Join us in today’s eye-opening episode of The Sound of Faith, where host Sharon Knotts delves into the dangers of familiar spirits and psychic mediums. We explore the biblical account of King Saul’s tragic downfall after seeking guidance from a medium and the strong warnings the Bible conveys against such practices. Discover the serious implications these acts have on one’s spiritual life and the pivotal message that God should be our only source of guidance.
Greetings, friends and new listeners, and welcome to The Sound of Faith. I’m Sharon Knotts, thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Today’s message, Familiar Spirits and Psychic Mediums, is the second in the five-part series, Spirits, Angels and Demons. The phenomena of psychic mediums, fortune tellers, and witchcraft has become popular in America, presenting itself as harmless, even helpful and entertaining. But the Bible contains strong warnings against these. Far from harmless, they are demonic spirits that open the door to evil and danger to those who seek them out. Become informed in familiar spirits and psychic mediums. Let’s look right in our own Bibles. Turn to 1 Samuel 28. And we’ll look in our own Bible and see the consequences, amen, of fooling around with a familiar spirit. 1 Samuel 28, let’s look at verse 3. And the Philistines gathered themselves together… Actually, let’s go to verse 3. Now Samuel was dead, that’s the prophet, and all Israel had lamented him and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. And Saul, now Saul is the first king of Israel, and Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits and wizards out of the land. So when Saul became king, immediately he was on the right foot. He got rid of the wizards and the familiar spirits and the witches. He got rid of them because now up into this time they have been governed by judges. And in the book of Judges, the Bible says every man did what was right in his own eyes. And it was a terrible time of sin and evil and iniquity. So now Saul’s made king and he cleaned house right away. And he got rid of these witches and all these wizards and those who had familiar spirits. Verse 4. He was afraid and his heart greatly trembled. And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets. Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath the familiar spirit, that I may go to her and inquire of her. And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman that hath the familiar spirit at Endor. So let’s stop here for a moment. In the beginning of his reign, he got rid of the witches, wizards, and those who had familiar spirits. But now this is near the latter part of his life. And without going into a lot of detail, we know that he disobeyed God because when Samuel told him to wait till he got there and they would offer the Lord a sacrifice, Saul got antsy and he did it without Samuel. Therefore, he overstepped his authority as king and he stepped into the prophet’s office, which he was not to do. Amen. Not only that, God had said through Samuel, tell him when you go up against the enemy, do not spare anyone. Don’t spare any. And he spared Agag the king. And I preached on this in detail in the Amalekites among us and showed you how by making that mistake of not getting rid of that king… Before he had a chance to have sexual relations with a maid, a child was conceived. And later, that all was the problem behind the Esther and Mordecai story, amen, when Haman wanted to kill the Jews. So because of this, God no longer was communicating to Saul. Amen? There was no longer any communication. He had disobeyed. Amen? And not done what the Lord had told him to do. And the scripture actually goes on to say that Samuel no longer came to counsel Saul and Saul lost all contact with God and he was tormented daily by demonic spirits that vexed him. You can just look that on your own later in 1 Samuel 16. Now, Samuel’s dead. The prophet’s gone. But even before he died, he did not any longer come and give Saul any more words from God. But now Samuel’s dead. I’m going to assume that as long as Samuel was living, Saul held on to the hope that maybe at one point he could get back into favor with God and Samuel and him could get back together again. But when Samuel was dead, then Saul, he spiraled downward terrible. And now it’s two years later. Amen? And he needs guidance. And God is not giving him any dreams. And God is not allowing him to have a word through Urim and Thummim without going into detail. They would come into the house of the Lord. The priest had these stones. And God would give them messages by that. None of this was available now to him anymore. He had lost all contact with God. And this man… who had gotten rid of the wizards, the witches, and those who had familiar spirits, sent his men out and said, find somebody that has a familiar spirit so I can go to them. And they said, oh, there’s a witch in Endor. Let’s look at verse 8. And Saul disguised himself and put on other raiment. And he went and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night. And he said, I pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me him up whom I shall name unto thee. And the woman said unto him, Behold, thou knowest what Saul has done. How he cut off all those that had familiar spirits and the wizards out of the land. Wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life and cause me to die? This woman was smart. She thought, wait a minute, I’m not a fool. How do I know this isn’t… A trap. You’re setting me up. So if I tell you, well, sure, sure, I can do that for you, then you’re going to kill me. Because Saul had put out a commandment that all such witches, wizards, and those who had familiar spirits were to be killed and taken out of the land. She says, how do I know you’re not just trying to set me up? And look what he answered her. And Saul sware to her by the Lord, saying, As the Lord lives, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing. My God. My God. How wicked, how deceived Saul had become. He now has a compound sin. First of all, he’s going and seeking a familiar spirit. And then he’s swearing in the name of the Lord that nothing will happen to her. Look how deceived he had become. Amen? We won’t go on and read the rest, but here’s the thing of it. Turn over to 31. Just flip over to chapter 31 and look at verse 4. Then said Saul unto his armor-bearer, now he’s out now in the battle, fighting, Draw thy sword and thrust me through therewith, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through and abuse me. But his armor-bearer would not, for he was sore afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword and fell upon it. Look at the commentary on Saul’s life. He ended up committing suicide. On the battlefield. When it says he fell on his sword, we’re meaning he took that sword and he fell on it. Amen? He took his own life. Amen? Because he had opened himself up to the demonic. And if you read in the Chronicles, you’ll get the commentary. 1 Chronicles chapter 10 verse 13 says, So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit to inquire of it. And he inquired not of the Lord. Therefore he slew him and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse. So look what happened to Saul. He lost his kingdom to David. because he disobeyed the word of the Lord regarding the Amalekites and King Agag. He lost his life because he sought counsel of a woman with a familiar spirit. Amen? And so this is nothing to play with, people. This is nothing to fool around with. I’ll go so far as to say I don’t think you should even be watching the TV shows that do this. You say, well, I’m just curious to see what it’s about. You don’t need to be curious to see what it’s about. It’s demonic. And young people, I’m talking to you. Hear me now. Hear me right now. Don’t think, well, that’s got my curiosity piqued, Sister Sharon. I just want to watch those shows so I can see what you’re talking about. Don’t do that. Don’t open yourself up to those spirits. Amen. You can’t fool around with that kind of stuff. Don’t do it. Because the devil is waiting with a lure. But behind that lure is a hook. Amen? And he wants to pull you in. He wants to suck you into that. Amen? It’s not a joke. It’s nothing to play with. Ouija boards. Ouija boards. These are dangerous things. This is not some little game. Go look up the history of it. Do you know that the Ouija board was invented and manufactured in Baltimore City? The inventor was right here in Baltimore. You can go Google it. You’ll find out. Not now. Later. Amen? But Ouija boards are dangerous. They are not a game. Now, it may start off with, you know, it’s silly, it’s goofy. But anyone who gets hooked into this will tell you they are not controlling that. They’re not controlling where that Ouija board is putting them on letters and spelling things out. And I know personally, this is not hearsay, of a people, two guys, who were involved with Ouija board. And it turns out that this spirit actually manifested himself to these two guys. Manifested him. Told him his name. And so they, one time they were riding down the road just in the car. One was by himself. Riding down the road in the car, not knowing where he was going. And he saw something in his rear view mirror. And when he looked in the rear view mirror, there was that spirit. sitting in the back of the car and had manifested itself to him. Amen? And these guys had gotten so hooked into this Ouija board thing that when their Ouija board got destroyed, they went and made one of their own out of paper and cardboard. That’s how that spirit had gotten hold of them. But then that spirit began to follow them and they couldn’t get rid of it. Amen? Amen? It’s nothing to play with. What may seem like an innocent child’s game may start off like that. I’m not saying that every person who ever did a Ouija board is demon-possessed. That’s not what I’m saying. But I’m saying it opens the door. And I would say this, that anyone that’s been exposed to the Holy Spirit, anyone who’s children that are of Christians, parents and grandparents and such that have been brought into the house of God and been exposed to the Holy Spirit… you are the ones the devil wants to get to most. So don’t play with it. It’s not a game. And if you know anybody that’s got one, if there’s one in your house, I’m telling you to go home and burn it. Don’t just throw it in the trash can. Burn it. Amen? Don’t set your house on fire either. If there’s an ordinance where you live that you can’t burn things like that, then you need to tear it up so small, so little that it’s, I mean, you just, in the name of Jesus, you do it. Amen? You let the devil know. You say, is there something in that paper? You are serving notice to the supernatural realm that they are not trespassing here. Amen? All right, let’s finish up in the book of Acts, Acts 16. And let’s look at a couple of verses, Acts 16, 16. And it came to pass as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying. The same followed Paul and us and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the Most High God, which show unto us the way of salvation. And this she did many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. Amen. And he came out the same hour. And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains were gone, they caught Paul and Silas and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers and brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men being Jews do exceedingly trouble our city and teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe as being Romans. And the multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates ran off their clothes and commanded to beat them.” And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely. So we know this story. We usually don’t talk about it on this end. It says that she had the spirit of divination. Do you know what the Greek word is? Python. How many knows what a python is? A python is a snake. Amen? And she was possessed with the spirit of python, and she was a slave girl, and her masters made a lot of money because people came to her to have their fortunes told and to receive wisdom from the snake. Amen? And so… Because Python means to prophesy by a demon spirit. And it goes back to in Greece there was a mountain. And on the mountain there was a temple. And it was called the Oracle at Delphi. And supposedly it was women priests. The woman priests, she would go through all kinds of rituals. But anyway, people would have an audience and come into her. And she would give them prophecy that supposedly she got the words from the snake. Now, in Greek mythology, Apollo killed the snake. And when he killed the snake, the snake then possessed him. And then he began to speak way low out of his belly. And therefore, again, it’s a tie back to what the Bible said that we read in the Old Testament about speaking out of the ground and out of the dust. Amen? And so… Here we have this girl that had this kind of spirit, this spirit of python. And it was a demon. But here’s the thing about it, and I’ll talk more about this next time. She was going around following Paul and Silas and saying, these are men of God. These are men of God. You see, the devil wanted people to think that we’re all together. It’s okay what I’m doing. It’s okay this soothsaying. It’s okay this fortune telling. It’s all right. I agree. These are men of God, great men of God. And the Bible says she did it not one day, but for many days she followed them around. And this falls also under the category of seducing spirits and imitating spirits and impersonating spirits. Because she was trying, the demon in her was trying to make it look like that what she did was also of God. But after a while, Paul was vexed with the whole thing. And he had enough of it. Amen? And this is a message for someone today. If you’re tired of demon spirits vexing you and fretting you, you’ve got to come to a place where you say, in the name of Jesus, I command you, come out or get out. Amen. If it’s a person, come out. And if it’s a situation and a spirit, get out. In the name of Jesus. Amen. And as soon as Paul took that authority because he began to see what was happening, he began to realize the people were getting fooled. and putting them all in the same category. And he rebuked that demon, and it came out of the girl. And immediately that spirit came out, and she could no longer give people information. That lets you know it was a spirit. Because if she was just somebody who was very clever and very manipulative, she could have still done it. Amen? But the demon was gone. And when her owners realized that she no longer had that gift, that’s what the world calls it, the gift. of clairvoyance or psychic ESP or whatever it may be she no longer could do that they were upset because they saw dollar signs marching down the road and what did they do they stirred all the people up to get a hold of Paul and Silas and drag them before the magistrates of the city. And any time there was an uproar in any city, the ones who were in charge, governor, magistrate, mayor, whatever the title was, the last thing they wanted was unrest and uproar right in their city because they knew when the news got back to Rome, they would be yanked out of there in no time. Whatever they did, they had to keep peace. And the hardest thing that any of the magistrates had to do throughout the entire Roman Empire was to keep the Jews at peace. Nobody wanted that job. consuls, tetrarchs, all of those magistrates, they didn’t want the job in Jerusalem or Israel because they knew how hard it was to deal with the Jewish people and keep them. So they said, oh, we can’t have this. We’re not having this stuff. And they ripped their clothes off and started beating them. And here’s the thing about it. They didn’t give them a trial. They didn’t ask them a question because if they would have at least asked them, where’s your name and where are you from? Paul would have said, my name is Saul of Tarsus and I’m a Roman citizen. And they would have said, okay, we can’t touch you without a trial. But they beat them and threw them in jail. Now you know the rest of the story. They got to seeing it at midnight and an earthquake came and God got them out. And of course when the magistrates found out that they were Roman citizens, they were like, oh my, okay, we’re sorry, get out of here, amen? So what I want you to see, though, is Paul realized that this spirit was trying to pretend and come under the blanket, amen, of the Holy Spirit to try to make people think that they were okay. But God forbids any such communication at all. Paul told us in 1 Corinthians, he said, I would that you would not fellowship with demons. He said, you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and the table of demons. Amen. God is not trying to curtail your fun. God is not trying to take away all your fun. He’s trying to make you realize the devil is real, the powers of darkness are real, and the serpent is just as crafty today as he was in the Garden of Eden. Amen. He’s come to steal, to kill, and destroy. And that’s why that we’re told in 1 Timothy 4, 1, the Spirit speaks expressly that in the latter times, many shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. The word is demon. Amen. And that’s why John told us, try the spirits. Amen. to see whether or not they be of God. Amen? Because God doesn’t want us fooled by the devil. Amen? And he doesn’t want us to come under a spirit of fear or anything that the devil has out there. God wants his people set free. Amen? Come on, stand on your feet this morning. Now, there are many other things that we could teach on. For instance, we could take up with the seducing spirits and doctrines of demons. We could talk about man-fearing spirits. We can talk about imitating spirits. We can talk about spirits of fear, besides man-fearing spirits. There’s a lot more information, but I don’t want to overwhelm you with something. We can change the subject and go into something totally different, or we could stay in this for a while. Amen. Amen? For a couple more weeks. So how many of here, I’m not saying I’m going to do what you said, but I’m asking you, how many of you would like to hear a little bit more on the spirit world? Okay, it looks like a majority. Okay? If the Lord allows me, then we’ll continue in maybe two more weeks. Amen? And talk about other spirits. Amen? Let’s just lift our hands to the Lord this morning. Father, we thank you that we have the spirit of truth. We have the spirit of light. And we ask you Lord to let our light shine brighter than ever before. Especially in this wicked world. Especially this week that the enemy claims is his time. And the time of darkness and the time of evil. But Lord you have made us as beacons of light in the midst of a wicked and perverse and crooked generation. Now, Father, I take the authority that you’ve given me. And in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, because of the blood that’s upon my life, I take authority over every demonic spirit that has tried to vex or fret one person in this building. From the littlest child having nightmares to everyone here under the sound of my voice. In the name of Jesus Satan, I command you to back off right now. I command you to go, you foul spirit of fear. You foul spirit of death. You spirit of suicide. You lying spirit. You spirit of lust. I rebuke you in the name of Jesus. And I command the people of God to be set free. Because you said in your word. Lord you said in Psalm 107 20. You said your word and healed us. And not only that. But delivered us from our destruction. In the name of Jesus I claim it. And if you claim it say I claim it in Jesus name. Hallelujah. Give the Lord a clap offering. Amen. What an eye opening teaching on familiar spirits and psychic mediums. Some of the strongest warnings in scripture pertain to those who seek psychic mediums. God indicted his people. Why do you seek familiar spirits that peep and mutter who claim to speak to the dead? Should you not seek God? People are duped into believing psychics are actually talking to their dead loved ones, often convinced because psychics claim to tell them something the so-called dead person said that they could not possibly know. The truth is familiar spirits attach themselves to families passing from one generation to the next. They know such details because they have observed the families throughout their history. Far from entertaining, these encounters open the door in one’s life to the demonic, and I have personally witnessed the tragedies they have brought to the families of those who sought them. I call these demonic impersonators, as it is spelled, familiar spirits. This message is the second in my five part series, Spirits, Angels and Demons, which includes hindering spirits versus ministering spirits, seducing and lying spirits, man fearing spirits and bail busters and troublemakers. This album of five CDs can be ordered for a love gift of $25. Request SK 185. Mail to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or go online to soundoffaith.org, where you can also order on MP3s. I strongly urge you to get this powerful series the Holy Spirit has given me. It is thorough but simple and scripturally sound. You will learn much. So order today. Send $25 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Request SK185 for spirits, angels, and demons. Till next time, this is Sharon Ott saying, Maranatha.
