Mysticism- Satan Trying to Play God!

Note: the symbol EC stands for Ecumenism

Lucifer or satan has just one ambition- to be God even for a nanosecond! It was the same ambition that got him kicked out of God’s home in heaven. Isaiah 14:13 records that Lucifer said in his heart, “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of assembly, in the far reaches of the north; I will make myself like the Most High”.

Satan reminds me of a politician in my country Nigeria who was so fixated with being its President that he said he would be satisfied if he could occupy the seat for just a day! Of course, he died without actualising his ambition. I am not sure he was a Christian because if he read the Bible, he would have come across Daniel 4:17, “…..The Most High (God) rules the kingdom of mankind and gives it to whomever He will and sets over it the basest or lowliest of men”.

Back to Lucifer and his unending quest to become God. Sometimes, I think that he is plain stupid or one of those characters that believe their own lies. Here is a creature that left heaven in ignominy. How on earth does he hope to defeat the same Almighty God he could not overthrow in heaven? Wait a minute! We wonder at the foolishness of the devil only when we look at his strategy from the human perspective. If we study the Scriptures diligently, we would know that satan does not want to have a direct confrontation with God.

He knows he can never win a battle directed by the Holy Spirit. So, what is his strategy? Humanity. That is satan’s main weapon against God. That is why he is priming a personality that would be known as the anti-Christ. Another strategy of satan is the perversion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through doctrines of devils. The second aspect is the focus of our discourse on mysticism and the effect it is having on the church.

         I became aware of mysticism in the Church in 2020 in the build up to the American Presidential election. In the course of surfing the internet for news about the polls, I came across the video of an American “Seer”, Kat Kerr in which she claimed that God told her that President Trump would maintain his seat and that his Vice, Mike Pence would succeed him in 2024. I became more enthralled with her after I watched other videos where she claimed to have visited heaven uncountable number of times. I was hooked. Watching her videos became a huge part of my life and I even shared some of the things she said with some friends.

       Of course, we all know what happened to her Trump prophesy. I was more than devastated when it became obvious that this woman was not speaking for God. The first clarity came from Isaiah 44: 25, “I am the LORD who frustrates the signs and confounds the omens upon which the false prophets forecasts of the future are based) of the (boasting) liars and make fools of diviners, Who turns the wise backward and makes their knowledge foolishness”. I was also led to read Exodus 33:20 where God declared that no man can see Him and live. Based on the revelations received from these Scriptures, I began to see Kat Kerr in a different light. I do not believe that she is a liar as the events she narrated in her videos are beyond her capacity to manufacture. Clearly, the woman is having encounters with spirit beings and they are none other than agents of Mr. Lucifer.

         It was only after I deciphered her messages as coming from the dark side that I could marvel at the audacity of her claims. In fact, she told another American Pastor, that God asked her to assign a billion angels to him. Can you beat that? She boasted that she had billions of angels at her command and went ahead to post pictures of cloud formations that she claimed were the angels. Anyway, I learned a lot through my encounter with this false prophet; a lesson that prevented me from falling into the trap of another false teacher in my country who goes about promoting the idea of Christians seeking God in the “Secret Place”. This is actually a form of mysticism in which his followers are encouraged to sing worship songs in their prayer closet, then sit still until they are contacted by God and His angels. I know a Christian lady who got into the so-called “Secret Place” and was visited by a being who gave her revelations about her husband and his family.

        Why are Christians falling prey to these agents of darkness? The answer is simple. Many Christians are no longer satisfied with knowing God through His word. They want miracles and they want them fast. Hebrews 11:6 states that God is only pleased with our faith. He wants us to relate with Him through His word. Romans 10:17 declares that “….faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”. The Holy Spirit warned us of this time in 2 Timothy 4:3, “For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires”. That is exactly what is happening in Christendom. Many Christians are being led astray by feeding on doctrines or teachings of demons who present themselves as agents of light.

         Before we dig deeper into the discourse, it is essential to explain what mysticism is all about. It derives from the Greek word, mystikos, meaning “an initiate”. In the Hellenistic world, “a mystikos” was an initiate of a mystery religion”. Also, “mystical” referred to secret religious rituals”. According to Britannica online dictionary, mysticism is the practice of religious ecstasies (religious experiences during alternate states of consciousness). Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines it as “the experience of mystical union or direct communion with ultimate reality”. On its part, vocabulary.com defines it as a “religion or religious belief based on union or communion with a deity, or divine being”. The website goes on to say that “mysticism is easily associated with crystals, New Age theories, or the occult; and that “many faiths, including Hinduism, Judaism, and Christianity have their own forms of mysticism”.

          Mysticism crept into the church through doctrines propagated by the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Churches. The aspect of Roman Catholicism that promotes mysticism is its ‘Lectio Divina’ or prayerful contemplation of Holy Scripture. Thus, the Catholic Church has three dimensions of “mystikos”, namely the biblical, liturgical and spiritual contemplative. The biblical dimension refers to the “hidden” or allegorical interpretations of Scriptures”. The liturgical aspect refers to claims by Catholics that Christ is physically present in the Eucharist (Holy Communion), an assertion that was contested by many Spirit-filled Christians before Martin Luther’s Reformation. Many Christians were killed for refusing to accept that Christ was physically present at the Eucharist. The third dimension is the contemplative or experiential knowledge of God (King, 1999).

            So, why has satan pushed mysticism into the church? Humans are wired for sight. The cliché, “seeing is believing” captures the bent of every human being. That accounted for Philip’s plea to Jesus Christ in John 14:8, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us”. Now, satan is selling his snake oil to humans by presenting himself as “God”. This accounts for the plethora of videos on virtually all social media platforms of people claiming to have visited heaven or encountered Almighty God in one form or the other. In fact, an American ‘prophet’, Kelvin Zadai took his to a ridiculous level when he claimed that Jesus Christ visited him at home to complain about the way humans were blaming Him and His Father for the sufferings on earth. Funny isn’t it? Imagine the Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent and Omni-benevolent God being disturbed about what humans thought of Him!

          Is this the same God that Daniel 4:35 spoke of? That Scripture asserts that “All the peoples of the earth are counted as nothing, and He (God) does as He pleases with the army of heaven and the peoples of the earth. There is no one who can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?”. God Himself declared in Isaiah 43:11-13, “I, even I, am the LORD, and besides Me there is no Saviour. I have declared (the future) and have saved the nation in times of danger) and I have shown (that I am God) – when there was no strange and alien god among you; therefore you are My witnesses, says the LORD, that I am God. Yes, from the time of the time of the first existence of day and from this day forth I am He: and there is no one who can deliver out of My hand. I will work, and who can hinder or reverse it?”

          Satan’s success in perverting the gospel and polluting Christians through mysticism is attributed to the neglect of Scripture. As a I said earlier, we do not have the patience to wait for God to perfect all that concerns us in Christ. What we actually desire is a genie that we can manipulate through prayer, fasting and any other sacrifice that makes him do things for us in our own time. Satan sees this desire in us and exploits it to his advantage. He presents himself as “God”, but with a difference. While Almighty God cannot be summoned by any mortal whether through prayer, fasting, sacrifices etc, this New Age ‘god, who is none other than the devil, is appearing to many people across the world; including adherents of other faiths. One thing that is significant in the reported encounters with “God” is the conflicting claims by the participants. Some of the revelations are absurd in the extreme. For instance, Brian Simmons, the author of the Passion Translation of the New Testament claimed that God gave him another chapter of the book of John. Nonetheless, the translation has met with acceptance among many Christians. It is surprising that these people are unable to see through this demonic operation.

          Any involvement in mysticism through occult practices such as contemplative prayers that establish contact with the spirit world is against the first commandment of God-  “I the LORD, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. You shall have no other gods besides Me (Exodus 20:21). Worship is to be directed only to the true God and Creator. In an article entitled “Occult Practices and the Catholic Faith”, David McCutchen asserts that “To direct worship or religious practices of any kind to any other gods – whether hand-made idols or other spirit beings – is to engage in idolatry”.

           Furthermore, he notes that “All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to “unveil” the future such as consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretations of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums and conceal a desire for power over time, history, and in the last analysis, other human beings. They contradict the honour, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone. All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one’s service and have a supernatural power over others – even if this were for the sake restoring their health- are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion”.

          McCutchen explains that the LORD wills that we seek him in prayer, by consulting His word in Sacred Scripture, and by having recourse to everything he has provided for our salvation, spiritual protection and Christian living in His Church. He attributes the current fixation on occult practices by many so-called Christians on deep estrangement from the Judeo-Christian values bequeathed to us through the apostles of Jesus Christ”.

         The Scripture attest to the complete work of Christ on the cross. In 2 Peter 1:3, we are told that “God’s divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that called us by His own glory and excellence”. 1 John 5:7 states: “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one. In other word, they cannot contradict themselves. They are in agreement on every issue. So, why are we accepting testimonies and so-called revelations from self-styled prophets and seers that contradict the Word of God? Which Scripture in the Bible supports meditation that involves keeping the mind blank to establish contact with the spirit world? Which Scripture validates claims by Brian Simmons that the book of John is incomplete? Everything Jesus did in the New Testament was prophesised in the Old Testament. Which of the Old Testament prophets can testify to the authenticity of the additional chapter written by him? Which Scripture endorses the use of esoteric symbols like Enneagram by some Christians to identify their personality type?  According to integrative9.com, the “Enneagram is a sense-making tool or a framework that enables the development of self-knowledge and meta-awareness”. God forbids that I should seek any self-awareness that does not align with the word of God! Which Scripture endorses the use of occult symbols like pyramids by many denominations, especially those in the West?

           We cannot have a productive relationship with God except we know His ways. Psalm 103:7 states that God “made known His ways to Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel”. The reason for this is obvious. Moses had a relationship with Him. In Christ Jesus, we have been adopted into God’s family as His children. Therefore, it is our prerogative as His children to know His ways through the instrumentality of the Holy Spirit. The first thing we need to know about God is that no one can summon Him. He is the Almighty God. He does the summoning! It is true that we have access into His throne by virtue of the shed blood of Jesus Christ. But that does not give us the privilege to treat God as a genie. We do not and cannot manipulate Him through whatever means to talk to us at our convenience. He is the LORD and must be respected as such. Let us deny satan an opportunity to poison our minds with his lies. It is true that God loves us and desires to fellowship with us. What is not true is satan’s lies that we can summon God at any time to do our bidding. He is not our servant. He is Almighty Jehovah, Creator of the universe. Don’t ever forget that.

         This brings us to the last leg of our discourse on the matter. What is satan’s end-game? Currently, there are two streams in Christendom that are diametrically opposed to each other. One is the group promoting Ecumenism led by Pope Francis of the Catholic Church, while the other camp pursues world or global evangelisation in line with Jesus’ command to His followers to make disciples of all men. The Ecumenism crowd have succeeded in wooing many Pentecostal ministers into their fold. The weapon they used are the lies of satan presented as new revelations from “God”. These are occult symbols and practices which filtered into the church from the New Age movement.

            Ultimately, all the streams of false religions, including Christian denominations that have accepted these esoteric symbols would form the One World Church which would give legitimacy to the rule of the anti-Christ. Already, the Pope and his acolytes are propagating the falsehood that all religions lead to God. It is impossible for anyone to mistake the source of this false gospel except the person is reprobate or has become totally separated from God.   

          To recap, God wants to be believed on the basis of His Word alone. On the other hand, mysticism seeks to present us with evidence of the existence of God through the instrumentality of satanic manifestations. In his book, Grace, R.T. Kendall observes that “the demand to see in order to believe nullifies faith in that moment. Faith means believing without seeing. When God withholds the evidence (from us), He is doing us a great favour. …..All our worship is to be by faith”. We must also curb our appetites for revelations. The Holy Spirit will reveal God’s mind to us at His own time. The pursuit of revelations can open us up to demonic infestations. That is why there are thousands of charlatans on social media propagating false claims of their encounters with God or angels. The word of God can protect us from the influence of satan and his agents if we learn to feed on it in the power of the Holy Spirit.         

         **** Materials sourced from King, R. (1999), Orientalism and Religion, Post-Colonial Theory, India and the Mystic East, cited in https://en.m.wikipedia.org; https://www.toledodiocese.org; https://www.integrative9.com;