MEMORY VERSE: 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. Deuteronomy 18:10
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 2 Kings 21-25
Two major things happened after the fall of man. Firstly, man became Satan’s servant. Romans 6:16 says, “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” Everything man owned, including all God had given to him – the world and its riches, was transferred to Satan. Luke 4:6 says, “And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.” Secondly, man died spiritually. Since man could only reach God through his spirit, which is now dead as a result of sin, his fellowship with God was broken. John 4:24 says, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” After this (spiritual) death, man began to operate from his soul and body. (Note: the soul is composed of our will, our intellect, and our emotions.) The soul is wonderful, when it is under the control of God through the Spirit, but when it is out of control it does terrible things. This is why human history is the record of hate, bloodshed, cruelty, and confusion; human beings are dead spiritually – “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1) and trying to live soulishly while being out of touch with God and therefore lost (Luke 19:10).
When Satan moved in and took over this world after the fall of man, he created a counterfeit spiritual realm, and any human being who tries to find God, or to come into contact with God, or influence God, by his own psychological efforts, by thinking, willing, or feeling, is likely to come into contact with Satan’s ‘spiritual’ world which is more accurately termed the ‘psychic’ world. One of the psychic beliefs is fortune-telling. Fortune-telling works on the premises that a human being can validly foretell the future by means of visions, crystal balls, playing cards, palm reading, Ouija boards, meditations, drugs, etc. Lurking behind the concept of fortune-telling or precognition is the idea of a fixed ‘fate’, an unchanging future that is already laid out and cannot be changed. This idea in itself is unscriptural. Christians don’t believe in ‘fate’ or ‘destiny’ but in a living God who guides all things. God knows the future, not because He foresees it but because He sees it. He is already there, just as He is in the present and in the past. The future is dependent on the free actions of free beings, and of God. The bible says, if you are willing and obedient you will eat the good of the land (Isaiah 1:19). Fortune-telling works on the premises that whether you are willing and obedient or not, if it is in your destiny to eat the good of the land you will eat it. This is a contradiction to the Bible! If Satan is able to deceive people into thinking that they can know the future, he can also make them believe that “what will be, will be”, and adopt a fatalistic attitude towards life. According to Deuteronomy 18:10-13 fortune telling is strongly condemned and forbidden in the Bible.
NOTE: Biblical prophecy is forthtelling not fortune telling. The fortune teller says, “I have the power to peer into the future, and i will tell you what i see!” The biblical prophet, on the other hand says, “I was talking to God, and He told me to tell you so, so, and so...” If a prophet of God foretells the future, he does so because God has chosen to share with him something that He, God, is going to do and there is usually a condition attached to it.
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Bro Samuel | Reaching the world
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