Dangers of the Occult


With the advance of what is called the New Age Movement, there are many Christians getting pulled into dangerous dark side activity. Many Christians have not read the Bible in its complete entirety and are thus not aware of the strict warnings that God the Father has given about being involved in any form of occult activity. Most of these warnings are back in the Old Testament.

One of the greatest stories in the Bible is the story of Moses and how he pulled God's chosen people out of slavery from Egypt, and then the subsequent story of Joshua and Caleb who were then called by God to lead His people from the wilderness into the Promised Land.

Before they went into the Promised Land, they were given strict warnings and guidelines by God the Father as to what they could do and what they could not do. One of those warnings was about not engaging in a lot of the pagan practices of the people who were already inhabiting parts of the Promised Land.

Many of these people were evil and had horrible practices of sacrificing their own children to appease what they thought were gods. Some of these people were involved in heavy occult type activity, and God was very strict in the warnings that He gave His own people in that they were not to engage in any type of this activity.

The warnings that God gave His people back then still apply to all of us in this day and age. The Bible says that God does not change, and this includes all of His ways and all of His warnings. The trouble is, most Christians are not aware of what some of these warnings are because they have not spent much time studying the Old Testament.

In this article, I will list some of the specific activities in this day and age that God does not want any of us engaging in, the specific reasons as to why He does not want us engaging in these types of activities, and the Scripture verses to back it all up.
The Reasons
The Bible says that God the Father is a jealous God, a consuming fire. Here are two verses specifically telling us this:

"For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God ..." (Exodus 20:5)

"For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God." (Deuteronomy 4:24)

Because God is very jealous and very possessive over His own children, He wants all of us coming directly to Him if we have any problems with our future or what He might have in store for us in our future.

People are consulting fortunetellers, psychics, horoscopes and ouija boards for guidance and information on what the future may hold for them. The Bible says that it is the job and ministry of the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth and teach us all things.

God wants to be the Guide and Teacher of your life. He does not want you going to others to seek out this type of divine guidance because of His intensely jealous nature. The Bible says that there is only one God, and only He knows all things about you, your past, your present and your future.

The first two commandments are that we are to have no other gods or idols before God the Father. The minute you go to a fortuneteller or psychic for any type of divine guidance, you are placing this person before God the Father and you will risk incurring His wrath, along with possibly opening the door for demons to come in on you for a major attack.

These fortunetellers get their ability to have partial knowledge about you and your present situation directly from demons. No human has the supernatural ability to know what is going to happen to you in the future or anything about you in your present condition if they have never met you before. And if they do seem to have some type of personal information about you that could only be supernaturally picked up, then that knowledge is being transmitted to them by demons.

Once you step into the fortuneteller's office, you are stepping behind enemy lines since these people are operating under the influence and guidance of demonic spirits. At this point, if God should so allow it, you have now given the demons legal right to follow you home and to start wrecking havoc with your life!

The Bible says that God's people will perish for having lack of knowledge - and many Christians are dragging demonic spirits home with them due to their lack of knowledge about how dangerous it is to engage in any type of occult activity.

I recently did an article titled "The Dangers of Hypnotism." A girl I recently met went to a hypnotist one time in an effort to try and quit smoking. Right after she came out, she literally lost 50% of her ability to remember things.

A demon had become attached to the part of her brain that controlled her memory functions, and it wasn't until she confessed this activity before God as a sin, renounced it by telling God that she would never do it again, and then engaged with the demons to leave her in the name of Jeus Christ that she started to get her memory ability fully restored back to her.

It took two months before she got it all back, but after the two months, all of her memory ability was fully restored back to her by the Lord.

Fifty people may go to a hypnotist and never draw a demon in on them. Another person like this one girl will only go one time and draw the demons in. The risk is too great! No Christian should ever take their chances on crossing over into enemy territory hoping they will come out unharmed!

This girl had this 50% memory loss for one solid year until she met me and I told her how to break the demons off of her as a result of going to the hypnotist one time. Her memory loss was so bad during that entire year, that she thought she was going to get fired from her other job because she could not retain or remember half of what was being told to her by her superiors.

Here are some of the main verses from Scripture telling us that we can in no way have anything to do with the occult.
The Scripture Verses

These 5 verses are giving all of us major warnings by the Lord on what specific areas of the occult that we are to avoid like the plague. To be forewarned is to be properly armed.

1. "There shall not be found among you anyone who makes His son or 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 up 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." (Deuteronomy 18:10-13)

2. "And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them ..." (Deuteronomy 4:19)

3. "Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God." (Leviticus 19:31)

4. "And the person who turns after mediums and familiar spirits, to prostitute himself with them, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from his people." (Leviticus 20:6)

5. "So Saul died for His unfaithfulness which he had committed against the Lord because He did not keep the word of the Lord, and also because He consulted a medium for guidance." (1 Chronicles 10:13)

The above verses are telling us that God the Father means serious business on this type of activity. The above verses say that pursuing guidance from soothsayers, mediums, the stars, the sun and the moon (astrology) are abominations before the Lord, and that you risk having Him set His face personally against you for engaging in these types of activities.

Notice the very strong wording being used by the Lord in these verses - "abomination, take heed, give no regard, do not seek after them to be defiled by them." God says you are literally prostituting yourself with Him if you engage in any of these occult activities.

The extremely strong wording being used by the Lord in these verses is showing us that this is a maximum intense kind of warning being given to His people - and under no circumstances are we to engage, experiment with, or even try out for one time, any of these occult activities.
Specific Occult Activities to Avoid

Now here are some of the specific occult areas that we are to completely stay away from. Every single one of these occult areas are major door openers to the dark side - and you are rolling the dice and taking a very big chance that you will not draw demons in on you and your household if you decide to cross over and experiment, even for one time, any of these particular activities.

1. Fortunetelling - of any kind such as palm reading, crystal ball gazing, numerology, or seeing psychics.
2. Tarot Cards
3. Ouija Boards
4. Seances and any involvement with mediums or spiritists.
5. Astrology and any form of horoscopes.
6. I Ching
7. Hypnotism
8. Transcendental Meditation or any type of Far Eastern Meditation.
9. Crystals
10. Witchcraft
11. Satanism
12. Voodoo
13. Channeling
14. Reincarnation
15. Astral projection
16. ESP
17. Dungeons and Dragons - role-playing games.
18. New Age Movement techniques and activities.
19. Necromancy

Conclusion
I am afraid with the increase of the New Age Movement and the fact that people are really starting to look for spiritual answers as to what the real meaning of life is - many people are falling into some of the above activities and are thus putting both themselves and their families at terrible risk for the possibility of demonic activity that could set in on them.

Fortunetellers are all over the TV and newspapers and most people really do not know the real dangers associated with engaging in these types of activities. They are like lambs being led to the slaughter due to their lack of knowledge on these issues!

Do not be surprised if some of you are led by the Lord sometime in your life to help someone out of a mess they may have got themselves into as a result of engaging in one or more of the above occult activities. Or God may lead you to someone who is thinking about trying some of these activities out and He may send you in there to give them fair warning before they actually do it!

More and more people are dabbling and experimenting with different parts of the occult because they are dissatisfied and unhappy with their lives. They know the answers to the meaning of life is not found in the material things of this life, so they are looking for spiritual avenues to find true meaning and fulfillment in their lives. What they do not know is they are going down wrong and dangerous paths to try and achieve spiritual fulfillment in their lives if they attempt to try out any of the above occult activities.

For those of you who may meet any Christians who have drawn demons in on them as a result of participating in any of the above occult activities - like the girl mentioned above who lost 50% of her memory ability as a result of going to a hypnotist one time - there is 4 step process that needs to be done in order to deliver them from the demons and restore order back into to their lives.

* Confess the specific activity before God as a sin and ask for His forgiveness.

* Renounce the specific activity before God and tell Him that you will never, ever participate in that activity again.

* Burn or throw away all books, objects or items associated with this activity.

* Directly engage with the demons by speaking out loud to the them telling them that they no longer have any legal right to stay attached to you since the occult activity has now been fully confessed and fully renounced before God the Father. Then command them to now leave you in the name of Jesus Christ and for them to never, ever come back on you again.

Once you confess this occult activity before God as a sin, renounce it by telling God you will never do it again, and then burn or throw away any items associated with this activity - the demons will no longer have any legal right to stay attached to you - and they will now have to go if you take your God-given authority as a believer and child of God and command the demons to now leave you in the name of Jesus Christ!

If you run across someone in trouble with the above who is not a Christian, you would first have to get them saved before you could have them go through this 4 step process for a deliverance.

If they are not willing to come to the Lord to get saved, there is not much else you can do for them other than to stand in the gap behind the scenes and pray to God for their protection and that He move in on them at the appropriate time to get them saved. Once they are saved, then you can move in to get them delivered from the demonic bondage they may be in as a result of engaging in one or more of the above occult activities.

I'll let you know if any more good stories come in on the above subject. I do not think we have seen the last on what may be coming down the road on other people drawing demonic activity in on them and their lives as a result of engaging in some of the above occult activities.
(Article by Michael Bradley)