Pastor Pam Sheppard writes:
From 1975-1977, I was a medium. Today, the term “channel” is more common to describe someone who communicates with spirits. Once I became born again on March 29, 1977, I lost all ability to be a vessel for demons.
It was obvious to me in my channeling days that the information that emanated through written language did not come from me. At those times, I was consciously aware that my spirit left my body and that one by one, other beings took over my vocal chords and spoke. My spirit stood in a corner of the room screaming, “let me back in.” When the spirits were done with me, I was like a weak dish rag. I also recall a few times when I would be speaking to someone, and a power would come over me. I found myself in a kind of suspended animation, as I listened to another entity speaking, which I KNEW was not me.
Forty three years have passed and this has not happened to me since I have been born again. NOT ONE TIME!
Nevertheless, I suspect that present day “church prophets” who always have a word are actually channeling in a similar fashion as I did when I was a New Age occultists. In other words, either knowingly or unknowing, professing Christians are being used as channels or mediums by religious spirits to send forth messages.
Jessie Penn Lewis in her century old book “War on the Saints,” sheds some light on this:
The moment ground is given, in any degree, to evil spirits, the faculties are dulled by them, or become passive through non-use. Their aim then is to substitute themselves for the person in all his actions, and so to gain entrance to him, over the rails, so to speak, of his passive faculties, will, etc., as to intertwine themselves in the innermost structure of his being, and thus to control him and use him for their own purposes; the man meanwhile believing that he is admitting Divine substitutions for himself–that is, God working, and acting instead of himself–and thus he is becoming “God-possessed.”
Believers in such a degree of possession by deceiving spirits then have “supernatural power”, and can, in a supernatural way, get from the spirits in control of them, and give forth from them as their transmitters, many supernatural workings, or manifestations such as:– The getting and transmitting of “Revelations.” The power of “Prophecy.” The power of divination. The receiving and giving of impressions, supernaturally. The getting of specific “guidance,” supernaturally. The foretelling of events. The power of writing automatically, or otherwise. The receiving and giving of information. The receiving of interpretations. The getting of visions.
In my case back in the mid 70’s, I KNEW the communications were coming from outside of me, as my mind and thoughts of my soul were not involved, and the spirit beings assigned to me were distinct from me in interests, knowledge and personality aka, my soul. However Christians are deceived into assuming that the manifested utterances of evil spirits are the revelations and gifts of the Holy Ghost.
Jessie Penn-Lewis provides a clear explanation of how evil spirits deceive self proclaimed Christian prophets to believe that their work is the anointing of God:
Many of these manifested workings of the evil spirits in possession of the believer, appear to be the working of the man himself; but of which actions he is incapable naturally; e.g., he may have no “natural” power of “translating, criticizing,” etc. Yet the spirits in possession can give him power for so doing, thus creating a false personality in the eyes of others, who think him possessed of such and such “gifts” (naturally), and are disappointed when he will not use them; not knowing that he is unable to “manifest” or use such supposed “gifts,” except at the will of the spirits in control of him.
Also that when the deceived believer discovers such manifestations to be the fruit of possession, and refuses any longer to be the slave of the lying spirits of Satan, such “gifts” cease to exist. This is the time when the undeceived man is persecuted by the revengeful spirits of evil, through their suggestions to others that he has “lost his power,” or “retrograded” in his spiritual life, when in truth he is being liberated from the effects of their wicked and fiendish workings.
So how do we distinguish a false prophet from a true one?
A true prophet will be humble enough to examine his or herself, willing to put to the test what is received BEFORE he or she declares it in the public. .
To try the spirits to see if they be of God is mandatory. Anyone who says “thus saith the Lord without testing it is neither sober or vigilant, and that person is probably oblivious to the lion who roams about, seeking whom he may devour. If you receive words into your spirit from such a one, you too are vulnerable, in danger of being devoured yourself.
Any prophet who assumes that he or she does not hear from the devil is foolhardy. Dangerously, that person is deceived already, a passive vessel for the devil’s shenanigans. He has loose lips and he can sink ships with them. People who speak evil with power have a destructive tongue that should be cut off.
If you have been negatively affected by a prophecy or a false prophet, help is available. 888-818-1117, deliverancecounseling@yahoo.com
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