How can we steer clear of activities which involve and give allegiance to demonic spirits.?
The bible speaks of satan presenting as an angel of light, so beautiful and believable that even believers will be deceived.
Matthew chapter 24 also talks about the signs of the end times, just before the return of Jesus, and it defines deception as one of these major signs, “many will be deceived”.
Deception usually has some truth in it. The truth is what attracts us and reassures us that all is well.
So here are some steps you can take to keep your life spiritually protected from counterfeit angels and practices and doctrines.
IDENTIFY AND ELIMINATE THE COUNTERFEIT THROUGH OPEN COMMUNICATIONS WITH GOD AND THE GIFT OF DISCERNMENT
WRONG VOICES COME IN CAMOUFLAGE
Our Enemies’ camouflage and hide their troops and weapons, their goal is our destruction.
They always give out counter intelligence and false information to bring confusion and divert our strength and resources to fight battles that God has not called us to.
Genesis 3:1
The enemy cast doubt on what God had said by asking “Has God really said that?”
Go back to what you know God has said, His written word, and His Rhema word which lines up with His written word.
The enemy cast doubt on Gods character by criticizing his motives for not wanting them to eat of the tree by saying “God knows you will become like Him,” implying that God did not want them to become like him.
Adam and Eve, walked and talked, saw God and heard his voice CLEARLY until they listened to the counterfeit, then they heard God’s voice and hid from it, hearing him less and less after that
Looking at the serpent caused Eve to listen to a lie, what we look at opens doors to wrong voices. Listening to Eve when he should have listened to God, caused Adam to accept the lie.The counterfeit uses lies and deception to make itself acceptable to us. It implies that God does not want what is best for us.
The counterfeit appeals to our souls’ desires and our souls’ voice then blocks God’s voice.
The counterfeit is always based on truth and has elements of truth, that is, a small amount of truth wrapped in deception
The counterfeit looks real, and is designed to deceive
Satan disguises the truth and provides us with a counterfeit version, which looks similar, and feels similar, but has no actual value.
LOOKING AT THE REAL EXPOSES THE COUNTERFEIT John 8:32
The truth alone does not free us, but revelation knowledge of the truth, revelation which is received through relationship with God.
We need to compare what the voice we hear says, to what God says now and to what He has said in the past.
Jesus said, “I am the way the truth and the life, but the thief comes to rob steal, kill and destroy”
THE COUNTERFEIT WANTS TO STEAL ETERNAL LIFE FROM US THROUGH DECEPTION
THE COUNTERFEIT MANIFESTS AS;
- UNAUTHORISED KNOWLEDGE – Gen 2:15-17 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Don’t seek for knowledge that God does not want to give you, or knowledge from sources he has forbidden.
God said, “ Don’t eat that tree” – I will give you the knowledge you need to have, let me be your source.
Unauthorized Knowledge gives us power, and makes us independent of God
The Occult/new age CAMOUFLAGES Itself in modern sources, movies, books, new age
- ILLEGITIMATE WORSHIP – Don’t worship heathen idols [demons] man made idols or people.
WE WERE CREATED TO WORSHIP GOD, OUR DEFAULT POSITION IS TO WORSHIP AND RELATE PERSONALLY TO GOD
If we don’t worship the true God, we will worship the counterfeit god in one form or another
OUR CULTURE ESTABLISHES WHAT IS ACCEPTABLE TO WORSHIP, BUT WHAT WE WORSHIP SHOULD BE DETERMINED BY OUR ABILITY TO SEPARATE TRUTH AND DECEPTION NOT OUR CULTURE.
When God moves, there is always a counterfeit move by the enemy to draw worship and attention away from God and to himself. 1 John 4:1
Matthew 24:11
There have been some sovereign manifestations of God’s Spirit in recent years, which have resulted in some unusual physical manifestations. In the midst of what God was doing, there were also some manifestations of the demonic and of human flesh. Some people started in the Spirit and ended in the flesh, and some never entered into what God was doing, but allowed their flesh to dominate them.
We often want to camp around what God did in the past.
God’s character and principles never change, His methods always do.
Joshua received a different strategy for each new battle. His only defeat was when he went up to Ai in presumption, without seeking God for the current strategy. Joshua 7-9
The children of Israel were given fresh manna every day, if they kept the old it went rotten. They resisted change from Egypt and from the wilderness, and most of them did not enter the Promised Land because they could not embrace change.
True current manifestations of the Spirit of God will bring joy, healing, refreshing and changed lives.
HOW TO RECOGNISE THE COUNTERFEIT;
A COUNTERFEIT MANIFESTATION WILL OVERRIDE OUR FREE WILL.
God has created us with a free will, to make our own choices.‘… you choose, life or
death.’
Deuteronomy 30:19
God commanded Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, but left him with the ability to choose whether or not he would obey.
Genesis 2:16
God Himself will not override our free will, even to the point of allowing us to
Go to hell if we will not choose Jesus. At some point, we will have agreed to
allow a manifestation to occur and God will release us from it if we ask Him to.
A demonic spirit likes to control and dominate our will, and this is how cults are
birthed. When fleshly manifestations dominate, a counterfeit spirit can start
To control.
Statements like “I can’t control it. I have to do it”, will be expressed by the person
IT WILL DRAW ATTENTION TO INDIVIDUALS OR TO THE DEMONIC, and It
Will create confusion and distract people from what God is saying through the
leader.
ACTS 16:16
This girl was manifesting a spirit of divination, she said the right words but they came from the wrong spirit and so created a clash in the spirit
God requires order when there is a corporate gathering.
1 Corinthians 14:4, 5:12, 22-25, 32, 33, 39
I CORINTHIANS 14:32 [AMP] – FOR THE SPIRITS OF THE PROPHETS
[SPEAKERS IN TONGUES] ARE UNDER THE SPEAKERS CONTROL [AND
SUBJECT TO BEING SILENCED AS MAY BE NECESSARY].
God reserves the right to upset our timetables, but when it is truly a Sovereign move
of God, the majority of people present will be willing and able to take part in it. Acts 2
God will always honour His leaders. He will also speak through His body, but as the
head directs the body in the natural, so it is in the spiritual. The ultimate
Direction and discernment for what happens in a meeting, needs to comes
Through the head.
Lack of order produces anarchy, which comes from the source of confusion, Satan.
1 Corinthians 14:33
There is divine order in correctly used authority which allows blessing to flow.
Psalm 133:2
Obedience produces life, disobedience produces death.
Deuteronomy 28
Romans 13:1
GOD’S AUTHORITY STRUCTURE
Jesus obeyed His father John 3:34, Luke 4:13
Romans 5:12, 21
Philippians 2:1- 9
Individuals obey God James 4:7
Children obey parents Ephesians 6:1
Colossians 3:18-22
Wives obey husbands Ephesians 5:22
Servants obey magistrates Titus 3:1
Christians obey their leaders Hebrews 13:17, 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13
Submission to each other and to God produces peace, and blessing.
Ephesians 5:21,Hebrews 12:9
NOTE: when the word “obey” is used in the context of personal relationships, it does not mean obey like a robot, that is control which is demonic. It means to have a relationship of open discussion. Wives are to “obey” husbands but husbands are to love their wives and from that motive make decisions which are beneficial to their wives, including her thoughts and wishes and not being a dictator
COUNTERFEIT GIFTS
One of the fruits of Adam’s sin was that we would know both good and evil, and have access to both spirit realms. Genesis 3:5
Lucifer fell from heaven because he wanted people to come to him as their source. He still desires worship and so because we are spiritual people, we can be drawn by him, to seek information through the wrong supernatural means. Isaiah 14:12
- God commanded His people not to take part in activities which the heathen used to contact the spirit realm:
Deuteronomy 18:9-14 ‘…all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord’
Leviticus 19:26 ‘You shall not practice divination or soothsaying’
Leviticus 20:6 ‘The person who turns to mediums and familiar spirits, I will set my face against and cut off from his people’
Leviticus 20:27 ‘…they shall be put to death and stoned with stones’
Ezekiel 13:23 ‘You shall no more see delusive visions or practice divination’
Galatians 5:20 ‘…idolatry and sorcery, all who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God’
- Occult involvement breaks the first commandment and invokes God’s curse.
Exodus 20:1& 2
1 Samuel 28
1 Chronicles 10:13-14
- They are commonly called witchcraft or occult (hidden). Exodus 22:18
They include:
1. Divination – The discovering of what is obscure or the foretelling of events by supernatural means. Obtaining secret knowledge, especially of the future, is a pagan counterpart of prophecy.
Divination does not mean just seeking information. It means seeking it from the wrong source.
2. False prophecy (from the flesh or demons). Ezekiel 13:1-6
3. Magic – wonders beyond human powers. Genesis 41:24
Exodus 7:11, 8:19, 9:11
Isaiah 47:13
4. Necromancy – consulting the dead. Deuteronomy 8:11
Isaiah 28:11, 8:19, 65:4
5. Sorcery – practice of the occult. Leviticus 19:26
Deuteronomy 18:10
2 Kings 7:17, 21:6
Acts 8:11
WE SEE THE PRACTICES MANIFESTED TODAY IN WHAT IS COMMONLY CALLED NEW AGE.
INVOLVEMENT IN THESE PRACTICES AFFECT OUR LIVES NEGATIVELY BECAUSE OF –
- THEIR HISTORY AND SOURCE
If any current therapies or spiritual practices originated in idol worship or direct demon worship, when we take part in them we are then giving our allegiance and worship to satan.
This happens whether we intend it to or not because of the spiritual principle of sowing and reaping. Galatians 6:7
- SPIRITUAL TRANSFERENCE
Spirits transfer down the generations and taking part in any activity which was sourced in the occult gives allegiance to those philosophies and spirits. They open doorways for demonic spirits to attack us and our families through hereditary curses and iniquities.
Transference occurs through the permission given by previous generations
- DISOBEDIENCE TO GOD
The scriptures tell us that disobedience is rebellion; which is witchcraft. Both of these are sins which are punishable by death in both the old and new testaments.
1 Samuel 15:23 Galatians 5:21 Revelation 21:8
Although as Christians, we no longer live under ceremonial Old Testament Law and, therefore, we do not physically kill those who break these laws, the principles involved still apply. We will experience either physical death or death in other ways if we align ourselves with practices which connect with demonic sources or activities.
If we continue to take part in these, we can come to a place where we walk away from Jesus and His word and can no longer enter heaven when we die. This occurs because of a hardened heart through disobedience. Our conscience becomes hardened as we continue to disobey
Eph 4:8 Romans 1:28
Practices which speak of energy flow, meditation on beings or entities other than the person of Jesus Christ, which use mind activities which don’t use scripture, or which link physical actions to spiritual results, are likely to be counterfeits of scriptural gifts and principles.
We cannot presume that any activity is spiritually clean just because there are good results from it. The enemy of our souls will allow that so we are drawn in to more clearly occult practices or into deep deception and eventually away from the one true God whom we have known through his son Jesus Christ. Hebrews 6:1-6
I have taken information about current counterfeit practices, which come from the wrong spiritual source, draw worship to man or to satan, directly or indirectly, or cause us to be independent of God by depending upon our own resources for healing, or personal growth, from the internet.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT CURRENT PRACTICES SEE MY MANUAL; “EXPOSING COUNTERFEIT SPIRITUAL PRACTICES”
AND FOR FURTHER INFORMATION SEE MY WORKBOOK “SCHOOL OF SPIRITUAL WARFARE”
THEY CAN BE PURCHASED FROM MY WEBSITE sheenaryanministries.com