2 years ago
Can superstition be an evil spirit?
Superstition thrives under certain conditions. It has to have the proper climate to flourish. Naturally, a spiritually starved and morally bankrupt society produces the best ground for superstition. A man without God turns to superstition for release of tensions and to seek after forbidden knowledge.
Superstition was born because man in his deepest being longs for the supernatural. The soul of man rejects the wholly materialistic way of life. The immortal soul becomes starved for spiritual food when fed philosophy, scientific facts, and religious ritualism. It instinctively seeks release in the unknown. Devoid of truth and life in Christ, foolish and stupid ideas are formed and taught as fact.
Superstition is a confusion between truth and falsehood. People who are superstitious are actually seeking after truth. A man of faith does not inquire of the stars to find God's will for his life. He knows the will of God. He trusts his future to Christ.
Superstitious magic has many facets. One of these is luck. Multitudes are looking for luck. People seek it in metal, stones, jewels, and rabbit's feet. They trust in lucky charms or lucky days as they seek for something supernatural. In so doing, they discover that luck has two aspects—good luck and bad luck. They say that if one breaks a mirror it will bring him seven years of bad luck. This superstition goes back to the time when people believed that a reflection of the soul is seen in a mirror and that this reflection is a part of a person's soul. When the mirror is accidentally broken, it brings bad luck to the one whose soul image was reflected there.
A Christian does not believe in luck— bad or good. The Bible teaches us that every good and perfect gift comes from God. The devil brings us nothing. All that we have is the good gift from God for which we give thanks.
Reading horoscopes is not anything new. Millions have sold their souls as slaves to the movement of the stars. Sad to say, some Christians go to their newspapers to find out the positions of the stars and to seek advice and guidance through the reading of the horoscope. It is their belief that the position of the heavenly bodies affects people's lives. For example, a person born under the sign of the planet Mars is supposed to have a violent disposition because Mars was the Roman god of war.
The Bible is opposed to all superstition. In the Book of Leviticus God warns us:
Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them...
And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people.
Leviticus 19:31; 20:6 Palmistry is gaining favor today. It is big business. Palm readers say that the palm of a human being can reveal the future of that person.
The Bible clearly says that anything which takes a person's interest away from God as the Source of all supernatural power and which causes him to look elsewhere for the supernatural is idolatry. You cannot place your trust in any source except God.
The grave danger of superstitions lies in opening one's mind to seek this knowledge, then opening the spirit and soul to receive it. The true Christian will not entrust his hand to a gypsy or anyone else to have his future foretold. Yet at this very moment, America is permitting heathen witch doctors and pagan gurus who claim to have supernatural powers to come and spread their lies among the people.
In my living in over 100 nations of the world for many years, I have come to know the deep fears in the hearts of the heathen. They are afraid of God and of demons. They are afraid of the dead and of departed spirits. They live in mortal fear of the unknown and of the future. They are tortured by a multiplicity of superstitions handed down to them from one generation to another.
God's Word says in 1 John 4:18, ... fear hath torment. Superstitious fears can ruin your health. A businessman once went to the doctor because he was nervous, frustrated, and on the verge of mental collapse. The doctor talked with him and found that he was not in any financial distress nor did he have a domestic problem. Through counseling, the doctor finally discovered that the man was an ardent believer in astrology and read everything he could about his horoscope.
He explained to the doctor that because of the opposition of Mars and Saturn and the unfavorable position of the moon, he was proven to be incurable!
How difficult to believe that a successful businessman would permit his mind to become so twisted with superstitious astrology. Even when the medical doctor could find nothing wrong with this otherwise seemingly rational man, he still believed his condition to be incurable because of the position of the planets.
The Christian is fully protected from all demon power and from every superstition. Let me list six means of divine protection, as outlined in God's Holy Word, which are available to us as believers:
1. The Word of God. God's Word is strong armor. The Bible is divine and eternal truth. Therefore, the revealed Word
of God possesses power to counteract superstition and to destroy it in every form.
2. The blood of Jesus. There is security in the shed blood of Christ. Through it Christians have divine power over superstition.
3. The authority of the believer. In His Great Commission, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself said that those who believe shall cast out devils. (Mark 16:17.) The Christian is secure because of this divine authority invested in him.
4. The Holy Spirit. I find from my own personal experiences that spiritism and superstition have no place in a Spirit-filled life. Jesus promised us that the Holy Spirit would lead us into all truth. (John 16:13.) Thank
God, the blessed Holy Spirit reveals that truth to us and separates it from all error.
5. The gifts of the Spirit. Another tremendous safety factor against superstition is the functioning of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the Church. (1 Cor. 12.) The truth destroys error!
6. Prayer. To receive an instantaneous answer to prayer is a miracle. This intimate relationship with God leaves no place for absurd superstitions.
In conclusion, I feel that witchcraft and superstitions are damning powers for a nation or a person.
Deliverance begins by being born again of the Spirit of God and receiving a new nature. In Ephesians 2:1 the Apostle Paul writes: You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins. We have been revived or resurrected by God's mighty power. This is the greatest function of supernatural power in the universe.
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