CHRISTIANS AND THE OCCULT

First let me start of by saying HAPPY NEW YEAR! We made it, we survived 2021! Its been a trying couple of years, so please be kind to yourselves if you feel like life is not what you planned it to be right now, you are surviving through a pandemic, it’s OK! This Christmas was beautiful, lets always keep in mind the reason for the season, but being with family when the previous year we were all kept apart gave me a new appreciation for my loved ones. I am normally the girl who enjoys spending Christmas alone, so being able to spend it this year with my family was such a blessing! Now that all the festivities are over, it’s time to concentrate on what 2022 has in store!

This first post of the year is a little different, a topic I didn’t think would come up on this blog, at least not so soon, but God always has other plans and His plans are always best! I spent a little time on my karaoke app “smule”(I spoke of this in my first post) before 2021 ended, singing and catching up with my friends all over the globe, this happens in a “live” setting so it’s very interactive, and you never know who will wonder into your live! A lady I had never met came in to my live, we will call her “Amy”. So Amy joined me on the mic and we sang a couple of songs in between a lot of chatting. The thing about me is that I will sing and get along with any and everybody, I am very easy going and that usually promotes an environment where people tend to overshare or just be really honest without fear of judgement. One thing that I first noticed about Amy was that she cussed a lot, that is not particularly abnormal, as most I find do, I mean I used to a lot! So being that not everyone shares the same values as myself, I come to expect it when I go on these kind of apps. Amy however was cussing out her 4 year old using explicit language while live, that was one thing I noted. Let me just clarify, I noted not to be judgmental, but it told me that we might not share the same beliefs and values so that would help me navigate my interaction. The thing about being a Christian is that God expects us to navigate ourselves in this fallen world in a way that we stay true to Him at all times! We are not meant to hide ourselves like a light hidden under a basket, we are called to be a light in a sea of darkness! We can’t be people pleasers, but pleasers of God! So that usually means going against the majority, and maybe not being so popular, because we might be seen as boring, but if boring means you don’t conform and compromise yourself then be the best boring you can be!

Back to Amy. During our conversations she kept mentioning that she was spiritual, and that she had ascended to a higher level of spiritual awareness. I am listening to her intently at this point, trying to work out what it all meant to her to be spiritual. I notice when people use the wording “spiritual” it sometimes means that they don’t normally subscribe to any religion, but they acknowledge a higher power of some sorts, whether its the universe or mother nature. As she was talking she started to talk about cards, at this point I stopped to ask if she was referring to tarot cards, which she confirmed to be the case. She then continued, talking about how the cards were very helpful and that people misunderstood them. She said that the cards were “calling” to her to do a reading for me! Now I am no stranger to tarot cards, before I found Christ, I had visited tarot card readers in my time, we all have a curiosity to take a glimpse into our futures, or gain some deeper revelation on a situation or a person, I understand the appeal. But when you become enlightened by truth revealed in God’s word by our helper the Holy Spirit, you learn about these things that we are prohibited as Christians not to entertain! Now the Bible doesn’t mention “tarot cards” by name, but talks about divination, which is part of the occult, and tarot cards fall under that heading! It was at this point that I politely declined, and told her that I was a devout Christian, Jesus was my Lord and Saviour and that tarot cards were demonic!

The conversation got real interesting at this point as this was when she revealed herself to be a Christian! Now you can imagine my surprise to hear this, looking back at our conversation up until this point nothing she said or did told me she was a follower of Christ! She believed that as a Christian, you can use different means to reach a level of spiritual awareness, she saw these things as tools which she truly believed that God used to give revelation! She then told me how her year had been very hard for her, full of tests, God had been testing her all year and she had finally passed and come out the other side with extra abilities (now I never even asked about these abilities) she then said her biggest test had been her being told to sacrifice her 4 year old!!! If you are a Christian reading this, if you are anyone reading this, alarm bells should be going off in your head right now! Of course I was like “excuse me, what!?!” I asked her who had told her to sacrifice her child, and she told me she had been told in a dream at first and then told through a particular deck of tarot cards! She believed that God had told her to sacrifice her child as a test, and because she didn’t, she passed God’s test, and as a reward she received a random free month of rent! I told her that God was not the power behind that test, and God wouldn’t ask you to sacrifice your child! She then told me I was wrong and used a well known story in the Old Testament of when God tested Abraham to see if he would sacrifice his only son Isaac! (GENESIS 22:1-9) This is a classic case of someone misinterpreting and not understanding scripture, it’s easy to read scripture, but to read scripture without true understanding is damaging! Amy was very adamant in telling me that she knew all there was to know in regards to the Bible, she was well versed and almost couldn’t be told anything new! A red flag is a Christian that feels unteachable when it comes to the word! As Christians we are to remain humble like children, always ready to learn! Amy might have read through the bible, she may have remembered all the stories of the Bible, but it was clear to me that she hadn’t studied the bible to truly understand and gain wisdom.

Now I don’t pretend to know everything in relation to God’s word as I am still learning myself! But I knew enough, I understood enough to tell her that the story of Abraham and Isaac wasn’t applicable to her situation because we have JESUS! Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice, the lamb slain for our sins! The death and rise of Jesus Christ meant that we didn’t have to give offerings, like the Israelites of the Old testament anymore because we were given the gift of Grace from God when we believed in our Lord and Saviour! There was a pause from Amy at this point, I could feel her mulling that over in her head. Something made sense to her, because her story then changed from God testing her to Satan being the one testing her, she became a little defensive, so in order not to lose her, I took a step back and tried to change the intensity of the conversation by stating that everybody had their own journey’s to make when it came to the Holy Spirit revealing truth and bringing conviction to a persons soul. My conviction was that the occult was not for me! Shortly after that we got disconnected and I never saw Amy again that night! DEUTERONOMY 18:9-12 “WHEN YOU ENTER THE LAND THE LORD YOUR GOD IS GIVING YOU, DO NOT LEARN TO IMITATE THE DETESTABLE WAYS OF THE NATIONS THERE. LET NO ONE BE FOUND AMONG YOU WHO SACRIFICES THEIR SON OR DAUGHTER IN THE FIRE, WHO PRACTICES DIVINATION OR SORCERY, INTERPRETS OMENS, ENGAGES IN WITCHCRAFT, OR CASTS SPELLS, OR WHO IS A MEDIUM OR SPIRITIST OR WHO CONSULTS THE DEAD. ANYONE WHO DOES THESE THINGS IS DETESTABLE TO THE LORD; BECAUSE OF THESE SAME DETESTABLE PRACTICES THE LORD YOUR GOD WILL DRIVE OUT THOSE NATIONS BEFORE YOU.”

In the days of Moses, the Israelites were fascinated with things of the occult, they often looked for other sources outside of God’s provision, kind of what people still do to this day! God was very clear to them about doing such things, to God these things were detestable! They are still detestable to God to this day! Why? Because when we seek these other avenues to find some kind of enlightenment, we are no longer going to God, we are no longer trusting God with our futures. When we are not seeking God’s provision then we are seeking satan, it’s as simple as that, because what is not of God is of satan! Remember we are in a spiritual war, these things are not to be taken lightly and played with! If you keep seeking and knocking on these doors, you best be ready to receive whatever is behind them! You play with fire you will get burned! What starts of as innocent curiosity, can turn very dark and sinister very quickly, before you know it, you are dealing with demonic spirits posing as familiar spirits, whether its a deceased love one, or casper the friendly ghost, they are not of God! The devil is a liar, Amy is proof of that, the devil has tricked her into thinking that this “spiritual awakening” she is experiencing is from God! That’s the thing about our adversary, since the beginning of man he has always tried to make us question God’s provision, always tried to convince us to live independent of God! Using tarot cards is just another way he does that!

We should always seek revelation from God in prayer or in His word, even God uses other people to convey his messages, not to mention prophetic dreams! We shouldn’t be using trinkets and tools that are commonly used by people of the occult and fool ourselves into thinking that its ok to use these things to gain spiritual enlightenment from God. I notice that when life gets tough and we don’t feel God’s presence for whatever reason, our lack of faith in that moment can cause us to want to find answers elsewhere. I kind of believe that’s what led Amy, who is a Christian down the path that she is on! ISAIAH 8:19 “WHEN SOMEONE TELLS YOU TO CONSULT MEDIUMS AND SPIRITISTS, WHO WHISPER AND MUTTER, SHOULD NOT A PEOPLE INQUIRE OF THEIR GOD? WHY CONSULT THE DEAD ON BEHALF OF THE LIVING?” We should be consulting God for all things, not some pack of cards. We have to start trusting God in the quiet times, and understand that God is always working even when we can not see it straight away! Have patience and know that you will see the “light” on the other side, even if things seem bleak and unfixable. There is nothing our Lord can not change! He is a promise keeper, He is faithful, He is full of grace and mercy, and He loves you! One of my favourite Proverbs is this, “Trust the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on you own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5) God knew in his infinite wisdom that we might experience some times when we might not understand Gods perfect way, we would doubt His perfect will, that is why He tells us to trust in Him, even when we want to make sense of things in our own way, He tells us not to lean into our own understanding!

Maybe one day Amy might come across this blog, maybe she won’t, maybe someone else like Amy will! I hope that this post makes them turn away from these things, or at least stirs something inside that convicts them that this is not the right way! Please use wisdom my brothers and sisters, it’s a slippery slope to opening doors to uninvited guests. Read your word, for everything! Trust in the Holy Spirit! There are many mysteries to our father, the Bible doesn’t reveal everything, but enough to know we can place our trust in Him! This is why he requires us to be in relationship with Him, true relationship promotes trust, if there is a lack of trust, draw closer to Him, spend more time getting to know Him! He will reveal so much to you. MATTHEW 7:7 “ASK AND IT WILL BE GIVEN TO YOU; SEEK AND YOU WILL FIND; KNOCK AND THE DOOR WILL BE OPENED TO YOU.”