Divination, mediums and psychics

I Timothy 4:1--Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons 

     You don't have to look far to find someone attempting to tell you how your day will turn out, if your love life will work or how your dead relative feels about you.  Newspapers, radios and television sets continually display someones prediction for you.  The problem: many believers are giving heed to it!!  It amazes me how many Christians will express their faith in God in one breath and in the next one tell me how accurate their horoscope was for the day.  Since this deception seems to be gaining ground, I thought it necessary to remind believers what God's Word says on such matters, hoping to deter the weak from departing from the faith.

     Definitions.  Divination(psychic) is the method or practice of attempting to foretell the future or discover the unknown.  Mediums are those that are believed to transmit messages between living people and the spirits of the dead.

     God's Word.  Philistines had them(I Sam. 6:2), Pharaoh used them(Ex. 7:11), as did Saul(I Sam. 28:8) and the people of Israel(II Kings 17:17); but God's view never changed towards them.  Leviticus 19:31 says give no regard to them; 20:6 says if you do regard them, then He will set His face against you and Deuteronomy 18:10 tells us that such practices are "not to be found among you."  With such clear teaching, why are so many still lead astray?  I believe it is ignorance of God's Word which can only be overcome by those that have ears to hear.  May you be such a person.

     Is it real?  Acts 16:16-19 tell a story of a certain slave girls encounter with Paul and Silas.  This girl was possessed with a spirit of divination and was able to tell fortunes, making her master much profit.  After following and annoying Paul and Silas for many days by her antics, Paul cast the spirit out of her, thus ridding her of her powers.  May we all understand that there are only two powers in this world, one from Heaven(Godly) and one from hell(demonic), both very real.  May we not forget the story found in Acts 19:13-20, where certain Jews thought they could overpower(exercise) a demon(as Paul had done) and were met with a extreme resistance.  Such resistance that one, demon-possessed man, was able to beat and strip naked 8 men.  Satan's powers are neither fake nor to be handled lightly.

     Is it harmful?  Acts 13:6-8 tell of a sorcery named Elymas.  As Paul was attempting to share the gospel with the proconsul, Elymas was opposing Paul, "seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith."  Understand that when satan's powers are at work, they are not being used to draw you closer to Christ, but rather, farther from Him.  It does not matter if the deed seems harmless, its purpose is deadly.  Acts 8 tells us about another sorcerer named Simon.  People "heeded him because he had astonished them with his sorceries for a long time."  They were so deceived that they actually attributed his power as coming from God.  Could you be so deceived?  Many are, because our generation, like those before us, look for signs and wonders.  We seek to believe that which we see and are amazed by that which we do not understand. 

     May Christ open our eyes to see the deception and lean wholly upon His Word as we test the spirits to see "whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world." I John 4:1