We are living in a schizophrenic age in America where materialism abounds, atheism is trending, and science is seen as the great savior of mankind. At the same time there has probably never been a greater hunger for the supernatural – psychic hotlines, Kundalini yoga, Wicca, spitiual healing clinics, and movies of all kinds about the paranormal, sorcery, and the living dead. On one hand, we deny the reality of the spiritual realm while at the same time being immensely fascinated by the realm we say we don’t believe in. This hunger and fascination confirms that a material world will only satisfy human longings to a point, then we compulsively look for something more.
There is real danger in all of this because uniformed Christians are being drawn into hybrids of Christianity and occult practices such as psychic counseling, yoga, reiki healing, eastern philosophies, and eastern forms of meditation. . Many believers are being told that there is no harm in these forms of exercise, counseling, meditation and spiritual healing and that God is blessing it all. Much of the yoga and spiritual healing forms talk about energy rather than spirits, but these ancient forms of exercise, meditation and healing have been designed to open the doors to spirits that were pursued in pagan rituals. Christians are seeking these “new” forms without understanding the door they are opening for demonic spirits. Just because a session opens with a prayer in the name of Jesus, does not mean that everything that occurs after that is from the Father.
In Acts 16:13-18, there is an interesting account of Paul being followed by a young slave girl who was controlled by a spirit of divination while he preached in Philippi. The text says, “Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and the rest of us shouting, ‘These men are servants of the most high God, who are telling you the way to be saved.’ She kept this up for many days. Finally, Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, ‘In the name of Jesus I command you to come out of her!’ At that moment the spirit left her.” Of course, trouble soon followed because the money she had been making for her owners was suddenly cut off. The text raises some interesting question and provides some valuable insights for believers today in this areas of Christian/occult hybrids.
First of all, the spirit in the girl was a spirit of divination. It could predict the future, at least to a great enough degree that people believed it was authentic. The Greek word for the spirit is “pythona.” Today it is often referred to as a python spirit and we are seeing more and more of this spirit in deliverance and house cleansing sessions. Jesus spoke of spirits taking that form in Luke 10 where he said,. “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” This spirit takes on the qualities and strategies of a python and just as a python in the natural realm wants to crush the breath out of its victims, this spiritual python wants to crush God’s breath, the Holy Spirit, out of its victims.
The Greeks believed that a great serpent or dragon called Python had once protected a hill with an opening into the earth at Delphi. In Greek mythology, Apollo had killed the serpent and dumped his body into an open crevice where it continued to rot for centuries. Delphi, in southern Greece, became a center for prophecy, healing, and fortune telling. People would travel from all over that part of the world to get a word from the priestess of Delphi called Pythia and pay her lots of money for the privilege.. She would essentially sit over a fissure in the ground and breath fumes that placed her in an ecstatic state during which the “spirit of python” was supposed to speak through her. The fumes were thought to be from the rotting corpse of the great serpent as his spirit still inhabited the place. Girls like the one in Acts 16 were thought also to be under the influence of the ancient spirit called Python.
This spirit is identified as a demonic spirit in Acts 16, posing as a spirit of prophecy or fortune-telling. Notice that the spirit first arrived as Paul and his company were going out to pray. One of the strategies of this spirit is to distract us from developing an intimate relationship with God though prayer. This spirit will crush or dampen our desire to pray and spend personal time with the Lord. He will also offer an array of distractions.
Secondly, serpents are known for their cunning and stealth. In Genesis 3, we are told that the serpent was more crafty that any of the other animals God had made. He was crafty enough to seduce Adam and Eve into rebellion against the commands of God. This spirit is subtle and invades a life or home slowly so that its target is almost unaware of its movement.
In Philippi, this serpent spirit said all the right things as he declared that Paul and his company were men of God and were showing people how to be saved. Why would a demonic spirit even do that? In doing so, he was deceptively associating himself with Christ in the minds of those who heard Paul’s preaching. Because he seemed to be aligning himself with Paul, it was possible that those who would seek to follow Jesus might assume that it was the Holy Spirit speaking through the girl rather than a demonic spirit. In that way, after Paul left to preach in another city, he could lead many believers astray under the guise of being a spirit sent by God. That is exactly what is happening in these hybrid Christian/Eastern religious practices that are being adopted by believers.
It’s curious that Paul put up with the girl for “many days,” but eventually, troubled in his spirit, he cast out the demon. Perhaps, he knew that when he did set her free, there would be a huge uproar in the city that would then prevent him from continuing to preach the gospel there, and that is exactly what happened. The point is that demonic spirits can say the right things and appear to be aligned with God while they find ways to infiltrate the church and the lives of individual believers. Pythons and other constrictors can slowly approach a victim that is not paying attention and then slowly squeeze the life out of that victim little by little. When the victim recognizes he is in danger, it is too late to escape the coils of the snake. Satan has done that to many believers through the centuries. There is a “new age” Christianity that is gaining traction that will be a hybrid of Christianity and the occult, but will all be presented as offering new spiritual pathways to God. These spirits may even manifest in prophecy and healing today as they did at Delphi two thousand years ago. This spirit seems to be one of the most active spirits in the European and American church today. So, how doe we indeed notify it and what do we do after that? We will talk about those indicators and solutions in Part 2 next week.
