|
|
Sender:
Nicole, Northglenn, Colorado, USA
"What's
the difference between prayer and divination?"
The
book of Acts refers to a servant girl in Philippi with
a "spirit of divination" who "brought her
masters much gain by soothsaying." (See Acts
16:16 in KJV.) The New International Version
of that passage translates "divination" as
"predicting the future" and renders
"soothsaying" as "fortunetelling."
It is noteworthy that the word used in this passage
for "divination" is a Greek word literally
translated "Python." So, this servant girl was
possessed by a "spirit of the python." It is
clearly a reference to a demon spirit.
There
are numerous passages in the Old Testament referring to
divination -- from books like Numbers, Deuteronomy, II
Kings, Jeremiah, and especially Ezekiel. In every
case, it is clear that God does not approve of divination as
the spirit and purpose behind divination is opposing the
Spirit and purposes of God.
References
to divination in the Old Testament do
not contrast divination to prayer but rather to prophecy.
The context usually emphasizes the fact that God has a plan and purpose for His
people, and we are only to look to Him to reveal that plan
and purpose to us. In New Testament theology, God may confirm
His plan to us
through those who have a genuine gift of prophecy, i.e. one
of the charismata or "gifts" of the Holy
Spirit. However, genuine prophecy from the Spirit of God should only
confirm what the Lord has already spoken directly into the
hearts of His people. If it does not confirm what God
has said to us, we are only to "test" it but not
to put our trust in it.
God's
people should always recognize the difference between
genuine prophecy that comes through God's Spirit and
divination. Jesus said,
"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they
follow me." (John 10:27) Every believer in Jesus will have spiritual discernment to
recognize when a so-called "prophecy" is not from
the Spirit of God. Jesus also said of His sheep,
"But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they
will run away from him because they do not recognize a
stranger's voice." (John 10:5)
Focusing
back to the question, biblical prayer has a few qualifying
characteristics that set it apart from divination:
-
We
pray for God's kingdom to come and His will to be done
rather than our will or the will of the person we are
praying for. (See Matthew 6:10.)
-
We
never experience divine faith for answered prayer unless
we have an inward assurance from the Spirit of God that
what we are praying for is God's will. (See 1 John
5:14-15.)
-
Our
prayers should reflect our identity as ambassadors for
Christ whose goal in prayer and in ministry is to see
others reconciled to God, delivered from a life of sin,
and blessed with divine favor. We do not pray curses
upon people nor material or earthly blessings apart
from being reconciled to God through faith in Jesus
Christ. (See 2 Corinthians 5:20.)
-
We
pray "in the Name of Jesus" which means in
accordance with His character and saving purposes.
This is not a formula or incantation but a reminder to us
not to pray anything that is not in line with the Spirit
and character of Jesus who came not to "condemn the
world; but that the world through him might be
saved." (See John 3:17.)
-
The
Holy Spirit, who "helps us" in prayer, will
actually at times pray through us with "groans that
words cannot express." (Romans 8:26)
While we do not in such instances understand what is being
communicated, we recognize the work of the Spirit of God
in praying through us as He "intercedes for the
saints in accordance with God's will." (Romans
8:27.)
-
One
of the roles of the Holy Spirit is that "he will show
you things to come." (See John 16:13.)
This obviously means that spiritual gifts like prophecy (see
1 Corinthians 12:10) can accompany prayer to encourage the
person we are praying for. But, as mentioned above,
every born-again believer in whom the Holy Spirit
resides is equipped to recognize the source of a
prophetic word since the Holy Spirit within the believer
will confirm if it is from Him. It should be
added that the "discerning of spirits" is
listed as one of the charismata, or "gifts
of the Spirit," and it is a companion gift to
prophecy. This means it is the ability to discern
whether a prophecy came from the Spirit of God, from
the spirit of the individual giving it, or from a
deceiving "evil" spirit. This is why the
gift called the "discerning of spirits" is
listed right after the gift of "prophecy."
(See 1 Corinthians 12:10.)
In
Scripture, a person functioning in divination is
characterized as dabbling in the occult. They are
using spiritual power to get their way or the way of the
person(s) they are serving. Sometimes, they may
actually be seeking to procure or foretell good things for
people when in reality God is seeking to call those people
to recognize their sins and repent to avert judgment.
Prayer
proceeds from the Spirit of God when it is truly offered in
line with the Spirit and character of Jesus.
Divination is prompted by an evil spirit sometimes
masquerading as a good spirit -- an "angel of
light." Scripture makes a clear distinction
between the work of evil or "deceiving" spirits
and that of the Spirit of God, and believers are to
"watch and pray" so that they are alert to the
battle lines at all times. The good news is that God
is omnipotent and Satan and his demonic following are not.
So, while we are called to be vigilant in prayer, we can rest
assured that we're on the winning team -- and winning others
to Christ for their own salvation and benefit is what we're
about.
|
|
