Trust me on this one AG, Kosta is a BIG troublemaker...it comes from the air in our Balkan mountains, hence we are called Balkan Mountain Bandits (Alex is one too, by adoption and in recognition of his many years in our mountains and his fluency in the Mother Tongue). We just can't help ourselves. Some say its genetic, but I think its the air! :)
Your comments about you experiencing the indwelling of the HS for decades interests me. The Orthodox Church is quite clear, especially nowadays, on the possibility of theosis outside the bounds of the Orthodox Church. From what little I can understand about you from FR, it does appear that you are rather more advanced in theosis than me, but I assure you that might be taken as damning with faint praise. But please allow me to suggest that the further one advances in theosis, the greater an attraction to the demons one becomes. In Orthodoxy we have the practice of "noetic prayer" prayer of the heart its sometimes called. The prayer is quite simple, "Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." The prayer is repeated unceasingly until it sort of becomes unconscious, the background music of one's life. But even that little practice is usually only undertaken with spiritual guidance because of the demonic dangers associated with hesychastic prayer and life. There is a constant possibility that what one is hearing is not the HS at all, but rather demons appearing as beings of light. The Greek Fathers say that the greatest of spiritual virtues is discernment and their writings are full of examples of people who otherwise appeared to be very holy, very advanced in theosis, people who believed themselves to be holy and advanced and yet they were unbeknownst to them in the clutches of demons and were destroyed. In Greek we call Satan "Ο Πονηρος", the Evil One with implications of slyness, like a fox is sly. Anyway, pray for discernment.
Let him who thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall
is a crucial sobering Scripture for us all.
To avoid coopearting with learning to hear and obey God’s voice out of FEAR OF FAILURE is NOT a valid spiritual alternative.
As I was just getting up, the MP3 Scriptures were on the parable of the 3 talents/minah’s and the one who buried his in the ground out of fear was not rewarded.
And, in another passage, those noted as being rejected to outer darkness (IIRC) along with homosexuals, liars etc. are . . . cowards.
Banditry is a very Christian thing. Christ taught us to drop out (Luke 9:62), seek invisible kingdoms (Luke 12:31), transform cosmic calendars to ourselves (Mark 2:27), run to the hills (Mark 13:14) with a sword and no clothes on (Luke 22:36), despise democracy (Matthew 27:20), talk down to governments (John 19:11), commune with robbers (Luke 23:43), and imitate thieves (2 Peter 3:10).