May 18, 2012
"When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, be very careful not to imitate the detestable customs of the nations living there. For example, never sacrifice your son or daughter as a burnt offering. And do not let your people practice fortune-telling, or use sorcery, or interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft, or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord . It is because the other nations have done these detestable things that the Lord your God will drive them out ahead of you. But you must be blameless before the Lord your God. The nations you are about to displace consult sorcerers and fortune-tellers, but the Lord your God forbids you to do such things." -- Deuteronomy 18: 9-14 (NLT)
It's just a harmless little fun! What's the big deal? We hear these types of rationales all the time from well-intended Christians who dabble in the arcane arts. Who poke around in the world of evil spirits. Who simply do not understand the nature of the battle they are in. The devil has become very adept in this modern culture with minimizing what God has expressly forbidden. Of making things seem either harmless or fantasy when they are quite real and quite dangerous. Read the warnings in the key verses above. God is not taking these matters lightly. They appear to be quite serious to Him and as such they need to be taken seriously by us if we claim to follow Him. Let us start with the basics:
For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. -- Ephesians 6: 12 (NLT)
I know we read these verses and the ensuing verses about the armor of God and we sometimes gloss over them too quickly. The armor becomes an almost veggie-tale experience to us and it makes for colorful sermons but who really prays on the armor every day? The more appropriate question is who is struggling every day that does not pray the armor on? We are in a spiritual war beloved. It is not a joke. It is not an afterthought. There is a spirit realm. It is an unseen world according to these Scriptures. Evil rulers and authorities. Mighty powers in this dark world. That is what we are up against every day. We of course are not unarmed. We have the Holy Spirit of the only true living God inside of us. We have weapons that can tear strongholds down such as the Word of God and prayer. But far too often we can flirt with the very enemy who seeks our destruction. Remember, Eve found herself in trouble not when she bit the fruit but when she engaged in the conversation with the enemy. There is a reason why he is called the enemy. There is nothing to discuss with him. Yet we do every day sometimes don't we?
Preacher, what do you mean? I don't deal with the devil! No, do you read the horoscope? It is not just a little harmless fun. The purpose of the horoscope is to gain some insight into your character and to foretell the future. It advocates placing your faith in the daily predictions instead of placing your faith in God. It is based on the notion that the stars and planets exert some kind of influence on our lives -- instead of God. If you want insight into your character, then hold your actions and thoughts up to the Word of God! You might not like the answer, which is why we seek out other venues, such as astrology. The practice of fortune telling is expressly forbidden by God in the key verses. Such things are detestable to Him. Isn't that a good enough reason to not participate? Doesn't God know what is best for your life?
Same goes for psychics? Harmless fun? Hardly. Paul is on one of his missionary journeys in Philippi when he encountered the practice of the dark arts:
One day as we were going down to the place of prayer, we met a demon-possessed slave girl. She was a fortune-teller who earned a lot of money for her masters. She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God, and they have come to tell you how to be saved." This went on day after day until Paul got so exasperated that he turned and said to the demon within her, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." And instantly it left her. -- Acts 16: 16-18 (NLT
Was the slave girl the one who had to psychic powers? Of course not! It was the demon that was inside of her. Now sometimes when you go see a psychic or a fortune teller they will merely be fake but I would be more worried of they were real! Do you think the fortune teller knows these things about you or the demon working inside of them? Either way, why in the world would you want to expose yourself to that?
What about mediums? People who claim they can reach the dead. John Edward had popularized this practice about ten years ago, appearing on all sorts of mainstream media. Reaching the dead was now cool! Not to God it wasn't. Once again, these things are very very real but that does not mean we should be involved as believers and children of God:
Someone may say to you, "Let's ask the mediums and those who consult the spirits of the dead. With their whisperings and mutterings, they will tell us what to do." But shouldn't people ask God for guidance? Should the living seek guidance from the dead? -- Isaiah 8: 19 (NLT)
And isn't that the heart of these matters? We are seeking guidance. When we read the horoscope we might try and convince ourselves we are just curious or it is just harmless fun but the reality is we are looking for guidance. When we see a psychic or a fortune teller we are seeking future guidance. Even the practice of contacting spirits after they have died is based upon the element of guidance. Of clarifying the unknown. We serve a God that created everything that is known and unknown yet we turn to the zodiac. We serve a God who is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent and yet we can go see a psychic. We serve a God who sees all time, past, present and future and is working all things out for our good and yet we can want to seek mediums to contact spirits in the realms of darkness that have no benefit for us.
It is not harmless fun. There is a real spiritual
world and we know this because the Bible says so. There are EVIL rulers and authorities
there that seek only our destruction. The battle is hard enough beloved. We do
not need to blindly walk into the enemy's camp and the sit down with him. Avoid
the things God has already said are detestable to Him. Avoid the evil spiritual
realm that is portrayed by this world as fun but inwardly is really warring
against our very souls. If you want advice, direction, consultation, an
analysis of your character or some insight into your future then do not seek
the dead -- seek the living God you serve!
Rev. Anthony
