Is there anybody there, or is it just a demon?
Ephesians 6 - 10:13
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
One of Satan's better party tricks is to be the best video hire company in the world, whatever 'turns you on' he can supply it.
If Hollywood can do it with CGI, then Satan can definitely do it with spiritual power and manifestations.
A few years ago people would never have imagined the special effects that Hollywood can produce, now we accept the antics in Heroes as normal, (and some folk even believe its true) and SpiderMan leaping from buildings is tame.
I guess that Hollywood 'reality' finally caught up with their bosses abilities, Satan: for he IS the Prince of the World, and Hollywood is not promoting God, but New Age imagery and beliefs.
Get involved in spiritualism and Satan will feed you all the life experiences you wish, via 'mediums' who will give you surprisingly detailed information about dead people you knew.
How do they do that?
Simple really, at some point in time they 'opened' themselves to demonic spirits and allowed those spirits to use their minds and bodies to carry out Satan's wishes on earth.
We all get approached by both sides of the spiritual divide, normally around the time that puberty starts to happen, the time when our innocence is liable to start disappearing as our lust for the things offered by the world starts to take over our thinking.
The time when our hormones start controlling our lives.
So we (or the medium) shows an interest in the wildly exciting occult world, when the spirit form approached them, and they gained more 'power' as they progressed 'up' the spiritual ladder from interest to belief to devotion.
For me the journey started at eleven years of age, when I accepted a spirit guide who told me he was my grandfather, there to take care of me.
The journey lasted 30 years and took me through many interesting things and experiences, but finally led me to find my peace in Christ ALONE.
I say that because there are many 'Christs' out there saying "here I am, come hither" during these end times, and they will accommodate just about any image that you want to put on them.
They are all demonic counterfeits just waiting to lure the non discerning into the wonderful world of the pantheist new age movement, where anything goes; except faith and trust in the Christ of the bible.
Dueteronomy 18 10:14
There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft,or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.
For all who do these things are an abomination to the LORD, and because of these abominations the LORD your God drives them out from before you.
You shall be blameless before the LORD your God.
For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the LORD your God has not appointed such for you.
God has good reasons for telling us not to get involved with the occult world, for we are novices in spiritual events, at least when we start out exploring our spirituality.
This makes us easily deceived, and can lead to a lifetime of demonic deception in our lives, keeping us from having a relationship with Christ, and held in bondage, to Satan, bound to be his property for eternity and to suffer the same fate as he will.
Of course Satan knows this well and unlike God, Satan does do party tricks, from moving glasses in the sleepover Ouija board 'games' to telling you what the dearly departed want you to know.
"But the medium had never met me" I hear people tell me.
They don't need to know you, the spirit operating in them knows you....and the spirit operating in you.
Satan can know the history of the deceased, for their fate and history is now sealed, and he or his minions can easily confer these tit bits of information to you via the medium, if that will enslave you to their cause.
Satan's cause is to keep you away from Christ.
You can be a choir boy all your life, never do any deliberate harm, be the nicest person I will ever meet.
If Satan has managed to stop you having a personal relationship with Christ, and receiving the Holy Spirit as your guide, because you have been deceived into accepting one of his demonic apparitions as a friendly guide to help you along, you are lost.
1 Samuel 28 - 3:17
....Samuel had died, and all Israel had lamented for him and buried him in Ramah, in his own city.
Saul had put the mediums and the spiritists out of the land.
Then the Philistines gathered together, and came and encamped at Shunem.
So Saul gathered all Israel together, and they encamped at Gilboa. When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly.
And when Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim or by the prophets.
Then Saul said to his servants, “Find me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her.”
And his servants said to him, “In fact, there is a woman who is a medium at En Dor.”
So Saul disguised himself and put on other clothes, and he went, and two men with him; and they came to the woman by night. And he said, “Please conduct a seance for me, and bring up for me the one I shall name to you.”
Then the woman said to him, “Look, you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums and the spiritists from the land. Why then do you lay a snare for my life, to cause me to die?”
And Saul swore to her by the LORD, saying, “As the LORD lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing.”
Then the woman said, “Whom shall I bring up for you?”
And he said, “Bring up Samuel for me.”
When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. And the woman spoke to Saul, saying, “Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul!”
And the king said to her, “Do not be afraid. What did you see?”
And the woman said to Saul, “I saw a spirit ascending out of the earth.”
So he said to her, “What is his form?”
And she said, “An old man is coming up, and he is covered with a mantle.”
And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground and bowed down.
Now Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?”
And Saul answered, “I am deeply distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God has departed from me and does not answer me anymore, neither by prophets nor by dreams. Therefore I have called you, that you may reveal to me what I should do.”
Then Samuel said: “So why do you ask me, seeing the LORD has departed from you and has become your enemy?
And the LORD has done for Himself as He spoke by me. For the LORD has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, David.
King Saul, the first king of Israel, lost everything because he disobeyed Gods commands to him, when he spared an evil king who God had commanded should be annihilated with ALL of his people, and even all his animals.
That alone provides many folk with the ammunition to call God a sadistic murderer, and if King Amalek, who Saul had spared, had been other than a throughly evil king, leading a totally evil tribe of people, maybe that would be correct, but God had tried to get those people to stop their evil acts for several generations, they were a cancer on the society of the time, and cancers need to be dealt with if they will not respond to treatment.
But I understand how Satan's demons use these incidents to worm their way into the natural mind, a mind that is naturally rebellious against any authority, and has probably heard the bible message in less than favorable conditions, presented by people who possibly do not represent the best examples of Christianity.
Certainly my Sunday School teachings were enough to turn my mind from God.
But I digress, for Saul certainly did know God and indeed had a special relationship with Him until he started making his decisions rather than obeying Gods commandments.
That's pretty dumb, especially as whilst Saul was obeying God things went from good to better with every step the Israelites took, but we all get complacent and believe the lie that we are better able to run our lives than God.
Then one day Saul finds a strong army camped outside his tents, and ready to start fighting the Israelis, but where once God would have told Saul exactly how to deal with the problem, now God is silent, and I get the impression that Saul kinda knew God had sent the army to show Saul that he was gonna get whupped for being disobedient.
So having found himself cut off from Gods favor, Saul made his really bad mistake, because rather than seek Gods forgivemenss and repent for his errors, Saul consulted the witch of Endor.
Speaking personally I would have stayed home and got down on my face before God, and indeed when I have been stupid enough to cut myself off from Gods guidance, that's exactly what I have done.
God is a God of second chances, and indeed Christ tells us to forgive 7 x 70 times.... per day, to those who sin against us, so I guess we can see that God is BIG in the forgiving department.
But you need to accept your sin and ask for His mercy.
Mercy triumphs over Judgement.
This is really important, because if you reading this have bought into Satans lies and been deceived, those demons you picked up will be itching fit to bust right now, just knowing that you are hearing about a kind and merciful God who forgives will set them off, and if you have been feeling kinda quesy for a while, listen up, becuase you are probably infested with those little demon spirits that you have allowed into your life in the past.
You need to get rid of them.
If you look at the way Christ handled His ministry, you will see that although He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind and mobility to the lame, he first cleared them of their demons BEFORE He set about reclaiming their lives for them.
Too often in our local churches there is nobody capable or willing to take someone though what is called deliverance.
I understand that, and indeed if I ever meet anyone who tells me they have a full time deliverance ministry I probably will steer clear of them, because deliverance is like clearing a minefield or defusing unexploded bombs with built in triggers.... you can get hurt if there is ANY chink in the armor of God that can allow the enemy into your life with authority.
But it is a part of what we need to do as Christs disciples, and along with all the other things Christ told us to do in His name, deliverance, or ejecting demons, is part of the works we need to do.
So if you have been fooling around with the occult, or exploring new age religions, dabbling in spiritualism, looking to find out what your 'past life' experiences have been, or in general doing all the things that God tells us is dumb to do, because it gives Satan legal authority to trash your life, and stops you having a relationship with the REAL Christ.
Then it's time to stop and take a serious look at how you got where you are, and whether you really want to take that pathway to an as yet undefined destination.
Remember, ALL Satan needs to do is keep you diverted for the few years that we walk this earth and he has won your soul for eternity, and you can suffer with him.
Take a look at all his names, you will recognize him if you have been involved with his minions, from the effects that you will see in your life.
He is a master of deception and lies, his biggest deception on the world was to persuade them that he does not exist, but if you have his 'cancer' forming in your body and soul, you will recognize the symptoms if you look for them, and the earlier you deal with them and purge them from your life, the easier it will be to find the true inner peace and contentment that we seek for in all the wrong places..