Month: December 2021

When Allison Dubois was 17, she heard a voice saying, “Move your bed.” She did. That night, a truck driven by a drunk woman crashed through her bedroom wall, right where her bed had been. There were also other times she heard a “voice” as a child, including her great-grandfather who sat at the edge of her bed when she was six-years-old. As an adult, this led to an interest in psychically solving crimes. Eventually, actor Kelsey Grammar (Frasier fame) asked her to do a TV show about her life. That project became the NBC’s series “Medium.” Best-selling books followed. Now Dubois is launching Dead University, a school for the psychically gifted. She teaches that when you’re dead you permanently revert to your happiest age. She declares that the afterlife is “beautiful and vibrant” and that the “heaven” of loved ones isn’t complete without us. Students of Dead U. are taught to continually connect with the departed and include them in their daily lives. All this is happening, right next door to us, so to speak, near our offices located in Scottsdale, Arizona. Deliverance and a psychic university in the same zip code.

What are the reasons people want to talk to the dead? They may be overwhelmed with grief by the recent passing of a loved one and seek assurance that the departed are all right. They may feel they need to get advice from someone who helped them while they were alive. Others seek unknown information about the present or future from the dead. They think the dead are on a higher spiritual plane with an advanced perspective. This is what King Saul did when he sought help from the dead prophet Samuel by consulting a witch, a psychic.  First Samuel 28:7 describes it this way: Then Saul said to his servants, “Find me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her.” And his servants said to him, “In fact, there is a woman who is a medium at Endor” (NKJV).  That inquiry cost Saul his kingdom and his life. I Samuel 15:23 says, “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king” (KJV).

There are other reasons some seek psychics. Those with malevolent intention may think that beings in another spiritual realm will help them to get revenge on someone. This is a form of black magic that operates at the highest level. Some who go to mediums follow a religious philosophy that teaches communication with ascended spiritual masters. Groups like the so-called “I Am” cult and the Great White Brotherhood consult with beings whom have gone to the afterlife and a more perfected existence. They are then supposedly able to help less evolved beings on earth

When the rich man suffering in hell asked to go back and warn his other family members still alive, Jesus taught that there was a “great chasm” between the living and the dead and neither can pass over to the other (Luke 16:26). In other words, seeing and talking to the dead is a farce, a sham, a scam. According to the Bible, Deuteronomy 18:9-12, such actions known as divination are forms of witchcraft forbidden by the Lord. Why? Because they replace trust in God and His Word with unverifiable messages from the dead. Messages that often directly contradict Scripture, as mentioned earlier in the teachings of Dead University. In short, if you could consult a psychic for information about how life is to be lived, why would you need the Bible and God as sources of supernatural information? Isaiah 8:19 (NIV) says, “When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?” So, if you’re even in the Phoenix, Arizona area, you have a choice. You can sign up for Dead University, and risk eternal damnation in Hell, or you can enroll in the International School of Exorcism and learn how to set people free from the deceiving demons of psychics.

If I asked you to name things which demons hate, you’d likely have no problem making a quick list. It would likely include: the name of Jesus; the Word of God; prayer; fasting, etc. But are there things which demons love? Things which attract them instead of repel them. Knowing what demons love could give you a hit-list of what to avoid in your life on a practical basis. If you avoid what draws demons, you’ll most likely be better able to avoid spiritual oppression, even possession. Here are 10 things that demons love when they are looking for victims.

1. Attitudinal negativity: People who seek deliverance with a pessimistic mindset, often don’t get free. Being a host of demons is one thing, being a victim is another. Most possession occurs because of ancestral sin, no fault of the recipient of demons. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God. An attitude of negativity is therefore pleasing and attractive to the devil.
2. Ambivalence about spiritual purpose: Demons are focused on destroying the destiny of an individual. If one is uncertain about his or her calling in life, evil spirits can more easily operate. Determination to find and fulfill one’s spiritual purpose is a bulwark against demonization.
3. Lack of certitude regarding biblical doctrine: James 2:19 remind us that demons believe in God’s existence and tremble at the thought. If you aren’t convinced that the Bible is God’s infallible, only rule of faith, it’s unlikely you can be delivered. Any doubt about cardinal Christian doctrines, such as the virgin birth, the atonement of the cross, and the resurrection will draw the attention of demons.
4. Equivocation regarding occult evil: I sometimes encounter people, even Christians, who aren’t so sure that acts of the occult are doorways to demons. They argue for reading their horoscopes. They insist on doing yoga. They see no harm in consulting energy healers. Demons love such an accommodating attitude. Ambiguity about practices the Bible calls witchcraft will thwart any effort to get free.
5. Compromise regarding habits of holiness: Holiness means many things to many people. We’re not talking about legalism. The true piety that keeps demons away is virtue based on avoiding things that dominate one’s desires, time, and attention. A truly holy person won’t have time for things which open doors to the devil.
6. Failure to overcome addictive impulses: One of the biggest open doors to demons is addiction. To be controlled by something that destroys mind and body is to open one’s life to demonic intrusion. Demons love it when a person overindulges in alcohol and experiments with psychoactive substances.
7. Religious obsession about nonessential beliefs: An overly religious outlook is just as prone to demonic possession as living like a libertine. Demons are attracted to overly spiritual people who love the “weightier matters” of religious law, as pointed out by Jesus in Matthew 23:23. Demons hate it when Christians coalesce around spiritual truth rather than arguing about things of individual conviction. Demons love self-righteousness because it’s an easy hiding place.
8. Bonded relationships with those opposing Christ: Demons love to see Christians hanging out regularly with the unsaved. Second Corinthians 6:14 speaks of being “unequally yoked” with someone not following Christ. Such soul connections may allow an individual to pick up demons from another person. Beware spiritually bonding with someone with feet that are “swift running to mischief” (Proverbs 6:18).
9. Critical judgments of those in spiritual authority: Demons love it when Christian leaders are the object of ridicule, second-guessing, and outright subversion. The Jezebel spirit will inspire any person who makes a habit of running down pastors and those whom God has placed in spiritual authority. Remember, Satan is the “accuser of the brethren” (Revelation 12:10).
10. Lack of addressing generational spiritual evil: Demons jump for joy when pastors deny the reality of bloodline curses and avoid any mention that renouncing evil ancestors is necessary for effective Christian living. You want to make the devil happy? Avoid declaring curse-breaking prayers.

It should be obvious that this list of ten things demons love could easily have been expanded to a hundred, even a thousand or more. Look introspectively at your own life and ask yourself, “What do demons love about the way I live?” Then take action to make what demons hate a regular part of your walk with the Lord.

“Deliverance is dangerous.” I don’t mean that it is life-threatening or dangerous to one’s health. I am warning that embracing all that deliverance stands for will bring a radical change in how you see God and how the Christian life is to be lived. One of the most dangerous statements every made was the call of Christ in Matthew 4:19 when he said, “Follow me.” What did that mean? It meant they would hear a radical message never-before preached in human history. In what ways is deliverance dangerous today?

1)      Deliverance will be dangerous to your spiritual apathy: Embracing all that deliverance stands for will bring a radical change in how you see God and how the Christian life is to be lived. Deliverance will be dangerous to your apathetic, underachieving, boring Christian life. It’s dangerous to your lowered expectations of what it means to be a Christian.

2)      Deliverance may be dangerous to your theological beliefs: You’ll need to drop the idea that Christians can’t be affected by curses. You’ll have to stop believing that Christians can’t have demons. You’ll be forced to embrace the concept that EVERYONE needs some measure of deliverance to walk in the fulfillment of God’s promises.  

3)      Deliverance may be dangerous to your political beliefs: We live in an age when truth is turned upside down, meekness has become capitulation, and social media groupthink determines how people think and live. With COVID has come a form of mass mind control with an enforced sacrifice of individuality. Get delivered and you’ll find slogans like this are offensive: “Abortion is a medical right.”  “Abortion is Health Care.” With deliverance you’ll leave woke culture behind.

4)      Deliverance may be dangerous to how you view Satan and the supernatural: You won’t be able to do yoga, redistribute your energies, balance your chi with Qigong, consult your enneagram, or plan your day by the horoscope. You won’t be able to cast spells to get even with someone; you won’t be able to find God by meditating in a lotus position; you won’t be able to get what you want by the Law of Attraction.

God is calling you to a life of danger, on the edge, full of excitement and challenge, expecting the unexpected every day. I call you to a dangerous life of hope, opportunity, liberation, possibilities. Living on the edge of the next great miracle in your life. Leave behind a life of languor, malaise, frustration, tediousness, monotony, and humdrum routines behind. Embrace deliverance as way of life, constantly breaking free from the bondages of your ancestors, your predecessors, and your detractors.

The fourth of the “Ghostbusters” series is here. Installments of the supernatural comedy were released on-screen in 1984, 1989, and 2016 (the all-female reboot). In 2021, 32 years after the original Vigo spirit (named after a barbaric Balkan ruler of the sixteenth century) was dispatched, the ghostbusters are back. This time the setting is Oklahoma, not New York City. Not only do the “winds come whistling down the plains” but this new setting experiences unusual earthquakes, due to the underground lair of the ancient Mesopotamian/Sumerian demon Gozer. In an old abandoned mine, the film’s protagonists discover a temple to Gozer. The female lead, 12-year-old Phoebe, ends up battling the demons herself, aided by the appearance of her dead grandfather, the original ghostbuster Egon Spengler. Gozer and his minions are eventually trapped, and Spengler disappears once again into the afterlife—who knows where, but definitely not heaven or hell.

Just fiction, you say? No big deal? If you are a Christian, are you okay with someone coming back from the dead to overcome evil? Do you think it is all right to posit the idea that light beams from a ghostbuster gun can overcome supernatural, evil spirits? And consider this. Not only does Spengler assist the final battle but earlier he’s seen as a ghost playing chess with his granddaughter. He also leads her to the ghostbuster gun he hid in his former life. To whitewash this occult comedy, a Christian would have to overlook the suggestion that communication with the dead, a capital crime in Old Testament times (Deuteronomy chapter 18), can be a positive, supernatural phenomenon. That’s blasphemy of the worst order.

Let’s be plain, here. Gods like Gozer are more than fictional remakes. They were, and are, real demon entities. You can’t trap a demon such as Gozer in a cave. Demons are immaterial spirit beings not confined to physical “ghost traps.” The dead can’t come back (Hebrews 9:27) because the dead are assigned by God to heaven or hell, not some intergalactic netherworld. Claiming to consort with the dead is deemed necromancy in the Bible, an evil the Old Testament calls an “abomination,” something utterly detestable, and atrocious which is cursed. And to have a man once dead return to fight an evil demon is an upside-down spiritual universe, evil fighting evil, a moral contradiction.

This movie is just one more way that Hollywood presents the occult as innocuous, even humorous. Since the original Ghostbusters film, an entire generation has been brainwashed to believe that the paranormal world is inhabited by dead beings who are sometimes friendly, even helpful. This movie makes a passing reference to Revelation 6:12, the opening of the sixth seal causing a great earthquake. But when that awful hour comes, no proton pack (the fictional energy-based ghost-capture device) will escape God’s wrath, more terrible than any doughboy demon. In that hour, Revelation 6:15 declares that both great and small will seek death to escape the wrath of God against all witchcraft and the occult. As verse 17 goes on the say, “For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” The answer is no one. Not even the ghostbusters.