We do need to be discerning, though. A brother (rocky) told us of how this guy he knew kept suffering back pain and his wife collected Native American artifacts. Well, Rocky tried to go into their house but felt the presence of evil. The woman found out from him that a lot of the stuff she had was used in rituals. She didn't know, but once she did they threw out the stuff and her husband's back got better.
Needless to say, we need to have discernment in what we get.
People are very busy labelling Beam as superstitious, but not one of you has made comment on the above. Isn't this an eye witness account of the ability of an inanimate object to carry with it an attachment in the realm of the spirit? Wake up guys! The Ark of the Covenant was an inanimate object, yet it carried the pure essence of the Glory of God's Spirit! One touch and bam - you're toast! Check your New Testament, Bereans. Didn't a mere piece of cloth that had touched the person of the apostle Peter, when placed upon the sick, bring the healing power of Holy Spirit to that person?
Acts 19:11-12 "God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them."
How many Christians have been blessed by a healing or prayer cloth – a shawl or cloth anointed and prayed over by other saints so that it be anointed with the healing power of God? Are they all superstitious? So if an object can carry with it the Spirit of God, why could it not carry an evil spirit? It's not superstition, it's spiritual fact.
And as for believing in the reality of curses being a superstition, what do you think witch's do? How do you think witchdoctor's cause Christians to suffer all sorts of malady? Read up on the testimonies of a few prominent ministers on the African continent, or Haiti - are they all superstitious too? The witches know the principals of the spiritual realm and they access it illegally, and then use it to great effect against Christians who ignore the possibility and write it off as superstitious nonsense.
The principal of matter carrying energy is also scientific. It’s a subject of quantum physics that matter has memory. It’s also in the Bible.
Joshua 24:26-17 “Then Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God. And he took a large stone, and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the LORD. And Joshua said to all the people, ‘Behold, this stone shall be a witness to us, for it has heard all the words of the LORD which He spoke to us. It shall therefore be a witness to you, lest you deny your God.’”
Joshua understood the principle that even the rocks would record and carry with them the memory of what happened around them. Just imagine, every word ever to leave your mouth, recorded in the stones around you, crying out as a witness unless it’s cleansed and wiped clean by the Blood of the Lamb through heartfelt repentance.
I, myself, have had personal experience with the principal that some objects carry evil intent, with evil spirits manifesting in a house and harassing the occupants until the objects were cleansed – done by anointing with oil in the name of Jesus and pleading the cleansing blood of Jesus.
Yes, there is a real danger of falling into religious fear and cleaning out anything and everything felt to be slightly suspect. But I challenge any of you who doubt to honestly walk around your homes and ask Holy Spirit to highlight anything that might be causing problems. Things are just things, but some of them do have demonic assignments attached to them. Many things do not have to be thrown out, but you’re not going to hurt yourself or your faith in God by blessing all your stuff in the name of Jesus. I would definitely get rid of anything glorifying witchcraft, any idols to false gods, or any items used in religious rites contrary to our faith in Jesus. Why would you want to have them in the house anyway? And some of those toys are just plain scarey.
My son was having intense, demonically inspired night terrors often involving a particular group of his toys. I didn’t see the sense in removing the toys, knowing that the toys themselves are just plastic, but Holy Spirit lead us to cleanse the toys and cancel any assignments attached to them. Problem solved. Not to mention the fact that afterward my son lost his fixation on the toys. He was obsessed with them, and had in fact come to ‘idolize’ them. Idolatry is rebellion against God, and gives an entrance to demonic influence.
Am I, or Beam, fixated on the demonic by talking about their tactics? Is it at all rational to ignore the wiles of the enemy, and not make ourselves aware of their schemes? How would any one of you feel if you were to ask the General of your country’s armed forces “What are the enemies tactics?” and he was to reply with a shrug and a sweet smile “Oh, we don’t talk about that, we don’t need to know what the enemy’s doing and where he is and what type of weapons he has.” Would you think he was all that good a general? Apostle Paul tells us not to be ignorant of the devil’s tools.
2 Cor 2:11 “lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.”
I think too many in the Body are ignorant and willingly choose to remain so, so as not to offend their theology.
I don’t advocate an unhealthy focus on the demonic, because we give power to the thing we focus on. Jesus gets all the glory, and all our help is in Him and from Him. We keep our focus on Jesus and remember that the “joy of the LORD is our strength.” (Neh 8:10) But we cannot be blind to the tactics of the enemy that keep the Body bound in intolerable ways because she is too civilized to accept the ‘superstitions’ of the spiritual realm. Ask a converted witchdoctor if he believes that evil spirits form attachments through objects, and somehow I don’t think you’d find him nearly so disbelieving of the idea.
I say ‘good for you Beam’, for speaking up on a subject you’re obviously being taught on by Holy Spirit. We’re all invited to have a living relationship with Him and be taught of Him, and must be wary of idolizing the Bible above the revealed knowledge of Holy Spirit as He speaks to our hearts. We check every thought against the Word and with the Spirit of God dwelling within us. But I for one, aim never to poke my Bible and say to a brother or sister in the LORD, you’re wrong because
I don’t see the proof for your words in here. May the LORD chastise me severely should my self-confidence ever rise so high. Glory to God, I plan to enjoy spending all eternity searching out the mysteries hidden in His Word and wouldn’t even dare think that I’d found them all already, or that I fully understand everything written in the volume of the Book.
In the meantime, Beam, I’m going to stand out here on the limb of superstition with you, at least I’ll have a better view to see the enemy coming up from behind. Glory to God! Life is fun!