This Feels Familiar

When we think about witches, wizards and spells society tends to think of the caricature of an old green miserable witch. Well first of all witchcraft is real but the people operating in these practices are far from the green witch huddled over her cauldron, no these witches and warlocks look like ordinary people. They are our neighbours, work colleagues who you spend 8 hours a day with, our uni mates, parents you see on the school run and for many they are your friends, who just probably haven’t told you about the spells they make, the psychic readings they do, the tarot cards they keep or the astral projection they take part in… or maybe they have told you…

“And when they say to you, “Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,” should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living?” Isaiah 8:19

Familiar spirits

Now these people certainly don’t do the things they do with God given talents. No, they have help from spirits called familiar spirits. These spirits help anyone who practices witchcraft, whether the person wants to admit it is witchcraft or not. A familiar spirit tells the psychic, the tarot card reader or the person using crystals information about other people. These spirits are in fact controlled by Satan. They are essentially demons. Bible teacher Derek Prince described a demon as a personality without a body. They go around looking for a physical body to find a home in. That body then at times takes on the demon's personality. An example of this is Mary Magdalene, she housed seven demons before Jesus removed them all.

These spirits have the name “familiar" because they convince people, including the very people who are practising witchcraft, that they are familiar to them and have a close connection to them. So you may hear people who dabble in this lifestyle say they have a “spirit guide”. The reality is these familiar spirits are deceptive and are pretending to be other people. I'll come on to that later.

"Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God". Leviticus 19:31

Who uses familiar spirits?

I’ve already listed some of the types of people who are being used by familiar spirits aka demons. These are psychics, mediums, anyone who says they communicate with dead people or their ancestors, crystal readers, palm readers, anyone who does automatic writing, tea leaf readers and people who do witchcraft. Some of these people are fully aware that they are bringing demonic familiar spirits into their lives through their practices. Others naively believe their assigned spirit guide is a sweet good spirit who wants to help them tell people their future, or tell them that their dead nan says hello.

"Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and enquire of her". Samuel 28:7 KJV

"Then the woman said, “Whom shall I bring up for you?”And he said, “Bring up Samuel for me.”" Samuel 28:11 NKJV

The Bible tells of mediums using familiar spirits and people visiting mediums for their services. This is depicted in 1 Samuel 28. Saul who was the first King of Israel had banned all mediums, wizards and spiritualists because God’s rules/laws had forbidden it. However, Saul broke his own law to visit a medium because he wanted to speak to Samuel who had died. For those who know Saul’s story know how it ended for Saul. For those who don’t… it really didn’t end well for him.

Ways familiar spirits gain access

People can give familiar spirits access to their lives through actively taking part in the activities listed above. If you choose to have a tarot reading, see a medium, do an Ouija board, pray to the universe or your ancestors, or ask someone to give you a spell for protection, then you are opening up legal access for the familiar spirit to enter your life.

Other ways that you may not automatically think gives familiar spirits access is through the less obvious new age practices, as well as drug taking and getting drunk. Ephesians 5:18 (ICB) says, “Do not be drunk with wine. That will ruin you spiritually. But be filled with the Spirit”. The Spirit the Bible is talking about is the Holy Spirit not a familiar spirit.

It’s also important to really think about the type of entertainment you consume, such as the music you listen to and types of lyrics you are taking in. Also think about the types of films you watch, the horror genre which promotes darkness, gruesome murders and at times occult practices is the fourth highest grossing genre in the UK, out of eleven genres.

New Age

“And do not give the devil a foothold”. Ephesians 4:27

This part is for the Christians reading this, the rise in new age practices becoming popular in modern culture and social media is also tricking some Christians to incorporate it into our everyday lives, which Christians shouldn’t do. When I say new age I’m talking about using crystals, burning sage, doing tarot cards, astrology- horoscopes, transcendental meditation, New Age visualisation, yoga, praying to the universe, energy healing, like Reiki. As Christians we need to use the gift of discernment and not give spirits not sent from God access to our lives.

If you are Christian and saw yoga listed, then you may be thinking it is just yoga, why would God be against stretching? When taking up hobbies it’s also important to look into the background of the activity. With yoga, you may think of yoga as merely doing stretches, however the history of the stretches in yoga are movements of worship to Hindu gods. The chants and mantras said during yoga are prayers to these gods. As Christians we are forbidden to pray to other gods. God said “You shall have no other gods before me” Exodus 20:3.

When using crystals, burning sage for energy creating purposes, or praying to the universe you are basically saying that crystals, sage or the universe can give you something more than what God (The Father, The Son and Holy Spirit) can give you. If you want protection and energy why not just go to the source instead, who is God.

Dead relatives & familiar spirits

"There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you". Deuteronomy 18:10-12

When you are grieving and missing a loved one it may be tempting to listen to someone who tells you that they can give you a message from your mother or friend who has died. As it can bring comfort in your grief. The Bible is very clear that we are not to speak to dead people. When someone dies all types of communication ceases to exist between them and you. These mediums are not speaking to your mother or best friend, they are speaking to a familiar spirit who is pretending to be your dead relative.

If a dead relative is speaking to you in a dream, it could be a familiar spirit pretending to be your dead relative to deceive and manipulate you, or it could be your overactive imagination trying to process the trauma of grief and your subconscious is letting this happen in your dreams. Either way it isn’t your dead relative or friend visiting you in your dream.

Through giving familiar spirits access to you, through some of the ways mentioned, allows them to know information that you think “only your dead relative or friend would know”. This is because they have monitored you through the access you gave them. Once they hook you in with this personal information that you think no one else would know, the familiar spirit can then use their manipulation and deceit to tell you lies about your future, with the sole purpose to get you off track from God's true purpose for your life. 

Their sole aim is to keep you separated from Jesus who is the link between you and God the Father. So when you die they have achieved their goal and you have eternal separation from God and heaven because you didn’t want to know the Son of God:

“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me” Matthew 7-23.

Counterfeit

"Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you". James 4:7

The devil makes counterfeits from everything that God creates. God can give you peace of mind, protect you, heal people and create life. The devil has convinced people to pray to the universe for peace of mind, burn sage for protection and use crystals for healing and to improve fertility.

God tells us our future plans through prayer and can use anointed people to pass God’s messages on to us. The contrast is horoscopes, mediums and psychics use ungodly spirits to tell us about our future. You see the pattern, it's all a counterfeit version of what God’s already created. The devil uses these tactics to get a foothold into our lives with the aim of separating us from God.

How to escape familiar spirits

"Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out". Acts 3:19

"But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one". 2 Thessalonians 3:3 

If you are currently involved in activities that can give familiar spirits access to you and you feel you don’t want to do it anymore. If you have done these activities in the past, in whatever capacity and you feel like familiar spirits still have access to you. Well while you are still breathing it is never too late for you to turn away from things that give familiar spirits access to you. It’s not too late to close off the access they’ve gained to you because of the time you prayed to an ancestor or the universe, used crystals or followed your horoscope. 

If you believe that Jesus is Lord, then all you have to do is repent for all the sinful actions, which means that you say to God the Father that you're sorry for the things you did and that you’ll turn away from that behaviour and you will try not to do it again. You pray this to Jesus who is our mediator to God the Father. Which is why we end our prayers with “in Jesus name”. God will then forgive your sin and wipe them away. You can then pray for God’s deliverance from demonic spirits and God's protection.

If you are not a Christian but you feel after reading this that you may be influenced by familiar spirits through your actions, then it’s also not too late for you either. You can turn away from this and receive protection from demonic spirits. How do you receive this? In the same way as mentioned above but first you have to go on a journey of getting to know Jesus. Then truly believe that He is the Son of God, lived a sinless life, was crucified for all our sins, died and then rose on the third day, is now in heaven with God the Father and He will save you from eternity in hell if you believe in Him and repent to God through Him. Then accept Jesus as your saviour, as this is the only way to God.

“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me””. John 14-6