“They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they did not know, to new gods, new arrivals …” (Deut. 32:17, NKJV)
The Bible specifies the existence of fourteen demonic spirits. The current subsection is examining these spirits, and at the moment we are discussing the second spirit, the spirit of the dead, also known as familiar spirits.
One of the ways in which believers can obtain a familiar spirit, is by being ministered to by someone “having a form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Tim. 3:5). In Matt. 7:15 Jesus refers to them as “false prophets, ‘who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves’”. Because so many contemporary believers are often ignorant and naive and chase after people offering healing, or doing miracles, or have ministries of signs and wonders, they can easily be misled. The gift of discernment is alas often underdeveloped, especially if it has to compete with unbridled spiritual lust.
An old friend of mine, Jannie van Zyl, one of the men of God who had a life-giving Word ministry of revelatory knowledge, was invited to Durban to speak in the town hall. He was very surprised about the invitation, as he was used to speaking to “the faithful few” in smaller home churches. When he arrived at the hall it was packed to the rafters. There was an atmosphere of expectation. Jannie prayed and opened his Bible and started preaching. After about ten minutes an uncomfortable wave of twitching moved through the audience. After another ten minutes someone raised his hand and said, “When are you going to start praying for the miracles?”
The misunderstanding had come about because the organisers had confused Jannie van Zyl with dr James van Zyl, the faith healer from Stanger (also a man of God with integrity, but based on his specific ministry often invited for the healing people expected would take place). When Jannie explained that there had been a misunderstanding, most people started quietly leaving the building – they were not in the mood for mere preaching, even though the revelation was massive and dynamic and life-changing.
This incident speaks of the way many believers wish to be entertained by spiritual gifts, and also of a pressing desire for more demonstrated power. We thrive on hype and drama. Our charismatic songs, More Love, More Power, and Show Your Power exposes our deep desire for unlimited spiritual power. We read and re-read John Wimber’s books Power Evangelism and Power Healing. How widely-spread this spiritual power syndrome is, is most clear from the overloaded bookcases of your nearest Christian bookshop.
We forget that Jesus said the following in Matt. 16:4: “A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” The sign of the prophet Jonah is that he is a typology of Jesus who arose from the dead. Our greatest sign of wonder is the cross, the sign of total commitment to the will of God. It is not a spiritual carnival of the Holy Spirit. Also – signs and wonders always follow preaching of the Word.
In 1 Kings 19:11-12 we learn from Elijah’s search for God’s manifested presence that “the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.” God can obviously reveal himself to the Baal prophets in dramatic ways – as was seen in the previous chapter – but often God is in the period we are “waiting” on Him (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4).
Often during meetings there is an non-Scriptural call for the Spirit to “descend” on people. Or endless moaning cries to again be filled with the Holy Spirit (“Come Holy Spirit!”), or calling out until the anointing arrives. (When the writing preacher eventually breathlessly, shakingly shouts The anointing is on me! I always wonder why we had to listen to all the preaching without anointing L.)
If you are born again, you are ALREADY filled with the Holy Spirit. Is 2 Pet. 1:3 (Ampl) not clear in its stipulation that we already received the power? “For His divine power has bestowed upon us all things that [are requisite and suited] to life and godliness, through the [full, personal] knowledge of Him Who called us by and to His own glory and excellence (virtue).“
It is clear that many of our so-called spiritual practices are in actual fact “profane fire” (Lev. 10:1; Num. 3:4).
Remember the incident we recounted in the teaching of Day 177? A famous preacher one night heard from God that he should blow over the church so that they can receive the Holy Spirit. To me sitting in the audience this sounded strange, as Spirit is usually transferred through the laying on of hands (Acts 8:18, for instance). But Jesus had blown over his disciples for them to receive the Spirit (John 20:22), and this could perhaps be a similar transference, I figured. And indeed this was the case – those who went to the front received the Holy Spirit through this act of blowing over them. Very impressed with the outcome, the preacher tried to follow the same formula the next time he spoke, but nothing happened. But he kept on, he huffed and he puffed and eventually a different spirit came and fulfilled his expectation.
One could perhaps also argue that the Toronto blessing was originally a manifestation of the Spirit, but that the silly form its manifestations later took on rendered it a movement in which God had no part – uncontrollable laughing; teeth with gold fillings; barking like dogs; gold dust raining down on people; people who lay slain in the Spirit for hours; rolling across the church property, even outside its parameters, thorns all over, a giant spiritual hedgehog with trance-like hallelujahs on their lips; people pulling their faces; wetting themselves – “They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they did not know, to new gods, new arrivals … ” (Deut. 32:17). Much of this behaviour is plain unbridled flesh.
This whole context was sketched to note that in the spiritual practices that Christians are exposed to, all kinds of demonic working could take place, and that even demonic transference is possible. The term that is often used for this is Shamanism. Shamanism can be defined in the following way: “A Shaman is a magician but the difference is that he uses his magic in a healing way in a religious environment. He comes to us like a priest whereas underneath he is a magician.”
This definition, offered by Christopher Okotie from Nigeria, is borne from the controversy of his confrontation with TB Joshua. Joshua had become a household name almost overnight. Believers and non-believers alike speak about the “prophet” with the supernatural gift for healing and deliverance. Almost every Afrikaans newspaper carried articles about the miracles of this faith healer from Lagos. For the last number of years many terminally ill South Africans (and believers from other countries, too) streamed to Nigeria, in the hope that this man of God will pray for them and that they will be healed. In the next teaching we will use this context to examine the foundations of TB Joshua’s ministry.
- Selah: Have you been exposed to shamanism?
- Read: 1 John 1-5
- Examine the OT-typology: 1 John 4:1 (Tip: Deut 13:1-5). Notice the synchronicity!
- For a deeper understanding: Read Michael J. Klassen’s Strange Fire, Holy Fire (also with discernment).
