ISRAEL IN BIBLE PROPHECY | home
Demons in the Church | Publisher's Note | Dedication | Contents | Proverbs 24:11-12 | Introduction | The Battleground | First Encounter | Old Testament Typology | Battle Doctrine | Who Says It's Legalistic? | Hazardous Theology | Spirits In My House | Lying Spirits | Magic Show | Witchcraft | Mediums & Psychics | Deceiving Spirits | Satanic Visions | Facing Reality | Epilogue
Demons in the Church
Lying Spirits
CHAPTER EIGHT
Lying Spirits
Since the Word tells us that the Holy Spirit leads us into all
truth, JOH 16:13, for the mature brethren this book could
probably end right here. However, for younger Christians not
yet nurtured in the Word, it might be well to amplify a few
points. Right up front, the author believes the gifts of the
Spirit are for the whole church age. He sees no scriptural
reason to deny them. However, the author does not believe
that the Holy Spirit of God will give a "greater gift" to someone
who stands in open defiance to His Word. If God were to do so,
He would be pouring out His richest blessings on the rebel-
lious. There is a whole Bible full of examples to the contrary.
The spiritual phenomenon in vogue with most charismatics
is "tongues." By definition, the scriptural gift of tongues, 1CO
12:10, is the supernatural ability to speak in a language
unknown to the speaker.
I can't speak Japanese. If I were to suddenly start speaking
in Japanese, it would have to be because a spirit helped me do
so. If this ability to speak Japanese were to continue, tomor-
row's Japanese words would still have to come from a source
other than my own mind. Why? Because I wouldn't know
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Japanese any better tomorrow than I do today. Since a
tongue-speaker is speaking in a language unknown to him, for
a "tongue" to be a genuine spiritual phenomenon, the speaker's
words would have to come from a source other than his own
mind. Otherwise, it's just fakery. Biblical tongues, by their
very nature, require the interaction of an individual's spirit
with the Holy Spirit of God. If a spirit is not involved, it is
NOT a spiritual gift! It's just a delusion of the mind:
JER 14:14 The prophets are prophesying falsehood in My name.
...they are prophesying to you a false vision, divination, futility and
the deception of their own minds. (NASB)
Pentecostals do not obey the submission ordinance and
associated commands, yet they believe that the Holy Spirit has
given them various supernatural gifts. They further believe
that they can go off into disobedience, and continue to use their
"gift." They believe that any future exercise of their gift, is
unconditional. This disregards the nature of the spiritual gift
itself. A spiritual phenomenon requires the interaction
between a human spirit and another spirit. If the charismatics
have genuine God-given spiritual gifts, the Holy Spirit would
first have to honor their disobedience to the submission
ordinance and associated commands; then He would have to
continue to empower them to speak in tongues and prophecies
while they remained in rebellion to those statutes. That is
most unlikely, because the Holy Spirit is first of all holy, and
any disobedience is repugnant to Him. As a result, it is
reasonable to conclude that the enemy is deceiving the
charismatics with false "gifts" through mediumistic interac-
tions with evil spirits. If a gift is of the Lord, it would be held
by someone in complete submission to God's Word. Not only
that, he would exhibit the fruit of being Spirit-filled:
GAL 5:22-24 ...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such
things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have
crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (NASB)
But that is not what we see now. Today, there are no
Joshuas or Daniels or Pauls. Instead, we see ordinary men
and women invoking spiritual powers outside of the scriptural
guidelines which regulate our behavior. There is nothing
wrong with an interest in the work of the Holy Spirit. Our
battle is spiritual, EPH 5:11-12. But in some churches, this
88 Demons in the Church
interest in spiritual phenomena borders on an obsession, and
"the seeking for the filling" of the Holy Spirit is exceeding the
zeal to know the Lord Jesus. That is counter to God's Word.
Jesus said, "Come unto me" and "I am the Way." Scriptures
that affirm the centrality of the Lord Jesus are numberless.
Jesus is the central figure of our faith.61
1CO 2:2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus
Christ, and Him crucified.
GAL 6:14 But may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified
to me, and I to the world. (NASB)
However, a falling away begins with just a tiny little error.
Not a big, bad lie that everyone would recognize right away,
but a little bending of the truth such as, "Let's seek for the
filling of the Holy Spirit." Now doesn't that sound sanctified?
We all want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, don't we? Of
course. But I don't find anywhere in Scripture that 1 need to
seek for Him. The Bible says that He is given to those who
obey the Lord Jesus. Here are three of many verses that state
this truth:
JOH 14:16 "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another
Helper, that He may be with you forever.
ACT 5:32 "And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy
Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him."
ROM 5:5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has
been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was
given to us. (NASB)
Pentecostals make much of LUK 11:13, insisting that it
authorizes "seeking" for the Spirit. But even in that verse,
Jesus declared that God the Father will "give the Holy Spirit
to those who ask Him." The Holy Spirit is given by a sovereign
act of God. Furthermore, when Jesus spoke of "asking" for the
Holy Spirit in LUK 11:13, it was before Pentecost, before the
Holy Spirit had been poured out on all believers, while the
Levitical code was still in effect. Asking for the Holy Spirit is
not mentioned anywhere after Jesus was glorified. Why?
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61 MAT 11:28, JOH 14:6
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Lying Spirits 89
Because God the Father gave the Holy Spirit to Jesus, who in
turn, poured the Spirit out on all the believers without request,
ACT 1:33. If we lack the fullness of the Holy Spirit, it is
because of sin and not because the Spirit is not fully indwelling
the heart of the believer.62 If we continue to "seek" for the
Holy Spirit after we are indwelt by Him, we are displaying the
sin of unbelief; in essence saying that we are not indwelt by
Him, 1CO 6:19, or that we are not complete in Christ, COL
2:9-10. Impossible, NUM 23:19!
The Bible states clearly that the Holy Spirit is given to those
who obey God. Nowhere does Scripture declare that the Holy
Spirit will be given to those who seek! Subtle... but then we
are dealing with a very cunning enemy. The Holy Spirit was
not sent to lead us unto Himself, but unto the Lord Jesus! Any
leading of a spirit which takes our eyes off the Lord Jesus,
cannot be of the Holy Spirit of God. Meditate on that a long
time:
Jesus said, "He will bear witness of Me," and "He will NOT
speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He
will speak."63
This is such an important point that it must be emphasized.
Any spirit which influences us to take our eyes off the Lord
Jesus, to worship a spirit, is not the Holy Spirit of God! That
is not what the Holy Spirit came here to do. Jesus said, "He
will bear witness of Me." That is a direct Bible statement.
There are many lying spirits. Why should we believe them?
Would you believe me if I told you I was George Washington?
Of course not. Neither should you believe the "claims" of some
spirit, no matter how good he sounds, if what he says is not in
accord with what Scripture states. Satan was a liar from the
beginning, and now he is trying to deceive the saints into
believing that he is the Holy Spirit. He looks beautiful, just as
the Bible warned us he would, 2CO 11:13-15.
But no matter what a spirit claims to be, if a spirit leads
people to worship a spirit, it is not the work of the Holy Spirit
of God. It is a false spirit, with a false doctrine, JOH 16:14.
Who then is that spirit? It is from the enemy. It is a demon!
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62 ACT 1:33, ROM 5:5, EPH 4:30, 1TH 5:19, TIT 3:6.
63 JOH 10:1-5, JOH 14:16-17, JOH 14:26, 15:26, TIT 3:5-6.
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90 Demons in the Church
Many churches today have turned their eyes from the cross
unto angels and spirits, COL 2:18. That is not wisdom from
above. Jesus is central, from the creation until the eternal
kingdom of God the Father.64 We are not directed to seek the
Holy Spirit, but we are commanded to know Jesus.65 Howev-
er, once we swallow the little lie (that we have to seek for the
filling of the Holy Spirit) then we can proceed to bigger and
better untruths. Try this one:
It is said, "Everyone who is baptized in the Holy Spirit will
have the evidence of speaking in other tongues." There is not
a single verse of Scripture that says anything of the kind, and
it is directly contrary to several.
1CO 12:7-11 But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit
for the common good For to one is given the word of wisdom
through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according
to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit, and to
another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, and to another the
effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the
distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to
another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit
works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as
He wills.
1CO 12:30 All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not
speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they? (NASB)
When the Bible states one thing, and we maintain something
else, what do we call it: either deception or willful blindness.
From the above Scriptures, it is apparent that spiritual gifts
were given by God's sovereign will, and not as a result of
someone's "seeking." It is also clear that different people
received different gifts, while only some received tongues. To
state then that all are to speak in tongues as a sign of the
filling of the Spirit is a lie of the devil! It is directly contrary
to the Word of God. It is flagrant heresy.
Not only that, "tongues" is the wrong yardstick by which to
measure the believer's spiritual condition. Jesus Himself said,
"By their fruits," (not by their gifts) "you shall know them,"
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64 MAT 28:18, COL 1:15-18, 2:9-10, EPH 1:20-23
65 MAT 11:28, JOH 6:37, 12:46, 16:18-15, ACT 17:27, 1CO 2:2, PHI
3:7-12, REV 3:20
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Lying Spirits 91
LUK 6:44. Satan can, and has, faked the gifts, EXO 7:9-22. 66
He is a past master at it. Anyone who believes that witchcraft,
voodoo, or demon worship do not work is uninformed. A couple
of years ago, we received a phone call about this sort of thing
from Charles, an ex-satanist in Pennsylvania:
"I just read Sunset of the Western Church, and what you said
about false gifts is absolutely true! 1 was a warlock in a
major coven here in Philadelphia. I was into demonism, the
occult, black magic, the whole lot. One witch in our coven
was always speaking in tongues.
Somehow, the Lord saved me out of all that. 1 didn't know
where to go to church, so I went to a local Pentecostal
Assembly. Everything seemed alright until a traveling
evangelist came to church. He called for all those who
wanted to be filled with the Spirit to come down front. I
went, but what I heard was the same identical tongue that
the witch spoke in our black masses.
I knew that the Holy Spirit of God would not be in both
places, but a demon could be; so I left that church."
Satanic rock concerts have altar calls and healing services.
Sound familiar? It should. Many churches have the same
thing. But we are not commanded in Scripture to have altar
calls or healing services, so the source is the same, DEU 12:32.
We hold hands in a circle to pray, just as the mediums do
when they call up a spirit; but the Bible does not command us
to copy the rituals of the occult, 1TI 2:8. If we copy the rituals
of the occult, those occult spirits will gain access to the church.
People who are actively engaged in occult practices recognize
a "familiar spirit" right away. Sarah Barby writes:
''When another guest at an anniversary party heard that I
was interested in prophecy, he started to talk to 'me. What
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66 One Baptist pastor told me of a Roman Catholic to whom he had
been personally witnessing. This Catholic man did not understand
the plan of salvation, and had not accepted the Lord. One day he
walked into a Pentecostal church. While crossing the threshold he
was rendered unconscious (slain in the spirit), and when he came to,
he started speaking in tongues. This account is very revealing. If the
Holy Spirit of God did it, then a spiritual gift was given by God to a
man who professed to be unsaved.
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92 Demons in the Church
I heard was frightening. He said that ever since childhood
he had been hearing voices which foretold the future. He
further stated that, during college, he had even sought
advice from a channeler (translate that medium) about future
events. I told him of the terrible spiritual danger he was in,
and asked if he ever went to church.
"Oh yes," he said, "I go to a charismatic church and enjoy
it very much. I feel the same spiritual presence there."
From reading Bondage Breaker I understood that he was
being influenced by a demon, and that he was sensing the
same demonic presence in that church that he had been
channeling with in the occult."
Satan is the deceiver, and through his craft; he is attempting
to destroy the true spiritual life of the church.67 If he can't
get rid of the Bible, he will try to introduce destructive
heresies. Let's look at another one. Though the examples in
the next chapter do not deal with the submission ordinance
directly, they do show how ignoring the authority that God has
delegated to the elders of the local church can result in
demonic activity.
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67 EXO 12:23, REV 9:11
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