He said to me, “Remove every evil desire from yourself, and clothe yourself in the desire that is good and reverent. For when you are clothed in this desire, you will hate evil desire and bridle it as you wish. Evil desire is wild and difficult to tame. It is terrible, and by its savagery it greatly consumes people. Especially if a servant of God falls into it and lacks understanding, he is terribly consumed by it. It consumes those who do not have the clothing of good desire but are entangled in this age, and it hands them over to death.” I said, “What works of evil desire, Sir, hand people over to death? Make them known to me so that I may keep away from them.” “Listen,” he said, “to the works by which evil desire brings death to the servants of God.”
“First of all comes desire for another person’s wife or husband, extravagance of wealth, many unnecessary foods and drinks, and many other foolish luxuries. For every luxury is foolish and empty for the servants of God. These desires, then, are evil and bring death to the servants of God, for this evil desire is a daughter of the devil. Therefore you must keep away from evil desires so that, by keeping away from them, you may live to God. But all who are mastered by them and do not resist them will die completely, for these desires are deadly. But clothe yourself in the desire for righteousness and, armed with the fear of the Lord, resist them. For the fear of God dwells in good desire. If evil desire sees you armed with the fear of God and resisting it, it will flee far from you and will no longer appear to you, because it fears your weapons. Therefore, once you have conquered it and been crowned for your victory over it, come to the desire for righteousness and hand over to her the victory you have received. Serve her as she wishes. If you serve good desire and submit to her, you will be able to master evil desire and subject it as you wish.”
I said, “Sir, I would like to know in what ways I must serve good desire.” “Listen,” he said. “Practice righteousness and virtue, truth and fear of the Lord, faith and gentleness, and whatever good things are like these. By doing these things you will be a servant of God who is pleasing to Him, and you will live to Him. Everyone who serves good desire will live to God.” So he completed the twelve commandments and said to me, “You have these commandments. Walk in them, and exhort those who hear you so that their repentance may be pure for the remaining days of their lives. Carry out carefully this ministry that I am giving you, and you will accomplish much. For you will find favor among those who are going to repent, and they will obey your words. I will be with you and will compel them to obey you.” I said to him, “Sir, these commandments are great, beautiful, and glorious, and they are able to gladden the heart of a person who is able to keep them. But I do not know whether these commandments can be kept by a person, because they are very difficult.” He answered me, “If you set it before yourself that they can be kept, you will keep them easily and they will not be difficult. But if it has already risen in your heart that they cannot be kept by a person, you will not keep them. Now I tell you: if you do not keep them but put them aside, you will have no salvation—neither you, nor your children, nor your household—because you have already passed judgment on yourself that these commandments cannot be kept by a person.”
He spoke these things to me very angrily, so that I was overwhelmed and became very afraid of him. His appearance had changed so much that a person could not endure his anger. But when he saw me completely troubled and overwhelmed, he began to speak to me more gently and cheerfully, saying, “Foolish, senseless, double-minded man! Do you not understand how great, strong, and marvelous the glory of God is? He created the world for human beings and subjected all His creation to them, giving them all authority to rule everything under heaven. If human beings, then,” he said, “are masters of all God’s creatures and rule them all, can they not also master these commandments? A person who has the Lord in his heart,” he said, “can master all things, including all these commandments. But for those who have the Lord on their lips while their hearts are hardened and they are far from the Lord, these commandments are hard and difficult to walk in. Therefore, you who are empty and unstable in faith, put your Lord into your heart, and you will know that nothing is easier than these commandments, nor sweeter, nor gentler. Turn back, you who walk according to the commandments of the devil, which are difficult, bitter, savage, and wanton. Do not fear the devil, because he has no power against you. For I will be with you—the angel of repentance, who has mastery over him. The devil has only fear to use, and his fear has no force. Therefore do not fear him, and he will flee from you.”
I said to him, “Sir, listen to a few words from me.” “Say what you wish,” he said. “A person, Sir,” I said, “is eager to keep God’s commandments, and there is no one who does not ask the Lord to be strengthened in His commandments and be subject to them. But the devil is harsh and overpowers them.” “He cannot overpower the servants of God who set their hope on Him with their whole heart,” he said. “The devil can wrestle against them, but he cannot throw them down. Therefore, if you resist him, he will be defeated and will flee from you in disgrace. But those who are empty,” he said, “fear the devil as though he had power. When a person has filled many jars with good wine and among those jars a few are partly empty, he comes to the jars and does not inspect the full ones, because he knows they are full. But he inspects the partly empty ones, fearing that they may have soured, for jars that are not full soon turn sour and the pleasant taste of the wine is ruined. So too the devil comes to all the servants of God, testing them. Those who are full in faith resist him strongly, and he withdraws from them because he has no place through which to enter. Then he comes to those who are empty, and because he finds a place, he enters them, does in them whatever he wishes, and they become his slaves.”
“But I, the angel of repentance, tell you: do not fear the devil. For I was sent,” he said, “to be with you who repent with your whole heart and to strengthen you in the faith. Therefore believe God, you who because of your sins have despaired of your life, are adding sins to sins, and are weighing down your life. If you turn to the Lord with your whole heart, practice righteousness for the remaining days of your life, and serve Him rightly according to His will, He will bring healing to your former sins, and you will have power to master the works of the devil. Do not fear the devil’s threat at all, for he is powerless, like the sinews of a dead man. Therefore listen to me and fear the One who is able to do all things, to save and to destroy. Keep these commandments, and you will live to God.” I said to him, “Sir, now I have been strengthened in all the righteous ordinances of the Lord because you are with me. I know that you will crush all the power of the devil, and we will master him and prevail over all his works. And I hope, Sir, that with the Lord strengthening me, I can keep these commandments you have commanded.” “You will keep them,” he said, “if your heart becomes pure toward the Lord. And all who cleanse their hearts from the vain desires of this age will keep them and will live to God.”