FireSide Chat

Dear Teresa

I have been having all sorts of terrible headaches and other ailments these past six months. My doctor recommended that I try acupuncture, which is supposed to be effective for my type of condition. But I am feeling a check in my spirit that acupuncture might have some bad spiritual ramifications.

In fact, the whole headache problem started when I first begin taking yoga classes. I took it solely for the exercise, and I did not do any of the yoga medications that the instructor suggested. I am wondering if the yoga opened me up to a demonic attack against my health. I am also wondering if I should consider my doctor's advice and try acupuncture.

- Potential Pincushion

Dear Potential Pincushion

In regard to the question on yoga and acupuncture, I personally believe that this is an area the enemy can work in, similar to how he can empower a curse against a believer. Acupuncture, yoga, etc. can give the enemy an open door. The enemy doesn't empower every curse that is spoken and he doesn't empower ever open door that ever believer gives him. But if you are on his "hit list" because you are actively working with God to build God's kingdom by tearing down Satan's kingdom, then he will probably want to use the open door against you.

Let's look at a passage from Deut 18:9-14 seems to fit this discussion rather nicely...

9 "When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, be very careful not to imitate the detestable customs of the nations living there. 10 For example, never sacrifice your son or daughter as a burnt offering. And do not let your people practice fortune-telling, or use sorcery, or interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft, 11 or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord. It is because the other nations have done these detestable things that the Lord your God will drive them out ahead of you. 13 But you must be blameless before the Lord your God. 14 The nations you are about to displace consult sorcerers and fortune-tellers, but the Lord your God forbids you to do such things" (NLT).

For the most part, we don't have a problem with sacrificing our sons and daughters to idols (though some have suggested that abortions is modern society's way of sacrificing children to the idol of hedonism).

But "psychic" practices are starting to gain popularity in our society. For example, I went with a friend for a nutritional consultation at a vitamin and health food store. Instead of sticking to the facts of which vitamins and herbs help with a given ailment, the man pulled out some type of Chinese pendulum and held it over her hand, letting the pendulum determine what herbs and vitamins her body needed. That is a form of divination, and it is a sin and an offense to God. We must not allow people to do that type of thing on us, or we become guilty of practicing divination and then we are in trouble with the Lord.

These psych practices, whether for information or for healing or for getting "luck" are all empowered by the devil, and they all come with a nasty price tag.

I saw a movie the other day that was a take off from Frank Peretti's book. It was called the Visitation, and it was a wonderful example of how the devil operates. He gets believers to "open themselves" to receive something that appears to be very attractive. In come cases what he offers may seem almost miraculous, but it isn't overtly from God. In the movie, a man who appeared to be a "prophet" did several miracles. He raised a minister's dog the dead moments after the dog was buried. He healed a man with brain cancer, he caused a crippled man to walk, and did many other miracles. At first they thought he was wonderful...possibly even Jesus incarnate. Then the people who "received" from this man discovered that there were "catches' and big price tags to what they received. They had to do terrible things including breaking the law and sexual perversions, plus they had to worship the prophet. If they did not do what the devil wanted them to do, then their problem would come back, and it would be even worse than it was before.

Then the movie eventually revealed that the people had never been healed, they had merely been demonized--and the demons masked the symptoms to make it look like a healing had occurred. The book, of course, is fiction, but it (like many of Peretti's books) is based on real spiritual warfare principles.

I believe that Satan is actively trying to gain control over many people in the USA and Canada (and possibly the rest of the western world). One of his strategies is to try to demonize many in our society. He uses all sorts of tools, including some movies and television shows that "teach" people that it is good to be demonized. Psychic practices are another of Satan's tools to demonize people, and they are gaining in popularity. I have been told about an elementary school curriculum (approved by the government for use in public schools) that has elm entry school children do exercises designed to introduce them to their very own "spirit guide."

I know that things like yoga or acupuncture can sound harmless (and in some cases they are harmless). But there are spiritual principles and demonic forces behind many of these eastern occult practices.

Those of us who more in the prophetic are more likely to be on the devil's "Hit List" because we bring God's light into his darkness and actively work against his strategies. That means we have to be more careful not to open ourselves up to anything that gives the devil an open door in our lives.