Familiar spirits in the church 2

“And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.  And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.” Acts 16:16-18

Familiar spirits are demonic imitation of the spirit of the prophets and the spirit of prophecy. Familiar spirits bring financial gains to those who are using it but bring serious grieves to the persons on whom it is being used. Those who use familiar spirits are witches and sorcerers; their final destination is hell fire (Rev 21:8).  Prophecy has power to draw crowd (John 4:28-29); for this reason, its imitation the familiar spirts (Acts 8:9-11), have found their ways into the church. Some people engage the familiar spirits in order to look as authentic servants of God. They are instruments of the devil and so they are destiny destroyers (John 10:10). Unfortunately, they are not easily discerned. It took Paul many days to discern that the spirit behind the declaration of the damsel in our text was not of God. They speak good things that men want to hear but the source of their declaration is the devil.

As a believer what must you do? You must know that there are no shortcuts in the things of the spirit. Don’t elongate your journey by submitting your life to the operations of the familiar spirits in the name of prophecies. You must know that spending time with God in prayer and meditation in the word are still valid spiritual activities to grow in the Lord. God is willing to give you directions for your breakthrough if you are willing to spend time with Him and obey Him. You must learn to test all spirits whether they are from God. 1 John 4:1 says, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” Ask God to give you the spirit of discernment.

If you have been a victim of familiar spirits, may the power of God deliver you. May the hand of the Lord protect His own from the operations of this wicked spirit. May the church experience deliverance and the power of God afresh in Jesus name.

Prayer for today: O God deliver me from the operations of familiar spirits, break their chains in my life and let there be restoration of everything they stole from me in Jesus name.