Are Pyschics Phony?
I live life naturally in the supernatural. I’m being trained
to understand the supernatural realm and especially to understand the new
supernatural nature we have through Jesus Christ. It’s awesome to learn what I’ve
been learning but remember the original Karate Kid movie? Wax on, wax off? Eventually
we understand the exercises and training are only to improve our party tricks
but there is opposition we’ll encounter and the muscle memory learned in
training will keep us in peace because it becomes part of our DNA.
There are two erroneous ways to deal with the supernatural –
both are common in the North American church. Today we’ll talk about the first
error and on Friday’s post, I write about the other.
First, we’ve been taught psychics , mediums and the black
arts are phony. Are some of the practising psychics phony? Absolutely, but not
all of them and to discredit them in one fell-swoop denies us the ability to protect,
fight and advance against the dark spiritual forces. You can’t fight a war if
you don’t know you have an enemy.
Last week, a customer entered the insurance office of a
friend. During the business interaction, the customer asked the employee (not
my friend), “Is your name Jessica? Has your mother passed away?” Jessica
confirmed both questions and the customer said, “I’m here to tell you, she’s
doing okay.” Jessica was alarmed and asked how the customer knew her
information. The customer said she was a medium.
My friend was concerned (as was Jessica) because both are
Christians and the encounter was contrary to what both of them believed about
the supernatural realm – that is, they are fakes and phonies. It created an
opportunity for a conversation about the experience. My friend knows I do
something similar – receive a word of knowledge (1
Corinthians 12:8) and use it to begin a conversation with someone to give
them an encouraging word from the Lord. (I never bring a message from the dead
because that kind of message is not received from the Holy Spirit, but from the
demonic forces.)
Romans 11:29 says the gifts and call are irrevocable and
without repentance – meaning you don’t have to be a professing and believing
Christian to operate in the spiritual gifts. It also doesn’t mean the Holy
Spirit is the only source for supernatural information. We all have receptors
to hear and interact with the supernatural (some people’s are more trained than
others, but we all have access).
There are varying reasons as to why someone might use their
gift apart from the Lord, but some common reasons are fame and fortune. Another
reason is like the prodigal son, who wanted his inheritance to live life as he
wanted - then and now - instead of work the family business and gain influence
under the watchful eye of his Father.
Okay, we have a real foe with seemingly real powers. What
should we do about it? Satan would like to keep us in fear and stay focussed on
him because when our focus is on him it can’t be on the Lord and our victory. We
don’t dwell on the enemy, nor do we deny him but remember greater is he (the
Lord) who is in us, than he (Satan) who is in the world. Our God is bigger,
period.
What I find amazing is that many evangelical churches either forbid, have decided that they are from another dispensation, or believe that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are from the Devil.
ReplyDeleteEven the Catholic Church believes in the gifts to a greater degree.
I also found it interesting that a group of Christians did generic dream interpretation at a Barnes & Noble. They were amazed at how many evangelicals came because the gift of dream interpretation was considered divination in their denomination.
Attributing the gifts to the demonic is my topic for Friday's post.
DeleteIt's not just evangelicals, there are charismatic churches who also disregard dreams and even prophecies.
It's sad, because we leave out a vital part of our arsenal to fight the enemy, but more importantly to know what God is saying to us personally.