Familiar Spirits
by Priscilla Van Sutphin
There are many in the church who when praying
against demons...speak of familiar spirits as if
they were those passed down from family...which
is to say they are familiar to us, but this is an
error as the definition for a FAMILIAR SPIRIT
has to do with those spirits who are called up in
seances and other such occultic activity, like
playing the ouija board.
They should not be confused with generational
spirits inherited from relatives. These are a
different type entirely. They appear as ghosts
of dead relatives or people we know. They cause havoc in
manifesting and drawing great attention to themselves,
in order to entice the person away from God or to
scare them. I think that the alien stuff is basically the same thing - familiar & other spirits masquerading as aliens to entice people away from interest in God and putting doubt in them about the Bible and God.
Shamans have the power of familiar spirits and can actually through being possessed by these change their appearance to be like an animal. This is where the gypsy "werewolf" tales come from. And for the intercessors, Henry Gruver talks about Shaman spirits causing people to have the feeling of heavy legs, like your legs become like lead. Have experienced this many times like when I VISITED SEATTLE, and on certain properties or areas.
There was a show on TV a couple years ago, a talk show - can't remember which network aired it - but there was a Catholic charasmatic couple called to minister to a man in England who had a werewolf spirit. They had photos of him in the actual changing process and showed the deliverance changes. He came on afterwards to testify of the saving power of Jesus Christ from his former state.
The presence of FAMILIAR SPIRITS always signals occultic activity...whether it is handed down from family, or if they are active in a house haunting or causing ILLNESSES in their victims who are inhabited by them due to past activity of family members in the occult or the person themselves.
One example would be a young woman I met years ago who had sores & scars all over her legs which made her look like she was a drug addict, but in fact her father was a Satanic High Priest and had involved her in satanic rituals as a child. Demons inhabited her body and were making her break out in these unsightly sores, and it was a perpetual wounding - even though she had long before given her heart to the LORD, at least two years previous. She did not yet have the deliverance from them.
Jesus took the curse. He became the curse that we might be set free.
In Nehemiah 9 , the children of Israel stood for hours repenting of their sins and those of their fathers and grandfathers, etc. For some who have been hurt by such activity in their families, they may not even KNOW what sins to repent of...Even if they do, THIS KIND COME OUT ONLY BY PRAYER AND FASTING.
The deliverance and inner healing minister must have a life that is fully surrendered to God and have a lifestyle of prayer and fasting. God is great, but great power is conferred only to those who want to walk in holiness.
A spirit of pride and control CANNOT drive out witchcraft !
God does not use perfect vessels, and we count on HIS righteousness not just our own, but we must put on Christ - to have an apostolic ministry of miracles of healing and deliverance more is required. "To whom much is given, much is required" Jesus said.
Definition of familiar spirit taken from Zondervon Bible Encyclopedia
" The spirit of a dead person which a medium, in the form of magic known as necromancy, claimed to summon to consultation. (Deut.18:11)
In necromancy (seances), in which the dead were consulted about the future, it was believed that either a spirit dwelt in thhe controlling medium, (Leviticus 20:27) who was commonly a woman, or that the medium had fellowship with a spirit from whom she could receive information. Familiar spirits are that which the people on TV "talking to the dead" are really talking to.
The word "familiar" in this term has the sense of belonging to one's family, and so to oneself; ready to serve one as a servant."
Mediums today are called "clairvoyants" or "spiritist" or "shaman".
They do not get revelation but information from demons who know your weaknesses and neediness.
"Mediums seemed to have deceived their inquirers by speaking in a thin weak voice, as though it came from the ground, or a bottle. (Isaiah 8:19, 19:4) The LXX generally represents them as ventriloquists." "[Nothing is known of their method of procedure]" Zondervan says...but today that is not true.....Today it is exposed even in the movies...such as "The Craft"
Satan has his revival right now...but we are about to have ours...and his kingdom will be trampled on. "The mosaic law forbade the consulting of familiar spirits, and mediums were commanded to be put to death. ( Lev. 19:31, 20:6, 27; Deut.18:11)
"King Saul put away the mediums early in his reign, but greatly worried
about the outcome of his last battle, he consulted the witch of Endor and asked to speak to the prophet Samuel ( 1 Samuel 28:3, 7-9) and (1 Chronicles 10:13)
It appears that Saul was told by the witch that she saw Samuel, and Saul himself entered into the conversation with the prophet. King Manasseh also fell into the sin of consulting mediums (2 Kings 21:6; 2 Chronicles 33:6) but his grandson JOSIAH put them out of the land. (2 Kings 23:24) "
There is coming a generation of Josiahs, of Moses' of Joshuas, of Jehu's etc. a nation of deliverers who will do the same as those of old and rid the world of witchcraft, wherever they go.
"Belief in the possibility of communing with the spirit of the dead was common in ancient heathendom. The Gilgamesh epic, Tablet XII gives evidence of it; and Acts 16:16-18 tells of a slave girl who was a medium and brought her owners much gain by her divination." The scriptures give us clues as how to deal with such spirits - read carefully and comtemplatively.
SCRIPTURES :
Leviticus 19:31 NKJ "Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them,to be defiled by them; I am the Lord Your God."
Leviticus 20:6, 27 NKJ "And the person who turns after mediums and familiar spirits , to prostitute himself with them, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from his people."....."A man of woman who is a medium, or who has familiar spirits, shall surely be put to death; they shall stone them with stones. Their blood shall be upon them."
Deuteronomy 18:10-12 AMP
"There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire, or who uses divination, or is a soothsayer, or an auger, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a medium ore a wizard, or a necromancer. For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord; and it is because of these abominable practices that the Lord your God is driving them out from before you." ( for more information on what these mean see article on divination)
Isaiah 8:19-22 Amplified version
" And when the people [instead of putting their trust in God] shall say to you, consult for direction mediums and wizards who chirp and mutter, should not a people seek and consult their GOD ? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living ? [ Direct such people ] to the teaching and to the testimony; if their teachings are not in accord with this word, it is surely because there is no dawn and no morning for them. And they [ who consult mediums and wizards ] shall pass through the land, sorely distressed and hungry; and when they shall be hungry, they will fret themselves , and curse by their king an their God; and whether they look upward. or look to the earth, they will behold only distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and into thick darkness an widespread, obsure night, they shall be driven away. "
You can see from this scripture, there is a curse on those who choose this route, especially when they know God, and turn from Him , like the Israelites.
2 Kings 21:1-6 NKJ "Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places which Hezikiah his father had destroyed; He raised up altars for Baal, and made a wooden image as Ahab king of Israel had done; and he worshipped all the hosts of heaven ( the Assyrian gods) and served them.
He also built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, "In Jerusalem I will put My name." "And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord." " Also he made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft, and consulted spiritists and mediums. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke HIM to anger."
2 Chronicles 33:6 AMP " And he burned his children as an offering [to his god] in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and practiced soothsaying, augury, and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and wizards. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger.
Remember that the good news is that the LIGHT drives out the DARKNESS. The best way to dispel the darkness is to turn on the Light. Worship destroys the power of witchcraft so turn on your voice, the music and ask for the Holy Spirit to come. You can rebuke alot and spend yourselves striving. but the LORD OF HOSTS is our rear guard. When HE comes NOTHING can oppose HIM !
Below is Matthew Henry's commentary for lthe first few verses of 2 Kings 21...and the reign of Manasseh....
III. He reigned very ill.
1. In general,
(1.) He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, and which, having been well educated, he could not but know was so (v. 2): He wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord, as if on purpose to provoke him to anger, v. 6.
(2.) He did after the abominations of the heathen (v. 2) and as did Ahab (v. 3), not taking warning by the destruction both of the nations of Canaan and the house of Ahab for their idolatry; nay (v. 9), he did more evil than did the nations whom the Lord destroyed. When the holy seed degenerate, they are commonly worse than the worst of the profane.
2. More particularly,
(1.) He rebuilt the high places which his father had destroyed, v. 3. Thus did he trample upon the dust, and affront the memory, of his worthy father, though he knew how much he was favoured of God and honoured of men. He concurred, it is probable, with Rabshakeh's sentiments (2 Kings 18:22), that Hezekiah had done ill in destroying those high places, and pretended the honour of God, and the edification and convenience of the people, in rebuilding them. This he began with, but proceeded to that which was much worse; for,
(2.) He set up other gods, Baal and Ashtaroth (which we translate a grove), and all the host of heaven, the sun and moon, the other planets, and the constellations; these he worshipped and served (v. 3), gave their names to the images he made, and then did homage to them and prayed for help from them. To these he built altars (v. 5), and offered sacrifices, no doubt, on these altars.
(3.) He made his son pass through the fire, by which he dedicated him a votary to Moloch, in contempt of the seal of circumcision by which he had been dedicated to God.
(4.) He made the devil his oracle, and, in contempt both of urim and prophecy, he used enchantments and dealt with familiar spirits (v. 6) like Saul. Conjurers and fortune-tellers (who pretended, by the stars or the clouds, lucky and unlucky days, good and bad omens, the flight of birds, or the entrails of beasts, to foretel things to come) were great men with him, his intimates, his confidants; their arts pleased his fancy, and gained his belief, and his counsels were under their direction.
(5.) We find afterwards (v. 16) that he shed innocent blood very much in gratification of his own passion and revenge; some perhaps were secretly murdered, others taken off by colour of law. Probably much of the blood he shed was theirs that opposed idolatry and witnessed against it, that would not bow the knee to Baal. The blood of the prophets is, in a particular manner, charged upon Jerusalem, and it is probable that he put to death many of them. The tradition of the Jews is that he caused the prophet Isaiah to be sawn asunder; and many think the apostle refers to this in Heb 11:37, where he speaks of those that had so suffered.
3. Three things are here mentioned as aggravations of Manasseh's idolatry:-
(1.) That he set up his images and altars in the house of the Lord (v. 4), in the two courts of the temple (v. 5), in the very house of which God had said to Solomon, Here will I put my name, v. 7. Thus he defied God to his face, and impudently affronted him with his rivals immediately under his eye, as one that was neither afraid of God's wrath nor ashamed of his own folly and wickedness. Thus he desecrated what had been consecrated to God, and did, in effect, turn God out of his own house and put the rebels in possession of it. Thus, when the faithful worshippers of God came to the place he had appointed for the performance of their duty to him, they found, to their great grief and terror, other gods ready to receive their offerings. God had said that here he would record his name, here he would put it for ever, and here it was accordingly preserved, while the idolatrous altars were kept at a distance; but Manasseh, by bringing them into God's house, did what he could to alter the property, and to make the name of the God of Israel to be no more in remembrance.
(2.) That hereby he put a great slight upon the word of God, and his covenant with Israel. Observe the favour he had shown to that people in putting his name among them,-the kindness he intended them, never to make them move out of that good land,-and the reasonableness of his expectations from them, only if they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, v. 7, 8. Upon these good terms did Israel stand with God, and had as fair a prospect of being happy as any people could have; but they hearkened not, v. 9. They would not be kept close to God either by his precepts or by his promises; both were cast behind their back.
(3.) That hereby he seduced the people of God, debauched them, and drew them into idolatry, v. 9. He caused Judah to sin (v. 11), as Jeroboam had caused Israel to sin. His very example was enough to corrupt the generality of unthinking people, who would do as their king did, right or wrong. All that aimed at preferment would do as the court did; and others thought it safest to comply, for fear of making their king their enemy. Thus, one way or other, the holy city became a harlot, and Manasseh made her so. Those will have a great deal to answer for that not only are wicked themselves, but help to make others so.
(from Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1991 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
