Three Powers from the Occult

Deuteronomy 18, verse 9, I’ll read through verse 12.

“When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire,”

That is offering your firstborn as a living sacrifice to be burned by fire in sacrifice to a pagan god. Notice, this is in direct company with all these other activities. They’re all put on the same level.

“Or that useth divination,”

Fortune telling,

“or an observer of times,”

Horoscope,

“or an enchanter, or a witch.”

I’ll give you a definition of witchcraft in a moment.

“Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits,”

One that goes to a medium,

“or a wizard,”

That’s a male witch,

“or a necromancer,”

One that consults the dead. There you are.

“For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.” “All that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord.”

And we turn to Isaiah for a moment, 47th chapter of Isaiah, and just notice the picture of Babylon and the reason why God’s judgment came on Babylon. And remember that there is to be a spiritual Babylon that comes forth at the close of this age, which is the spiritual counterpart of the Old Testament Babylon and has the same traits and characteristics. And in Isaiah 47, verses 12 and 13, you see the central feature of Babylonian religion.

“Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail. Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee”

And so on. Notice, astrology, stargazing, monthly prognostication, that’s horoscopes, sorcery, these are the marks of Babylon.

You know there are only going to be two religious groups in Christendom at the end of the age. You know that? One’s going to be the bride, the other’s going to be the harlot. The bride will be marked by the fact that those in the bride have remained true to their commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ, the bridegroom. The harlot will consist of those who have been seduced by deceiving spirits from their loyalty to Jesus Christ, and they will be marked with all the features of Babylonian religion here described. And you can read about them in the 17th and 18th chapters of the Book of Revelation. Every one of us in this room is liable to be confronted by the decision, do I want to be in the bride, or do I want to be in the harlot? And I don’t believe there’ll be a third choice.

Now, let’s look at these words here. The three common words that are normally used are divination, witchcraft, and sorcery. And many, many times I have encountered these spirits that have spoken to me, defied me, and challenged me out of people. As a matter of fact, I have a kind of private war with witchcraft. Many times they’ll say to me, “I know you.” One said to me, “Why did you have to come?” All right, divination is essentially getting revelation by supernatural means, not through the Holy Spirit. Revelation of the past, revelation of where lost things are, revelation of who committed a crime, or prediction concerning the future. And I would say in modern language, ESP, extrasensory perception, is all a manifestation of divination.

I was praying with a woman in a church in Chicago, and she had been a medium. And the first time she came, I refused to pray with her because I said, “I don’t believe you’ve repented.” Second time she came, told me that she had repented. I questioned it, but I said I would pray with her. And I began to command the spirits to come out of her, and various spirits came out. And then I took a little rest, and I was just leaning against the altar rail of the church, and the woman was standing there by me. And she suddenly turned to me and said this, “I see you in a car, and it’s wrecked against a tree.” And I said, “You spirit of divination, I refuse to accept that from you. I’ll not be in any car that’s wrecked in any tree.” But you see, if I had not been on my guard, had I begun to believe that, which was the spirit of divination speaking through her, it was describing Satan’s destiny for me. And had I begun to believe it and think about it, I would have submitted myself to Satan’s destiny in my life, and quite likely I would have ended up in a car wreck.

Many, many people go to the fortune teller. “You’re going to divorce your husband and marry another man.” They submit to it, and it happens. What you’ve done in that is submit to Satan’s destiny planned for your life. You know about Harald Bredesen? How many of you know Harald Bredesen? I’m sure many of you do. You know when he went to a church that he was pastoring in New Jersey? It was a very modernistic, liberal church, and they’d organized a bazaar. So he thought, “Well, can’t stop this now, but I’ll go along with it.” Then they told him, “We’re going to have a fortune teller.” And his heart sank, but he thought, “Well, I can’t stop it right now.” So he ended up by allowing the fortune teller and going to the fortune teller. Now, this was all intended to be a joke, nothing else. As he sat there and looked at that fortune teller, she looked him in the eyes and said, “Your wife is going to have cancer.” And he said, “I realized that was Satan’s voice, telling me Satan’s prediction for my wife.” And his wife got cancer, but was healed.

How many people have told me, “I went to the fortune teller just for a joke.” You know, I’d almost venture to say, it’s like counting the tiger’s teeth just for a joke. Whether you did it for a joke or not is irrelevant. You went to a servant of Satan for help that you should receive only from God. And in doing that, you submitted yourself to Satan. You made Satan your God.