CLAIRVOYANCE AND CLAIRAUDIENCE AND THEIR CAUSE
It is said that clairvoyance and clairaudience powers are “natural gifts,” but they are really the result of an evil state, in which evil spirits are able to manifest their power and presence. Crystal gazing is also merely a means of inducing this passive state, and so with all the various methods in vogue in the East and elsewhere, to bring about the manifestations and workings of supernatural powers. The principle is the same. The key to all these, and other Satanic workings in the human frame, is the need of the suspension of the mental activity; whereas in all Divine revelations, the mental faculties and powers are unchecked, and in full operation.
The people at the foot of Mount Sinai “saw God,” yet they were not “passive.” Vision–whether mental or physical–is really active and not passive, that is, separated from volition and personal action; and “visions” may be either physical, mental or spiritual.
SUPERNATURAL WRITING AND SPEAKING
In writing under the control of evil spirits the same principle is manifested, i.e., the suspension of volitional and mental action:–
- The person writes what he hears dictated audibly in a supernatural way.
- He writes what he sees presented to his mind supernaturally, sometimes with rapidity as if compelled.
- He writes automatically, as his hand is moved, without any mental, or volitional action.
In descriptive writing, or writing from what is supernaturally presented to the mind, the words may pass before the mental vision as clearly as if they were seen by the physical eye, sometimes in letters of fire, or light. The same may take place in public speaking, when the speaker may describe what is presented to the mental vision–that is, if his mind is in a passive state–thinking that all is “illumination by the Holy Spirit.”
This may take place in some, in such a refined degree, that the man is deceived into thinking that it comes from a “brilliant mind,” “gifts of imagination,” “delicate power of poetic description,” whilst none of it is the real product of his own mind; for it is not the outcome of thought , but the seizing of subtly presented “pictures” given at the moment when writing or speaking. It can be tested by its fruits; being (1) empty of tangible results, and sometimes (2) mischievous in suggestion; certain sentences intermingled with words of truth, being subversive of the pure gospel; whilst the whole has no spiritual substance at the back of the beautiful words, or any permanent result in the salvation of the unregenerate, or the building up of believers.
PREACHING FROM MENTAL PRESENTATIONS
It is possible that this may be the hidden cause of the evanescent character of Missions carried out on a wide scale, which seem at the time to be fruitful, but which pass away like the morning cloud in a few brief weeks. The speakers gave the truths of the gospel, but may have preached from mental presentations, and not from the source of the spirit in co-operate action with the Holy Spirit. The powers of darkness have nothing to fear from words–even words of gospel truth–if there is no fructifying life in them from the source of the Spirit of God; and that there are spurious conversions on a wide scale permitted, if not brought about, by the spirits of evil, is now beyond question. It is easy for them to, apparently, let go their captives when it suits their plans to deceive the people of God, and there is much in the religious movements of to-day which absorbs the energy of Christians, and appears to extend the Kingdom of God, but leaves undisturbed the kingdom of the spirits of the air.
In automatic writing, and in the more refined presentations referred to, the mind is passive in greater or lesser degree; and the man writes, or speaks, not what comes from the normal action of the mind, but what he sees presented to him.
Ignorant of the existence of evil spirits, and their unceasing schemes to deceive every child of God; and equally ignorant of the danger of fulfilling the conditions for their working; a great number of believers do not know that in the ordinary circumstances of life they can be opening themselves to the deceptions of supernatural beings, who are keenly watching to gain admittance, and to use the servants of God, e.g., a public speaker who seeks to depend on “supernatural help,” and does not keenly use his brain in alert spiritual “thinking,” practically cultivates a passive condition which the enemy may make use of to the fullest degree; and thus unknowingly gain an influence in his life, which is manifested in unaccountable attacks of all kinds, with, apparently, no ground given by him in life or action.
The same may be true of an author, who in some way, unknown to himself, has become passive–or bluntly put, mediumistic –in some faculty, or part of his inner life, and thereby has opened himself to the supernatural “presentations” of evil spirits, for his speaking or writing, which he thinks is illumination from God.
TRUE WRITING UNDER THE HAND OF GOD
In writing under Divine guidance, three factors are required:
- A spirit indwelt by, and moved by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1: 21).
- An alert and renewed mind, acute in active power of apprehension and intelligent thinking (See 1 Cor. 14: 20).
- A body under the complete control of the spirit and volition of the man (See 1 Cor. 9: 27).
In writing or speaking under the control of evil spirits, a man is not truly “spiritual,” for his spirit is not in use; what appears “spiritual” being the work of supernatural powers manifesting their spirit power on, and through, the passive mind of the man, apart from his spirit. But in writing under the guidance of God; since it is not given by dictation, as to an automaton, but by the movement of the Holy Spirit in the man’s spirit; the man must be truly spiritual, the source being in the spirit, and not in the mind, as it is when men write the products of their own thoughts. The Scriptures bear the marks of their having been written in this way. “Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost (2 Pet. 1: 21). They spake from God,” but as men they received and uttered, or wrote the truth given in the spirit, but transmitted through the full use of their divinely enlightened faculties.
Paul’s writings all show the fulfillment of the three requirements mentioned; of his spirit being open to the movement of the Holy Spirit, his mind in full use, and his body an obedient instrument under the control of the spirit; his letters also revealing the capacity of the renewed mind for apprehending the deep things of God.
PAUL’S POWER OF SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT
In Paul, too, we see the clear discrimination possessed by a spiritual man, able to recognize what came from God in his spirit, and what was the product of his own thought in the exercise of his judgment as a servant of God.
The records of most “supernatural revelations” today, almost entirely show (1) the absence of the requirements for true Divine manifestations; and (2) of having fulfilled the law for the workings of evil spirits; i.e. , the suspension of the use of the mental faculties, with the consequent emptiness, and sometimes childish folly, of the words said to have been “spoken by God,” and the purposelessness of the “visions,” and other manifestations.
Let the conditions necessary for evil spirits to work in the human frame be fulfilled, and then no experience of the past, no dignity of position, no intellectual training, or knowledge, will protect the believer from their counterfeit manifestations. Consequently, the deceiver will do anything and everything to engender passivity in the children of God, in any form whatsoever, either in spirit, soul or body; for he knows that sooner or later he will gain the ground then given. It can therefore be said unhesitatingly, that if the law for evil spirits to work is fulfilled, in the non-use of the mind and faculties, evil spirits will work and deceive the very elect of God.”
SOME WAYS OF DELIVERANCE FROM POSSESSION
Much depends upon the cause of the possession. In China, among the heathen, demons are cast out immediately after the simple prayer of faith by the Christians. In Germany, an evangelist of ripe experience, speaks of men delivered from demon-possession after one prayer, but others who were “weeks, months, years, before they got free,” and this only after much wrestling in prayer by men of God, mighty in faith.
But for believers who have become possessed by evil spirits as a result of deception, the main principle of deliverance is them being undeceived . To deal with “possession” which is the fruit of deception, by commanding the spirits to depart, is to deal with the effect, rather than the cause; and to bring about only temporary, if any, relief, with the danger of the evil spirit returning quickly to his “house,” i.e., the ground which gave him lodgment.
Believers who discover themselves to be possessed through deception, should therefore seek light upon the ground through which the evil spirits entered, and give it up. It is by ground given that they obtain access, and it is by ground removed that they depart. It is for this reason that emphasis is placed in this book upon the understanding of truth, rather than upon the aspect of the casting out of demons, as it is written for the deliverance of believers deceived and possessed through accepting counterfeits of the working of God.
Deceived and possessed believers should also be taught the fundamental principle of the attitude of the human will in relation to God, and Satan, and his deceiving spirits. The Scriptures are full of this truth. “If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know . .” (John 7: 17); “he that will, let him take . .” (Rev. 22: 17).
Let it be emphasized again: deceiving spirits are obliged to get the consent of the man’s will ere they can enter, and as to how far they enter. This they do by counterfeit and deception. They can only obtain the believer’s surrender to their power, by feigning to be God. In fact, obsession, and possession, in all cases, both of regenerate and unregenerate, is based upon deception and guile; for it is not until a man is very fully under the power of Satan that he willfully, and knowingly, yields himself up to him.
Deliverance, therefore, requires the active exercise of the will, which must, in reliance upon the strength of God, and in the face of all beguilements, and suffering, be kept steadily set against the powers of darkness, to nullify previous consent to their working.
Deceiving spirits also counterfeit God in His holiness, and in His righteousness. The effect in such a case is to make the believer afraid of God, and to shrink away from, and loathe all spiritual things. They try to terrorize those who are timid and fearful; to influence those who yearn for power; or to draw into their control those who are open to the attraction of love and happiness.
– Jessie Penn-Lewis; War On The Saints, Chapter 5
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