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Please click on a question below.
# 1 How should we fight evil?
# 2 Why do evil spirits want to hide their work?
# 3 Is the devil real?
# 4 Who is Satan?
# 5 Who is “in control,” God or Satan?
# 6 What does Satan want?
# 7 Why does God forbid involvement in the occult?
# 8 What is the occult?
# 9 Why are occult practices dangerous?
# 10 Why is it good to consecrate our hearts and lives to God?
# 11 How can we have victory over the World, the Flesh and the Devil?
# 12 What is the difference between the way God works and the way evil works?
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God employs good as His means of overcoming evil; this is God's only method of operation. He never causes or uses evil, even to fight evil. If we employ evil, then we become like Satan. God requires that we use only good to fight evil, so that we may become like Him.
God's method of overcoming evil is encapsulated in this one verse:
See that no one returns evil for evil; rather, always seek what is good [both] for each other and for all. (1 Thessalonians 5:15 NAB)
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Evil spirits hide their work because they don't want us to know that they are the source of many of our thoughts and temptations. Some of our temptations are obvious invitations to commit deliberate sin. Other temptations are much more subtle; we face temptations to attitudes. For example, we may have grown up in a culture that tolerates prejudice toward people of another skin color. Therefore, we may fail to recognize the temptation to an attitude of superiority. As another example, we may have grown up in a church-culture that refuses to tolerate those of another denomination. We fail to recognize the temptation to division and discord within the Body of Christ.
Evil spirits hide behind two extremes:
- They encourage people to believe that evil spirits do not exist. They want people to believe evil spirits are a myth made up by people to explain away our own evil. If we don't believe they exist, then we won't do anything to protect ourselves against their attacks.
- They want people to live in fear of evil spirits. They want people to think demons are everywhere, behind everything that happens. They want people to believe evil spirits have unlimited supernatural power. They want people to believe these fallen angels are so powerful and so scary that we should never venture into spiritual warfare. They want us to believe we should just leave them alone and hope that they leave us alone. They want us to live in fear so we will be too afraid to expose and confront their wicked activities.
The ideal position is a balanced approach in which we recognize the reality of evil spirits without being fearful. Satan's power is limited. He is not as powerful as God, who is almighty. God is God; Satan is only a creature.
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Two thousand years ago, it seems as if people attributed everything they didn't understand to the action of evil spirits. Now, two thousand years later, the pendulum has swung so there's a different attitude. We want to attribute everything we don't understand to something “scientific,” such as, psychological distress or chemical imbalance in the body. While these are genuine concerns, many people neglect the notion of Satan and evil spirits. The reality of the devil is treated as if it were a primitive concept from earlier people who had not yet evolved to understand what is real.
The Church disagrees with the above explanations for evil spirits. Actually, the reality is somewhere in the middle. There is a devil; his name is Satan. He is a formidable enemy because of his cunning, his evil and his hatred of God and people. Yet Satan is a defeated foe! In the battle between good and evil, God wins. Satan loses.
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God created angels, spirit beings like God in that they had free will, intelligence, emotion, the ability to speak, and self-awareness. All of the angels were created as good angels. God does not make anything evil. But since the angels had free will, there was the possibility that the angels could choose evil.
Tradition tells us that originally, Satan's name was Lucifer, which means “Lightbearer.” Lucifer was incredibly beautiful, the most beautiful of all of God's angels. Somehow, he was able to bear the light, the glory, the beauty of God in his very being. Lucifer wanted the other angels to worship him, not God. It was pride that eventually brought about his downfall. He became proud of his own beauty. Lucifer led the angels loyal to him in a rebellion against God. The angels who were loyal to God defeated Lucifer and his angels. As a result, those fallen angels were cast out of heaven. When he was thrown out of heaven, Lucifer's name was changed to Satan, which means the Accuser. He is the Destroyer.
Satan hates God; he hates everything God loves, especially people. Through the eons, Satan and the other fallen angels have continued their work on the earth, leading people into sin, thereby destroying lives, destroying relationships, and destroying families. They incite us to fight against each other, thereby destroying churches, destroying communities, and destroying nations.
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From the time of his rebellion, Satan has wanted to be “in control.” During the second half of the Tribulation, it may seem that he succeeds in gaining control of the whole world. But those who know the prophecies of the Bible will know that Satan's “control” is merely an illusion. God is in control! Always has been! Always will be!
When we let God be in control of our lives, He sets us free. When we let Satan be in control, he holds us in bondage. In the Kingdom of God, everyone is a beloved son or daughter of the King, invited into a loving family. Everyone is a Prince or Princess, imbued with royal authority and dominion. In the Kingdom of Satan, everyone is a depersonalized slave, held in subjection by force. Everyone is stripped of authority and subject to Satan's tyrannical domination.
God's Plan of Salvation is designed to save us. Satan's Plan of Domination is designed to enslave us. In hell, Satan has complete control forever over every person there, dominating and tormenting them. God has all power, all authority, all control. Yet God, who is in control, does not use His power to control His own people. He uses His power to assure that those in heaven with Him will never face war, or terrorism, or pain, or sin, or sickness, or death ever again.
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Satan wants worship! His first preference is to have people worship him instead of God. If people shy away from that, he will accept worship through worship of false gods, for Satan and his evil spirits are the power behind false gods.
Did it ever strike you as odd that people around the world, through the generations, would make an idol out of wood or stone and then worship as a “god” the idol they had just made? The reason they prayed to these “gods” is that, when they prayed, sometimes they got what they prayed for. But it was not the idol who answered their prayers; the evil spirits who were the power behind the idol answered their prayers. Evil spirits are even willing to do good things in order to achieve their evil goal. Satan wants to rob God of the worship due to Him and get people to worship Satan, even indirectly through the worship of false gods:
What am I trying to say? Am I saying that the idols to whom the pagans bring sacrifices are real gods and that these sacrifices are of some value? No, not at all. What I am saying is that these sacrifices are offered to demons, not to God. And I don't want any of you to be partners with demons. (1 Corinthians 10:19-20 NLT)
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When we engage in occult practices, we commit serious sin. When we sin, we move out from under the covering of protection of our loving God. When we sin, we move under the covering of Satan, who then has the right to rule over us as a cruel master.
God forbids any and all involvement in the occult:
Let there not be found among you anyone who immolates his son or daughter in the fire, nor a fortune-teller, soothsayer, charmer, diviner, or caster of spells, nor one who consults ghosts and spirits or seeks oracles from the dead. Anyone who does such things is an abomination to the Lord…(Deuteronomy 18:10-12a NAB)
God wants to be in a love relationship with us wherein He provides for all our needs, natural and supernatural. If we need special guidance or knowledge, God wants us to come to Him to allow Him to meet our needs. God's Holy Spirit reveals supernatural guidance and knowledge to us when it is for our good or the good of another. If we turn to another source for supernatural guidance or knowledge, then we are unfaithful to God. When we engage in occult practices, we have an affair with Satan, a cruel master.
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The word occult comes from a Latin word that means hidden or covered over. Occult is a term that encompasses various categories such as divination, sorcery, witchcraft and spiritism. All forms of the occult derive their power from the forces of evil and are forbidden by God, by the Bible and by the Christian Church.
The counterfeit supernatural functions of the soul are:
- Divination: seeking to have knowledge apart from God
- Sorcery: seeking to have control apart from God
- Spiritism: seeking to have relationship apart from God
Divination refers to seeking supernatural knowledge apart from God. The expressions of divination are almost limitless; here are some examples:
- Seeking knowledge of the future, such as through fortunetelling, psychic predicting, astrology, horoscopes, palm reading, crystal ball gazing, tarot cards, tea leaf reading, Ouija boards, casting sticks, and swinging a pendulum over an object
- Seeking to find something, for example, by dowsing for water (or other substances) below ground, by passing hands over the body to diagnose and heal diseases, and by police searching for criminals or clues using psychics
- Seeking to learn something through ESP, clairvoyance, mind reading, telepathy, channeling, and spirit guides
Sorcery (which includes witchcraft) refers to seeking supernatural power and control apart from God. Sorcery employs assorted ways to gain power and control over people, places and things, often using various means that impact the physical senses, such as charms, spells, incantations, crystals, amulets, white and black magic, music, drugs and potions.
Spiritism, also called spiritualism, is the practice of seeking to communicate with spirits of the dead, usually in a séance. Although a person at a séance seeks someone who is dead, they actually encounter evil spirits who impersonate the dead.
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When we engage in occult practices, we are delivered into the power of a cruel master because we sign a supernatural contract with Satan. Here's why. Occult practices work because they draw on the supernatural power of evil spirits. Involvement in the occult effects an exchange: we use the power of evil spirits; in exchange, they claim a right to rule over us to the extent of our involvement in the occult.
In the supernatural realm, this is a legal agreement. The contract stipulates that if we use Satanic powers, then Satan has the right partially or completely to rule over us. If our involvement is extensive, then evil spirits have the right to complete rule over us. We sign a supernatural contract with Satan whenever we engage in occult practices, even if we “just did it for fun.”
To break the contract, we need to follow these three steps:
- Profession of Faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus won the victory over the forces of evil, so the devil and demons must obey Jesus. When we belong to Jesus, then we can claim His authority over the evil spirits.
- Confession of Occult Sins. Even if we did them just for fun or out of curiosity, our occult practices were offensive to God. Therefore, we need to repent, deciding we will never do them again. Then, we must acknowledge them as sin, name them, and ask for forgiveness.
- Renunciation of Satan and Command for him to depart. In this renunciation to nullify the effects of our involvement in the occult, we address Satan directly. We renounce him and tell the devil and his demons that, in the name of Jesus we command Satan and all of his evil spirits to leave, thereby voiding the supernatural contract.
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Consecration means many things. It means turning our hearts and lives over to God. It means growing in holiness. It means becoming godlike. It means being set apart for God, fighting God's enemies and rescuing God's people.
The more consecrated we are, the more we will be engaged in supernatural warfare. Some people draw back from the idea of spiritual warfare. They imagine that if they don't bother Satan, he won't bother them. Not so! The devil is mean; he will do as much harm as he can get away with. He will attack anyone he can anytime he can. However, he is a defeated foe! If we engage in the battle with the weapons God has given us and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we will have the victory over the devil and release captives caught by the enemy.
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We are assaulted by the World, the Flesh, and the Devil, all tempting us to sin. The World refers to an invisible evil system within society, reflecting a rebellious attitude opposed to God. The Flesh refers to our fallen human nature, which makes us inclined to sin. Different translations of the Bible use various words for the flesh, such as: the old man, the old life, the old self, the sinful nature, the lower nature, and the fallen human nature. The Devil refers to Satan, the leader of the other fallen angels called demons or evil spirits. Through Jesus, we have victory over the World, the Flesh and the Devil.
The World
Every child of God can defeat the world, and our faith is what gives us this victory. No one can defeat the world without having faith in Jesus as the Son of God. (1 John 5:4-5 CEV)
The Flesh
Our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also share his new life. (Romans 6:6-8 NLT)
The Devil
The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8b NASB)
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Notice in the chart below how Satan focuses on creating division. The devil wants to bring division in any way he can, whether it's in small ways (between individuals) or in big ways (among groups in the Body of Christ). Also notice that the way God works is the opposite of the way evil works, whether you look across or diagonally from top to bottom:
| The Way God Works: |
The Way Evil Works: |
| 1. Draws people together |
1. Causes suspicion and doubt |
| 2. Focuses on the real issue |
2. Avoids the real issue |
| 3. Results in faith and trust |
3. Results in estrangement and division |
Notice in the chart above how God focuses on bringing us together. Eventually, God wants a big, joyful family of sons and daughters who will be happy forever with Him and with each other in heaven. However, God wants to start now, right here on earth, working through us to bring us together with Him and with each other in loving relationships.
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