by Pat Franklin
Dear friends, does your home contain things that could be very offensive to God? Our friend shared this true story with our church.
She said: 'My neighbour asked for prayer because three times she fell on her knees and could not get up. As we prayed, the Lord brought the words "household gods" to mind.
'When I told her, she exclaimed: "Yes! I have 24 Egyptian gods in my lounge. My husband bought them for me over the years."'
Dear readers, some of you may need to give your home a good clean out and get rid of anything that offends God.
As a new Christian in the 1980s I had a lot to get rid of. Some things went in the trash, including horoscope items,and a rosary (Jesus forbade repetitive prayer). Some books on the occult and magic I burned.
After my mother died a few years ago I took care of a statue of Mary, smashing it with a brick. The real Mary would be very pleased, because she knows that the Second Commandment forbids us to venerate statues. My dear mother just didn't know any better, or she would have wielded the brick herself. I'm sure she knows better now, and would thoroughly approve.
This may all sound extreme and even nutty to some readers, but as we talk about in our books, the spirit world is real. God has given us the Bible and revealed much about Satan and the dark supernatural, the demonic realm. It holds such attraction for people because it is usually disguised as something fascinating.
Lately in England we have been dismayed to see more and more signs advertising psychic events and clairvoyant meetings. Just around the corner from us is a spiritualist church which holds clairvoyant meetings every week. Clairvoyants are people who try to contact the dead and bring messages; this is totally forbidden in the Bible. The clairvoyants* have no idea that the beings they contact are not dead relatives at all, but demons intent on deceiving us. We were involved in all this ourselves before we knew the Lord, and we know the great danger of it.
If you could see where it all leads and how much it will cost you in the end, you would run from it as from a lion.
Here is God's view, in Deuteronomy 18:10-14
'There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, of one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer. or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the LORD your God drives them out from before you.'
And in the Book of Revelation 21:8 God says: 'But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable (occult, psychic), murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.'
It could not be more clear. All things psychic and 'New Age' will ultimately lead people to Hell. When we were into these things, we found there is also a very heavy price to pay in this life as well.
If you have anything occult in your house - get rid of it! If the things don't belong to you, or something prevents you throwing them out, cry out to God to get them out of your home somehow. If you have dabbled in psychic things, renounce them! Tell God you are sorry. Turn from them and turn your life over to Jesus Christ. He is the Savior. He will deliver you from evil.
*As we tell in our books, we turned up for a psychic meeting in the 1970s and the lady clairvoyant opened the door, saying: 'Oh, Alan and Pat! You are going to expose us!' Then she welcomed us in, as though she didn't even realize what she had just said! We never forgot it, and that is what we try to do now - expose the dark works of Satan and try to persuade people to turn to the Lord Jesus.
