A good friend recently asked me to watch a Dr. Oz show she had DVR’d, where the guest was a psychic medium. The friend had questions about what was wrong with it because it seemed innocent enough and it seemed to be helping people and fostering love among relatives.
Is she working in the gifts of the Holy Spirit or the evil spirits?
We must remember “it is not against human flesh we are fighting but principalities and powers of darkness” (Eph 6). And anything that discourages a living out of the first and greatest commandment is clearly not of God.
“I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:2-3).
Satan comes as an “angel of light.” He mixes good, sometimes very good, with subtle lies which are hidden and deceptive. He is always out to deceive.
I’m sure many of us could look back on the sin of Adam and Eve and say, “Couldn’t they tell the serpent was deceiving them?”
Well, truth being, I’m sure many of us would have fallen into the same trap. And, to take it further, many of us today continue to fall into the same trap. Many of us are being deceived and we don’t even realize it. Because, we live in such a darkened world, so desensitized to who God really is, and too the truth that we need a redeemer.
It is a danger for us to ever think we can outsmart the evil one alone. Only God is smarter, and only when we put on the mind of Christ do we have the grace to discern the snares of the evil one.
I think of a recent daily Mass Gospel reading where the Jews were telling Jesus they knew the Father, and Jesus said, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God …he sent me” (Jn 8:42).
And, we know what happens next – they didn’t want to hear the truth. Their consciences were pricked and they didn’t want to change so they killed Him.
What is the foundational spirituality of all those in the psychic/new age movement?… We ourselves are god, or we are in the process of becoming god. There is no submissive disposition to an Almighty God who is Lord of all and above us. Rather, the buck stops at a connection with the “energy” of the Universe and the higher consciousness with other beings.
No doubt many may be innocently seeking truth when they fall into this spirituality, but who does this remind us of?
Lucifer, the fallen angel.The precise reason he fell from Heaven is because he wanted to be god. He said, “non-servium … I will not serve God.” And, a third of the angels fell with him.
Now, do you think he and his demons are primarily down here on earth with horns and a pitchfork trying to entice us to evil? No, he is always deceptive. He knows each of our weaknesses better than we do, and will try anything to lure us from the truth of who we are created to be as God’s children.
God allows the evil one into our world because He has given us free will to choose: Whether we want to be His children, surrendered and submissive to Him (which is ultimately about being drawn into a profound embrace of Divine Love). Or, whether we want to live a life of self will, not seeking God’s will for us, but like a reed in the wind, being swayed by every form of doctrine (Mt 11:7, Eph 4:14).
What is the spirit of the world, the flesh and the devil that we are up against? But one of living our own lives as we think we should rather than seeking God’s will.
I share these truths to confront a grave deception of the evil one which is so prevalent in our world today. He is out to deceive us into thinking that things other than God Himself will satisfy us and make us happy (just as he did with Adam and Eve). But they are all lies.
It is only in God, when we take on our rightful role as His children, that we will find any real and true happiness and fulfillment in life.
May we all have the grace to examine our hearts. In all sincerity are we experiencing a deep fulfillment and contentment in our lives right now?
If we are not, this is the Good News I bring to you. There is great hope for us as we rebuke the lies and snares of the evil one and turn wholeheartedly to God as our Father and Creator.
This is the great grace of Holy Week, leading into Easter. If we are Baptized, we have been Baptized in the Redeeming Blood of Christ and invited into the Family and Kingdom of the Father.
The victory has been won, but it is up to us to choose what side we are on. Not just by external obligations of going to church, but primarily by surrendering, from the depth of our being,our whole lives to God as our Lord and Savior, remaining under the Redeeming Blood of Christ, and entering into a personal, heartfelt relationship with Him.
We are in a major spiritual battle between the Woman and the Dragon, as spoken of in Revelation 12.
Will we choose the route of the dragon,who chose to live his own life apart from God, or will we choose to follow the “woman clothed with the sun” who says with her whole being, “I am the Handmaid of the Lord. Be it done unto me according to Your word” (Lk 1:38)
“Father not my will but Yours be done!” (Lk 22:42)
(Next week I will expound more on the grave danger of psychic mediums/the new age movement and how without us knowing it we can be opening ourselves to demons (disguised as “angel[s] of light”).
Lilla Marie is a lay missionary in the Houma-Thibodaux Diocese. Anyone interested in learning more about having a profoundly fulfilling life in the Holy Trinity can write to: Lillamarie727@gmail.com.
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