False spirits may lead people astray in the area of guidance and offer
false gifts which are reminiscent of the gifts of grace from God and which are
difficult to tell apart from the real gifts. In this chapter, we will discuss
some issues about false spirits.
False spirits lead people to
sin. When a person is under the influence of fall spirits, these spirits will
lead him or her to demoralisation: the person will accept things that are wrong
in the eyes of God. The Holy Spirit wants our lives to be pure but demons want
the opposite. They try to lure people into rejecting their spouses “because
they are not religious enough”, or deceive people into doing things that
clearly go against the will of God:
I know married people, also Christians filled
with the Spirit, who believe that God has led them to an extramarital affair.
They were blinded by their love and longing, and claim that they prayed to God
to lead them. At some point in their journey, they had to have listened to
another voice. The Word of God is very clear and simple, and God never revises
His principles. Adultery is a sin. God would never lead anybody to an act of
sin. (6)
Many wrongful relationships have started during pastoral care: people of
opposite sexes have confided in each other in a situation that does not involve
other people. This has caused them to commit a sin. The Bible says, however,
that as a general rule women who have marital problems should seek help from
other women instead of men. If this is not possible, their discussions should
take place in a room with other people present. This is what we should strive
for.
- (Tit 2:1-5) But speak you the things which
become sound doctrine:
2 That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound
in faith, in charity, in patience.
3 The aged
women likewise, that they be in behavior as becomes holiness, not false
accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;
4 That they
may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love
their children,
5 To be discreet, chaste, keepers at
home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not
blasphemed.
False spirits inflate people’s ego. They make people
think that they are especially gifted; that they live at a higher level and are
more advanced than others, or that they have been chosen to do an important
task that nobody else can do. They make people complacent so they think that
they are closer to God than others. God does exactly the opposite: He helps us
see that we are nothing. He wants us to have a healthy self-esteem but still
hold others in higher regard (Phil 2:3: Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness
of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.). If a person
stresses his or her own greatness and infallibility, he or she has been
betrayed.
The misguiding spirits appeal to people’s pride.
The saddest moments during my service to God have been those when a leader who
was truly anointed by the Spirit and used by God has suddenly changed because
of a misleading spirit. Suddenly, the person was no longer humble and he became
proud: this deteriorated his service to God over time. (7)
The underlying cause of pride is usually the fact that the proud person
has not experienced sufficient failures. When we experience failures and notice
that we cannot do anything alone, we are in less danger of becoming proud. We
know that if we experience success and major victories in our work, it is not
because of our own merits but because of the blessing of God. We see our own
limits and know that success does not depend solely on us.
However, a young Christian who has not yet
experienced failure or weakness is in greater danger when he or she succeeds.
Such a young Christian is unable to deal with success in the right way and may
become proud. This is why Paul warned us that a new convert is not a very good
shepherd (1 Tim 3:6,7: Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into
the condemnation of the devil. Moreover he must have a good report of them
which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.).
The worst falls into sin have always taken place after a major victory:
By saying this, Wisdom dragged me on as if
saving me from something. I looked back and saw that even though I had been at
the wide plain of “Book of Galatians 2:20”, I had ended up at the very edge of
the plain without even noticing. I had almost fallen down from the mountain. I
looked Wisdom into the eyes again, and He said to me, very seriously, “When you think you are standing, make sure
that you are not falling. You can fall from any plain in this life.”
I
thought about this for a long time. I had become careless because of the great
victory we were about to achieve and because of the closeness of my brothers.
It was nobler to fall because of an enemy raid than because of carelessness.
(8)
Passivity is a state of
mind that false spirits need in order to act. In order to work, they need
people who become like an automaton through whom they can act. Good examples of
this are psychographers (automatic writers) and mediums who may be in a trance
and not even understand the messages they are mediating. To reach this trance
state they usually practice passive meditation, empty their minds, do
breathing/relaxation exercises or listen to mystical New Age music. In this way
they reach a passive state in which their mind is empty and open to the activity
of false spirits.
God never wants us to empty
our minds, suppress our awareness or become like an automaton existing in a
passive death-like state, which God can use to “flow” through. This goes against
the way God truly does things. He wants us to actively seek Him, keep our minds
vigilant and be fully present in body and mind. He never replaces our
personality, tramples on us or “takes over” our bodies in such a way that makes
our own will and mind powerless. When a person is filled with the Holy Spirit,
the person is not passive. Instead, the
person him-/herself wants, loves God, talks, makes decisions, assesses
things, prays to God in heaven or speaks in tongues. It is often difficult to
see what is of the person and what is of the Holy Spirit.
Around six months after having been saved, Ron
was asked to participate in a youth revivalist camp. He went and had a great
weekend. It was a good meeting except for one thing: the teachings about the fullness
of the Holy Spirit were wrong. At the end of the last evening, which was full
of feelings, all those who wanted to accept the Holy Spirit were called forth.
Ron naturally wanted this, and so he went to the altar to be prayed upon.
Unfortunately, the people who came to the altar were asked to raise their
hands, shake them to relax them, let go of all control, empty their minds and
give their minds and bodies over to “the Holy Spirit”. They were told that if
they did this, the Holy Spirit would be free to enter them and take full
control. Ron was too new a Christian to see the fallacy of such teachings and
so he tried to do as told.
Ron
told that when he tried to relax his arms and empty his mind from all thoughts,
he suddenly felt someone grabbing his arms. Then he felt a jolt of power going
down his arms all the way to his abdomen with such force that he was flung
backwards. He felt like there was a ball of fire in his belly that spread to
his chest. He started to speak in tongues. He was ecstatic and returned home
from the camp, thinking he had been anointed by the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately,
Ron had allowed a demon to enter him by emptying his mind and relinquishing the
control of his body.
Not
long after the camp somebody gave Ron a book called “How to Hear When God Talks
to You?” The book taught that a Christian had to empty his mind of all thoughts
and silently wait for the Lord so that the Holy Spirit could talk. This is
completely wrong, naturally, but Ron accepted it as the truth because this is
how he started to speak in languages at the camp. After a little practice, Ron
was soon able to empty his mind. He experienced several states of ecstasy,
which he interpreted as the Lord being with him. Ron received three spiritual
guides during these meditations. What do you think they called themselves? They
called themselves “the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”, naturally. What
else would demonic spirit guides say they were when talking to a Christian! Ron
did not understand that they were actually demonic spirit guides. He thought
that the Lord was speaking to him. He held long conversations with “the Lord”
and the spirits gave him numerous instructions. Ron should have understood that
he was not actually listening to God because the spirits wanted to cause him to
sin. They told Ron that he had a “special status” and they twisted the words of
the Bible to allow all kinds of sins that completely went against the orders of
God. (9)
Increasing compulsion shows that false
spirits are in action. When a person is being driven by a force that forces him
or her to do things that go against his or her basic nature, we are seeing the
imposition of bad spirits at work. A compulsion might be to swear, or to commit
murder or suicide. False spirits may also lure people (including Christians)
into doing things that have no good consequences, that show the person in a bad
light and falsify the person’s testimony in the eyes of others. Such actions
include forcible public confessions, testimonies or “prophecies” which the
person feels obliged to say aloud to be freed. However, a true confession is
never forced; it should be voluntary and made
only to God or to those people the person has offended. Forced confessions made in public should be avoided.
God acts differently from the
behaviours described above. He never forces people to do anything. Instead, He
invites people to join Him. If a person is filled with the Holy Spirit, that
person is not obliged to do anything against his or her will; the person can always
control his or her behaviour and speech. Whenever we feel pressured or anxious
we should reject the source of that anxiety in the name of Jesus Christ:
- (1 Peter 5:8,9) Be sober, be vigilant;
because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about,
seeking whom he may devour:
9 Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same
afflictions are accomplished in your brothers that are in the world.
Obedience to voices. People may hear
voices or suggestions that they think are from God. They fail to consider that
there is another source from which messages may come: Satan and his evil
servants. These may lead us astray if we are not vigilant. The following are
characteristics of voices and some suggestions we might hear from evil spirits:
- They make people brag about the special, direct guidance they receive,
about how they are more evolved than others, how they are very close to God or
at a higher spiritual level.
- They may accuse, devastate or threaten people so that they become
desperate and judged in their relationship with God, and they may fear that
they have committed an unforgivable act of sin. The sanctity of God may be a
source of terror and fear for a person in this state. Such fear prevents the
person from studying the source of the voices.
Instead, God is never
impatient or angry with us, His children who sincerely want to follow Him.
Jesus is a good shepherd and a perfect image of the Father:
- (John 10:11) I am
the good shepherd: the good shepherd gives
his life for the sheep.
- (Hebr 1:3) Who
being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when
he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on
high:
- Voices may encourage people to do sin, such as have
an extramarital affair, become homosexual or harm themselves or those close to
them. These clearly show that it is Satan talking, because Satan is a murderer
(John 8:44) who has come to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10: The thief comes not, but for to
steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and
that they might have it more abundantly.). The voices may even quote
Scripture to mislead people and cause them to do things that go against the
will of God. We must always take into account everything the Bible says instead
of single verses.
- Incongruity. Messages from the world of evil spirits may sometimes be
very specific and planned. However, if the message seems incongruous in any way
or if something that was promised does not happen, we should be alert because
it is likely that we are dealing with a misguiding spirit.
- The voices may tempt, pressure or hurry a person to do something without
considering it first: “Quit your job now,” “Start living on faith,” “Do this or
do that now.” Taking such actions is always unprofitable, however.
- The voices try to debase people. They may lure a person into wearing
worn out clothes “to show humility or obedience”, interfere with a person’s
eating or sleeping habits, make the person feel “pains of birth” for souls,
make the person “a substitute sufferer” for others or to make the person fear
even the simplest decisions such as when to go to the grocery store, when to
vacuum or which coat to wear, due to a strong desire to obey God. Such a person
fails to understand that God gave us common sense and free choice in such
matters. We can choose when to do them and how.
The devil can quote Scripture, talk about
spiritual things and look like a very religious being.
I talked with a woman who had been influenced by a false spirit.
Voices told her to fast and pray, stay awake and wear long black dresses. They
told her not to read newspapers or listen to music. She was influenced by major
spiritual coercion. She had to see things in a new light to see that even
“spiritual” guidance may come from the devil.
We can
distinguish the voice of God from that of the devil by the serenity we feel:
God’s voice speaks of peace but a compelling voice comes from the devil or from
the person’s own mind. God leads and the devil forces.
A
compelling voice says, “Resign now. Don’t wait until tomorrow. If you wait, you
are not obedient.” If we follow such advise we will get in trouble. God does
not speak that way, unless it is an emergency. (10)
- Advice from others. Usually, people
receiving messages think that they are from God. They try to obey the voices –
to be “obedient to God” – failing to suspect that they could be dealing with
deception. They may reject the good advice of others because they have “a
direct and special relationship with God”.
Asking for advice from others
is sometimes wise, however. God has given His congregations shepherds and
teachers (Eph 4:11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some,
evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers), who may have more
experience and knowledge than us. Asking for advice from others is an act of
humility and wisdom. If you are receiving messages, do not hesitate to ask
others about their opinion.
There is another example from our immediate
circle of acquaintances. It may help in freeing a person. There were girls who
had the spirit but who were unaware of it. They were eager to turn to God. They
were eager to follow Him. They started to follow the spirit, thinking that it
was Jesus. They used to talk about their guidance. The people around them were
startled and knew that the guidance was not of God after all. He does not lead
people in this way. It was difficult to pinpoint the problem exactly, but it
was clear that it was not Jesus.
Finally, the situation escalated to a point where the girls’ guidance
went more and more awry. Because of some mishaps, the elders of the
congregation approached these girls. The elders, around nine men, agreed that
some of the guidance of these girls was not of God. The girls were unable to
see this because they were blinded. Their reason had been stolen from them.
... The girls had to walk this way, and finally they said
something to the effect of “We are obedient to you because we chose to be”. In
this situation, the girls could only hear the voice of Jesus. They sometimes
heard what Jesus was saying, but at other times they were listening to another
spirit. In any case, they allowed the men to drive out the spirit of
fornication from them. When the spirit was gone, they could understand. It was
like a veil was removed from their eyes. First, some of the girls understood,
“Well, what you did was not of God.” Then another said, “Your actions were not
of God either.” They first saw it in each other and finally they were able to
see it in themselves. When the spirit had left, they got their sense back –
when the spirit was in them, however, they were unable to understand that they
were being betrayed. This is a common feature of spirits. (11)
Wrong ideas about guidance may lead people
towards false spirits. Especially vulnerable are people who give their entire
heart to the Holy Spirit. This is because a person who gives him- or herself up
to “blind obedience” to the Holy Spirit fails to see that there are also other
spirits around that can pretend to be the Holy Spirit in order to lead us
astray. They may be lost because they follow a spirit they think is the Holy
Spirit, Jesus or an angel of God but that it is actually a false spirit.
One thing about guidance we
should understand is that if there is a spiritual guide or angel with us at all
times, or if we always see into the world of spirits, we are being deceived by
the archfiend. God never leads us in this way. He may talk to us through His
Holy Spirit, but the constant presence of a guide – even if the guide says it
is Jesus, an angel of God or the Holy Spirit – is always a sign of the presence
of false spirits. Paul warns us about people who are taken by humility or
worshipping of angels, or who brag about their visions. We are talking about
the same thing here:
- (Col 2:18) Let no
man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping
of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up
by his fleshly mind,
When we give ourselves to God, we must understand that we are turning to
the God in heaven. The Holy Spirit may provide us with the strength we need but
our minds and prayers should always be directed to God and Jesus Christ in
heaven; if this is not the case, then there is a danger of being led astray.
- (Matt 6:9) After
this manner therefore pray you: Our
Father which are in heaven, Hallowed be your name.
False spirits prevent prayer.
If
a person has difficulty praying or even becomes unconscious while praying,
there are false spirits present and active. False spirits try to prevent people
from genuinely praying. They also try to prevent people from reading and
understanding the Bible. This is common among people who turn from occultism to
God. False spirits may also cause people to pray to the wrong entity or in the
wrong way. Below are some examples.
- People start to pray to a god in the atmosphere or inside them – a god
they can always see as an inner vision. This will inevitably lead to praying to
bad spirits.
- People may direct the prayers to the person for whom they are praying.
Such a “prayer” is magic/hypnosis; it is a practice showing that people are
being misguided by bad spirits. Genuine prayers are only directed to God and
Jesus Christ in heaven.
- Visualisation is one way of being misled. This means that people
create an image in their head and then talk to that image. They may visualize
Jesus, for example, or may visualize a healing event such as healthy cells
attacking and killing cancer cells. In both of these cases, the person is not
praying to God in heaven and trusting His word. In fact, they are turning away
from God. Any such activities – for example in inner healing – are not inspired
by God. They lead people away from God and towards false spirits. We must
always pray to God in heaven and trust His promises as recorded in the Bible.
If we fail to do this, we are practicing magic.
- Devil-centeredness is also a danger. It means a person starting a
spiritual war with the devil and forgetting about true prayer. It may include "warfare
tongues," using praise as a weapon against the devil (focusing on the
weapon-like quality instead of praising God) and spending hours talking
with the enemy. Such war will cause the person to be filled with darkness
because the approach is devil-centred instead of God-centred. It is alright to
resist the devil when the devil is around, but resisting is not necessary at
other times. Devil-centeredness will always lead to worshipping false gods
because it focuses too much on the enemy. Michael Howard has received great
answers to sustainable prayers. He teaches the following:
The very idea that an intercessor attacks the
devil to fight scores of demons by hand is simply not biblical. As
intercessors, we speak to the Lord, and it is the Lord who gives the orders and
it is His angels that fight the forces of darkness. My task is breaking through
with God and seeing how He conducts His mighty salvage. God’s forceful actions
can never be reached without lengthy praying. (...)
We started to bombard heaven with our cries for the Lord’s complete
guidance and the fulfilment of the Lord’s will, for our nation and for the
Gospel to be spread most powerfully. (...) We can no longer talk about
intercession without also talking about long periods of praying and fasting. We
have fasted for countless of days to touch His throne as Esther touched the
golden sceptre. I have been an intercessor for years, and intercession meetings
took place at Yei in the mornings, afternoons and evenings. (...) Even if we
had other work to do, we gave priority to intercession. We were anointing the
nation. We were petitioning for souls. We were reaching for a strong awakening
of the Holy Spirit to light a fire amongst the slaved nation. (...)
Intercession is not about fighting against the devil – it is about touching the
heart of God, asking Him to take action. (12)
- Work of freeing may also be devil-centred. This means an approach of
seeking for bad spirits instead of focusing on people and their relationship
with God. The problem is that nobody can be truly freed if they don’t want to
forgive or break their connection with the spirit world, or relinquish their
occult abilities. We must first admit that these activities are sinful and
renounce them. This is the only way to be permanently freed.
The next quote is about how
congregations require divine intervention and wisdom in order to know when and
how to pray. We are often too hasty. If we pray for people to be filled with
the Holy Spirit before they have given their lives to Christ, given up their
bitterness and other sins, and confessed their negative attitudes to God, then
we may cause them more harm; they may be attacked more strongly by the enemy.
A woman once came to me and asked me to pray for
the anointment of the Holy Spirit for her. I asked Jesus what He wanted me to
do. He said, “Don’t pray for her, she is not ready.” So, I explained to the
women that I could not pray for her. Later that day, the woman asked other
people to pray for her and they did. The woman had to be admitted to a mental
hospital the same night. She was not obedient to Jesus and it is possible that
she was not born again either. We later heard that she had had a history of
mental illness and when somebody prayed for the Holy Spirit to anoint her, the
demons in her reared and took over her to prevent the Holy Spirit from coming.
Jesus knew this. He also knows what to do with such people: we must take it
slowly to prevent Satan from getting in charge. What should have been done is
first teach her and let her pray to be freed from bitterness, etc. I was very
grateful to Jesus for me having listened and obeyed Him. You should listen!
(13)
False spirits may prevent
prayer. God wants us to pray in a sustained manner. We should not neglect
prayer; we should reserve time to pray. Only prayer can break down spiritual
walls and defeat the lies in people’s minds. If we forget to pray and only use
other means, our work is usually fruitless. We need sustained prayer, as taught
by the Bible:
- (James 4:2) You lust, and have not: you
kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: you
fight and war, yet you have not,
because you ask not.
- (Matt 7:7,8) Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened
to you:
8 For every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds;
and to him that knocks it shall be opened.
- (Luke 18:1-7) And he spoke a parable to them
to this end, that men ought always to
pray, and not to faint;
2 Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared
not God, neither regarded man:
3 And there was a widow in that city; and she came
to him, saying, Avenge me of my adversary.
4 And he would not for a while: but
afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man;
5 Yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual
coming she weary me.
6 And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge said.
7 And shall not God avenge his own
elect, which cry day and night to him, though he bear long with them?
- (Luke 11:5-8) And he said to them, Which of you
shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight, and say to him, Friend,
lend me three loaves;
6 For a friend of my in his journey is come to me, and
I have nothing to set before him?
7 And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me
not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in
bed; I cannot rise and give you.
8 I say to you, Though he will not
rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as
he needs.
- (Luke 2:36,37) And there was one Anna, a
prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she
was of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her
virginity;
37 And she was a widow of about
fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God
with fastings and prayers night and day.
- (John 14:13,14) And whatever you shall ask
in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14 If you shall ask any thing in my name, I will do
it.
- (Col 4:2-4) Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;
3 With praying also for us, that God would open to
us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also
in bonds:
4 That I may make it manifest, as I
ought to speak.
If you have problems with remaining persistent in prayer, it may help to
create a prayer list in which you note all the important things that come into
your mind. The list may include such things as the salvation of your relatives,
neighbours, colleagues, friends, and leaders of the nation and your city; you
may include the media, missionary work, or your personal needs. List whatever
comes into your mind. When you have written your list, you might not even need
to look at the paper because you will remember what to pray for, even without
looking at it. If you go through your list several times each day, you will
pray for a couple of hours.
Let’s look at a quote about
how Yonggi Cho encouraged the shepherds of his congregation to pray at least
three hours each day. This is also a good guideline for Western congregations
in which the significance of prayer is often overlooked. We do not pray enough.
Only through
prayer can you touch your neighbours and friends. (...) I usually notice that
people do not know how to pray for longer than an hour to reach their goal. I
ask the members of my congregation to pray more than an hour a day. I call such
praying “Gethsemane praying”. In Gethsemane, Jesus scolded His disciples
because they were not able to pray even for an hour. If you started to pray for
more than an hour a day, something would surely happen in your life. People
have all kinds of excuses. They have to be here or there. Jesus accepted no
excuses. I have 746 full-time assistant reverends working under me. They have
their hands full in taking care of 700,000 souls but I still encourage them to
spend at least three hours in prayer each day. I tell this even though they
feel that they cannot give advice to people: they must spend three hours
praying before going to the people in need of salvation.
Many
of them have heard what God has done in our congregation for the prayer life of
those who believe. They are powerful in the company of God and also amongst
people. (14)
False spirits may give
demonic gifts that can be easily confused with the gifts of God. People fail to
understand that many bound people and occultists may speak in tongues, have
supernatural information or do spirit healing that comes from bad spirits.
These are similar to the gifts of God but it is hard to identify them without
the gift of discerning of spirits.
Problems occur when bound
people come to the congregation. Rebecca Brown tells about a couple of cases
where a bound person came to the congregation, fell down and started to talk in
a demonic language – it was not a gift from God because time showed that these
people were still bound. Others assumed that they had been freed and saved
because they experienced such things but that was not the case. They did not
even fully understand the Gospel because they had not been taught.
The description below tells
about demonic imitation. Nicky Cruz described how both of his parents were
spiritual healers, mediated supernatural information and talked in tongues.
This quote is about talking in foreign languages:
My mother never spoke a word of English but when
I came home from school a couple of minutes after my brother Salvador, I found
him shaking with laughter. “Listen to mom!” he whispered to me.
My
mother was in the living room, saying something in a language that at first
sounded like gibberish. I was able to understand her, however, when Salvador
interpreted it to me.
We had
studied English in school, and now our mother was talking English exactly like
a well-educated Englishman. I cannot recall exactly what she said but I do
remember that Salvador was so dumbfounded about it that he turned pale and
fainted. I also remember that my father first thought Salvador had also been
possessed by the spirit.
When
our mother returned from her trance, Salvador asked her in English, “Hi mom,
what’s for dinner?”
Our
mother looked at him bewildered and said in Spanish, “Why don’t you talk so
that I could understand too?”
She had no idea that she had been talking in English a minute
ago. (15)
