciously to realize when he is experiencing the bitterness of the demons, unless he first knows with assurance that grace dwells in the depths of his intellect, while the wicked spirits cluster round only the outside of the heart. This is just what the demons do not want us to know, for fear that our intellect, once definitely aware of it, will arm itself against them with the remembrance of God.’

St. Diadochos of Photiki

 

[feargalmac]

I have a philosophy that, any thought or realization that leaves you feeling peaceful is God assuring you that things will be okay, while any thought or realization that makes you feel anxious and worried over something (especially if it’s something ridiculous) is most likely not from God. Anyone else agree?

Sounds like relativism to me. “If it feels ok it must be ok”.

 

[Monica4316]

I have a question

what if you really struggle with scrupulosity, but feel peace when after Confession you trust in God’s mercy (despite all your concerns about the Confession and if you said it right etc, - concerns which you feel even though you tried your best and said everything you could remember.)

or if you feel peace when you believe Church teachings

is this a good sign?

 

[bpbasilphx]

I have a philosophy that, any thought or realization that leaves you feeling peaceful is God assuring you that things will be okay, while any thought or realization that makes you feel anxious and worried over something (especially if it’s something ridiculous) is most likely not from God. Anyone else agree?

I don’t agree at all.

The ascetic Fathers warn us that the demons can produce “peaceful feelings”–if feelings are what we are looking for, rather than God Himself.

 

[Shin]

I have a question

what if you really struggle with scrupulosity, but feel peace when after Confession you trust in God’s mercy (despite all your concerns about the Confession and if you said it right etc, - concerns which you feel even though you tried your best and said everything you could remember.)

or if you feel peace when you believe Church teachings

is this a good sign?

I think it is a good. Peace after confession is natural, and for the scrupulous, a comfort.