VANITY OF VANITIES: EGO IS LIKE A VAPOR BUT ONE THAT CAN TRANSMIT PRINCE OF THE POWER OF AIR

Did you know that when negativity has collected around a person, that evil can be transmitted? Perhaps we could say "telegraphed": spirits around one person can affect another. If something is plaguing you, ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in shutting off any source it may be coming from (without letting your imagination run wild). You may have a weak point allowing entry.

The most powerful way evil accumulates around a sender is through atheism, hatred, or vanity.

Let's focus on the last -- which is a category of pride.

Few things are more potent than vanity, and few things are such a waste of time.

The word "vanity" comes from the Hebrew word for "vapor."

This is very important. It tells us that arrogance -- self-conceit -- (like vapor) does not last.

To be puffed up is to be full of nothing.

Vanity leads to jealousy, and jealousy is one of the most common and powerful ways that spirits are telegraphed. Jealousy is a curse, and a curse is marshalling darkness (usually unwittingly) to affect another.

To have vanity is to be vain and to be vain is to have ego which means pride which means a focus on one's own "stature." It is to focus on the self. It is to orient one's life to serve an appearance. Remember that painting of a skull in a vanity mirror?

It is to serve worldliness.

What is worldliness? It is tabulating stature on the basis of physical objects and societal standing.

As even the Blessed Mother reputedly said, "What does God desire of you? Do not permit Satan to open the paths of earthly happiness, the paths without my Son. My children, they are false and last a short while."

The devil once appeared to this seer as an incredibly handsome man who offered the visionary "success in life and love" if she would follow him. If she followed the Blessed Mother, said the devil, she would only suffer. In another case, a man who had a near-death experience and "glimpsed" hell said he saw a large red eye that showed him earthly temptations and an end to pain and anguish -- if, like the seer, he would follow him. "Visions of wealth appeared before my eyes, like a three-dimensional movie," said this man, Don Brubaker. "Diamonds, money, cars, gold, beautiful women, everything."

Those are loaded words: the paths of earthly happiness, instead of the Path of Heaven. What Mary is saying is that when we are doing what the devil wants, the devil can anoint us -- "bless" us with glamour, money, and worldly possessions. Did he not offer the kingdoms of the world to Jesus?

Many are those who consider rich or famous or powerful people to be blessed -- but by which force? And how have they used their riches?

To be worldly is to chase the wind because no matter what we collect in life, it vanishes like vapor at the end of life. Here we get back again to "vanity"!

It is also one of the greatest evils of our time -- this era of reality shows and fifteen minutes of fame and an obsession with looks (to the point of surgically altering how God made us).

"I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind," says Ecclesiastes 1:14

"Men of low degree are only vanity and men of rank are a lie; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than breath," adds Psalm 62:9.

Let's go back to the origin of the word.

Vanity, say etymology books, is "emptiness, foolish pride." It is "banal or excessive sentimentalism." It is "air in motion" -- often, hot air. There is even "vain sorrow."

The prince of the power of the air is Satan and he collects around those who are vain -- who have pride. They channel dark forces like conduits -- we channel dark forces, when we let pride control our thoughts.

It is from vanity that jealousy comes, and jealousy -- says Proverbs -- is even more powerful that wrath.

When a person has collected dark forces around himself and is jealous, those forces can be "telegraphed" to the target of the jealousy, and here we have a severe demonic attack ("who can stand in the face of jealousy").

Vanity and jealousy go hand in hand and argue against love; they are the opposite; no one with a big ego is a big lover; no one with much vanity has a huge heart. It is only delusion to think so -- and in this time of vanity -- in the Age of Ego -- it is crucial that we root out every manifestation of it.

Even in religion, those who feature themselves as holy develop a vanity that turns into a judgmental mindset that then devolves into criticality and a mean spirit that makes a mockery of Christ.

Vanity of vanities, says Ecclesiastes. "All is vanity" -- all that makes for evil here and causes the soul to head for darkness after.

[resources: spiritual warfare books]