Why God Hates The Occult...occult pt 1

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, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch. Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. 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. Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God. For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the Lord thy God hath not suffered thee so to do. ( Deuteronomy 18:9-14)

When God set up a theocracy, He very strictly warned and threatened against any who would ever touch the occult. There was a death penalty for those who participated in any form of the dark practices of the pagans.

The various occult practices were considered to be abominable to the LORD, and so also were the practitioners. Both the sin and the sinner were and are considered utterly detestable to the Holy God. It was to be eradicated from Israel, completely rooted out and eliminated. Anyone sympathetic with it was to be tried and executed, for trafficking in the Occult was treated as a special kind of treason in the Kingdom of God being established in Israel.

What was it about the occult, that provoked such a strong warning in so many places in the scripture?

The practices listed in the above scripture, when translated into modern terms, would be the equivalent of modern practices such as abortion, hypnotism, astrology, augury, omen reading, necromancy, spell casting, seeking spiritual direction through natural phenomenon….

These practices pretty much all have this in common, they are examples of people seeking power or knowledge or both, for the purposes of control, through spirituality other than faith in God.

1) Because God is a jealous God. One of America’s foremost proponents of the Occult is Oprah Winfrey. ironically , in her own words she turned away from the Christianity she was once reared in, because she had read in scripture that God is a Jealous God. She thought Jealousy an attribute which should be beneath the dignity of God.

I will say I was one of those people who used to go to church every-I grew up, as I was sharing with the last caller, you know, in the South and so going to church every Sunday, Sunday School, Baptist Training Union, Wednesday night prayer service, the whole thing, choir, all of it. And when I moved to Baltimore, I was in my 20s, and I remember sitting in a church, … and the minister was preaching about-it was a really good preacher-and he was preaching about how God-“the Lord thy God was a jealous God and the Lord thy God would condemn us for whatever,” and I remember I-I had a spiritual aha! There. And I was in my late 20s, and I suddenly thought, “How can this God who is all loving and all powerful, why would God be jealous of me?” Best Life Series of worldwide webcasts: “Finding Your Spiritual Path,” January 14, 2009, Copyright 2009 HARPO PRODUCTIONS INC.

Oprah, is like a lot of people who read a little scripture, and impute their own ideas as to the meaning of the texts, ignoring the fact that the Bible is thousands of years old, has been widely accepted by people of all walks of life, on every continent and of undoubted superior wisdom and knowledge.

She made the mistake of assuming she already knew the meaning of the expression “…a Jealous God…” , obviously her frame of reference being her own life experience. She didn’t humbly inquire of the author of scripture, as to the use of the Word jealous. Therefore she judged God, as if his jealousy was similar to an insecure and dangerous boyfriend or something.

God’s Jealousy is the holy desire to preserve a relationship which is to be exclusive. God hates the Occult because the human soul was made for communion with God, and not with any other entity.

The Occult is spiritual promiscuity, it is an opening up of that part of your life which is to be reserved for God and God alone.

And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. (Isaiah 8:19-20)

The Occult is the breaking of the first two of the ten commandments of God, for we are to have “no other God’s before ” Him, and we are not to fashion out of our Imagination, how we choose to see who God is.

What does it mean to “Have a God”? (Have you ever thought about that? ) Deuteronomy helps us here,

Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name. He is thy praise, and he is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible things, which thine eyes have seen.(Deuteronomy 10:20-21)

This is the clearest definition I have ever seen as to what it actually means to ‘have a God’,(BTW everybody has one).

*Your God is who you ultimately fear... who do you live before? Who do you seek to please? Who do you regard? That would be your God…

*Your God is the one you ultimately serve– Be that the only true God, or SELF, or the State, or some person, or money, whatever it is or whoever it is that you serve,(Put your life at the disposal of) is your God.

*Your God is who you cleave to- you keep going back to that one thing, or principle or person, your deepest loyalty is to Him, that would be your God.

* Who do you Swear By? – What this means is , Who do you cite? What is the source of your authority? When there is a conflict , where do you go for authoritative knowledge? Is Science the last Word? Or Psychology? Or do you truly resort t the Word of God as truth?

* Who do you Praise(ultimately)? Who do you give the glory to in all situations? What or who do you admit, and aspire to be like? That is your God! The Occult is a violation of the first two commandments, and is the introduction to other, lesser elements into areas of your soul that belong exclusively to God, this is one reason why God hates the Occult! more to come…

“The practices listed in the above scripture, when translated into modern terms, would be the equivalent of modern practices such as abortion, hypnotism, astrology, augury, omen reading, necromancy, spell casting, seeking spiritual direction through natural phenomenon….”

It also includes smoking marijuana, using hallucinogenic drugs etc...

Occult means secret or hidden.

Ephesians 5:12, KJV: “For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.”

Remember, there are a lot of lurid and sensational things related about what they do in secret. We aren’t really supposed to be spreading these things.

It comes from the Latin verb “Occultare” meaning “to hide”, “to conceal” and/or “to keep secret”

Simply means hidden.

Yeah I studied some of the occult, mind control, natural law and human consciousness to understand the enemy of this world. Pretty interesting stuff and exposes a lot of symbols, meaning, etc.. that we see everyday.

“The Secret” is New Age stuff that DOES NOT teach people the science behind prayer.

The best way to lean the science of prayer from a Christian perspective is through Dr. Norman Vincent Peale. He teaches you about the power of positive thinking THROUGH Jesus Christ. Something that is not really taught in many churches unfortunately.

Ask in prayer through Jesus Christ, believe in it your heart, and if it is His Will, meaning God’s then it done.

For the record, Jesus Christ is my Lord, Saviour and King.

Mine too.

If you think of it, please say a prayer for my guitar guy’s daughter, age 47, name is Stacy, that just found out she has Stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

He’s pretty torn up about it. She’s daddy’s girl.

‘Pod

“How can this God who is all loving and all powerful, why would God be jealous of me?”

Obviously Oprah, because you are richer than He is.

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