Shalom Aleichem...
Reflections is a weekly Christian Teaching Ministry. Each week we will talk about the Bible and lessons we can put to use in our daily life. We will try to, on a weekly basis, provide to you stories, thoughts, and just easy ways to live your life on a straight path.
THIS WEEK'S TEACHING....December 6, 2021
Aloha family. Over the past few week's we have looked at some pretty gnarly subjects but they are subjects we must learn about and be aware of because they are real folks.
This teaching is to inform you, as Christians, of the snares of the occult and how to recognize them.
A Witch’s Invitation
Several years ago Christian music artist Carman produced a song and video entitled "A Witch’s Invitation." Very seldom do you hear Christian artist or even Pastors telling about the snares of the occult. What I want to discuss, this week, is the occult. The definition of the word occult is: "Of, relating to, or dealing with supernatural influences or phenomena."
It encompasses witchcraft, astrology, spiritualism, satanism, fortune telling, paranormal, parapsychology, extra sensory perception, self-hypnosis, and hypnosis. In the first sermon of this series I told you about my study of the occult. The Bibles tells us what Satan means for evil, God uses for good. God is all knowing and even though I didn’t accept His call into His ministry at 14, He knew I would at 44 and so He used those 30 years to teach and train me in what He wanted me to tell you, His children, today.
The occult is real, family. I wish there were some way I could say this more emphatically so that you would believe it. Everything that I have listed above is real, people are involved in it and they used it in their everyday lives, but it is Satan who is controlling the mechanics of it.
Let’s look at astrology. Many in the Christian church read their horoscope everyday as soon as they get up in the morning. Almost every newspaper in this nation publishes horoscopes in their paper. Many people use their horoscope to invest their money or make decisions in their businesses. We have even had presidents of the United States that have consulted astrologers before making important decisions regarding our nation.
I have read and studied astrology and it is possible to come up with horoscopes that appear very accurate, but remember, the Bible tells us that Satan is a liar and a deceiver. Many have told me that they read their horoscopes just for entertainment. Their lives would be must better if they read the Bible instead. The Bible tells us that astrologers will burn in hell. That is enough for me to stay away from horoscopes.
Isa 47:13-14
13 All the counsel you have received has only worn you out! Let your astrologers come forward, those stargazers who make predictions month by month, let them save you from what is coming upon you.
14 Surely they are like stubble; the fire will burn them up. They cannot even save themselves from the power of the flame. (NIV)
Even though most people do not believe it, Satan does have power. Remember the things that God allowed him to do to Job and his family? Remember when Moses went to the Pharaoh and did the miracles commanded by God? Aaron threw down his staff and it turned into a snake, the magicians was also able to turn their staffs into snakes. When Moses turned the waters of the Nile to blood, the Egyptian magicians were also able to perform the same feat. The magicians duplicated the plague of frogs also. So Satan has limited power. Especially during the tribulation, those who are not raptured will see many miracles from Satan.
Let’s look at fortune telling next. Let’s read Acts 13:16-19;
Acts 16:16-19
16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune telling.
17 This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved."
18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!" At that moment the spirit left her.
19 When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. (NIV)
Does this sound familiar today? Fortune telling is a multibillion-dollar business today. I guess the one that most people are familiar with is Ms. Cleo. She advertises everyday on every TV network. For a 30-second ad on TV she has to pay approximately $100,000.00 depending on the time slot. To be able to afford that type of advertisement, she has to be making an enormous amount of money. I can’t prove it, but I am sure so-call Christians are using her services too.
Why do we need to consult medians to learn the future? Haven’t you finished reading the Bible?
In the book of Revelation we are told everything that we need to know about the future. By consulting horoscopes or fortunetellers, we are showing that we do not have faith in God’s promises for us. I would rather trust God, than a woman that is processed with a demon. In the scripture that we read in Acts, we saw the slave girl was able to predict the future by the procession of an evil spirit or demon.
I am about to get myself in trouble, but if the Bible says it, I will preach it as the truth. Demon possession is also real and many in today’s world are either demon possessed or demon oppressed. Why do people today not believe in demon possession? Is it because we do not believe Satan exists?
In a survey conducted by Barna Research Group we find the following facts:
58% of adults say that the devil, or Satan, is not a living being but is a symbol of evil. (2018)
45% of born again Christians deny Satan’s existence. (2019)
51% of Southern Baptist church attenders say the devil is non-existent. (2018)
68% of Catholics say the devil is non-existent. (2019)
60% of Protestant mainline church attenders say the devil is non-existent. (2019)
50% of Protestant non-mainline church attenders say the devil is non-existent.
61% of Christian men say the devil is non-existent. (2019)
55% of Christian women say the devil is non-existent. (2018)
Is this why Satan can influence people so easily? If you don’t believe in something then it can’t hurt you. This is the biggest lie Satan has gotten Christians to believe ever. Only 31% of people believe that there is an actual physical hell. Why is that we believe in the good things that the Bible tells us about, but we deny the existence of a hell and a devil that the Bibles tells us about?
The Bibles tells us that Satan was an angel who decided that he wanted to be more powerful than God. He was cast out of Heaven along with a third of the angles that followed Satan. I have told you before that I am a Bible believing Christian. There is nothing in the Bible that is fiction. It is all, true. If the Bible talks about a real Satan, then he does exist and everything that the Bible tells about him is true. The Bible also speaks about demons. Demons are real too.
Rev 12:9
9 The great dragon was hurled down-- that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. (NIV)
If you are involved with horoscopes or fortune telling, please repent, get out of it and ask God for forgiveness. In the book of Samuel we learned that Saul consulted with a median that summoned up the spirit of Samuel from the dead and Samuel’s spirit told Saul that he and his 3 sons would die. Stay away from astrology, horoscopes, ouija boards, fortunetellers and mediums. This is all evil from the very real Satan.
Next look at the paranormal. Paranormal is anything that is contrary to normal ways of life. Duke University in North Carolina is the foremost university in the nation and world on the research and study of the paranormal. They investigate and test for ESP. Extra sensory perception is the ability to predict an outcome before it happens. The most common test that they do is with cards. With a deck of 52 playing cards, they test people to see if they can predict the next card that will be turned over. If they successfully predict a percentage that is above the average chance level, then it said that that person has ESP.
Another test is to try to see a picture that another person is looking at. Police departments across the nation use clairvoyants to visualize where a missing person may be. A clairvoyant is a person that can visualize a past event that they were not present at or visualize or see through the eyes of a person that is not in the location as the clairvoyant. These are not gifts of God. If they are not of God, then they must be from Satan.
Out of the body experiences are also part of the paranormal. People have claimed that during surgeries that they have left their bodies and were able to watch the doctors operating on their physical bodies below. Others during self-hypnosis have claimed of having out of the body experiences. This is where they hypnotize themselves and leave their physical bodies and travel through space to another location. Duke University has documented such cases. It is real, but it is from Satan. Flee from such evil. Concerning the paranormal I could talk for hours on studies that have taken place in many of our major universities and even more strange things than I have been told about.
I will make this comment however...for the most part, depending on the circumstances, I believe in experiences of people being taken to Heaven. In fact I have just finished the book, 90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper. I found it to be credible, interesting and totally believable to me. If it happened in the Bible, to Paul and John, it can and does happen today.
Today there are toys that you can by for your children right here in Target or Walmart, which are occultic in nature. You can buy ouija boards, crystals, and crystal balls for gazing and black balls that will answer your questions. There are documented cases where people playing around with ouija boards have become demon processed or oppressed. I know you are probably sitting there saying I am crazy.
But I assure you all of this is real and is documented. Be very careful about what you buy your children and what you let them watch on TV and at the movies. On CBS there was an hour-long show that has a host that supposedly talk to your dead relatives in the nether world. Talk shows have more and more mediums as guest. Even the soap operas are putting in more occult themes. The Bible tells us to flee from temptation.
Next I want to talk about witchcraft and satanism. Each is a religion that is recognize by our government and given special rights that all other religions are given. Many people believe that witchcraft and satanism are one in the same, but they are not. A witch refutes the teachings of satanism, and a satanist refutes the powers of a witch.
Let’s talk first about satanism. This is a religious cult, which openly admits that they worship Satan. The best known promoter of Satanism is Anton La Vey, who founded the First Church of Satan in San Francisco, and rose to fame as the author of The Satanic Bible. For La Vey (born in 1930) and his followers, Satan symbolizes a force that can be tapped to achieve power and success. Sexual indulgence and hedonism play a central role in La Vey’s satanic rituals. Some Satanist groups are more "orthodox" in their views of Satan than others, regarding Satan as a real spirit being with an intellect, a will, and emotions. Others think that Satan is only a symbol of a dark force of nature that can be mobilized for personal gain.
Satanism is a direct perversion of Christianity. Satan is substituted for God, and his servants often imitate and mock Christian practices and institutions. Satanist often organized themselves into a group of 13 worshipers representing Christ and His 12 Apostles. Most covens consist of both men and women and are headed by high priests and priestesses. Members are required to attend a weekly or monthly meeting known as the esbat. These meetings usually take place on a Friday night.
Special meetings are called sabbats or grand sabbats. The most important sabbats are held on February 2 (Candlemas), May-eve (Roodmas), August 1 (lammas), and November-eve (All Hallow E’en). Almost always a naked girl, representing the sacrifice, lies on the altar during this portion of the sabbat. She is not killed, but a ceremonial animal sacrifice is offered to the devil. In some areas an infant is used for the sacrifice. During the ritual, symbolisms are used from the Catholic Church. A chalice is filled with blood instead of wine and the wafer (usually black in color) is stabbed instead of eaten.
Some people worships Satan outright, others unknowingly, but either way they will spend eternity with Satan in hell. Satan is the great deceiver and liar. There are signs of Satanism in just about all towns. Yes even here in Honolulu.
Satan’s only purpose is to deceive and to kill. He knows he has been defeated, but he plans to take as many as possible with him. Today Satan and his demons are busier than ever. Yes demons are real too. Jesus and His disciples cast out many demons and Jesus even instructed us to do the same.
DID YOU EVER WONDER???
God has dispensed gifts of the Holy Spirit to every believer, but He also empowers us with His Spirit. Let’s see how these work together.
The Gift of Knowledge
God has dispensed gifts of the Holy Spirit to every believer for the benefit of the church, but He also empowers believers with His Spirit. Let’s see how these work together. In the first place, Bible scholars believe that there are likely more than nine gifts of the Spirit that we read about in 1 Corinthians 12, but there at least 9 are mentioned in in this chapter alone. One of those gifts is the gift of knowledge, where in 1 Corinthians 12:8 it says that some have “… the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit.”We have a church member who is remarkably gifted in this area and he is our Sunday school teacher. He can reference something from Scripture that supplements the class lesson for the day. I just love talking with him, hoping that some of his knowledge will rub off on me.
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The Gift of Faith
This is one gift that I may not possess, and it’s not the faith that is a gift from God that saves us (Eph. 2:8-9). The gift of faith is a gift that emboldens someone to make decisions and assurance that this is what God wills. They have faith that this will work (whatever it is) because it seems to be within God’s will and is according to Scripture. So, for “another faith by the same Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:9a), and that faith comes in handy in the church. I’ve seen and read of some very remarkable occasions where I’d be terrified to step out on faith, but they seem to think there’s nothing to it, because they have the gift of faith.
The Gift of Discernment
First Corinthians 12:10 is where Paul mentions, “to another the ability to distinguish between spirits,” which appears to be the gift of discernment. Some believers have an easier time spotting doctrinal error or false teaching, while others have a more difficult time discerning error; especially if it’s mixed with truth. The person with the gift of discernment knows that a half-truth is a whole lie and they can spot it more readily. The gift of distinguishing between spirits might be a way that God equips the person with the ability to know when someone’s telling the truth too, but this gift’s also helpful in figuring out so-called grey areas.
God Calls
Every time you see a prophet of God introduced in Scripture, it often comes with the statement that it was God Who called them. In most every case, the Old Testament prophets resisted this call from God, and wanted nothing to do with it. They rightly understood that they were unqualified and unworthy, but so are we! Nobody calls themselves into the ministry is qualified. It must be a call from God, perhaps through a local church or other ministry. If someone calls themselves into a ministry, it’s not a calling…it’s a wish. Whoever thinks they can call themselves into the ministry, or into any ministry, had better check with God first to make sure it is His idea. It is God Who calls, not we. If this call is of human origin, nothing much will ever come from it.
God Qualifies
God doesn’t call the qualified because none of us are really qualified. God’s Word says that there are none that are good; not even one of us (Rom 3:12). In fact, no one even seeks after God (Rom 3:11), so how would we ever be equipped in our own human capacity to serve God? God doesn’t call the qualified, but rather, He qualifies the called by His equipping them by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It is God Who does the equipping, not we. God qualifies those whom He calls. It is not them calling themselves. That’s not found in Scripture. We come only equipped to do human works which are nothing but filthy rags to God (Isaiah 64:6), so we had better acknowledge that God alone calls and equips.
God Empowers
As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, God does the calling and God does the equipping. The equipping doesn’t come from trying really, really hard, but it’s reliance upon God and His Spirit to have the gift be used through providential means. God alone can equip us to do ministry for Him and for His glory alone (Psalm 115:1). These gifts of the Spirit of God are then empowered by the Spirit of God so that “the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3:17), and naturally, that includes the woman of God.
Appointed for Good Works
The story of your life is being written as you read this. You are writing your own eulogy by the way you live and what you do in this brief life, but did you know that God is the author of your life’s story? He just hasn’t revealed the last chapters to us, yet we must trust the Author. The Apostle Paul wrote, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). We haven’t entered into all of these appointed good works yet–so keep on keeping on…they’ll be directly in front of us.
Great Risks, Great Rewards
No one ever receives great rewards if they never take great risks. Abraham took a great risk by going to a land he had never seen and became the father of many nations. David took a great risk fighting Goliath and became king of Israel and part of the lineage of Jesus Christ. Paul took a great risk and preached the Gospel throughout the Roman Empire, and it cost him his life, but he knew “… there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing” (2 Tim. 4:8).
Conclusion
The church needs these gifts, and God equips every believer with at least one and likely, more than one gift of the Holy Spirit. These gifts are intended for the building up and edifying of the church. The church is called the Body of Christ, and like a body, it needs different members to operate functionally and efficiently. By now we should know that God has called us all to a task. He has qualified us for the job. And He has gifted us by His Spirit. Now, go out there and use them and serve the King.
BOOKS OF THE BIBLE...A TEACHING
Where in the Bible Can I Learn About How God Wants Me to Live?
Throughout the Bible God tells us how he wants us to live, which we call ethics or morality. The first command appears in the very first chapter—“Be fruitful and increase” (Genesis 1:28). The first prohibition comes in the next chapter—“You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:17). In the latter part of the Old Testament, God continued to remind his people through the prophets to keep his laws, such as Malachi, in the very last chapter of the Old Testament: “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him” (4:4).
As we saw in the previous chapter, even though many of the specific laws in the Old Testament do not directly apply to Christians, God’s character is revealed in all of those laws, and God requires that we be conformed to his holy character (1 Peter 1:15). We also saw that many of the Old Testament laws are repeated and reapplied in the New Testament.
The Old Testament also contains both positive and negative examples of how God wants us to live. Paul recognized this when he reviewed historical events after the exodus and told his readers, “Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did” (1 Corinthians 10:6; see also verse 11). A negative example is Israel’s continual rebellion and idolatry. On the other hand, positive examples include Moses, who was called a friend of God (Exodus 33:11), and David, who was called a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22). We can study their lives to find out how they achieved these honorary titles.
The Proverbs are also an excellent Old Testament source for finding out how God wants us to live. The biblical proverbs are, by definition, practical advice for living in a way that God considers a success. This is the goal of biblical wisdom and is based on the “fear of [or reverence for] the Lord” (1:7; 9:10). A very important point here is that we cannot live in the right way unless we understand God in the right way. Once again, we see how crucial the holiness of God is in shaping our own ethics.
In the Gospels, Jesus taught us how to live, such as in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3–7:27). But he did more than teach us how to live, he showed us. In fact, he came to fulfill the law (Matthew 5:17). He was the only human who ever lived who was able to do this, and therefore he modeled for the rest of us perfect obedience to God. He provided an example of a humble, servant attitude (John 13:15–17), and even showed us how to be willing to suffer and even die for him (Matthew 16:24–27; 1 Peter 2:21–24). The bottom line is: “Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did” (1 John 2:6).
The letters of the New Testament often focus on Christian ethics. It was the specific purpose of these writers to teach Christians what to believe (theology) and how to live as a result (ethics). Paul structured his letters in this important order. For example, in Ephesians 4:1, he wrote, “I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” In the previous chapters, he described that calling (being “in Christ”), and at this point he applies it to their lives. This includes practicing humility, gentleness, patience, and unity, as he notes in the subsequent verses.
We should consider the commands, prohibitions, and exhortations in the Epistles as equal in authority to those of Jesus himself, since he delegated his authority to the apostles.
Whenever we are considering ethical issues—how we ought to live—we must be careful to stay biblically balanced so we don’t slip into legalism. That is, we must always fight the tendency to think and act as if our relationship with God depends on how well we can impress him with what we do and how we live. Instead, we must realize that what pleases God is our faith or dependence upon him (Hebrews 11:6). This is true both for becoming a Christian in the first place as well as living as a Christian for the rest of our lives. It is all by God’s grace that we receive by faith (Ephesians 2:8–9).
This should be obvious when we consider the ethical standard that Jesus set in the Sermon on the Mount: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). The standard could not be higher; moral perfection is what God demands. But we cannot meet that demand apart from dependence upon God himself. This does not mean that how we live is unimportant or irrelevant. Christians are called to produce good works, not in order to persuade God to accept them, but because God has already accepted them (Ephesians 2:10; Titus 2:14; James 2:14–26). What pleases God, then, is that the good works that we do are done in dependence upon him, not to impress him.
Closely related to this is the idea that we should do what we do before God with the right heart, that is, the right motives, thoughts, and attitudes (1 Samuel 16:7; 1 Chronicles 28:9; Proverbs 16:2; Matthew 5:28; 15:18–20; 1 Corinthians 4:5). What we do is important, but what is more important is why we do it. This is why Jesus criticized the Pharisees for doing “good” things like giving money to the poor, praying, and fasting. They were not doing it for God’s approval, but for man’s (Matthew 6:1–17; Luke 16:15).
What are proper motives for what we do? Two clearly stand out in the Bible. First, we should do what we do in order to glorify God, not ourselves (Matthew 6:16; John 15:8; 1 Corinthians 10:31). Second, we should do what we do out of love (1 Corinthians 13:1–3). Jesus clearly stressed the connection between love for him and obedience to him: “If you love me, keep my commands” (John 14:15; see also vv. 21, 23; 15:10; 1 John 5:3). One of those commands is to “love each other as I have loved you” (John 15:12; 1 John 3:11–24; 4:11–12, 19–21). So we should be motivated by our love for God as well as our love for others.
How do we please God by what we do and how we live? By doing everything in dependence upon him. He has provided the help we need to do the impossible—to be holy as he is holy. That help comes from the Holy Spirit, who lives inside those who have believed in Christ (Romans 8:4–17; Galatians 5:16–25). Furthermore, we please God when we do everything out of love for the purpose of glorifying him.
Augustine wisely said in his book Confessions, “Give what you command, and command what you will.” God has commanded that we be ethically perfect. But we do not despair as a result of that lofty demand. Rather, we rejoice in knowing that he has also given what he commands—through his Son, who provides forgiveness for sin, and through his Spirit, who provides strength for obedience.
HAVE A SAFE AND BLESSED WEEK:)
Ho'omaikaʻi ka Pua iā kākou