Refuse To Participate In The Occult

There shall not be found among you . . . one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.
–Deuteronomy 18:10-11

One way to lessen Satan’s influence in your life is to refuse to participate in occult activities. An occult activity is an attempt to have a supernatural experience apart from God. There are very real powers in the world today apart from God’s power, and if we are going to avoid Satan’s influence in our life, we are to resist those powers. The Bible specifically warns against three kinds of occult practices. The first is divination, or attempting to ascertain the future apart from God. Every day, some Christians check their astrology forecast. But Deuteronomy 18:10-11 warns, “There shall not be found among you . . . one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.” If these activities were harmless, why would God warn against them? We are to stay away from divination.

We are also to stay away from magic. I am not talking about pulling a rabbit out of a hat. In the Bible, real magic is harnessing Satan’s power in order to produce a supernatural result. In Exodus 7-11 Satan gave Pharaoh’s magicians the ability to duplicate the miracles that Moses performed. In Revelation 13 we are told that during the great tribulation, the false prophet will animate an image of the Antichrist so that it can perform signs and wonders. Just because something is miraculous does not necessarily mean it is from God–Satan has the ability to perform miracles in order to deceive people. Many years ago, a friend and I went to a taping of “The Tonight Show” featuring Orson Welles. In the latter years of his life, Welles became involved in the occult. This particular evening, he called somebody from the audience to help him perform a magic trick. The studio got colder and colder, and right before our eyes Welles levitated this person. The people watching at home would assume it was a trick. Let me assure you it was a real levitation. I cannot describe to you the eerie feeling in that studio. My friend and I knew we had seen a miracle performed, but it was obviously not from God. Magic is real.

Further, the Bible says we are to avoid spiritism. Spiritism is the attempt to contact the spirits of the deceased in order to receive comfort or knowledge. Look at Leviticus 20:6-7: “As for the person who turns to mediums and to spiritists, to play the harlot after them, I . . . will cut him off from among his people. You shall consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy, for I am the Lord your God.” God said to stay away from spiritism. Why? Because Satan has the power to use the spirits of the unsaved in order to delude people. Our mind is a battlefield on which Satan wages his war against us, and he will do anything he can to seize control of your thoughts. Do not try to communicate with the dead. Do not be deceived by miracles apart from God.

Today’s devotion is excerpted from “Using Your Divine Defense” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2011.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org