Fortunately, there aren't just weapons of evil that can influence us daily and make life difficult. No, there's also help against them, which is inherently far more powerful and can help us live a good life.
Before I list these weapons, let me briefly explain what "inherently" means.
If you understand the origin – that everything must come from a creative force, and that this force is good – you’ll also understand why this force is uniquely important.
I only grasped this when I separated good and evil. It became clear to me that good can exist alone in harmony and perfection, while evil, left to itself, self-destructs and is ultimately meaningless. It would eventually eliminate itself. Good is thus the host of evil, which can only survive by parasitically drawing strength from good. If evil were to devour all good, it would ultimately turn on itself, which makes no sense.
Nor would evil build or create anything; it only destroys. It isn't an important force in itself, simply because it destroys and causes harm, but solely because that is its nature.
In short: whoever strengthens good and improves what is bad or evil has done enough and needn't worry about anything else.
The greatest punishment for evil is when you do well, when you are successful, when you build things up, when you go through life positively, and when you simply refuse to be consumed by the other side.
So, what are these weapons that help bring light into the darkness? This is a powerful image for how they work. Darkness doesn't truly exist; it's always the absence of light. Perhaps the relationship between good and evil is similar: where good prevails, there will be no room for evil.
Evil can reign most powerfully where love is absent.
So here they are, listed point by point, the seven most powerful weapons for good:
Weapon Number 1 | Gratitude
Gratitude is the most important thing there is. Gratitude has the power to displace everything that isn't good for us, clearing the way for good.
Gratitude creates positive energy, and with it, you displace the negative.
You can easily test this; it's self-propelling. It's the divine circle, a concept we don't even have a word for, the exact opposite of the vicious circle, which everyone understands.
Just start simply: think about what you can be grateful for, and do it every day. You'll find more and more things daily, and suddenly you'll notice how much better you feel.
Use the other weapons listed here, and you'll be so successful that you'll be utterly amazed.
Even if it's just your health you can be grateful for – which, by the way, is the most important thing – or that you're warm, dry, fed, that you can breathe, that you're free, that you can run, jump, dance, laugh, love, etc.
You'll find enough simple things to start with. Give thanks for at least 5 minutes daily. You can read elsewhere on this site how best to do it. Then wait and see how things develop. Just persevere and feel how more and more good energy can work within you each day.
Weapon Number 2 | Personal Conversations
Build a relationship with Jesus. He represents the best this world has ever seen. Speak to Him and ask Him for a sign, for Him to reveal Himself clearly. Entrust your life to Him. Place all your worries in His hands.
The more you do this, the more security you will receive. It will become easier for you, and you will have a personal helper who purifies your spirit for the better.
The wisest way is a prayer of surrender, like the following. Simply, openly, and receptively pray this paragraph. Then, wait to see what happens.
Almighty Jesus Christ, I ask You to come into my life. I want to surrender my life to You and ask You to give me clear signs that You are present and that You also want to walk through life with me. From now on, I want to shape my existence with You and, through You and according to Your will, safely and divinely lead my soul home. You are the way, the truth, and the life; let me also be a part of Your might.
I look forward to my new life with You, and in joyful anticipation, I await Your answer.
I thank You from the bottom of my heart, Your hopeful Damian (your first name)
No lightning bolts will strike from the sky, but in the coming days, things will happen so that you unequivocally understand what is important and what your life with Him will look like.
Then begin your monologue with Jesus. Welcome to your best path home, with Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Father, the almighty divine Trinity.
This will become the most important relationship you have ever had. You will develop feelings that don't exist here in the same way. Wonderful, lasting, and without side effects.
And the best part: God sets you free, breaks chains, and reveals the truth that ultimately leads to life's true goal: a good soul, the key to eternity, freed from addictions, death, and sin. In worldly terms: you will never again be separated from God and will practically make no more mistakes. Step by step, you will increasingly serve the goal perfectly, thus leading yourself and others home.
You will never truly die; you will only pass on and shift to another perspective.
Weapon Number 3 | Connect 3 Times Daily
Those who pray often cleanse their surroundings, consciously or unconsciously. Can you offer a prayer of thanks three times a day? Perfect, then you are a master of Weapon Number 3. I practice this every morning, at midday, and in the evening. Just before sleeping, I review the day and give thanks again for everything that worked out wonderfully.
They say: "He who falls asleep with thoughts of God and gratitude owns the world." This is the best thing you can do. You fall asleep more easily, and in sleep, you receive the best spirit.
Solutions and important decisions can also be well-placed here, and the next day, you can usually make the perfect choice.
Weapon Number 4 | Dealing with Our Weakness
In all the years I've been privileged to walk my path with Jesus, this weapon took me the longest to understand. I had to reach 50 years of age, and much of the Holy Spirit had to pass through me before I could grasp this.
This doesn't mean it's difficult, but it is very, very important, and it actually defines how good a life can be.
Namely, exactly as good as our weakness allows. Just as the weakest link in a chain determines the chain's strength, so it is with us. How we deal with our flaws makes us extremely strong or fatally unstable.
How is this to be understood? Everything in this world carries both forces within it. Duality determines all matter; everything we experience is influenced by it.
It's no different within us. We have a good part and a bad part that carries us through life. From the cradle to the grave, this makes up a personality. This weakness determines everything. It's actually there to help us, to warn us, to draw our attention to changes.
But it doesn't do this to harm us; weakness warns us. In principle, we always carry a part of life's danger with us, which protects us from its like.
In psychology, we speak of the comfort zone: when you leave it, fears arise, and only through training and repetition can you ultimately expand your horizons, your abilities, your territory, your possibilities.
In principle, you accustom your inner 'couch potato' (to use another image for the same thing) to the new situation. It settles down, and you can then enjoy something new with joy, and you have improved yourself.
Whether we call it an inner 'couch potato', invoke the comfort zone, or call it a bad part within us, it always comes down to the same thing.
We are limited for safety reasons, as we actually live in a very dangerous world.
This natural limitation serves our best interests, and only when we understand this can we deal with it and develop strongly for the good without being held back by it.
Why is this a weapon?
If we understand how it works, we can better control our lives. Instead of giving ourselves an inner 'couch potato' or even developing pathological, extreme fears, we can embrace our weakness and, with its help, lead a wonderful life.
From the moment I understood this and no longer suppressed all negativity, my life changed dramatically for the better. Today, I have twice the opportunities, can deal with negative things much better, and no longer have to suppress fears and bad feelings, which is precisely what causes problems.
Be grateful for your feelings and engage in an inner dialogue with yourself. Address your fears or bad feelings, ask what's wrong, and show understanding. You'll notice it moves you forward, blockages disappear, freedom will come. Embrace everything that's going on inside you. It's suppression that makes us ill, the desire to want only good, the perfection that triggers this suppression within us, the greed for good.
By embracing our weaknesses, this heavy part within us, we become truly free. We then live not only with the good side; no, we also have a valuable 'bad' part within us that helps us daily to lead a good, safe, beautiful life, with all feelings and thoughts, not just the good ones alone, which can severely limit our lives.
In practice, it works like this: when I feel something bad or a fear arises within me, I no longer try to disregard or suppress it. I then ask myself: "What is this trying to tell me? Why is this negative thought here now?" Usually, it's a fear worrying about tomorrow or next week or sometime. Then I say: "Yes, that's true, I understand that, it's important and correct, and today I will do my utmost to make today a success."
With this approach, you give your weakness trust, you value it, and then you have far fewer blockages and problems; life becomes more harmonious.
I always see my weakness as an inner child, not as a 'couch potato' I have to train. I try to make my inner child a strong, fully-fledged part of my life with love and understanding. In short: harmonising inner communication is the key to happiness.
This is the weapon; my weakest link becomes stronger and stronger, and thus I too become stronger and stronger. This is a psychological quantum leap.
Weapon Number 5 | The Truth & Success Journal
This is the most impressive thing I have ever experienced. Our perception is not objective. Also, because the forces within us work so differently, we don't perceive the truth clearly but tend to have a negative self-image.
For this, Weapon Number 5 is a gift from heaven. It works very simply: take an empty notebook and start writing in it daily all the good things in your life, all the positive things you have already created in recent years, and thank yourself in writing daily for everything good that happened on that particular day.
Set milestones you want to achieve and repeat the whole process daily. You will suddenly see that what you feel and reality are not the same.
Your attention to your life will become more objective, and you will be more liberated, more realistic, much more positive.
You can then live for yourself every day and ultimately truly live in the only time that truly exists: in the here and now.
I conclude with this, and to stay on topic, I thank You, Jesus, that I was allowed to put these words on the internet, and may many more follow.
Weapon Number 6 | The Day-by-Day Perspective
I first encountered this important strength in 1986 at a lecture by a woman, around 30 years old, who visited our boarding school to tell us about her life. She was there for Alcoholics Anonymous, and I listened intently. Of course, at the tender age of 13, one is somewhat shocked when such a young, pretty woman talks about her addiction and says she has already damaged her liver.
Overcoming alcohol addiction is probably one of the most difficult things there is, and during that lecture, I grasped the core of the solution method used by Alcoholics Anonymous.
Today, I know that this valuable way of thinking actually works for everyone and everything and is very important.
An alcoholic, if they want to break free from addiction, must go to zero so that they are not constantly triggered and continue drinking.
"A little bit" unfortunately doesn't work there. It's easier for them to say 'no' than 'a little' or 'a bit'.
They can better maintain a clear 'no' because then the receptors in their brain are not fed, and they don't have to drink more and more. The effective craving certainly doesn't disappear; it takes a lot of time for a brain to shed the habit, but with a clear 'no', they have a choice that is realistic to maintain.
And here the day-by-day perspective comes into play, or, if you will, Carpe Diem, seize the day.
AA members don't vow never to drink again; at the beginning, there's only one goal: to stay sober for 24 hours, and to repeat this as often as possible.
Setbacks are then not overemphasised, and they simply go another 24 hours without alcohol.
The 24-hour perspective makes it possible. Even in the life of a healthy person, this is a great help.
I don't worry about yesterday, which cannot be changed anyway. I'll take tomorrow when it comes, but I do everything to ensure today can be mastered as well as possible.
In conjunction with what I call a 'craving for gratitude', this works excellently, and thus successful days line up, and overall well-being steadily increases.
Weapon Number 7 | Active Thinking
In the past, you often heard that you should just "think positively." I always thought this was a joke, as thinking is also controlled by feelings, and when you're feeling down, positive thinking doesn't quite work. So, I never really saw it as an important, functional thing.
However, with age and increasing life experience, I have to admit that active thinking is very important.
If we simply let our thoughts drift, we are like a leaf in the wind. Nobody wants to be controlled by the wind.
Here too, if you even notice it, when you're drifting into negativity or feeling bad – which you clearly do notice – strong, active thinking is needed.
If you immediately switch to gratitude, no matter what comes to mind – "Thank you, thank you, thank you" – you'll already feel much better.
Over time, you'll notice the drifting sooner and can intervene earlier, and in this way, you'll feel better and better each day.
So there they are, my Seven to Heaven. Have fun putting them into practice. May our gratitude steadily increase, and may evil lose as much ground as possible.
Carpe Diem