The Spirituality of Paranormal Show Psychics

I've been watching Nick Groff's television show on Destination America, called the Ghosts of Shepherdstown. These ghost hunting shows are interesting because of the spirituality embedded in these shows. Have you ever watched these shows and see someone spout something Christian, but their lifestyle and spiritual choices aren't that of a follower of Jesus Christ? If you know what you're watching these shows are fascinating labs into examining the spiritist belief systems that drive these paranormal investigators. Zac Bagans of Ghost Adventures fame has mentioned many times on his show that he believes in a god. But which god? The words Jesus Christ never seem to roll off from his lips. The Tennessee Wraith Chasers hit the reality-paranormal scene as Christian ghost hunters, again, an oxymoron, if you understood the difference between Christianity and spiritism. In their new show, they seemed to have dropped the opening prayer at the start of the show. So what is going on here? Why is this an oxymoron?

Let's take a look at the belief system of a paranormal show psychic. What do they believe? I want to focus on the psychics who have mentioned some degree of faith in God on these shows. But the actions of dealing with spirits don't line up with what they espouse to believe in. You can learn a lot of by listening to these people and then trying to figure out what their spiritual beliefs are.

First of all, can a Christian be psychic? What does the Word of God say about this?

31 ‘Do not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God.
-Leviticus 19:31

God tells us not to seek out a psychic or to communicate with the dead. This is pretty cut and dry. We're not to communicate with the dead nor be a psychic (and ghost hunting for that matter).

10 There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11 or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. 12 For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord; and because of these detestable things the Lord your God will drive them out before you. 13 You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. 14 For those nations, which you shall dispossess, listen to those who practice witchcraft and to diviners, but as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do so.
-Deuteronomy 18:10-14

The Mosaic Law states that the spiritist and the medium are detestable to the Lord. This is pretty simple and straight forward. God identifies spiritism as witchcraft. We are not to speak to the dead or participate in any form of spiritism. King Saul's transgression against the Lord was seeking a medium to contact Samuel, who was dead in Hades.

13 So Saul died for his trespass which he committed against the Lord, because of the word of the Lord which he did not keep; and also because he asked counsel of a medium, making inquiry of it,
-1 Chronicle 10:13

The paranormal show psychics I have researched who use the name of the triune God have an interesting and alternative Gospel theology. According to their beliefs, the psychic abilities are covered under the New Testament as gifts of spiritual discernment,

7 But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.
-1 Corinthians 12:7-11

Paul's epistle to the Corinthians on gifts of the Holy Spirit has nothing to do with psychic abilities. The deception comes in to play at verse 11, with discernment of spirits. This has nothing to do with seeing or talking to dead people. Why would the Holy Spirit empower you with a gift that is an abomination and goes against His moral values? It's because God didn't give the psychic the gift to see the dead. It was a spiritual gift that the psychic allowed to be hi-jacked through their spiritual belief system. In the book of Acts, Paul casts out a pythonic demon out of a psychic fortune teller. I want you to connect the dots that psychic abilities are not covered or condoned under the Christ-centric belief system of the Holy Bible. Where do these beliefs come from? It's called universalism. A spiritual belief system where Buddha, Jesus, spiritism, mother earth, voodoo, shamanism, you name it, are all the same. Equal playing field. This is not Christianity, but this is the foundation of the system of beliefs with popular reality show paranormal investigators.

Keep in mind, that the Christian faith revolves around the first commandment.

37 And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the great and foremost commandment.

-Matthew 22:37-38

Remember, the Christian God, our one True God, is a jealous God.

14 —for you shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God
-Exodus 34:14

These are not the signs of soul that is an transforming union with God.

Therefore, universalism and Christianity mix like oil and water. A psychic can't be calling on powers of other gods (lower case elohim - demons) if they call on the Ancient of Times, I AM, the God Almighty, Jesus Christ Lord of lords, King of kings. It just doesn't align! Something to consider when watching these shows. Consider the big question, who or what is responding when the occult calls out to God?

Stay tuned for the release date of this new book!!!

Well, that's enough for now. Hope this was beneficial.
Blessings

Rev. Mike


If you don't own the original Field Guide book, get your very own copy of A Field Guide to Spiritual Warfare!

A Field Guide to Spiritual Warfare - the Power to PULL the IMPOSSIBLE from the HEAVENLY REALMS

Christian Duplicity and the Harry Potter Series

Fireside chat: Christian Duplicity and Harry Potter

Welcome to fireside chats, where I let you inside my head and hear the conversations I have within myself whenever I come across entrenched duplicitous behaviors in the church. I am going to host a fireside series on duplicity on how I encounter it on a daily basis in my prayer ministry.

Webster defines duplicity as a dishonest behavior that is meant to trick someone.

Duplicity in the church occurs when you the believer knows that something is not right, or goes against the will of God, yet you let your soul convince you that what you’re doing is okay with God.

Notice, I didn’t say demons?

Duplicity is a Luciferan agenda that enters the church through – you!

Far too many  deliverance ministers and their brothers seems to be on a witch hunt for a jezebel spirit, yet, they don’t deal with their own duplicitous behaviors. Perhaps this is one of those cases where Jesus is telling you to deal with that 2x4 sticking out of your own eye.

It’s not up to me or a deliverance minister to tell you what’s right or wrong. It’s between you and the Holy Spirit --and how you offended Him at the end of the day. Your soul must deal with this! This is about your sanctification!

I am going to address many topics on church duplicity in the next couple of articles on this blog. 
Today, I am going to address the topic of Harry Potter and how its connected to duplicity in the church. I thought I beat this one to death, but the church still keeps bringing this back in. I will only cover the key point of how Harry Potter, or as we call it in our house, Harry Pottie, offends God! The rest is up to you, if you’re out raged then go talk to the Holy Spirit. Ask Him if you or your kids should be reading this. That would be a good exercise in whether you truly hear God or not – or if you listen to your own soul-ish desires.

I work daily in the ministry of spiritual warfare and deal with the occult and attacks from witchcraft. My discernment is pretty dead on for incoming attacks.  What I and other people in ministry started reporting on was how are own alarms were starting to go off with subtle entertainment productions, like the Wizard of Ox, Wicked, the Craft, and Harry Pottie.  The more the spiritual discernment grew within us for darker battles, the stronger our discernment became, tangibly, for a disdain for these venues of entertainment. I used to really love these genre of movies, The Craft, and The Wizard of OZ was my favorite movie of all time. So what happened? Why the change on spirit in myself and with others in deep warfare ministry?

The spiritual discernment started becoming more aware of witchcraft and how it was seeping in through the cracks of our every day lives. Anything that is in agreement with witchcraft or glorifies witchcraft is pretty much witchcraft.

Luciferan Agendas and Duplicity in the Church

The father of duplicitous behavior in church, just so happens to also be the father of lies. None other than the fallen angel with the title, Satan. We know from Ezekiel 28, and Isaiah 14, that the title of Satan, was originally, the title, Morning Star, or Lucifer, in Latin.

Witchcraft is rebellion to God. The angel with the title (Latin) Lucifer led a third of the angels in rebellion to God. This rebellion and the corruption of Lucifer’s powers into darkness was the birthing of witchcraft. A white witch, good witch, good witch from the east, wicked witch from the west, the pagan witch who solves police crimes, all draw their power from witchcraft. The father of witchcraft is Lucifer.

All witchcraft is from the forces of darkness, Lucifer.

What does that make Harry Potter, and who is this novel series glorifying? Witchcraft!

I know what you're saying to yourself. But I am a mature Christian and I nor my kids would ever get sucked into witchcraft through Harry Potter. It’s simply a children’s book.

Fair proposition. Let’s look at the Luciferan agenda in Harry Potter. It’s right there in black and white, or whatever it is your Kindle settings are.

Let’s take a look at the Hogwarts' syllabus from Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s stone. At the fictitious Hogwarts, a student must study, transfiguration (shape shifting), charms, potions, history of Magic, defense against the dark arts, astronomy, herbology, and flying. The discussion is not to bash this work of fiction, but the point is highlight the duplicity for a Christian.

Deuteronomy 18:10-13 - 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11 or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. 12 For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord; and because of these detestable things the Lord your God will drive them out before you. 13 You shall be blameless before the Lord your God.

Go back and re-read the Howart’s syllabus and Deuteronomy 18:10-13 until you see it. This is duplicity, scripture forbids us to do something, and the Luciferan agenda comes in and tells us it’s ok to go against the will of God.

The purpose of a Luciferan agenda is to invert scripture and go against the will of God.
Sorcerer – transfiguration, flying
One who casts spells – charms, potions, herbology (pharmaceutica)
Witchcraft – defense against dark arts (witchcraft against witchcraft), flying

The Luciferan agenda takes something that is against God's will and flips it with a flare of seduction.
Don't be seduced by the lie. Adam and Eve were seduced with the Luciferan agenda in the garden. Folks this is how the occult works. This is one of the ways how the occult recruits, through seductive lies.

The Harry Potter series makes witchcraft look like a lot of fun. It even kindled interest in a lot of children who read the series to explore and dabble in the dark arts of witchcraft. Mission accomplished.

My goal isn’t to convince you of what you should or should not be doing. If you’re into spiritual warfare and you have a crack like this in your spiritual life, I would go repent and seal that crack immediately!

 

My Encounter with the Demon Calling Itself Voldemort

Back in 2010, it was Spring break, and I was leading ministry outreach team  from the a school of supernatural team from Bethel Redding. We were ministering to the homeless in the Haight-Ashbury of San Francisco. We were setting up at the Mc Donald’s on Stanyan in the late afternoon to prepare to go out on the streets and meet with street people.

While we were setting up one of the girls on our team freaked out because a homeless man came up to her and identified himself as “Legion”. He was manifesting spirits so I walked over and talked with him. His taunting spirits wanted no part of me, so they went back down inside. The man had a lightning bolt tattoo on his face like Voldemort in Harry Potter had. The man identified himself as Voldemort. I noticed it was another spirit that was up and not the man. From that day on I was always intrigued that a demon chose to represent itself as Voldemort. And with Voldemort were Legion. Off and on I saw that homeless a few more times on the streets. He mostly manifested Voldemort whenever I was around him. I always thought this was an interesting encounter from the Harry Potter lore. Is it demonic? Does it have demonic roots? There is something about Harry Potter that fuels dark angelic realms do to the world wide popularity of the series.

I hope there is a convincing case here about duplicity and how it enters the church through the Harry Potter intellectual property. I know there is even a priest at Yale who teaches about Christianity and the benefits of Harry Potter fiction. The course points out the Jesus like aspects in Harry Potter. Again this is Luciferan duplicity. Forget Jesus, magic is what you need and it does it in the place of Jesus.  You can’t fight darkness with darkness. But the Luciferan agenda wants you to think so.

I can speak volumes on Harry Potter and the occult, but I want to keep the fireside chats to vignettes, in a matter of speaking.

Some of you Christians may flame away at me. Go right ahead. I just pray you never have to walk in my shoes to find out why the Holy Spirit has me convicted in this manner.

Next fireside chat I will continue to poke the stick in the hornet's nest as I discuss Christian duplicity and yoga.

Blessings

Rev. Mike

Get your very own copy of A Field Guide to Spiritual Warfare!

A Field Guide to Spiritual Warfare - the Power to PULL the IMPOSSIBLE from the HEAVENLY REALMS
Please note also, if you post a comment, I require that it be an intelligent comment with facts to collaborate and support your point. I have an expectation in maturity of the person posting a comment to participate -- otherwise I will delete it.

Curse Breaking Series - Ghost Hunting and Spiritism Part II

Welcome back as I continue this series on curse breaking - Ghost Hunting and Spiritism. This article is part ii, if you haven't read the first article, here is the url to part i. For those of you who follow this blog, you know I pretty much stick to the NASB translation of the Bible. In this article I will site scripture from the New King James Version translation.

Why?

A lot of verses regarding the supernatural are being translated out of the scripture. When you examine the scripture and Hebrew and Greek on sites, like the Blue Letter Bible, you'll see where the translator of your favorite translation used an artistic license. In many cases, theologians are starting to interject their own belief rather than maintaining an accurate translation. This is especially true when it comes to the supernatural in the Bible. As an exercise for yourself look up the first couple of verses I cited in this article and see for yourself. I just wanted to give you a heads up of why I suddenly switched translations on you. Sometimes we have to dig really deep - down in the translations in scripture, to get a true feel of what is really going on. For consistency, I will use the New King James Version of translation in this article. Now, let's get back into the article series, Curse Breaking - Ghost Hunting and Spiritism, Part II.

King Saul Consults The Long Island Medium

 

The common scriptural argument used by Christian paranormal investigators is in 1 Samuel 28. The Christian spiritualists argument is that Saul communicated with the ghost of Samuel through the medium at En-Dor.

¹³  And the king said to her, “Do not be afraid. What did you see?” 
And the woman said to Saul, “I saw a spirit ascending out of the earth.”
 ¹⁴  So he said to her, “What is his form?” 
And she said, “An old man is coming up, and he is covered with a mantle.” And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground and bowed down. 

¹⁵  Now Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” 
And Saul answered, “I am deeply distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God has departed from me and does not answer me anymore, neither by prophets nor by dreams. Therefore I have called you, that you may reveal to me what I should do.”  (1 Samuel 28:13-15)

In verse 14, Saul perceived it was Samuel. Saul never saw Samuel in this encounter. It was the medium acting through her familiar spirit. If it were Samuel, the medium would have had to pull him from paradise, then in Sheol. It would be impossible to summon a deceased spirit from Sheol. Two possible scenarios here, one, the medium summoned a demon, or God allowed the medium to summon Samuel to mock Saul. I firmly believe the evidence is in the scripture for the medium summoning a demon through her familiar spirit. We know about paradise from Luke 16, verses 19-31, of Lazarus and the rich man. Lazarus was on the good side of paradise and the rich man was in torment. Neither Lazarus, nor the rich man, were permitted to leave the confines of their spiritual reality. The spirit of Samuel could not have been pulled from paradise. So what spirit did the medium conjure up? It was most likely a demon impersonating Samuel.

Scripture in 1 Chronicles identifies the ghost of Samuel  as a familiar spirit.

¹³ So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the LORD, even against the word of the LORD, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to enquire of it; ¹⁴ And enquired not of the LORD: therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse. (1 Chronicles 10:13-14)

A human spirit, or a ghost (which technically, is the combination of soul and spirit), as a spiritualist would call it, is not a familiar spirit! A familiar spirit is an elohim, a lower case god, a demon. In this verse, we see that Saul died for his transgression, that is, his unrepented sin against God, and against the word of God. When you rebel against God you are opening yourself to being cursed. Saul violated the law of God by using a medium and consulting the dead. These two things, witchcraft and necromancy, are abominations to God. Why would God grant the spirit of Samuel to leave paradise and go against His own word?

Ghost hunters like to use the word debunked, when one arrives at a normal explanation to a paranormal problem. The spiritualist theology of Saul seeing the ghost of Samuel has been debunked right here!

Paranormal investigation and Christian beliefs don't mix. It's like adding oil to water. Spiritualists believe you can communicate with the dead. Our scripture tells us that communication with the dead is impossible. Furthermore, contacting the dead is an abomination to God. He wouldn't grant it in the first place and go against His own law. Christians involved in ghost hunting are convoluting their own beliefs with spiritualism. They're mixing two religions. The scripture warns us of borrowing from other faiths in 1 Timothy.

¹ Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; (1 Timothy 4:1)

When a Christian ghost hunter is out on paranormal investigations and talking to spirits, they're giving heed to seducing spirits and they're listening to the doctrines of demons. If you're a ghost hunter you need to cease paranormal investigations immediately and repent for acting against the word of God.

Paranormal Clergies

False doctrines of spiritualism have entered the church through paranormal clergies. Paranormal clergies cross the isles of denominations and have infiltrated many pulpits. Some members of paranormal clergies now include a few Roman Catholic priest who are NOT exorcists. They protray themselves as exorcists - but they are not! This deception is not limited to the Catholic church. We rarely use the word exorcist. But we do have a lot of deliverance ministers in the same sinking boat of deception. The paranormal clergy believes that deceased people can become stuck between our world and their eternity. This anomaly is proof of ghosts. Is it really? These are church pastors and clergy that are embracing teachings of spiritualism through their own  paranormal involvement and presenting it as godly. It is good that church pastors are assisting people with their supernatural problems. Many church pastors don't understand the supernatural and choose to ignore it or avoid it all together. The church should be the center of handling supernatural problems. The bad part of this is the clergy is allowing their beliefs to be tainted with spiritualism. Their experiences from their investigations introduce doctrines contrary to the word of God. For instance, a negative spirit can be a human spirit with demonic characteristics, called a wraith or it can simply be a demon. This is not biblical teaching it is spiritualism demonology. This is the warning in scripture from 1 Timothy 4:1. The paranormal clergy is listening to evil spirits and bringing the false doctrine into church.  The religious spirit has moved into many pulpits, across many denominations. I have also heard  a false doctrine stating if demons asked God for forgiveness He might forgive them. These pastors and clergy have opened themselves up to religious spirits and the Jezebel spirit. This is a dangerous position to be in for church leadership. If your priest or pastor is a ghost hunter or a paranormal clergy member, you have to make some tough choices about where you're getting yourself spiritually fed. These guys may love Jesus and be really nice people -but they're being deceived and they're preaching their deception to you. God didn't grant Saul the consultation of the medium. He cursed Saul! Similarly, God won't bless words from the pulpit that He is opposed to.

Spiritism Entering into Church Deliverance Ministry

Sadly, I have been seeing a lot of New Age beliefs enter the church. One such teaching is in regards to deliverance, that a person can be possessed by a deceased rogue human spirit. I have seen a lot of crazy supernatural things in my ministry - especially through exorcisms and house blessings. I am talking a lot of weird things! I have encountered a lot of spirits identifying themselves as deceased spirits looking for help. When you pull the mask of it's a demon. Don't be fooled by these false teachings. Especially, this one. Put up a big red warning flag when you see this. A popular Christian ministry is publishing media on this lie. And lot's of other ministries are blindly getting on the band wagon - of deception.

What does scripture say about lingering spirits?

²⁸ Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice ²⁹ and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. (John 5:28-29)

The Gospel of John is referring to the deceased in Sheol, the netherworld of the dead. Before the resurrection of Jesus Christ all deceased spirits went to Sheol - the grave. The deceased waited there for their judgement until Jesus completed the miracle of the cross and defeated death. The scripture doesn't say, "and also the deceased human spirits who were lingering around". Because they weren't. We know from 1 Samuel 28:13, that only the little "gods", elohim,  can go back and forth between death. The little "gods" are demons. Human spirits are subjugated to some pretty specific rules at the time the human body expires. As we are living in the End Times church, Jesus has completed the work on the cross and all human spirits go to heaven or hell when the body expires. The spirit has an automatic retrieval system on board.

⁶ Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed,
Or the golden bowl is broken,
Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain,
Or the wheel broken at the well.
⁷ Then the dust will return to the earth as it was,And the spirit will return to God who gave it. (Ecclesiastes 12:6-7)

The biggest issue I see with deliverance and exorcism ministry is that people are blindly jumping into them to pick fights with spirits. If you don't know you're spiritual authority, the dominion of your authority, are lacking a strong discernment of spirits, and you don't have an inkling as to how dark abyss of evil really is, you shouldn't be in this ministry. I don't know how many times discernment and the Holy Spirit has steered me in one direction and popular conference speakers on deliverance have led the general Christian populus off in another direction. A lot of deception is entering the church in deliverance ministry. Satan has counter measures and intelligence. And he is going to use someone who has a pulpit to perpetuate these false ideas. Always test the spirit!!!!

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

As I write this, a lot of popular and misguided deliverance ministers are instructing their students to sharpen their iron in the second heaven. You don't increase your authority by battling in the second heaven, but as John Paul Jackson accurately puts it, you do become an unnecessary casualty of war! Because you cleaned your loaded shotgun pointed at yourself!  If you're a student of one these deliverance ministries I strongly suggest you take the time and repent for operating out of your jurisdiction and ask God for forgiveness. Then run in the opposite direction away from that misguided and dangerous deliverance ministry. The deception of deceased spirits, and battling in the second heaven are two key red flags for identifying a deceived deliverance ministry.

Conclusion

From our experience in deliverance, exorcism, and all sorts of crazy battles with the  demonic, ghosts are demons masquerading as human spirits. The more we worked with oppressing spirits on individuals and casting them out, the more we started seeing the same behavior in bodiless spirits -apparitions. For instance, when a person commits suicide in a home, it isn't their soul  that lingers, it's the spirit of suicide. The spirit of suicide is looking for a new victim. The house has to be cleansed, and the family must be cleansed from the spirit of suicide as well. These are demonic spirits masquerading as deceased humans. When you have done hundreds of deliverance sessions and have seen many manifestations you start to understand what is going on with people and a haunting. The paranormal clergy isn't regularly involved with curse breaking and demonic oppression to see the veil has been pulled over their eyes.

If you are a pastor or a clergy member that has convoluted the word of God with spiritualism from the pulpit you need to repent and ask forgiveness. Then you need to fix the damage you have done.
If you are Roman Catholic and in need of an exorcist. Contact your local diocese! They will direct you to a credible, authentic Roman Catholic exorcist.

My ministry also does exorcisms. Keep in mind, we must evaluate whether an exorcism is necessary. Many times people just need to stand in their own authority and need a deeper understanding in their own faith to shut down demonic activity.

Enjoy!
Rev. Mike

For further reading on the topic of spiritual warfare get your copy of,
A Field Guide to Spiritual Warfare - the Power to PULL the IMPOSSIBLE from the HEAVENLY REALMS

Also, please help support our ministry!!!

©2014 Michael J. Norton

Curse Breaking Series - Ghost Hunting and Spiritism Part I

Jim was a Ghost Hunter in Northern California. Most of his Friday night's he would spend with his his friends,  toting electronic gadgets and going through haunted homes. Jim's paranormal team even setup a web channel where people could login and watch a paranormal team do an investigation. Jim was having the time of his life. Ghost hunting was thrilling and exciting.

One day an exciting case came in. They were invited to a house with demonic activity. They packed up their gear and off they went to the house they called, “the Hell Gate”.

Jim still remembers this investigation. It wasn't the thrill of the lifetime investigation he had hoped for. Instead, this investigation became the start of a living nightmare for Jim. A demonic spirit attached itself to Jim and went home with him.

Over the next few months Jim became violently sick, and something medically inexplicable was eating away at Jim from the inside out. Literally. Jim was afraid to go to sleep at night because a dark shadow would manifest over over his bed.

Jim's friends from his ghost hunting team were paranormal-ly perplexed. In reality, Jim's paranormal investigator friends weren't the great intellects of the paranormal as the TV shows portray these people to be. In fact, they didn't really contact Jim because they didn't know what to do with him. Now on Friday nights, Jim's posse~ went off on different haunted web productions -without him.

Jim was frustrated! So he did what any good paranormal investigator would do, he contacted a psychic. Jim consulted a top psychic-spiritualist over the phone.  She told Jim that the house he got the evil spirit from was on desecrated Indian ground. The demon attacking Jim was now communicating with the psychic and feeding her disinformation. If demons laugh, you know this was one chuckling out loud. Because now the psychic had Jim off on a wild goose chase petitioning the California Indian council for a cleansing ceremony on his home. Jim was frustrated that the council didn't return his calls.

Nobody returned Jim's calls except for the psychic. As Jim's condition worsened he decided the spiritualists and ghost hunter's around him were useless. Jim reached out and contacted a Christian ministry, M16.

It took numerous and long drawn out phone calls on our part to convince Jim he didn't need to contact the California Indian council for a cleansing. It was Jim that needed the spiritual cleansing. We had even a tougher time of breaking Jim from his psychic dependency. He would tell the ministry he wasn't in contact with his psychic, then in a lengthy phone call, have a slip of the tongue he was talking with her. So we stopped working with Jim. He had to choose, Jesus or the psychic.

A week later Jim called us back and decided to work with us. It took over a month to work with Jim. He, like most other people coming out of paranormal situations, didn't want to run to Jesus. They just want to be saved from their pain and move on in life. That's not how Jesus works. Jesus is a healer, but he wants to make you whole. This means you need to run to him. After a long and painstaking battle, Jim finally accepted Jesus. By battle, I don't mean between my spiritual views and his. Jim was struggling because Jesus was kicking this thing's butt! Only, the life style he was involved in, and hanging around paranormal investigators, Jesus was a myth. Jim had a lot of internal struggles and battles and lots of phone calls with Lisa and myself. He was perplexed that this Jesus person, had the power to push back on the realm of darkness. Jim's life turned around when he stopped being a spiritualist and started being a spiritual follower of  Jesus.

Spiritualism

 

Spiritualism has its roots in American history that dates back to the 1840's. In upstate New York, Christian revivals were so impacted in the area and so many occurring, the area was labeled the “Burned-over district”. One Christian revival after another swept through this region. Revivals literally “burned” through towns like wild fires. People were spiritually hungry for the power the revivals brought to their town. But as the revivals left town, nothing was left to spiritually feed the people that had powerful Jesus encounters. The revivals left a vacuum of the power of the Holy Spirit when they pulled up their stakes and departed.  The vacuum became filled by cults and non-Christian beliefs bringing their own revivals. 

Upstate New York spawned many cults during this revival burn over period. Joseph Smith founded Mormonism in this region. The Book of Mormon was reportedly unearthed in a hillside in Palmyra, New York.

The Fox Sisters

 

In the 1840's the Fox sisters, of Hydesville, New York,  founded the new religion, spiritualism.  After living in a haunted home, the youngest of the three sisters communicated with a spirit by having the spirit tap out yes or no to her questions. The three sisters became the first of what we now know as modern day mediums. The new religion spread like wild fire, through upstate New York, and soon the country was on fire with spiritualism. The religion was based on the belief that human souls could wander the earth as ghosts and you could communicate with them. It's interesting to see how the enemy re-invents old things and packages them up like something brand new. Spiritualism is still necromancy!

At the time of this writing, nearly every major cable network has some sort of ghost hunting or paranormal show. I was surprised to find that even Animal Planet has a paranormal show. All the ghost hunting shows you see on television and the Internet today are spiritualism based. They all employ the belief systems and methods for communicating with the dead, that the Fox sisters introduced in the 1840s. The television show, on the SyFy network, Ghost Hunters, you see the team members using this knocking technique developed by Kate Fox to communicate with the dead. Investigator Steve Gonsalves, on Ghost Hunters, uses his “Shave and a haircut” knock all the time on the show to drum up spirit response. This communication by knocking is what Kate Fox and her two sisters used in the 1840's when they started the religion. Mediums existed long before the Fox sisters came long. However, the Fox sisters were responsible for the modern movement of spiritualism.

Although the Fox sisters all passed away in the late the 1800s, their legacy lives on. It is thriving at the Lily Dale Assembly. Lily Dale is a spiritualist community comprised of mediums, located in Lily Dale, New York. The assembly is the existing church of spiritualism founded by the Fox sisters in the 1840s. Lily Dale is still flourishing today. You can go out there and pay a gate fee, only good for 24 hours to visit the community.

Psychics and God's Laws 

 

Before we discuss whether a Christian should be involved in ghost hunting, let's first take a look at some scriptural facts on ghosts and spiritualism. First of all, the scripture prohibits us from engaging in any form of contact with ghosts. Regardless if they're departed human souls or evil spirits.

‘Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.  (Leviticus 19:31)

A medium is a psychic. Psychics communicate with the dead. Communicating with the dead is necromancy. Scripture says that to seek the consultation of a medium is to be defiled by them. Why? Remember our friend Jim who was receiving the counter attacks through disinformation from his medium? Mediums are in contact with demons. Plain and simple.

9 “When you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11 or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. 12 For all who do these things are an abomination to the LORD, and because of these abominations the LORD your God drives them out from before you. 13 You shall be blameless before the LORD your God. 14 For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the LORD your God has not appointed such for you. (Deuteronomy 18:9-31)

There it is, in black and white, in Deteuronomy 18, verse 11,  being a medium is an abomination to God. It is an abomination because it is a counterfeit prophetic gift, what a deliverance minister would call a Jezebel spirit. God has prophets and seers that listen to his word. A medium listens to demons. Bringing the belief into the church that ghost hunting is okay is defilement of God's word. This is the movement of a Jezebel spirit, a counter prophetic spirit, and it needs to be shut down in the church body.

Uncertain of Their Own Faith in Eternity

The most compelling reason Christians get involved in ghost hunting and paranormal investigations is because they believe they are providing proof of the after-life. The problem is the proof they are seeking is spiritualism truth. Which is a lie from the father of lies. For one, Jesus chastised the Pharisees for demanding to see miracles. This is where the Christian ghost hunter is with their faith. The  ghost hunter requires to see miracles, which in the case of ghost hunting, are from the enemy.  Yes, it is proof of existence of the supernatural, but the spiritualist is so convoluted in lies they can't see the spirit is a demon. Furthermore, involvement in these activities brings curses, like the attachment of an evil spirit like our friend Jim had. The lure of chasing the supernatural also brings uncontrollable obsessions as well.

In Part II of this series, we'll take a look at what the Bible says about dead spirits.

Feel free to comment, slander, throw stones, or ask questions below.

Enjoy!
Rev. Mike

For further reading on the topic of spiritual warfare get your copy of,
A Field Guide to Spiritual Warfare - the Power to PULL the IMPOSSIBLE from the HEAVENLY REALMS

Also, please help support our ministry!!!

©2014 Michael J. Norton