Is Your Gift from God or the Devil? - Part 6
If all spiritual gifts come from God, where do psychics, mediums, and witches come from? Where do they get their power?
John Paul Jackson had an experience on Venice Beach in California that helped to explain this.
As he was rollerblading down Venice Beach, he found himself skating through a psychic fair that had been set up along the boardwalk. As he passed one booth, he heard the Lord say, “This one is a fake.”
John Paul thought, “Of course this one is a fake! They are all fakes!”
But soon he passed another booth where he heard God say to him, “This one has a real gift from Me.”
John Paul was shocked to hear that. That didn’t make any sense to him.
God went on to clarify John Paul’s understanding of the gifts of revelation. This is the point that revolutionized John Paul’s understanding of revelatory gifts:
The gift is NOT the messages that are received. The gift is the ABILITY to receive those messages.
The gift of revelation is like a satellite dish. After the gift is received and “installed” in you, you have the ability to receive revelatory messages at any time after that.
When our “antennas” are directed toward God, and our hearts are right with Him, then revelation can flow freely from the Lord.
If our hearts are not right with God, in His mercy, He may allow a grace period for repentance, but then if we do not repent and turn back to Him, we may stop receiving revelation from God. This was the situation with King Saul.
“So Saul inquired of the Lord, but the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim [used like lots by the priest to determine the will of God] or by prophets.”—1 Samuel 28:6 (AMP)
After God stops speaking to people because their hearts are not right with Him, many people with revelatory gifts will turn to dark forces, just like Saul went to the witch of Endor out of desperation.
There was a time when Saul prophesied true words of God. We see that in 1 Samuel chapters 10 and 19. But after the Spirit of God departed from him, he sought revelation from a wrong source—the witch of Endor. We read this in 1 Samuel chapter 28.
Saul asked the witch to contact the dead prophet, Samuel. When Samuel appeared, he asked why Saul had sought counsel from him through means of the occult. Saul answered, “I am greatly troubled. The Philistines are fighting against me. God has left me. He won’t answer me anymore, either by prophets or in dreams. That’s why I called you. I want you to tell me what to do.” (1 Samuel 28:15 ICB)
Some witches, mediums, and psychics are fakes. They do not have real spiritual gifts. They are like magicians who have just learned to fool people into believing that they have real spiritual power and insight.
But others have a real gift from God. Somewhere along the way, they turned away from God, and God stopped speaking to them. Still desperate for revelation, they turned to dark spirits. These dark spirits deceived these gifted people into believing that they could still receive genuine revelation through the occult. But demons do not have access to true revelation from God. Demons can only share information about current and past events and make guesses about the future. Demons have no more access to spiritual revelation than do the people they are deceiving.
The Tragedy of Balaam
Balaam was a true prophet of God. God spoke to him several times. Some of these revelations are recorded in Numbers chapters 22, 23, and 24.
But after he turned away from God and eventually was killed by his own people, the Bible describes him as a “diviner,” “magician,” or “soothsayer.” Some translations even call him a “fortune-teller,” or one “who used black magic.”
“The Israelis also killed Beor’s son Balaam, **the occult practitioner, **executing him with a sword as one of those killed.”—Joshua 13:22 (ISV)
Balaam had a true gift from God, but after he turned away from God to pursue personal wealth at any cost, God stopped speaking to him. Tragically, his life was cut short. He died shamefully as an occult practitioner at the hands of his own people.
**Reference: **
Jackson, J. P. (n.d.). Dreams & Mysteries - The Mystery of Prophets & Psychics. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWn0YOjsbXc
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