Chapter 4
Testing the Spirits. 1 Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
In my teens I looked forward to reading my horoscope. I was born in early August, which meant I was a Leo. I liked astrology and what it represented: Leo’s were outgoing, Leo’s were loyal, and Leo’s were leaders. As I got older and wiser, I started to outgrow the desire for astrology. I married young and was too preoccupied to seek advice from the stars, but it was still very much with me. From time to time, out of curiosity, I would dabble back into reading my horoscope. I read my husband Mike’s as well. I remember reading in Mike horoscope one day, that he would lose something of value. On that same day Mike lost his wedding band. When this happened, I started reading horoscopes again.
The Open Door
This was the mid-70’s and Cosmopolitan Magazine had an entire page dedicated to astrology. I gleaned what I wanted from the reading, never really took it to heart; but I was still intrigued with the excitement of what was in store for me that month. I had taken a sabbatical from the Catholic church and found a new, non-denominational fellowship. Unaware that I was serving two gods, I was told very firmly by fellow Christians that horoscopes were demonic. At first I believed that these people were overreacting, and I continued to read my horoscope. After all it was just for fun. But astrology was an open door to Satan and a personal invitation to allow Him access to your spirit.
Deuteronomy 18:10 New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)
10 Let there not be found among you anyone who causes their son or daughter to pass through the fire, or practices divination, or is a soothsayer, augur, or sorcerer,
Cold Turkey
I was growing by leaps and bounds in my new-found “Born Again” religion, and the closer I came to understand Scripture, the more I understood the dangers in this practice of astrology. We are all searching for God, or some type of meaning for our existence, but some of us take different directions to reach our destination. The highway I traveled included this “New Age” passage. When you stay and visit, you become familiar with the company you keep and want to stay longer or return for another visit. That how’s it was with astrology and me. I thank God that I made a clean break. This seeming innocent practice is treacherous because it leads to other occult practices. Palm reading, fortune telling, psychic readings, mediums, and many other avenues also lead to the occult.
Fighting the Demons
During that time, I took a short trip to New Orleans to visit family, and wanted to visit St. Louis Cathedral located in Jackson Square. There were so many obstacles in the way before you could reach the doors to the church. Tarot card readers were stationed in several different locations. I decided to fight against these demonic forces. As I passed each card reader, I was silently praying against their evil spirits. I felt great victory and thought myself a valiant warrior for doing God’s work against these demons. I walked into the church with great pride, and continued to pray. I was a baby Christian and believed that this battle was over.
When I returned from the trip, I became deathly ill. I had never been so sick. I was bedridden for a week before I decided to seek medical attention. It took an entire month for me to finally recover from this mysterious illness. I realized that the illness was caused by praying against the evil spirits of the all those tarot card readers. These demonic forces had strength in numbers, and I fell into their boiling pot because I was not equipped to fight these demons on my own. that was when I made the connection of how these attaching spirits are controlled by Satan.
New Age
The New Age umbrella is disguised as a feel-good religions. You are your own demi god and live in a world of confused people. This type of belief leads to relativism. Nothing can go wrong in your world because you control your own destiny. So many religions fall under this New Age banner and many are being led astray, including many well-meaning Christians. New agers engage in meditation techniques, Zen, Hinduism, Sufishism, and Indian religions. These groups mix philosophy with their own beliefs. To reach an altered state of mind, they use crystals, hallucinogenic drugs, yoga, and breathing exercises.
The following information is from Father Mitch Pacwa, an expert on New Age:
1. Monism. Everything in the universe is one. This includes all forms of life–material things and even angels. “There is no difference between us and the air, us and the rocks, and so on.”
2. Everything is God. God is in everything. God is everything. This is pantheism, the belief that everything is in the one divine nature. “We are God, the lights are God, the chair I sit in is God.”
3. We need to be enlightened through humanistic psychology. We must be made aware of our oneness and spiritual power. This is where many Catholics veer off course with things like the enneagram, a system of numerology intended to make a person perfect, better and whole by understanding personality types. “The way it is taught,” says Father Pacwa, “people try to save themselves instead of depending on the grace of Christ. People go from enneagrams to Eastern meditation to get out of their “personality types.”
4. Expect a New Age to dawn. It will rise “out of the ashes of the Western world view” (cosmic evolutionary optimism). They wish to displace Christianity with a great “collective unconsciousness,” where all “archetypes” dwell (that’s what New Agers perceive angels to be).
The High Priestess of New Age, Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is the new spiritual icon of this age. She has been working overtime in promoting her New Age agenda. The books that she shares with her students are all New Age: The Secret, A New Earth, and A Course in Miracles. Oprah has millions of followers, and is making a killing in her webinars. She is feverishly turning many Christians away from God with her New Age beliefs. It is difficult to discredit this powerhouse, but with God nothing shall be impossible.
Luke 1:37 New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)
37 for nothing will be impossible for God.”