Truth #1
“God creates. Everything that has ever existed, does exist, and will exist is a creation of our Father. “
Truth #2
“The Devil destroys. He takes that which God made good, corrupts it and tries to pass it of as His own.”
It is very important to understand that God created spiritual experiences and not the devil. Some mistakenly believe that such supernatural manifestations are the domain of evil where Christians should never venture. However, the truth is that spiritual experiences are simply ways God created for mankind to communicate and interact with Him.
The fact of the matter is, though, that every spiritual experience we see in the demonic realm is, in reality, a perversion of what God originally created. In fact, Christians need to understand that the Godly originals of these types of spiritual events are sorely needed in the Church today.
In the beginning, when mankind was fully integrated with our Father, many things were possible through His Spirit. However, after Adam and Eve sinned, the human race gradually lost touch with God and their spiritual awareness dimmed. As mankind rejected our Father, we also lost touch with His Spirit.
However, those who gave themselves over to sin used the ways in which God provided for mankind to interact with the spiritual realm for evil. These people perverted what God made and became necromancers, sorcerers, witches, and magicians. They joined with the Devil and his demons to perform acts of evil. Just as yielding to God’s Spirit allows His saints to perform true miracles, those who gave themselves over to the Devil performed lying wonders.
God says,
“And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the Lord had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments. For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.’
Exodus 7:10-12
We see that what God did the sorcerers of Egypt also copied but we also see that their counterfeit could not overcome the true manifestation of God.
In some Christian circles, there seems to be an aversion towards spiritual experiences. People tend to want to avoid anything that remotely looks like what those who practice evil do. Some, if they experience certain types of supernatural events, are afraid of being like spiritualists. However, it matters a great deal if these events are authored by God and not a product of yielding to demons. Moses’s rod turned into a serpent and so did the rods of Pharaoh’s magicians: yet one was authored by God and the others were not. In the hands of Moses, the rod was a sign to convince Pharaoh to let God’s people go. In the hands of the magicians of Egypt, the counterfeit sign was meant to keep God’s children in bondage. Instead of rejecting both what we need to do is learn how to tell the difference.
The rule is that spiritual experiences that are of God will not violate the law of love. The law of love is to love your neighbor as yourself. Spiritual experiences that are not of God tend to be self-centered and self-aggrandizing…in other words selfish. Moses, at great personal risk and hardship, went to Egypt and stood before Pharaoh to free God’s people. The manifestation of God’s power that Moses demonstrated before Egypt’s ruler was meant to bring freedom. The manifestation of the sorcerer’s demonic power was meant to confuse the issue and keep God’s people in chains. Many times you can discern the nature of a spiritual experience by assessing whether it leads to freedom or whether it leads to further bondage.
Only our Father creates
Unfortunately, since so much of what is called supernatural is thought to be performed by those who are associated with Satan, people tend to reject all spiritual experiences as evil. This type of thinking cripples God’s people and takes many of the tools, which God provided for our benefit, away from us. We, in effect, try to live a supernatural life while rejecting the supernatural.
Each of us has to come to terms with how God deals supernaturally with us. Some of us have more extreme things happen to them than others. If what happens to us seems like what happens to those who dabble in witchcraft or spiritualism we should not automatically reject what the Spirit is doing just because it seems similar. Many times what ungodly people do or experience seems like what is happening to us not because we are becoming like them but because they have copied and misused what God created for us.
God says,
“Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.”
1 Corinthians 12:4-11
There are nine gifts of the Spirit but many administrations of the same. This simply means that these nine gifts manifest themselves in different ways through different individuals. Not everyone is the same and therefore we should be more concerned about the genesis of the administration than the manner in which it manifests. The bottom line is that we need to be more concerned about discerning the Spirit or spirit in the experience than the mode it comes in. We must learn to know the voice of our God and that of His angles to such a degree that we can yield to whatever experience they may bring with confidence rather than skepticism or fear.
Experience God yourself
In conclusion, if you really want to know what Paris is like, you have to personally go there and experience it. Likewise, in order to know the Spirit, you have to explore what God does with you and allow Him to teach you through personal experience. Do not fear spiritual manifestations but rather know that they are our birthright because we are the sons and daughters of the Most High. Learning how to interact with our Father’s Spirit is necessary in order for us to mature into the image and likeness of His Son Jesus Christ. The Son of Man walked in the Spirit and that is how He lived a sinless life. If we wish to emulate His example we must do the same.
The visitation of Seven Angels by William Branham
(This is why we need to experiences God ourselves)