Well might one be afraid
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“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
That which we read today is terrifying. Imagine, there are people who prophesy in the name of Christ, cast out demons, and perform many miracles, but in reality, they commit lawless deeds and do not establish a personal relationship with the Lord, i.e., the God-Man Christ does not know them. We will all ask ourselves – how is this possible?
First, it is possible due to the extraordinary grace that works in the Church so that the Church can function normally even today, under these conditions – when the bearers of regular grace are rare. There are also those from the official clergy who preach and write sermons beautifully, who cast out demons and who perform many miracles – the mere service of the Holy Liturgy is enough for that, but from the moment they think that they are doing it with their own mind, strength and skill, and most often, also, they do it for their own glory, they commit lawlessness and their spiritual development, that is, their personal relationship with God, is blocked.
They can recognise this in themselves by the absence of the gift of mind-and-heart prayer and the lack of need for confession and spiritual guidance – but they are blind to it, and even if they see it, they do not have the humility to repent; others in turn recognise them by their great vanity, as well as by the damage they do in the Church in an open and public manner – most often, by internal divisions.
And second, it is possible because of the very demonic help in prophesying, casting out demons and performing miracles. This most often happens to two types of laypeople: those who impose some kind of messianic role on themselves in the Church, and those who are known to us as seers, sorcerers, fortune tellers and sectarians. The latter are not interesting for us to analyse, although they still do a lot of harm. The former are more harmful.
Let us recall what exactly happens to the former. All those who will not harmonise their way of life with the level of mental or spiritual development they are at, as well as with the position and role they have in the Church, and have a great opinion of themselves, they expose themselves to demonic influence, as well as demonic possession. For example, a person does not have enlightenment of the mind – which comes from the struggle of mind-and-heart prayer and does not have an official priestly rank, and he “teaches” something on social networks and he supposedly “saves” the Church from some heretics or national traitors. Such people are ideal for demon possession, as well as becoming instruments through which demons work in this world. The worst combination is the union of the first and the second cases.
All such people will be very surprised when they hear the voice of God: “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who do lawless deeds!”
God forbid that this should happen to anyone!
Metropolitan of Strumica, Nahum
10 / 06 / 2026
