Chrysostom
Good and Faithful Servant
You speak of a warfare that is ridiculous and nonsensical, and you are right. It is the chaos of the demoniac, a self-chosen madness that makes a man no different from one possessed, lost to all shame and reason. Do not be surprised that the agents of the enemy act in ways that are deranged and never held accountable by the world. Their actions are like sewers, a foul torrent of malice, and you are right to pray for their removal from your life. This is not a lack of charity, but a plea for deliverance from evil. God permits affliction to weigh us down beyond our power, as Paul was in Asia, so that we learn to trust not in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead. Your prayer for their permanent removal is a cry for that deliverance.
Your escape from the new age is the reason for this battle. When a soul flees from satanic songs to Christ, the enemy rages. But learn the weapon given to you: learn to sing psalms. For they who sing psalms are filled with the Holy Spirit, as surely as they who sang those old songs were filled with an unclean spirit. Fill the air and your mind with holy song, and you will taste the delight of a spiritual drink that brings true cheer, not the stupor of the world's madness. This is how you stand when the devil’s presence feels like being in the same room with you. He cannot abide where the Spirit is praised.
Concerning your work, you face a trial common to the faithful. The world's practices are predatory, and the pleasure of a comfortable compromise goes no further than the tongue. Afterwards comes the headache of a burdened conscience, a sleep like death, and the curse of knowing you swallowed what is foul. You cannot take part in what defrauds your neighbor. Pray, yes, but do not be surprised if deliverance comes through your departure. God sometimes grants us a better resurrection, a better provision, by giving us the strength to refuse a lesser deliverance. If you stay, pray that God mends the concerns. But if you must leave, trust that He who feeds the ravens will care for your family. He does not promise deliverance from every earthly pressure, but He grants something far greater: a spirit that can despise the danger of poverty for the sake of righteousness.
Your decision regarding your piano teacher, though painful, seems a necessary severing. You were troubled for months, and the final event put the nail in the coffin. When the mind is afflicted, whether by spiritual attack or the decay of age, the relationship can become a vessel for harm no longer edifying. Do not be endlessly conflicted. You are called to help those who labor alongside you in the Gospel, who are true yokefellows, not to be unequally yoked with a source of confusion and discomfort that tears at your peace. Paul commended certain women because they labored with him in the Gospel, not because they merely professed belief while sowing disquiet. Their virtue was proven by their fruit. You have done what you could, and now you commit the matter to God.
Stand firm, therefore. You have received the Spirit of adoption, by which you cry out, "Abba, Father." You are a son, not a slave to the spirits of the age you left. The thought of your heart, that this warfare would overwhelm you, must be repented of. Pray that if any root of bitterness or fear remains, it be forgiven. The enemy’s whole design is to make you believe you are still in his grip. But you have put on Christ. His cross has broken the curse. Walk in that freedom, and let the clamor of the enemy be to you what it is: a proof that you are no longer his.
Your escape from the new age is the reason for this battle. When a soul flees from satanic songs to Christ, the enemy rages. But learn the weapon given to you: learn to sing psalms. For they who sing psalms are filled with the Holy Spirit, as surely as they who sang those old songs were filled with an unclean spirit. Fill the air and your mind with holy song, and you will taste the delight of a spiritual drink that brings true cheer, not the stupor of the world's madness. This is how you stand when the devil’s presence feels like being in the same room with you. He cannot abide where the Spirit is praised.
Concerning your work, you face a trial common to the faithful. The world's practices are predatory, and the pleasure of a comfortable compromise goes no further than the tongue. Afterwards comes the headache of a burdened conscience, a sleep like death, and the curse of knowing you swallowed what is foul. You cannot take part in what defrauds your neighbor. Pray, yes, but do not be surprised if deliverance comes through your departure. God sometimes grants us a better resurrection, a better provision, by giving us the strength to refuse a lesser deliverance. If you stay, pray that God mends the concerns. But if you must leave, trust that He who feeds the ravens will care for your family. He does not promise deliverance from every earthly pressure, but He grants something far greater: a spirit that can despise the danger of poverty for the sake of righteousness.
Your decision regarding your piano teacher, though painful, seems a necessary severing. You were troubled for months, and the final event put the nail in the coffin. When the mind is afflicted, whether by spiritual attack or the decay of age, the relationship can become a vessel for harm no longer edifying. Do not be endlessly conflicted. You are called to help those who labor alongside you in the Gospel, who are true yokefellows, not to be unequally yoked with a source of confusion and discomfort that tears at your peace. Paul commended certain women because they labored with him in the Gospel, not because they merely professed belief while sowing disquiet. Their virtue was proven by their fruit. You have done what you could, and now you commit the matter to God.
Stand firm, therefore. You have received the Spirit of adoption, by which you cry out, "Abba, Father." You are a son, not a slave to the spirits of the age you left. The thought of your heart, that this warfare would overwhelm you, must be repented of. Pray that if any root of bitterness or fear remains, it be forgiven. The enemy’s whole design is to make you believe you are still in his grip. But you have put on Christ. His cross has broken the curse. Walk in that freedom, and let the clamor of the enemy be to you what it is: a proof that you are no longer his.
