Chapter 5 -

No guiding spirits!

 

 

 

If we continue to list the things that can take us away from the guidance of God and lead us to subordinate ourselves to the wrong spirits, among them are guiding spirits that some people might have. Some people really think that we have an angel or guiding spirit who leads us by holding our hand and constantly teaching that we must obey without question or refusal. This kind of notion is very common in spiritualist and New Age circles, for example. They have other names for these guiding spirits, such as inner advisor, the higher self, risen masters, and so forth.

   However, it is good to understand that if a person experiences contact from this kind of guiding spirit, they are surely and clearly being deceived. If an angel or a guiding spirit constantly presses into someone’s life, it is always a spirit who wants to mislead people and lead them away from God. We should note that the same guiding spirits can also pretend to be the angels of God; they can appear to be Jesus or the Holy Spirit. A good illustration of this kind of activity is described in a book written by Bob Mumford. He describes a person who mistakenly believed that an evil spirit was the Holy Spirit. He was freed from this delusion:

 

A young man came to me in the university where I was teaching and told me, “You know what, I am being led in a very miraculous way. There is always someone close to me. Whenever I ask something, I will immediately receive an answer.”

   I immediately became suspicious and started to ask this young man questions. He was clearly dealing with the ‘familiar spirit’, about which the Bible also speaks. This quite simply means that he had formed a close relationship with a spirit from the supernatural world. As it often happens, this spirit presented himself as the Holy Spirit.

   I thought about this and prayed to God that I could distinguish the spirits from one another. After two days, when the young man came to my office again, I bluntly asked him, “Have you ever been dealing with fortune telling or mind reading?”

   A curious expression came to his eyes, like he had seen through me and he said, “How did you guess? Ever since I was a child, my mother has taken me to fortune tellers.”

  (…) As I was speaking, I powerfully felt the presence of the Holy Spirit in the room and the man begun to understand. So I told him, “People use these wrong ways of guidance to find out hidden information, future events, secret wisdom, and supernatural powers. But do you understand that all of this and more can be found with the help of the Holy Spirit? Are you ready to give up this false guidance and follow the truthful and biblical guidance?”

   He nodded and said that he wanted to be freed. We prayed for his release on the basis of the Covenant, which the blood of Jesus Christ has made possible for us. When he left my office, he was a new a person. Nowadays, he works for the Lord.” (26)

 

HOW DO THE ANGELS OF GOD ACT? It is good to understand the way God’s angels act so that we are not misled in this respect. There are definite features by which they can always be recognized. If these certain features, which are listed below, are not seen, then the spirits in question are not angels serving God Almighty:

 

- Angels sent by God do not constantly guide people, and they do not deliver some new divine revelation, because we have already been given the Bible and heard the word of God.

   Most heresies are begun by means of some angel or guiding spirit appearing to people (cf. Gal 1:8: “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed.”). Some examples of such activity include various Japanese religious movements, and the Mormon religion in America (an angel appeared to Joseph Smith).

 

- Angels serving God always glorify Jesus and never raise anyone above Him or lower Him to the level of people. They confess His divinity and proclaim Him to be the Christ, the Messiah, who came in the flesh and is God’s one and only Son. We are taught in 1 John how to recognize a spirit’s source. If an angel does not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, then immediately, completely reject it: 

 

- (1 John 4:1-3) Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

2 Hereby know you the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:

3 And every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof you have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

 

- God’s angelic servants always glorify Jesus Christ, God’s one and only Son in flesh. They do not want to attract any worship to themselves, but always direct worship to God. If angels have special names or provide very detailed descriptions about themselves, you can be certain that they are not angels sent by God. They never want attention for themselves. A good example of this is a description in the Revelation:

 

- (Rev 22:8-9) And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things.

9 Then said he to me, See you do it not: for I am your fellow servant, and of your brothers the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.

 

- Since the angels serving God never appear as guiding spirits, clearly they will never appear at the command or by the invitation of humans. Instead, they generally appear only during emergencies, and only when God sends them. We should therefore always turn to God who is in Heaven, not to angels; by turning to angels we might easily be mislead.

 

TURN TO GOD WHO IS IN HEAVEN! Falling under the influence of evil spirits very often is caused by a person’s not searching for and praying to God who is in Heaven, but instead turning toward some other source of guidance. Being falsely directed or concentrating on angelic or spirit guides was addressed above in the material about guiding spirits.

   Misguidance can also result if a person does not approach with care his abandonment to God, or spiritual warfare, or pastoral care --  all of which might attract the wrong emphasis. We will, therefore, study these issues separately:

 

Giving oneself to God. A person giving himself totally to the Holy Spirit creates a dangerous environment. When a person gives himself to the "blind obedience" of the Holy Spirit, he may not stay alert for the possibility that other spirits pretending to be the Holy Spirit may try to appear. He might fall under the same delusion as those who are dealing with guiding spirits.

   Persons giving themselves to God must understand that they surrender themselves to the God who is in Heaven and turn to Him. He has already sent us the Holy Spirit, who gives us the power to do this. But our mind and prayers should always be directed towards Christ and God who are in Heaven, otherwise we will be in danger of being misled.

   Jessie Penn-Lewis addresses this. She writes that an attitude that looks very biblical can actually be dangerous and bring about a perfect shipwreck if it is not understood how the guidance of God works:

 

When we take a look at church history and the different "heresies" and deceptions, we can see that these deceitful periods often start from a crisis where a person totally and unreservedly gives himself to the Holy Spirit. In doing this, he opens himself to the supernatural powers of the invisible world.

   The danger comes from this: up until the crisis, the believer used his common sense to differentiate the right from the wrong and obeyed what he believed to be the will of God in principle, but after giving himself to the Holy Spirit started to obey an invisible force and blindly submitted himself and his reasoning to something he now believes to be from God. He has surrendered his will to doing the will of God, and has been captured by the powers of the invisible world. This kind of a believer naturally only wants to obey the powers of God, but does not understand that there are also other powers around and that all that is "supernatural" is not from God. They do not see that giving oneself totally to invisible powers without knowing how to distinguish the powers of God from the powers of Satan creates a great danger for an inexperienced believer.

   It is curious that the attitude, which is very biblical, can be so terribly dangerous and result in a perfect shipwreck. (27)

 

Jessie Penn-Lewis also writes about  "waiting meetings" for the Holy Spirit. In these meetings, people wait for the Holy Spirit to appear in a very specific way. She tells that this can also encourage evil spirits, because it gets people to pray and trust in the spirits who are around us instead of turning to God who is in Heaven. She also writes that this kind of method is not in accordance with the word of God. This is because the Holy Spirit is a gift our Father has given us, and it can be received immediately from Christ. After God’s sending us the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, waiting is unnecessary and is not in accordance with His Word.

   It is best to make sure that we do not start concentrating more on the Holy Spirit, miracles, or the gifts of the Holy Spirit than we concentrate on Christ and God who are in Heaven. The Holy Spirit never wants attention to be drawn to Himself, and never wants our worship. Instead, the Holy Spirit wants our attention to be always directed to Christ and God who are in Heaven. The Holy Spirit never speaks about Himself or brings glory to Himself, but always testifies about Christ and brings glory to Him, as the next verses demonstrate:

 

- (John 15:26) But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father, he shall testify of me

 

- (John 16:13-14) However, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.

14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it to you.

 

Where is prayer directed to? It is also good to make sure that we direct our prayers to the right source.  Prayers should always be directed to God who is in Heaven because He, His throne, and Christ are in Heaven. Any other kind of prayer is not genuine.

   If someone starts to pray to a god somewhere around or in us – a god the person can always see as an internal vision – it will, sooner or later, become evident that the person is praying to evil spirits. This happens because we try to project the character of God into our innermost being or around us, and do not understand that the God to whom we pray is in Heaven on His throne. It is important to understand this difference.

   Another fault is that the prayer is not directed straight to God who is in Heaven, but to the person for whom one prays for. Sometimes even "Christian books" offer instruction on prayer and visualization through which one might be healed, by imagining that the healthy white cells or little men attack cancerous cells to destroy them, for example. However, it should be noted that use of these methods is never required by God.  Genuine prayer and God's answers to prayers always go through Heaven because God and Christ are in Heaven. The previous methods belong to the same area as hypnotism and magic, activities, in which people are misled by lying spirits.

   The next Bible verses refer to this. They clearly teach us that we must pray to the Father (or Christ) in Heaven because He and His throne are there:

 

- (Matt 6:9) After this manner therefore pray you: Our Father which are in heaven, Hallowed be your name.

 

- (Rev 5:7-8) And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat on the throne.

8 And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints.

 

Concentrating on the devil. As stated above, a prayer can be directed to the wrong object. Another mistake is to concentrate more on the devil than on God. This may occur in spiritual warfare, in which people speak more about the devil and to the devil than about God and to God. It can happen, for instance, in the following ways:

 

- Worship songs, which emphasize them being a weapon against evil spirits and not concentrating on glorifying God.

 

- So-called "warfare tongues" that are aggressive and loud, "because Satan is especially afraid of them." By doing this, one abandons the usual understanding of the verse, “For he that speaks in an unknown tongue speaks not to men, but to God: for no man understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries.” (1 Cor 14:2) That is prayer to God.

 

- Abandoning ordinary prayer is one outcome of spiritual warfare. All problems are seen as caused by Satan. It is also believed that salvation of people depends on Satan. That is why some people use prayer more as a weapon and to show authority; some people may spend hours talking to the devil.

   By doing this, one abandons the conventions of prayer and stops pleading for help from God; prayer takes on a whole other form, and the focus is placed more on the enemy than on God.

 

- One outcome of spiritual warfare is that it characterizes the enemy as being huge and threatening, while God is seen as being miniscule and helpless, or as having difficulties in keeping the enemy under control.  Even though this kind of spiritual warfare might contain praise and even laughter (meetings in which Satan is “laughed out”), it can only reinforce the image of a great enemy and small God, because faith has been focused upon Satan and the evil spirits. It is only when people are freed from this kind of wrong warfare that the situation can improve.

 

Therefore, we should understand that the above-mentioned warfare is not God’s will for anyone’s life. He does not want us to concentrate on the enemy or constantly think about him; He wants us to direct our attention to Himself. Many great soul winners in the world have not focused on the devil, but have instead prayed to God, spent time with Him, and acted with the fullness of the Holy Spirit. That has been the secret of their power.

   In large revivals, people have neither concentrated on the enemy, but on God. When people prayed to God, He destroyed the forces of the enemy and people were saved. This should be the main rule also nowadays.

   It is difficult to find teaching from the Bible saying that we should spend hours every day talking to the enemy or that we should bind the evil spirits above cities. At least, Jesus and the Apostles did not teach anything like that. Instead, Jesus advised us to pray to the Father in Heaven (Matt 6:9). Paul also prayed to God for the salvation of people:

 

- (Matt 9:38) Pray you therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.

 

- (Rom10:1) Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.

 

- (Ezra 8:23) So we fasted and sought our God for this: and he was entreated of us.

 

- (Acts 12:5) Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church to God for him.

 

Another thing worth noting is that if we start to fight for evil spirits by ourselves, if we end up in a one man war against them or if we become arrogant towards them (for example, 2 Peter 2:10,11 and Jude 8,9 warn about slandering the spirits), the shelter that we would otherwise possess will disappear. God wants to protect us from all evil, but if we wander into the wrong areas or stick our nose into things that do not belong to us, this protection will disappear. The result can only be anxiety and depression. These evil powers should, therefore, be resisted only when God indicates their presence and when it is in His plan. As we are instructed in Eph 6:13: "Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” So it is not necessary even every day. In any other instances, it is not worth our while to pay any attention to them.

     The next excerpt from a book by Judson Cornwall explains what this is all about. He wrote that paying too much attention to evil spirits only increased their effect. But when people concentrated on God the situation immediately improved:

 

I regret to remember my life some time ago when I was a preacher in a congregation in Eugene, Oregon. As we were looking for a greater truth that our denomination had, we noticed that we were suddenly involved in driving out demons. We were very successful in it even though it was many years before exorcism gained so much popularity. However, we soon noticed that if one disturbs the devil during the week, one can expect the Sunday meetings to be full of demonic powers. Week after week, my assistant pastor fought with difficulties in singing and finally asked me for help. (…)

  (…) But the Lord said, "You do not lead your people to worship me before you lead them to worship the evil spirits.”

   "Oh no Lord,” I shouted, ”Let it be far from me that I would bend my knee to any demons or say anything that would lead the congregation into such worship.”

   He continued, "In every meeting you stand before your people and ask them to bow their heads before the demons present and to close their eyes because of respect for them. And then you start to speak to evil spirits. They take it as worship. Evil spirits from near and far come to your meetings because they have heard that they will be worshipped if they come.”

   You can imagine how this broke my heart. In terror, I thought that I had led saints to worshipping demons. After crying and repenting I asked the Lord what I should do.

   He said, "Do not pay any attention to the presence of evil spirits. Praise and worship me. You are my people; this house has been dedicated to serving me. Concentrate on praising me and I will take care of the evil spirits."

   (…) Since that day, and until I left the congregation, we never publicly admitted the presence of the evil spirits. We started each meeting with praise and the Lord Jesus broke all possible obstacles. When the evil spirits noticed that we no longer worshipped them or paid any attention to them, they left. Nor did they return. The answer to the cleanliness of worship is the same now as it was in the days of Moses. (…) (28)

 

Pastoral care. All of the above-mentioned problems can sometimes be detected during pastoral counseling sessions. Sometimes someone can explain that all problems, temptations, sins, depression, and difficulties are caused by evil spirits. People sometimes casually tell others that they harbor an evil spirit within themselves, or that evil spirits are always the cause of their illnesses and problems. Some people have been greatly frightened (the fear of evil spirits), or despaired for their lives. Some have even had to go to the hospital as a result of such exaggerated statements.

   However, it is good to understand that most of our problems come simply from our own flesh and heart, not from the influence of any evil spirits. Being possessed by an evil spirit so that it controls and owns a person is quite rare; if we live in faith and do not keep our heart hardened, we cannot be possessed by evil spirits. It is more common that a person experiences disturbances from the devil, but it takes place outside the person. It is similar to what Jesus experienced in the desert (Matt 4:1-11).

   Many verses in the Bible teach us about the actions that arise from our sinful nature. It is good to note that one must repent our actions; they cannot be driven out:

 

- (Mark 7:20-23) And he said, That which comes out of the man, that defiles the man.

21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,

22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:

23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

 

- (Gal 5:19-21) Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, jealousies, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

21 Contentions, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

 

As to the possibility of evil spirits being the cause of our problems, it is important that we do not concentrate too much on the spirits or driving them out.

   Instead, what is more important is to determine whether or not the person himself is ready for repentance and willing to give up his sins – whether he feels a godly sorrow. If a person really feels godly sorrow and genuinely wants to repent for his sins, driving out demons may not be needed at all. They will disappear because the ground has been taken away from under them.

  It is more important to first repair our relationship with God and see to it that we are ready to repent. (The most common signs of trouble are probably bitterness and refusing to forgive, self-hatred, passivity, following occult practices, and so on.) Repairing our relationship with God will make most of these problems disappear. Even the Apostles always first spoke about repentance and advised that people should have a change of mind regarding sin. This was always the first thing they spoke about:

 

- (Mark 6:12) And they went out, and preached that men should repent.

 

- (Acts 3:19) Repent you therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.

 

- (1 John 1:9) If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.