THE 5 POISONOUS SNAKES AND THE 14 HEADED BEAST INSIDE US

 THE NEW COVENANT AND PRAYER

“Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and will shew thee great things, and difficult, which thou knowest not.” (Jeremiah 33:3).

The fulfillment of the great promises of the new covenant is made dependent on prayer. It is when individual men and women turn to God with their whole heart to plead these promises that He will fulfill them. It is in the exercise of intense persevering prayer that faith will be strengthened to take

hold of God and surrender itself to His omnipotent working. As Christians testify of what God has done, believers will help each other and take their place as the Church of the living God, pleading for and fully expecting that His promises will be fulfilled in larger measure. (GOD’S BEST SECRETS, One Minute Devotions, Andrew Murray).

PRAYER

“Oh, Lord, listen to my prayer. In Your truth, grant me my request.

You said, oh Lord, “Ask and you will receive”. This is Your greatest

promise and being true to this I ask of You:

1. To eliminate sin throughout the whole world(1 John 2:2, 3:9, 5:18, 1 Corinth. 15:56,57, Matthew 5:48, 1 Peter 1:16).

2. To establish Your kingdom in all people’s hearts(Matthew 6:10, Luke 17:21, Revelation 21:1-4, Isaiah 65:17-19, 2 Peter 3:13).

3. To eliminate aging and death from our bodies(1 Corinth.15:26, 51-54, 2 Corinth.5:4, 2 Timothy 1:10, Revel. 21:3,4, Solomon’s Wisdom (Septuagint) 1:13, 2:22, John 8:51).

3. To fulfill the resurrection of the dead(John 11:25, Luke 24:37-43, Isaiah 26:19-21, Job 19:25-27, Psalm 16:9-11, Ezekiel 37:5).

“Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify

ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting

holiness out of reverence for God.” (II Corinthians 7:1).

Elements that hinder the establishment of God’s kingdom in our hearts are the following:

The Seven Headed Beast

Fear (1John 4:18, Romans 8:15, Matthew 14:27, Hebrews 2:15, 1 Peter 3:6,14).

Anger (Matt.5:22, James 1:19, Ephes.4:26, 1Cor.13:5, 2Cor.12:20, Galat.5:20, Coloss.3:8).

Anxiety (Matthew 6:25-34, Luke 10:41, 12:11, Philippians 4:6).

Argumentativeness (1Timothy 6:4, 2Timothy 2:14,23,24, Titus 3:9).

Cunning

Materialistic thinking (Matthew 6:24, 1Timothy 3:3, 6:10, Mark 10:22, Luke 10:41).

Ignorance of the Word of God (Matthew 22:29, John 5:39).

THE SEVEN EXPRESSIONS OF PRIDE

Showing Off (2Kings 20:13-18, 2Samuel 22:1,3,10).

Bragging (2Kings 18:33-36, 14:35-37, 1Cor.4:7, 13:4, 2Cor.11:30, 12:1,11, Jams4:16, Jude 16).

Praising your immediate environment (Daniel 5:1-4, 25, 31). Touchiness (Exodus 2:13,14, Numbers 16:1-4).

Complaining (Numbers 11:1, 14:1-4, Matthew 20:11, Exodus 16:8, Jude 16 (grumblers)).

Self justification (1Samuel 15:15-20, Genesis 3:11-14, 1Peter 2:23).

Butting In (2 Timothy 3:4).

THE FIVE POISONOUS SNAKES ARE:

JEALOUSY,

LYING,

PRIDE,

JUDGMENT

GUILE

Jealousy (Genesis 4:5, Matt. 2:3,16, 1 Corin.3:3, Prov.14:30, 1 Samuel 18:7- 12, Acts 13:45, 7:9).Lying (John 8:44, Psalm 5:6, Genesis 3:4).Pride (Prov. 3:34, 16:18, 13:10, Psalm 31:23, Isa. 2:12, Luk.1:51, 1 Cor.13:4, 2 Tim. 3:2. Jam. 4:6).

Judgment (Matt. 7:1-6, Rom. 2:1-4, 14:4,10,1 Cor.4:5, James 2:13, Jude 16

(faultfinders).

Cunning (2 Corin. 11:3, Psalm 64:6, Ephesians 4:14).

They poison man’s soul and body and they lead him to spiritual and physical death. We will undertake the task of analyzing these five poisonous snakes with the help of God and the commentaries of our spiritual brother and father and see how we can eliminate them from our life.

Adam and Eve were intrigued as to why they were not allowed to eat the fruit of the tree of good and evil and this curiosity led them to start a dialogue with the serpent. It was the first time ever that lying entered the thought of Adam and Eve: if they ate the forbidden fruit they would not die, but they would become gods and, because God did not want them to become gods, he forbade them to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Jealousy dictated: ‘How can you be God and us humans?’ Under these circumstances a horrible monster came to being: PRIDE Then, pride said: ‘When we eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good

and evil, we will also become gods.’ Pride brings God down in thought and raises the proud man in the heights of heaven and sits him on the throne of arrogance and he stays there until the breath of God turns him to dust and destroys him.

The consequences are well known to us. One blamed the other. Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent and on it goes until today. Each one of us blames others as being the source of evil, but we never blame ourselves.

1. JEALOUSY

What is jealousy ?Jealousy is an unreasonable, insidious and incomprehensible passion

that tears love -which is the eternal symbol of God’s presence- into pieces. It creates the shameful acts of envy among people for insignificant reasons and sometimes for no reason at all.

Cain killed his brother Abel for no reason at all, out of jealousy. Herod, out of jealousy, had 14,000 infants slaughtered. Jealousy has turned our planet into ruins with its criminal motives. It is the devil himself hiding in us – and we are completely unaware of this- with the purpose of destroying and annihilating us. No matter how small the amount of jealousy is it results in decay (aging) and destruction.

Jealousy is one of the worst passions, because it escalates to envy, which in turn is the cause of anxiety and the destruction of our physical life. This monster is eating away on man’s life. If we are honest enough to bring to surface the motive –which is jealousy- that urges us to judge other people, then guilt and responsibility are not transferred to others.

Jealousy is considered to be an incomprehensible passion, because it invades our thought like a conqueror and imposes its own rule. It forbids the faculties of our brain to discourse freely, it gives orders, it puts pressure on us and forcefully makes us do things. Jealousy is man’s first sin. Depending on the amount of jealousy, man reaches the point of wanting the head of the object of his jealousy on a platter. Jealousy is an enormous castle that no one can tear down. It is called a castle, because it destroys love. While you treat a jealous person like a king, he wants to destroy you. The leaders of the nations do not have experiences of love and peace. Just out of jealousy, they are ready to destroy under the pretext of heroism.

This huge castle of jealousy, though, can be torn down only by faith in Jesus Christ. It takes a tremendous effort to get rid of jealousy and envy, which are interwoven emotions. A believer, with the help of love and humility, forgiveness and a kind and sweet behaviour, may set himself free from jealousy.

Brothers and sisters, let us accept willingly the arrows of jealousy that are thrown at us from other people, because they open for us the way towards perfection and true glory. Entering the kingdom of God will not be accompanied by caressing, but by whipping. If we truly want to enter the

Kingdom of God, we must willingly accept these blows of jealousy from other people.

Let us also give glory to the name of the Lord Jesus who has revealed to us the invisible, small foxes –jealousy, lying, pride, judgment and guile- (Song of Songs 2:15 “Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom”) which destroy the vineyard (our life) while the vineyard keeper is unaware of this. He will also give us the power, by means of our prayers, to exterminate them so that we will walk unafraid and invincible towards the great and glorious day of the Lord.

2. LYING

The devil is the ruler of death and wants to make us his followers to our destruction. Similarly, Christ wants to make us his followers to eternal life. How can the devil make us his followers? By lying, since he is the father of lying. He watches us constantly. If we suffer pain in a certain part of our body, or if we see something wrong with our children, or with anyone in our immediate environment, he immediately introduces lying. We find out that it is cancer, and since faith moves mountains, he forces us by means of lying to sign the decision for the death penalty. God has allowed the devil to rule all humanity by means of lying. He has built his magnificent palace in the hearts of all people and all nations on earth.

We can hear people proudly tell white lies, meaning that they all have made a pact to tell lies, and no one can judge them or punish them. However, Christ has said, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32).

It is amazing how the devil has entered our thinking and has established the dominion of death in us by means of incessant lying -since we do not practice incessant prayer. He can turn a healthy, strong person into a living dead with his lying -if this person allows him to.

Lying is a way of life that cannot be shattered. Since the moment that the devil was successful in introducing lying to Adam and Eve, it has been passed down to all people as the scripture says, “Every inclination of his heart is evil since childhood.” (Genesis 8:21). God has allowed the kingdom of lying to be established first, so that when the kingdom of truth comes, people will have had such a devastating experience of evil that they will never want to return to lying. When someone has suffered in darkness where he is constantly in danger of falling and getting hurt, when he finally experiences light, he won’t even contemplate going back to darkness. Do you lie? You have signed your death certificate. Do you lie, judge, curse or have doubts? Well, the Holy Spirit is not living in you!

What is lying? It is the system of the present life. It is the way of life of the father of lying, the devil, who, by means of lying, has become the ruler of all men and all nations in the world. Now a question arises. How did the devil get the authority to do that? God allowed him to approach Adam and Eve and trick them with lying. What were the consequences? They totally disregarded the command of God and followed the liar devil, who consequently conquered them. The whole planet is inundated by lying. Where can Christ, who is the truth and the life, descend and make his home? The most tragic fact of all is that the devil has made a pact with mankind - every single one of them without exception- to die, while we know that “God made not death, neither hath he pleasure in the destruction of the living. For he created all things that they might have their being and the generations of the world were healthful and there is no poison of destruction in them, nor the kingdom of death upon the earth.” (Wisdom of Solomon 1:13)

God did not make death and he does not want men, his creation, to die. All attributes of the immortal life exist in nature. However, the devil, the father of lying, twists the truth around in thousand different ways and controls the system of this present world only with those who follow his lies with deceit and hypocrisy. We need to be very careful, because lying has no legs to stand upright, but it has wings and can fly far away. It is easy to tell a lie, but it is very difficult to tell only one.

Do not be tricked into believing, my children, that the agents of Satan have managed to assimilate Christianity with white lies. Christianity continues to sustain quietly and inconspicuously its outstanding and supernatural powers. It sustains its unchangeable and eternal divine and heavenly attributes, which, at any given moment, can transform and give rebirth to men, and at the appointed time will transform them to be like God.

Christianity, sooner or later, whether we want it or not, will make use of its supernatural powers that God has endowed it with, “I said, ‘You are gods; you are all sons of the Most High” (Psalms 82:6) and it will complete its great mission in the world.

Christ, many times, will have to use force, “Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full” (Luke 14:23) in order to save people.

Christ is inviting us to wake up from the slumber, to purify ourselves, to unite in love and spiritual vigilance, and most of all in humility. He invites us to return without delay in unity of purpose to the land of the living, our lost homeland.

3. PRIDE

The seven main expressions of pride are: showing off, bragging, praising our immediate environment, touchiness, complaining, justifying ourselves and butting in.

A proud person is to be pitied! He is blinded by pride and doesn’t know who he is. He may have beauty, youth, or wealth. Is any one of these his own making? What do you have that you did not receive? If you really owned these qualities, you would have them for eternity. However, after a period of time you lose them. There is no greater stupidity, folly and darkness than pride. Pride can lead man to paranoia. It is a cursed disease; it is an insidious and sly enemy. We could say that inflated pride is spiritual schizophrenia, more dangerous than mental schizophrenia. A person who suffers from the latter is shut in a mental hospital, whereas a person who suffers from the former walks around in society among us.

Pride is an enormous canon that blasts all around it. No one is ever right besides the proud person. How can we know if we are proud? We should only and constantly examine ourselves and never the others. If my brother makes a mistake and I happen to notice it, I should pray for him. Christ is often embraced out of selfish interest or gain, out of guile or a desire for positions of authority.

When we are governed by pride, God stays away from us, because pride is a destructive evil. It comes into conflict with the pride of other people with the natural consequence of producing a flare up. It does not allow people to come to terms and become friends, but breaks them apart into political parties, nations and religions. Pride is the greatest monster. It dominates over all other passions. It dominates them and inflates them. Pride springs from the deepest part of our being. It is difficult to eliminate it, because it has lived within us since childhood. It is a gift of the devil to each one of us; he begs us to receive it. The devil is the great disciplinarian; he does his job well. When he succeeds in catching us into his net and we commit a sin, then he leads us to despair. Despair is death; it is the most insidious form of pride the devil has devised. God does not oppose men in any mistake they make, except for pride “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5).Does God need to collaborate with the proud in order to show his love? Does He need to collaborate with the devil? If someone has pride, he

will no doubt remain outside the kingdom of Heaven. Pride leads to destruction, on the contrary humility leads to salvation. When we pray with faith, Christ will send the Holy Spirit to make us understand that we have pride and give us the strength to struggle against it. We need to know that “It is time for judgment to begin with the family of God” (1 Peter 4:17). God will cleanse this world from parasites, disobedient and proud people who care less for Christ. All they care about is their self, their ambitions and personal interests.

A proud person excuses himself for not accepting Christ, because, he says, there is great hypocrisy in Christianity. We also are in danger of becoming proud when we feel superior to someone else who happens to be in a spiritual fall. We should correct the fall of our brother with humility, meekness and patience and at the same time watch out that God does not desert us in case we treat our brother proudly .

Pride is detestable in the eyes of God. It is the carrier of all deadly viruses. Pride and Christ are two opposite forces. However, Christ came to destroy devil and his works. We struggle and want to be children of Christ. We need to pray and ask for the strength to succeed in this effort: to love, to forgive and avoid judging others. Let us not forget that “God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all” (Romans 11:32). Also, let us not forget that we have Christ’s gospel in our hands and we have the great power of prayer.

We need to kneel down before him with faith in his Word, that “with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26), and cry out to him, ‘Lord, give us your humility in our hearts, because if you don’t, it would be better if we had never been born, if we don’t get to see you.’

4. JUDGMENT (critisim)

When I first started to read the gospel and pray, my attention was drawn to “Do not judge or you too will be judged.” (Matthew 7:1);

further on, “Who are you to judge someone else’s servant. To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand” (Romans 14:4),

and “You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things” (Romans 2:1). As soon as I came across all these verses, I exclaimed, ‘What else do I need to know? Lord, have mercy on me!’

We all judge, my children, all with no exception. And then we demand that God may listen to our prayers and heal us or heal other people we are praying for. Our pride condemns other people.

When we judge and accuse someone, we do him no harm, if he has settled accounts with God. On the other hand, if he hasn’t, we do not make his situation any worse. What we actually do is condemn ourselves and we will not come out of this jail unless we finish our term.

What is judgment? Judgment is any disobedience to the Word of God.

When we judge we belong to the class of Pharisees. When judgment comes in one door, brotherly love (philadelphia) goes out the other door.

When the Lord says, “How foolish you are and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!” (Luke 24:25), is he passing a judgment? The Lord abandoned the eternal glory of Heaven that he had before he created the world, and became a man similar to us in everything, without sin. Furthermore, he sacrificed his life as a man for one and only purpose, to bring judgment, to separate the good from the evil. Now the world can tell the good from the evil, especially the children of God, who need urgently to judge themselves and not others. We need to place ourselves on the side of the good against the evil. We need to bring judgment within ourselves so that when we appear before the seat of judgment we will not be condemned, because that judgment will be without mercy, “When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world” (1 Corinthians 11:32). We need to separate ourselves from sin; we need to separate these two fundamentally different worlds within ourselves and follow the path of God. Those of us who judge themselves, will not have to face God’s judgment.

Human judgment is superficial. Human courts base their decisions on what the witnesses saw and heard, very often making mistakes and making unjust decisions. A righteous judgment requires a righteous judge. There is no righteous judge other than Jesus Christ. He is the one who said, “I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just” and justifies this truth, “for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me” (John 5:30). Men cannot make a just judgment. Only the one who forgives all day, who gives mercy, can make a just judgment. Christ humbly accepted to be accused by people, “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:23), and warned us, “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also” (John 15:20). It is to our best interest when people accuse us, because we stay vigilant and thus achieve our purification.

We should never think that we can deceive God just because we go to Confession and receive. Communion, if we continue to judge other people. Our repentance must be from the depth of our hearts, if it is to be sincere.

If we want God to listen to our prayers, faith is not enough.Forgiveness is also necessary. Forgiveness is the foundation of Christian life. Without forgiveness, there is no relationship between God and us. There is no faith, it is demonic. Unfortunately, we all judge, there are no exceptions to this. This is the reason we do not make progress and do not grow.

It is a great gift for man to be able to separate his two internal worlds, his good self and his evil self. This is how he enters the path to his true and eternal destiny. When we judge another person that means that we deprive him of the redemption of the cross. Judgment is death. We should be considerate of the conscience of other people. We should not offer them grounds with our words and actions to judge us. On his Second Coming, Christ will judge the world. All impure elements will follow to destruction their leader, the devil. Then Christ will become king of all the nations in the world. This means that the present evil world will be turned upside down and the Kingdom of God will prevail within us and around us. All that believing people need to do is make the decision.

If we repent sincerely, God will help us. Repentance means to humble ourselves sincerely; to accuse only ourselves, and those accusations directed at us by others, we should accept them, regardless of whether they are just or unjust and ask for God’s mercy and the forgiveness of men. Then Christ erases all our sins with his blood. Then we will see our new life and be glad. We will see our self being born again and we will be in wonder with this amazing change. At that point, we will change direction and walk straight towards the Kingdom of God.

5. Cunning

Cunning is the trade of the dominion of the devil. In human trade transactions, cunning can lead to breaking human laws for the sake of shameful profit by means of lying and deceitfulness. The devil is trading souls with his trade. No one can escape from his claws unless they repent sincerely. Cunning, because of its nature, fills up men’s soul with deceit and lying without measure. There is great danger even for a good person to stray away.

Man is born with the spirit of good. The evil spirit is waiting for an opportunity to enter the spirit of a good man and turn him to evil. Generally speaking, “Every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time” (Genesis 6:5). If a man has been destined to perish, the evil spirit is predominant in his life and slowly leads him to destruction. If, however, a man has been destined to be saved and believes in Christ, the evil spirit works to his advantage. Man has the free will to choose good or evil. When man chooses the good by his own free will, little by little he becomes divine, by God’s grace. If he chooses the evil, little by little he loses his divine character and becomes a beast “A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish” (Psalm 49:20).

Man’s brain has the ability to conceive the various spirits that exist in the world. One of these spirits is the evil one. He knows, however, that the evil spirit is the devil himself. So, when the evil spirit approaches him and tries to enter his brain, he drives it out by means of the Word of God and prayer. When we come to know what the will of God through his Word is, and make an effort to put it into practice, then we participate completely in the mystery of the Kingdom of God.

Cunning is any thought conceived in our brain against God or any other fellow human being. This very bad habit is a trap for us, and although, we have been trapped ourselves by our malice, we think that we have trapped others who happened to be in a spiritual fall. In the Parable of the Net the Lord said that he would kick out of the Kingdom those who cause others to be offended and those with cunning. Cunning people, having evil thoughts stored up in their heads, are triggered by the slightest cause, they become offended with the most insignificant thing they see of hear by those who spread lies, and become offended, because everyone judges others by what he has in his heart.

Cunning in moral matters leads to moral trespasses. In the professional world, it leads to injustice, theft, fraud and cheating in transactions. It is a very serious social evil. Noah could not tolerate the shameful society around him. He could not bear it that this kind of people would be the forefathers of mankind, and God rightly so destroyed them. However, there is a flood far worse than the flood of Noah, worse than the numerous poisonous snakes of the desert. It is the flood of the shameful and cunning acts of man. Prophet Isaiah calls out, “Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts” (Isaiah 55:7). Any thought that aims at hurting others, no matter how insignificant it is, is a sin; it is evil. Also, those who do not forgive their fellow human beings are evil servants.

The gates of our spiritual homeland are wide open so, along with good spirits, flies and mosquitoes come in as well. God knows that, and in this manner he tests people and it becomes clear who his genuine children are. It is impossible for those who love sincerely to harbour evil thoughts against others. They are self-controlled, useful to others, having good thoughts for others. They will never think to act evil.

Cunning people and offenders are those who harbour thoughts against their Maker and other people and when they bring these thoughts out to the open, they offend others. We call righteous, the people who have become fully aware of the negative aspect of their personality and how divided their inner world is, so that whatever negative thought rises in their head, they re- direct it immediately against themselves and not against the others. They know very well that righteousness means recognizing their own mistakes.

God’s grace, the Holy Spirit falls like rain on every single human being, with no exception. It falls down and produces its fruit: the Fruit and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Depending on how we use our freedom and free choice, we transforms these fruit into good or evil. We need unshakable faith in God first, in order to help protect ourselves from evil elements in our life. Second, we need sincere love for all people and, third we need unceasing prayer and vigilance for, a born again person will not sin because he knows the evil and its tricks.

THE 14 HEADED MONSTER (BEAST) INSIDE US

1. Showing off

The first type of egotism is showing off.

The meaning of showing off does not refer to man`s appearance. It refers to his mind, to that particular spirit which wants to show off. Whatever good is in man`s possession has been given to him by God. Therefore, we do not have the right to use all this treasure the way we want. Only the one who has given it to us has the right to use it the way he wants. We cannot touch anything which does not belong to us. We should be careful not to show off in all aspects of life and if we realize we behave like that, we should pray to the Lord to help us get rid of this type of egoism.

2. Boasting

The second form of egotism is boasting.

We must not speak about anything that exalts us. "What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?" (1 Corinthians 4:7) according to St Paul.When we realize that we have boasted or when we say things that praise us (indirectly), we should pray to the Lord to help us get rid of this type of egoism. Boasting deep down is silliness. When we realize that we will be ashamed of ourselves. -

3. Praising our immediate environment

Praising our immediate environment is the third type of egotism.

We must be careful not to praise people or things in our immediate environment ie. people we have personal contact with, our companions, or our close friends. Indirectly we are praising ourselves.We should preach the Word of God with our life first and then we could tell them `Come and see`. The kind of life we lead speaks of our worth. There is no need, therefore, to talk about it.

4. Touchiness

This is the fourth type of egotism.

When someone says something offending and we feel hurt this is one of the ways that egotism shows itself. Nothing should offend us. If someone tells the truth about us and we get insulted, that means we are doing something wrong. We should pray to the Lord, therefore, to help us stop it. If on the other hand, he insults us for no good reason or by lying about us, then what he is really doing is praising us.

People usually get touchy either after a disappointment due to life's difficulties, in which case they don't really value the Lord`s education system, or when they think too highly of themselves.

5. Complaining

Complaining is the fifth type of egotism. We are not God's children if we complain.

Since we have our God who has embraced and saved us, what is there to complain about? God has showed to us by his Son's own example that we must have a fighting spirit and has used the devil as his training instrument to teach and educate us.

We should pray to God to free us from complaining and keep us out of temptation. We should also keep in mind that complaining stems from jealousy, which is the first and most important reason why human beings are led to destruction. Eve got jealous of God, so she ate the forbidden fruit in order to become God herself according to Satan`s instructions.

6. Excusing ourselves (Self - justification)

This is the sixth type of egotism.

Giving excuses or trying to justify ourselves stems from the devil. There is no reason why we should give excuses. We can simply tell the truth without commenting for or against. If we are asked to give the reason for things we did, we should not try to excuse ourselves. We can simply explain the facts and tell the truth.

God is the Truth and whoever has the truth is God`s child. As God remains for ever, he will remain for ever to live eternally with the truth.

7.Butting in

Impertinence is the seventh type of egotism.

An old Greek proverb says: `Do not sprout where you have not been sowed`. When we interfere into other people`s conversations, if we answer a question that has not been addressed to us, or if we talk when we are not wanted, that is impertinence. We shouldn't talk or answer when someone else has been asked to do so.

All types of egotism serve one`s selfish interests, but butting in does so more than any other. A person who butts in wants to show that he is the most knowledgable or eloquent of all. His real intention is to be proclaimed leader of his environment.

1. Fear

Fear is the first head of the seven-headed beast.

According to St John: "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love" (1 John 4:18).

The person who is afraid lives in hell. Fear makes no sense, especially when facing a grave danger. Fear does not help because it stops communication with reasoning and the spirit of calmness disappears. When one is in this state of mind he cannot communicate with his inner self and therefore with God. He cannot face the danger with success, neither does he allow God to help him no matter how much he cries out "Save me Christ..." Parents must try not to enhance the feeling of fear in their children by describing fear causing situations to them.

We should make an effort to drive out fear from our hearts through prayer, and test ourselves to see if it has really gone. Also, we must test ourselves in all areas we know we are afraid of and practise on them to see if fear has entirely gone out of our inner world.

When the judgement events take place and the people of God flee, nobody will be able to help others with regards to fear and sorrow. As it is written in the Bible "..those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now-and never to be equalled again." (Mark 13:19). Such horrible events will take place, that those who still have fear within their hearts will die of it.When we manage to get rid of fear, the Holy Spirit will give us the Gift of Powers so that we will be able to perform miracles. God will save us, through this gift, from natural disasters, accidents or any danger threatening our lives. Fear: A feeling of anxiety which comes as a reaction to real or imaginary danger.

2. Anger

Anger is the second head of the seven-headed beast.

Scientific research has proven that anger produces a number of toxins that poison our blood, and through blood the whole body and soul. Anger is the source of many evils. When one is out of his mind with anger, he has no control over himself. He may curse God and people, beat up people, commit crimes, start wars or do other unreasonable things. A civilized person should not have any kind of anger as he can solve all his problems with reasoning.

Anger goes away when we are careful. A simple thought: "There is nothing to gain with anger", may help a lot. When anger swells up, things not only do not improve but they very often get worse. There is one thing we can be sure of with anger, and that's the gradual damaging of our body and soul.

Parents should try to avoid getting angry in front of their children because they are transferring it to them through their behaviour. Anger goes away if we have joy and peace in our hearts.

When we try, and with God`s help manage to get rid of anger, the Holy Spirit will give us the Gift of Instruction. When we have this gift, God's wisdom along with knowledge of the Bible, will enable us to teach the Word of God. We will have the ability to hold discussions on all aspects of the Bible. And above all, we will be able to preach the Word of God with our living example.

3. Anxiety (Worrying)

It is the third head of the seven-headed beast.

It is the worst disease of soul and body. It destroys millions of human cells. Furthermore, a big sorrow is enough to destroy all cells, the result of which is death.

Worrying is unreasonable because things do not get better with it. On the contrary they sometimes get worse. No matter how little we worry, the human body gets damaged.Worrying goes away only with faith and trust in God through prayer. Parents must try not to pass their worries onto their children, they should

keep their feelings to themselves. Children usually worry when their parents worry, or when they are treated badly.

When we have joy and peace, worries go away. Absolute faith in God through prayer is the way to cast anxiety out of ourselves. Then the Gift of Healing will take its place. This is a very important gift of the Holy Spirit because it heals all diseases of body and soul. It is also very important because there are certain psychological and physical diseases which science has no cure for and which threaten human life. Let us grow, therefore, in joy, peace, trust, faith in God and prayer, in order to rid ourselves of anxiety.

4. Disagreement/Contradiction

This is the fourth head of the beast.

It derives from egoism and selfish interests which often end up in arguments and fights. Many disagreeable situations stem from contradiction, like heresies in religions, parties in the political world, wars and generally destruction. People who study the Bible and try to put it into practice will never contradict each other. They will simply state their opinion. If there is contradiction in a spiritual discussion, that means that there is religious egotism which expresses itself by insisting that our opinion is the most worthwhile. The opinion that has the most supporters should be the one to adopt.

Disagreement goes away when the spirit of simplicity comes in.

Parents can protect their children from the spirit of contradiction by not arguing in front of their children or by not arguing with the children themselves. A person who has love, kindness and meekness in his heart does not disagree or contradict anybody.

As soon as we manage to do away with disagreement and contradiction, the Holy Spirit will give us the Gift of Distinguishing between Spirits, which will enable us to perceive the thoughts of others with the spirit of love.

This gift is necessary in our effort to spread the Word of God because it enables us to understand with accuracy what kind of person we should preach the treasures of the Word of God to. Christ himself said: "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs....".

5. Guile

It is the fifth head of the beast.

It is one of man's terrible enemies as it kills both soul and body in a cunning way.

It is a social plague as it creates injustice, deceit, theft, adultery etc. in all aspects of human life.

Parents must be careful to avoid actions that have elements of evil thinking in them because this spirit is transferred onto their children through their behaviour. Children will have a great struggle with evil thinking later when they enter this corrupt and sinful society.

A person who has calmness, self-control and love for his neighbour under no circumstances can think or do anything against his neighbour.Only when we do away with egotism with God's help, shall we do away with evil thinking too. Then the Gift of Interpretation of Tongues will come in its place. This gift is very useful because we can interpret what is given by the Holy Spirit in the foreign language and thus edify both the interpreter and the whole church.

6. Materialism-Attachment to material things

It is the sixth head of the seven-headed beast.

It grows when man`s mind is constantly occupied by material things, like how to gain material possessions and money to spend it on sinful pleasures. On the other hand the person who has the wealth of the Holy Spirit, he who has tasted the fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit, why should he care about material things since the whole world is his own.Wise Solomon said that the whole world`s gold is a handful of sand compared to God`s spiritual wealth. A hymn says: "Rich people have become poor and gone hungry, but those who seek the Lord will never lack any good". Actually we know many rich people who became poor and even went hungry. Some others didn't become poor materially but spiritually; they were taken over by evil and other passions, which not only were useless to them, but also drove out joy and happiness from within them. Some others became poor in health and although they may have all material goods, doctors have built a fence around them with orders like "Don`t eat this meal", "Don`t do that" etc. Parents should protect their children from attaching themselves to material things or illegal profit by encouraging and teaching them the spiritual life with their good example and righteous living.When we manage to uproot materialistic thinking from within ourselves,

the Gift of Speaking Foreign Languages will come from the Holy Spirit. This gift allows the believers to speak foreign languages -whatever the Spirit gives - just like in the Apostles' times.

7. Ignorance of the Word of God

It is the 7th head of the beast.

It is the worst thing in the world and all evils, sinful life and withdrawal from God's presence, stem from it. The person who does not know the Word of God, does not understand what God means, what life is about and why he came into this world.

In this spiritual school all members are students and the only teacher is Jesus Christ. The Bible study lesson as well as sermons are drawn from the Word of God. The only way to eliminate ignorance of the Word of God is to hold discussions on its various spiritual elements on a regular basis.

Before we get together in our Bible study groups to discuss a particular chapter from the Bible, each one of us undertakes the responsibility to study a particular verse from that chapter on the one hand, and on the other, he must study the whole chapter many times in order to understand its deeper meaning. Furthermore he needs to study all the references related to his particular verse so as to be able to discuss it in detail. In this way he will eventually be able to have discussions on the whole Word of God, that is all 76 books of the Bible. This is the only way to get to know the Word of God, to practise it and cut off the head of the ignorance of the Word of God.

Parents can help their children study the Word of God by studying the Bible themselves first and thus inspiring their children to do so.

A person who has the fruits of the Holy Spirit prays continuously and studies the Word of God, and thus grows in the knowledge of the Word of God. When that finally happens, then the Gift of Prophesy manifests itself by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is the greatest gift of the Holy Spirit and is given only to the believers who have reached a high level of perfection and are dedicated to God all their lives.

Let's hope we will all become knowledgable in the Word of God and apply it in our lives.