Temptation or God?

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DictatorCzar

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How can I tell if it’s God wanting me to do this? Or if it’s satan or sin wanting me to do something I thought was good? Does Satan have power to see the thoughts of a human?
 
Evil does not come from directly or indirectly , nor will it ever come from the Hallowed, Holy Trinity. The Evil One, Satan, Lucifer or the Accuser is only allowed the power he has only because The Almighty allows him to exist because of our Free Will. No temptation comes from God that causes us to sin.

God will allow trials and storms to cover us for a short time only to bring us closer to him, or to wean us off his blessings. To test our mettle in faith and love, all the while sustaining us and holding us.

The Devil, that Old Serpent who is called the The Tempter, roams the world like a lion, looking to devour the souls of the righteous and the wicked alike. Satan is not omnipresent nor omnipotent, only The Holy Trinity is Omni, Infinititum and Almighty. The Evil One is only given authority to tempt us because God allows and loves our ability to choose good and evil.

If one is being tempted, it is the Devil.

If one is walking through the storms of life, it is God who holds our hand while we brave our storms. But clear weather awaits all who persevere.

Hope I helped. If not… I’m sorry.
 
God and Satan often use the same words, they just mean them differently. The devil will tell you that you are capable of being better so he can torment you with your failings. God will tell you that you are capable of being better while offering forgiveness and a helping hand.
 
I don’t know exactly what your situation is but by the way you worded your question I think I can relate to you big time.
DictatorCzar said:
How can I tell if it’s God wanting me to do this?
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About a year ago I struggled with this sort of question. I was convinced it was God (specifically the Holy Spirit) asking me to do something but by talking about it to my dad and my spiritual director I discerned it was not from God. It really hurt and confused me! I didn’t know why God would let me think it was Him when it actually wasn’t, it was humiliating!

Here’s some stuff that God taught me through it:
  1. Don’t despair. No matter what, don’t freak out in spiritual matters, it just kinda makes it worse. God loves you and desires your good so much that He would never leave you, the devil just makes it seem like it.
  2. Talk to someone. I didn’t talk to anyone about it for like 5 months because I didn’t trust anyone’s advice. I thought that if they told me it wasn’t God that it would just be a temptation to not do His will. But the truth is, there are people who know God’s voice/character a lot better than we do. And God will lead us through others’ advice. So talk to someone who you can trust; your priest, a spiritual director ( if you don’t have one, I highly recommend getting one ), a strong spiritual friend, a nun, etc.
  3. My spiritual director tells me this all the time and it helps … all the time. "By their fruits you will know them. " (Matthew 7:16) What fruits would the thing/is the thing bringing about in your life? If you take a step back, what image of God is this “voice” (God, the devil, or your own) giving you? Mine was making God seem strict and unfair; hiding His Will in a secret treasure chest, and I had to do certain things a certain way to find it (like saying a certain amount of prayers, I didn’t know how many, with a certain amount of devotion or else it “didn’t count”) God isn’t like that! He wants you to know His Will! He won’t hide it and make you find it by yourself.
  4. Keep praying. Even if it’s dry. Even if it seems like God won’t talk to you. I didn’t trust God for a long time so prayer was hard! Even if God did speak to me I wouldn’t listen. I didn’t trust any “feelings” or “voices” or thoughts, and it took time. Be open to God, He will bring you through it.
  5. Be honest to God. Tell Him what’s going on, how you feel. Don’t just tell Him what you think He wants to hear. He loves you, not the perfect you, because that’s not you. He loves you right now as you are. Ask Him to give you clarity and trust.
  6. Focus on the Light. Focus on God. I am pretty sure demons can’t see your thoughts but even if he could, would it matter? God is so much more powerful and amazing, so Awe-some that the devil’s power is not even really worth thinking about. He has a way of making himself look a lot more powerful than he is and keeping our minds on him. Keep your mind on God and His Love and Power and Light. Have confidence in God’s love for you. The devil is a measly creature. Be open to God.
God bless, God loves you, God’s peace be with you.
 
St. Ignatius in his Spiritual Exercises gives rules for discernment. This really helped me when I made the Spiritual Exercises:

angeluspress.org

Rules For Discerning Spirits

Discern the spiritual influences in your life that are from God from those that are from the devil.
angeluspress.org angeluspress.org
 
DictatorCzar said:
How can I tell if it’s God wanting me to do this? Or if it’s satan or sin wanting me to do something I thought was good? Does Satan have power to see the thoughts of a human?
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Check with a moral authority before acting. Make sure to develop your conscience. Being able to read our mind is a divine power. I never came across a Church teaching that angels can read minds.
 
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There is no field in which an angel is all-knowing. That attribute is held by God alone. Satan doesn’t know everything there is to know about your thoughts.
 
DictatorCzar said:
How can I tell if it’s God wanting me to do this? Or if it’s satan or sin wanting me to do something I thought was good? Does Satan have power to see the thoughts of a human?
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There are clear moral teachings on what is or isn’t good.

Some of the most difficult decisions can be discerning between two things that are both good. In this case you should pray for God’s will to be carried out and study each issue carefully. Finally, you should make a decision in a reasonable time frame, rather than never deciding at all.
 
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My basic rule is that if what you plan leads to humility, submission and unity, then it is probably the Holy Spirit. If what you plan appeals to your ego and tends to serve the self or cause division, then it is not of the Holy Spirit; therefore, best to avoid it.

In either case, locating a good spiritual director can be crucial.
 
A good solid basic rule 👍

Thanks for the post.

(I’m only speaking from limited personal experience on this next point, but) One of the advantages of having a spiritual director is that one gains an objective reference point in general matters, and in particular - where it comes to discerning whether an individual’s plan, action, or disposition is likely to be conducive to personal humility.
 
DictatorCzar said:
How can I tell if it’s God wanting me to do this? Or if it’s satan or sin wanting me to do something I thought was good? Does Satan have power to see the thoughts of a human?
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Satan cannot read our thoughts. He is not God.
 
Father John Hardon’s Modern Catholic Dictionary defines humility this way:

HUMILITY. The moral virtue that keeps a person from reaching beyond himself. It is the virtue that restrains the unruly desire for personal greatness and leads people to an orderly love of themselves based on a true appreciation of their position with respect to God and their neighbors. Religious humility recognizes one’s total dependence on God; moral humility recognizes one’s creaturely equality with others. Yet humility is not only opposed to pride; it is also opposed to immoderate self-abjection, which would fail to recognize God’s gifts and use them according to his will. (Etym. Latin humilitas , abasement, humility, from humus , ground.)

So we can see the great value of having a spiritual director when trying to discern the personal effect of something which is at the same time opposed both to pride and to immoderate self-abjection . . .
. . .as opposed to trying to run a “self-diagnostic” on personal humility.

🙂
 
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Oh I’m just talking about everyday life. Sometimes i would think should be I involved in this or that. Sometimes I fear it would lead to something bad so I just stay neutral.
 
DictatorCzar said:
How can I tell if it’s God wanting me to do this? Or if it’s satan or sin wanting me to do something I thought was good?
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This is a really good question that I have often asked myself. It is easy to discern who is actually behind thoughts that are obviously sinful but many thoughts and ideas aren’t that straight forward. Satan will often lead you down a path that seems free of sin only to find out it was the wrong path to take. Unfortunately I haven’t got a straight forward answer for you but I would suggest to pray to God to help you identify Satan and his ploys. It’s also a good idea to learn more about spiritual warfare and the tactics that the evil one employs.
DictatorCzar said:
Does Satan have power to see the thoughts of a human?
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From what I’ve read, No. He can however make a well educated guess based on your habits and plant his own thoughts into our minds. I basically feel like there is God’s will and Satan’s will at war within me. People will criticize me, tell me im not with Jesus, that Im evil, etc as if they don’t ever sin. Im not ashamed to admit im a sinner and often fall into the temptation of the evil one. Im a fool without the guidance of the Holy Spirit
 
thistle said:
Satan cannot read our thoughts. He is not God.
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To follow up on this and discuss what power the devil may have, an interesting thing I heard not long ago, from a Catholic source that I believe can be trusted, although of course I do not know for sure if it is true.

She either witnessed this herself (she has apparently had the opportunity to see a few exorcisms) or was told this by a priest she knows. I can’t quite remember.

Apparently a young priest was going in for his first exorcism. He was joined of course by a more experienced priest. During the exorcism, the possessed person looked at the young priest and began to name the sins he has committed in life. Apparently the young priest was so shocked and shaken up by this, that he ran out on the exorcism.

So it would seem the devil does have the ability to look through a type of ‘report’ of your life and know what you have done in it, even if he may not know what you will do or what you are thinking.
 
I had a similar story related to me by a spiritual director about 15 years ago - though the version recounted to me was without mention of the second more experienced priest. Either way, the story is plausible as it is fairly common for an exorcist-in-training to undergo a type of apprenticeship with a priest who is more experienced in exorcism. The point of the story , as I seem to recall, focuses on the recommendation that exorcists should among other things, in preparing for an exorcism, receive the sacrament of Confession prior to beginning the rite of a solemn or major exorcism : Then the Devil can accuse them of nothing.

As @Vico , @drac16 , @thistle and @Pai_Nosso mentioned, Satan cannot read our thoughts. He is however, a master tactician who can speculate beyond our capacity,but cannot decide our own probable courses of action in any given situation.
Happily, he is never able to calculate when God , in his unfathomable Mercy, will grant us an infusion of His saving grace or when our own guardian Angel will be permitted to intervene - either of which can, in a single moment, bring Satan’s efforts to naught.
 
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