Once you embrace the existence of the supernatural, you are now exposed to a very large set of beliefs across a very broad range of cultures and religious views.
Many modern Western thinkers embrace a vague understanding that you get what they give. They use terms like Karma and the Universe to explain a sort of quid pro quo relationship between our behavior and the outcomes of our lives.
Other groups embrace the notion that their ancestors hear their prayers and are actively involved in their lives, guiding their thoughts and actions. There are also many who believe the past dead can see, hear and guide us.
I know a great number of highly successful people who attribute their success to spirit guides, personalities they call angels or extra-terrestrials that they get wisdom and take advice from.
Still others understand the supernatural in terms of the Zodiac and the forces in the stars.
I grew up in a culture where the trees and streams had guardian spirits. I am only vaguely familiar with many of these expressions of the supernatural and they are not the subject of my blog. I will not discuss them any more than acknowledging that they exist in the minds of many people in the world and that our understanding of the supernatural has a direct impact on our faith.
What I will do in this post is talk specifically about the supernatural personalities discussed in the Bible’s New Testament and what Jesus taught us. The focus of this series is how the presence of the supernatural, as taught by Jesus, impacts our faith journey.
The Bible acknowledges ghosts and the spirits of the dead. The Bible also describes a life beyond the grave. For both of these two realities, we get very little direction other than commands to stay away from engaging with these sorts of powers. There are many passages on this subject, so I will just cite one for reference. When Moses was laying out instructions for the people of Israel, preparing to enter the promised land, he gave these instructions:
“When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices, the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the Lord your God. The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do so.” Deuteronomy 18:9-14 NLT
This text acknowledges these practices and instructs the people of Israel NOT to participate in any such practices. As Christians, we accept these directions as applying to us as well as them.
The beliefs about the involvement of past souls in our lives is a major area of division between Catholics and Protestants. The formal position of the Roman Catholic Church is that past saints (a special class of faithful followers who demonstrated that they were used by God in supernatural ways), are available as ambassadors for us to pray too. A sort of group of mediators between us and God. Protestants would say that we don’t need that because Christ is our High Priest, and we need only to pray directly to God, trusting in the grace of the blood of Jesus to cover us. Most protestants would caution against the practice of praying to saints, speaking to unknown personalities, ghosts, and any spirits you encounter in your dreams and prayers. It is possible that these are malevolent (evil) spirits seeking to cause us harm.
Many secondary ideas result from both sides of these core beliefs regarding the dead and past saints. The differences in these core beliefs lead to division and differences of opinion that divide people and form denominations. My only comment on spiritual personalities, encounters with the dead, spirits of the forest, dreams, omens, and those types of supernatural encounters are that, based on my reading of the Bible, they are absolutely plausible and reasonable.
Once we embrace the possibility of good and evil spirits both having the ability to impress thoughts, feelings, dreams, and even appear in a variety of forms, we are faced with having to sort out the good from the evil. Pursuing any form of engagement with the supernatural requires us to be extremely cautious. I believe the personalities we encounter in the supernatural should be tested. I believe that they are typically evil, although not always.
Some examples of good supernatural encounters that I am aware of include:
- A large number of modern Muslims who convert to Christianity have reported a supernatural encounter that guides them to a place of faith.
- Many missionaries discover that the people they are called to minister to have already been told they are coming in some supernatural way.
- In the village I grew up in, a teenage boy named Napa, received a dream prior to my parents’ arrival. The dream said the white man was coming to bring a book to them to help them.
- Some non-Christians I have spoken to have been given gifts of being more sensitive to and aware of supernatural forces around them. They “feel” or “see” non-tangible forces and personalities. I list this here as good, because I believe it is a gift from God, although potentially very dangerous.
- Some non-believers I am aware of have gifts of awareness of the darkness in people that guide them towards good people and away from danger.
- Many sensitive souls have been warned of danger by dreams, manifestations of animals and/or spirits. These warnings, when heeded, have protected them from eminent danger or encouraged them to strive when they wanted to give up.
Whatever understanding of the supernatural you have, extend grace towards those who believe differently than you with regard to the supernatural and aid them in discerning the good from the evil. Pray that God who is full of grace, would see past our misunderstanding and that His grace will be sufficient to guide us to all truth despite our failures to discern his divine movements.
It is also important to recognize that the presence of the supernatural impacts our reality whether we engage them or not. If they are there, they are influencing us.
While all these ideas impact our faith, I find it more useful to focus on what Jesus taught with respect to angels and demons and our own human nature. For this reason, I will now shift to the specific personalities we are given guidance about in the Bible. The four personalities described as natural and supernatural influences are; God, angels, demons, and our flesh. I find that focusing my attention on the way angels, demons, and human nature (the flesh) work to be the most useful effort in understanding of the supernatural to aid in my journey towards becoming a kingdom ambassador; a spiritually competent person who is effective at overcoming evil and advancing God’s Kingdom on earth as it is in the heavenly realms.
Rather than quote a long series of scripture verses here, I am going to make some claims from the Bible. This will avoid an overly long post. These are things I believe the Bible claims are true about the four relevant types of supernatural beings mentioned above:
God – There is a triune God who created all things and expresses themselves in three elements (or forms). These are God the Father, the son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. This is the one omnipresent personality that transcends time, and space, and created all things. God claims to be the only personality to know the future, and often uses prophecy as proof that it is He speaking. This appears most often in the Old Testament related to speaking to the Kings of Israel about upcoming events.
The Bible describes God as speaking the world into existence and as being Alpha and Omega (Beginning and the end). The son, Jesus of Nazareth, was born to a virgin (Mary, fiancé of Joseph). Jesus grew up in Nazareth, a small village near the Sea of Galilee. He was crucified on a Roman Cross around 35 AD at the request of Jewish Leadership and raised from the dead 3 days later. He ascended into heaven about 40 days later and reigns now as King, promising to return someday soon. The Holy Spirit was present at creation hovering over the waters. He launched the church 50 days after Passover on what Christians call Pentecost and which was traditionally the 1st fruits ceremony in Jewish Tradition. The Holy Spirit lives inside each Christian and guides them.
Angels – Angels are created beings, they are limited by time, in that they cannot see the future, but also live eternally. They can speak prophetic messages under God’s direction but will not claim that the knowledge is theirs. They will only claim to be messengers of God acting on God’s authority not their own. They are not dead relatives. They were created by God as servants and described in the Bible as messengers, and warriors. They showed up to negotiate with Abraham over the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. They were present when Elisha’s servant was fearful of being overthrown, they contended with the prince of Persia delaying their ability to come at Daniel’s request. They appeared to Zachariah in the prophecy about John the Baptizer, they appeared to Mary and the shepherds, and many other places throughout the Bible. The author of Hebrews says in his letter that we need to treat all strangers as though they might be angels in disguise (Hebrews 13:2). Angels are able to present themselves in dreams or in person.
Demons – Demons are fallen angels and Satan is the head demon. They are limited by time, often claiming to know the future, but cleverly using known past events to demonstrate their supernatural knowledge and claiming to know the future when they do not. They have been thrown down from heaven and roam the earth (See Revelation 12). Satan is a liar, an accuser, and seeks to destroy. Demons can deceive us and can possess people and animals, they can be rebuked in Jesus’ name. They can disguise themselves as angels. But they are proud and will seldom give credit to another being for their special important information. Christians can become aligned with them which becomes very confusing and difficult to discern.
The best place to learn about demons and angels is the Bible. One of the more instructive exchanges I am familiar with is found in the Bible right after Jesus announces he is going to the cross. A particular aspect of their malevolence (evil nature) is their ability to put thoughts in our minds. This is described by Jesus in an encounter with Peter. This is how I describe it in my book, Christ and His Bride:
Right before the Transfiguration, Peter declares Jesus to be Messiah and then rebukes Him for saying He must be crucified. In one breath, Peter was speaking divine words revealed to him by the Holy Spirit, and in the next breath, he was being guided by Satan. Jesus rebukes him saying,
“Get behind me Satan! . . . You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” Mark 8:33 NIV
Jesus uses this moment to teach Peter an important lesson about letting our focus on human concerns become a tool Satan uses to derail our spiritual lives.
Too often we are like Peter, saying and doing life with passion, unaware of spiritual influences in our lives. We, like Peter, can have in mind human concerns and lose interest in the Kingdom mission.
The flesh or our human nature –
Not all defiling influences are supernatural. Once we embrace the idea that Satan and his demon buddies can speak into our minds, we tend to blame him for everything. Jesus taught that our own human nature (the flesh) produces bad and destructive thoughts. Here is how the author Mark records Jesus’ teaching on evil thoughts:
“For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” Mark 7:21-23 NIV
Our natural self is driven by animal-like desires; desires to protect, feed, reproduce, and dominate. This is best observed in a classroom full of preschool children, but it can also be seen in the workplace. It was brought home to me a few years ago at a construction site full of men on the island of Guam. Guam is mostly military and there are many more men on the island than women. Our good looking female administrative assistant brought in some documents and the whole chemistry of the room changed with every eye turning to her and giving her their attention. Most of these desires are designed for our survival, but they can become unhealthy drivers causing us to behave in ungodly ways, as described by Jesus in the text above.
Discerning the Spirits
Because our thoughts and our emotions can be influenced by God through the Holy Spirit, angels, demons, and our human nature (what the King James Bible calls ‘flesh.’) That means it is prudent to understand who and what is driving your mind and body to act and think. If you are not able to do this, you will be tossed around down the river of life, out of control and heading for an eternal cliff called death with no hope of eternal survival or thriving. The Bible says:
“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.” 1 John 4:1-3 NIV
James, Jesus’ brother, in his letter to the early church, describes people who don’t understand and lack faith as being tossed about in a storm believing every kind of false thing that comes along. Here is the text:
“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.” James 1:5-6 NIV
When we combine these two ideas, we get a useful approach to the supernatural.
I personally am convinced there are three distinct sources of supernatural thought:
God, the Devil, and our flesh.
I have found it useful to put dreams, thoughts, visions, and impressions of the supernatural into one of these three buckets and judge them.
There are markers in supernatural influencers that will betray their allegiance. I have compiled the following table as a guide to help discern the God thoughts from the other two:
I have found it useful in my life, to prayerfully reject flesh and evil thoughts in Jesus’ name and only embrace the God thoughts. Thoughts of the flesh are tricky, they are not demonic but are often influenced by demons. We can banish them in Jesus’ name, and our human nature (the flesh) is still there because the flesh itself is our physical driver. Once we banish demonic influences over our fleshly drivers, we still have to flee the temptations and put in place hedges to protect ourselves from them. I find worship and thankfulness to be powerful tools in the process of training my mind away from fleshly and evil influences.
For me, it is worth the effort to gain understanding through study, worship, and prayer to the God of the Bible. I hope you find this God. He is the best thing we can discover on our short time on this earth.
My page on discernment has a more in-depth look at recognizing inner voice. click here for access to the discernment page.
Life On the Rock 