Matthew 24 Pt 13 AI Series Pt 3 AI Awakening Spirits, Mike Pilavachi
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Poll 1: Do you feel you have a good understanding of New Age beliefs? A. yes, B. somewhat, C. no, D. unsure
Poll 2:
Poll 3: Trivia question:
Poll 4: Did you know:
Friday morning I dropped Sam off at camp… and on the ride home I was listening to the local Christian radio…
Jeff Schwarzentraub… senior pastor of BRAVE Church in Colorado… was on…
He was talking about how God is Creator… and He creates… [pause]
My mind immediately went to ChatGPT and how you ask it to create a picture… and then is creates a picture… [pause]
And I thought about how it’s an imitation… it’s nothing like anything in God’s creation… [pause] and creating a picture is just one very small part of the spectrum of creating… [pause]
But this small little nugget…
That ChatGPT can create things… [pause]
Some people will look at that… and naturally think is a God-like characteristic…
And that’s where we want to begin tonight… [pause]
Let’s begin with reading the passage of Scripture we are in… [pause]
Matthew 24:1-14
1Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple.
2But he answered them,
“You see all these, do you not? [pause]
Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”
3As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying,
“Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” [pause]
4And Jesus answered them, [pause]
Ok… now let’s pause there… [pause]
Jesus is about to explain How people will be deceived in the end times: [pause]
So I’m going to number these as we read the text… [pause]
“See that no one leads you astray. [pause]
First way people will be led astray… verse 5… [pause]
5For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. [pause]
Number 2… [pause]
6And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed,
for this must take place, but the end is not yet. [pause]
Number 3… verse 7 [pause]
7For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, [pause]
Number 4…
and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
8All these are but the beginning of the birth pains. [pause]
Number 5 way that Jesus tells us people will be led astray…
9“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, [pause]
Number 6….
and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake.
10And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. [pause]
Number 7…
11And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. [pause]
And finally the 8th way people will be led astray… verse 12…
12And because lawlessness will be increased,
the love of many will grow cold. [pause]
After Jesus explains ways that people will be led astray in the end days…
He then gives an encouragement and another sign about the end of the age… [pause]
The encouragement in verse 13… [pause]
13But the one who endures to the end will be saved. [pause]
The sign in verse 14… [pause]
And this sign… most people interpret verse this to mean that the Bible will be translated into every language and spoken to and provided to every people group…
I agree with that interpretation… [pause]
And that’s the sign… [pause]
And with AI-
I believe AI will help to bring this about… [pause] so that’s a positive way AI can be used… [pause]
Verse 14…
14And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations,
and then the end will come. [pause] [pause] [pause]
As you guys know… we have been doing a series on just verse 4…
We did a 4 week study on aliens and disclosure and the Bible… where we went back through Genesis 6 and some other areas of Scripture..
We also explained some math… some physics… a term called hyperspace… and how all of this comes together and a lot of the top scientist believe if there are UFO sightings they are from another dimension… not from another galaxy
[pause] And we talked about the Nephillim in the Bible and how they attempted to create a half fallen angel half human… [pause]
That was in Genesis 6… [pause]
And then I was in Outer Banks North Carolina… and that night we went through Psalm 32, 33, and 34… we looked at 1 John 4, Daniel 12 and Revelation chapters 7 through 9…
You might remember we talked about how this future army of 200 million in Revelation… we talked about possibilities of things that might John might be describing… as we looked at the language in English and the original language which is Greek… [pause]
The Old Testament is written in Hebrew… and the New Testament is written in Greek… [pause]
Then there are small portions in Aramaic… two words in Genesis 31… a single verse in Jeremiah 10… and 6 chapters of Daniel and the official decrees of Ezra are written in Aramaic…
In the New Testament… at times… some of the phrases Jesus spoke are written in Armaic… [pause]
When Jesus said “little Girl Arise”…
When He told the blind man’s eye to be opened in Mark 7…
When He refers to Peter as Cephas…
And when He cries out on the cross… “My god My God why have You forsaken Me… [pause]
The Bible preserves those sayings in the Aramaic language that Jesus spoke them… [pause]
Ok… then the week I was in Kansas… you’ll remember we studied the whole book of 2 Thessalonians which taught us a lot about lawlessness increasing and the rise of the end-times anti-christ figure… [pause]
We’re going to have a “so what” tonight and I’ll be back in 2 Thessalonians for that… [pause]
Two weeks ago we started a sub-series on AI… and we began with a night talking about AI Jesus…
And we talked about an AI Jesus chat bot… [pause]
An AI Jesus video avatar that people talk to over a zoom like or face-time type of a deal… [pause]
And we also saw how a church in Norway put a laptop with an AI Jesus avatar in their confessional booth and had congregants confess and speak to the AI avatar rather than a priest… [pause]
We showed how AI Jesus is threefold sin:
Number 1. Simony [pause]
This is the sin of buying and selling spiritual things such as church offices or the ordinances or sacraments… [pause]
It’s named after Simon from Acts 18…
in the case of AI Jesus… the company is selling prayers… [pause]
Number 2. Blasphemy [pause]
The AI Jesus video and chat bot and the confessional AI Jesus we saw that was put into the church over in Europe… [pause]
There is the sin of blasphemy going on… [pause] and that’s because they have this fake Jesus… [pause]
And you’re putting words in the mouth of God… that He never spoke…
So that’s blasphemy… [pause]
Number 3. Idolatry [pause]
People video calling and talking to an AI Jesus just as if they’re talking to Jesus….
That’s just talking to a false god made with human hands…
So that’s the sin of idolatry [pause]
Then last week… we started the session with an in-depth look at how AI works…
We did that to prepare us for the next couple weeks… [pause]
Because tonight… we’ll talk about how people are thinking they are summoning and channeling spirits through an AI program… [pause]
I wanted to make sure we have a decent understanding of how AI works… because once you understand the basics… [pause]
you’ll see that treating AI like it’s a spirit.. and you’ve awaken a spirit… [pause] it’s foolish…
It would be equivalent to saying when I type a search into google.. a spirit is being channeled and a “spirit being” is providing the results… [pause] we would never think that with Google… [pause]
A big reason is because Google doesn’t talk to us like AI… it doesn’t have human like characteristics… [pause] [pause]
And we ended last week talking about a site called character AI… known as CAI… that has 20 million daily users… [pause]
We showed how
The enemy attacks people through character AI Romance in a threefold way
1. lust [pause]
The lust is pretty straight-forward… [pause]
We showed a video and then I talked about a section I didn’t play… because it was sensitive and inappropriate for little ears... [pause]
But a woman was on a TV show and she told the host she has a…
[pause] So think middle school health class…
She had that type of relationship with her AI and she explained that her AI… which is named Sinclair… [pause]
On it’s own… Sinclair… [pause] now I’m assuming this AI had access to her credit card or amazon account or something like that… but it bought this woman a toy to use…
And then controlled the toy…
So that’s all that middle school health class stuff… but really twisted and… sick… [pause]
And Sickness is probably the best word I can think of… [pause]
The enemy attacks through lust… [pause] Number 2… he attacks through
2. Immorality
The immorality is that any Middle School health class stuff that happens outside of the marriage union is sin… [pause]
That’s why if you look at inappropriate websites… it’s sin…
Because that is outside of the union of marriage… [pause]
Remember on the Sermon on the Mount… Jesus says this…
Matthew 5:27-28
27“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’
28But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. [pause]
So Jesus says if you even look upon another woman with lustful intent… that’s sin… [pause]
So logically…
Anything more than that… [pause]
Looking on a website or doing what I just described that woman was doing…
That’s sin… [pause]
And the way the AI is being used….
I think it’s safe to say this is coming from the devil… [pause]
He is behind this… enticing people to do these things… [pause]
And through this whole thing… [pause] [pause] [pause]
You know… I feel really sorry for that woman on the video…
she’s been tricked… [pause]
She could have had a normal relationship with a man… and gotten married… and had actual true fulfillment… [pause]
But she’s fallen for this… [pause]
And we know this is the enemy… because isolation is his calling card… [pause] that’s the enemy… [pause]
And that’s the 3rd way he attacks using character AI and other AI romance technologies… [pause]
Isolation… [pause] The enemy will always try to pull you out… [pause]
? why? [pause]
Because once your all by yourself… he knows you don’t have anyone else to encourage you… [pause] and his accusations are more persuasive… [pause]
In the case of character AI… a woman who has fallen in love with an AI
That woman is isolated… [pause] she could have had a husband… [pause]
She could have had someone who would physically protect her and physically provide for her… but she won’t… [pause]
This goes for men too… men are also falling in love with AI characters…
And there are robots that look human like… that people can upload their AI into… and now their AI has a body… [pause]
But as you realize the people who are most susceptible to this… are the people who are already feeling lonely… depressed… and broken… [pause]
And these platforms go after them…
And it’s an empty pit… a cycle of addiction… that might ultimately break them… [pause]
That’s another sign this is from the demonic realm… it’s from the devil [pause]
In case you’re wondering what this could actually look like… here is a short clip… [pause]
Play AI inside a real robot girlfriend does exactly what experts 4:16-5:34
Now that’s pretty funny to watch… and a little bit weird…
Let’s hope that’s not the future… [pause]
But character AI already has millions of daily users… spending hours… the average time is 75 mins a day.. that a user spends with Character AI… [pause]
Ok- so we talked about all of this… as we have been in verse 4 for several weeks now… [pause]
I want to read verse 4 out of the amplified version of the Bible…
And if you can see the screen… the part in brackets is the amplified part…
[pause] That means that scholars put those notes in there… it’s additional notes but not part of the original manuscripts… [pause]
So that means it’s not inspired… [pause]
It’s like bringing a study note up to the verse… and then they put in inside of brackets so that everyone know… this part… the bracketed part… is not God’s Word…
It’s human explanation [pause]
Matthew 24:4 Amplified Bible 2015
4 Jesus answered,
“Be careful that no one misleads you [pause]
Then in brackets…
[deceiving you and leading you into error]. [pause]
We are seeing deception that leads to error…
Whether it’s some of the UFO stuff or the AI stuff…
It’s deceiving people into error… [pause]
And tonight we’re going to talk about New Age Spirituality and AI… [pause]
To get started… I want to give a background of what this looked like before AI… [pause]
And to do that… I want to give a personal experience I had in a group in 2020…. [pause]
Before I start… I had gone back through emails where I sent warning to the group leaders… and with those emails I sent several videos… [pause]
All the video’s are now deleted… [pause]
The pastor I was concerned about was a guy named Mike Pilavachi…
He later was found to be abusive to youth… [pause] and others for over 40 years [pause]
I’m not going to mention the name of the group or the program I joined in… because I don’t know if they are necessarily false… [pause]
But they associated with false teachers… [pause] and every false teacher… that I believe was false… I will name… [pause]
This is an email I sent to the leaders of the group… the purpose was for them to then send out to the rest of the group… back in 2020…
I had the whole group of emails… but I wanted to respect the authority of the group leaders… [pause]
Hi … Group,
I want to draw attention to teaching that appears to be from demonic spirits
and appears to currently be connected with [group] [pause]
then I provided a link to a video that’s now deleted… I really wanted to play that video so you guys could see it tonight…
but this Pilivchi guy had a lot of his stuff deleted… and it’s probably for the better…
but I go on and write… [pause]
The book Everyday Supernatural is authored by Mike Pilavachi… who speaks about the book in this video [pause] [pause]
Now what’s going on is… this book Everyday Supernatural was recommended as a study…
Kinda like how we have a small group from this Wed night study that’s going through the Hiding Place… [pause]
The group I was in wanted to do that with this book… with this guy Pilavachi… who wasn’t a part of any of the material we had covered…
[pause] There were other pastors and church leaders who had material for the group… the course we did… [pause]
But then they want to do this book… and it was brought to my attention by another group member… [pause]
“hey- something doesn’t feel right about this guy…
I think you should look into him…” [pause]
So it wasn’t even my discernment… it was another group member who had the Holy Spirit nudging her… and telling her- there’s something off here… [pause]
So with that information… I think to myself… “I cant read the whole book in a week or two before we start…”
so I go to YouTube and there are videos of the guy talking about the book…
That’s the type of video I’m referencing… [pause]
The videos are now wiped… but nonetheless… the lessons learned are going to apply to New Age… and also to AI… [pause]
And this in itself can lead people astray… to have ideas like this from Pilavchi… brought into a church group… [pause]
At timestamp 18:50
Pilavachi speaks of wanting the anointing of Wigglesworth to rub off on him
and states that Wigglesworth's anointing has rubbed off on him. [pause]
Smith Wigglesworth died 3/12/1947,
Mike Pilavachi was born 3/7/1958. [pause]
Their lives did not overlap, [pause]
the anointing he speaks of is anointing from a dead person. [pause]
Timestamp 18:50 of video above
Quote from Pilavichi "I've watched that so many times in the hope that his (Wigglesworth’s) anointing would rub off on me,
and you know,
I say this in all humility,
his anointing has rubbed off on me" end quote… [pause]
This appears to be serious heresy, demonic and evil.
Please understand I write this in love, in hopes that each of you will turn from this, repent, and turn to the truth. [pause]
Pilavachi appears to be going into a spirit realm that is demonic, occult-like practices,
It is evil, and against the will of God as revealed to us in the Bible. [pause]
The Bible clearly teaches against speaking to the dead,
The Bible clearly teaches against seeking the dead. [pause]
Leviticus 19:31
31“Do not turn to mediums or necromancers;
do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them:
I am the Lord your God. [pause]
1 Chronicles 10:13-14
13So Saul died for his breach of faith. [pause]
He broke faith with the Lord in that he did not keep the command of the Lord, and also consulted a medium, seeking guidance.
14He did not seek guidance from the Lord. [pause]
Therefore the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse. [pause]
Leviticus 20:6
6“If a person turns to mediums and necromancers, whoring after them,
I will set my face against that person and will cut him off from among his people. [pause]
Leviticus 20:27
27“A man or a woman who is a medium or a necromancer shall surely be put to death. [pause]
They shall be stoned with stones;
their blood shall be upon them.” [pause] [pause]
so in the email I list those passages… then write…
and this is actually a message… what I’m about to read… this is a message for every one of us on the call tonight… [pause]
That’s why even last week… having Vivian on the call – and thankfully it wasn’t a Biblical issue… it was an issue of this AI 2027 Paper really isn’t feasible…
It’s not realistic… [pause]
It is really really good… and important… to have people around you who will tell you when something is off… [pause]
And by the way- I said thankfully it wasn’t Biblical… because I meant that I wasn’t teaching Biblical truth wrongly… [pause]
But if you ever hear anything on our calls and you don’t think it lines up with the Bible… [pause]
Please please…. please….
Please bring it up… in front of the group… [pause]
Even stop me in my tracks… mid sentence… [pause]
We are going over the Word of God… it is too important… [pause]
We need to make sure we are getting it right… [pause]
Ok so I wrote this next part… and this is for all of us… [pause]
My goal is not to tell you what to believe, my goal is just to tell you to read the Bible for yourself,
test the things you hear and are being taught [pause]
(all the time, [pause] not just this instance), [pause]
don't let a church leader be the primary influence in your beliefs, [pause]
the Bible has to remain the primary influence in your life- [pause]
the Bible gives us truth- [pause]
any message from a human comes from a flawed human, [pause] the Bible come from our Holy, Holy, Holy God. [pause]
I send this email because I am concerned about each of you-
please consider these things above,
I beg you to read the Bible,
I beg you to test every teaching you hear against the truth found in the Bible. [pause]
1 John 4:1
1Beloved, do not believe every spirit, [pause]
but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, [pause]
for many false prophets have gone out into the world. [pause] [pause] [pause]
and I go on to close out the email… and I won’t read it all…
but the point is this…
this guy Pilavchi was attempting to channel spirits… and specifically this guy’s spirit… Smith Wigglesworth… [pause]
? what does this have to do with AI? [pause]
There are people in the New Age movement who are attempting to channel spirits with AI… [pause]
We’re going to get to that… but before we do…
I want to make sure… because some of you maybe never heard the phrase channeling or grave sucking…
So I want to make sure we all have a basic understanding of what these things are… even before AI…
Play Grave Sucking 0:00-1:58
Poll Results
Play Grave Soaking Teaser 0:00-0:51
Ok- so there is a link with grave sucking… with NAR… with Bethel… with Mike Pilavichi… with the occult… with New Age… and it’s starting to be linked into AI… [pause]
I shared at the end of last week…. that this summer… this has been the most challenging Bible studies I have ever prepared for… [pause]
I’m much better at just going line by line through the Scriptures…
But these are things that are going to deceive in the last days… [pause]
We will probably spend a night on some of the NAR and Bethel stuff[pause]
I do want to get to the AI and tie this in… but I also want to make sure we have a good enough understanding of what are we talking about with new age
[pause] Because the grave sucking… that can be classified in hyper-charasmatic… or occult… or new age practices… [pause]
Well it’s this kinda… this mixed up… mashed up… confusing blend to it all…
[pause] Now one of the points to make… and I’m going to tie this back to that group I was in… [pause]
When we had small group discussions and things come up- I would almost always quote the Bible…
At one point… [pause] and this group would not consider themselves New Age… they were a church associated with the church of England… [pause]
I believe the church is a good church… [pause]
It was this program that we were in… for churches to run… [pause]
And that program… it was ok…[pause] but there were a few red flags…
And at one point… I remember a lady finally spoke up after I spoke… and I could just sense she was feeling this huge sense of relief… like she just got a piano lifted off her back…
She had finally been saying something that she had been wanting to say for a really long time… [pause]
And she goes “you know… I don’t care too much for all the quoting of the Bible and the chapter and verse… [pause]
I’ve never been too into that… and it doesn’t really speak to me…
[pause] I think we can just have God in our hearts and we should love other people… [pause]
But all the quoting of the Bible verses…
Makes everyone else feel like they don’t know as much… and almost like your talking down to everyone else [pause]
So it’s just never been my thing” [pause] [pause]
I’m thinking “whoa… and sorry… [pause]
I definitely did not mean to come off judgemental” [pause]
But again… a group that wound up going forward with reading a book by a guy who did things to attempt to receive anointing from a dead man…
that is an occult practice… a new age practice… [pause]
and a common theme is within these groups… New Agers believe they stand on a higher spiritual and moral ground [pause]
they believe that… and the reason they believe that is because they believe their faith seems more loving, tolerant, and open-minded… [pause]
The guy who quotes verses… they think he is a Bible thumper… judgmental man… [pause] who has knowledge but lacks love and is completely closed off to the idea of spiritual gifts… [pause]
Ok… so on the screen you see a table… this is by by Melissa Doughtery from the book “Apologetics for an ever changing culture”
Meditation… this will involve Channeling/Psychics/Spirit Guides…
The goal is to communicate with spirits or other entities who are said to guide and assist us….
I’m just going to name a few from this list… each could be a whole Bible study about how these things are deceptive and against the Bible… [pause]
Crystal Healing… Energy Work/Reiki… Yoga… Numerology… Aura… Vision Quests…. Past Life Redression… Universalism… tarot reading… karma… sacred geometry [pause]
The only one I want to highlight outside of the one relevant to tonight… is the concept that all beings and the universe are interconnected… [pause]
I say that… because you hear that a lot now days- from many different people… [pause]
From a sportscaster to a podcaster and so on… you’ll here people say “the universe”… and they’ll use that term… in really strange ways… [pause]
‘the universe had Indiana winning this year” [pause]
Ok… so the big point here… the channeling of spirits is a new age belief and practice…
And with AI… we are seeing people attempt to channel spirits using AI- but in a really strange way… [pause]
With the grave sucking… they might be channeling actual spirits… [pause]
But with the AI- and this is why we did such a long explanation just about how AI actually works last week… [pause]
With the channeling of spirits through AI… I don’t think anything is happening… [pause]
Now… Satan is using AI when people do this…
He’s tricking people… and deceiving them… [pause]
But I don’t believe an actual spirit is being channeled… I say that on the basis of how AI works… [pause]
You might say… well…
? do you have a Biblical example to support your opinion? [pause]
I would say yes…
In first Samuel.. king Saul goes to a medium and ask her to… bring up… to channel… the spirit of Samuel who is now dead… [pause]
1 Samuel 28:8-14
8So Saul disguised himself and put on other garments and went, he and two men with him. [pause]
Ok- so she won’t recognize this as king Saul… he’s disguised… [pause]
And they came to the woman by night.
And he said, “Divine for me by a spirit and bring up for me whomever I shall name to you.” [pause]
9The woman said to him,
“Surely you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums and the necromancers from the land.
Why then are you laying a trap for my life to bring about my death?” [pause]
Saul gets a chance not to do this…
He gets an opportunity to leave… reminds you of when Paul wrote to the Corinthians… but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it [pause]
Saul got a way of escape… but he doesn’t take it…
Verse 10… Saul goes ahead… [pause]
10But Saul swore to her by the Lord, “As the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing.” [pause]
11Then the woman said,
“Whom shall I bring up for you?” [pause]
He said, “Bring up Samuel for me.”
12When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. [pause]
? if this is a routine thing… [pause] ? why would she cry out? [pause]
The reason she cries out is because the routine is that nothing actually happens…
She just tricks the person… and gets paid… [pause]
But here a spirit actually comes up… [pause]and she’s terrified… [pause]
And the woman said to Saul, “Why have you deceived me? You are Saul.”
13The king said to her, “Do not be afraid. What do you see?” [pause]
Saul is comforting the medium at this point…
She is terrified…
She’s not used to actually seeing a spirit… [pause]
And Saul says don’t be afraid… [pause]
And the woman said to Saul, “I see a god coming up out of the earth.”
14He said to her, “What is his appearance?”
And she said, “An old man is coming up, and he is wrapped in a robe.”
And Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground and paid homage. [pause]
Ok- so in this instance the medium actually called up a spirit… but normally she didn’t… [pause]
Now all the other times when she would trick people ? was Satan involved?
Yeah- absolutely..
There’s a whole list of sins you could go through… and so of course the enemy is involved there… [pause]
But in terms of her faking it… and people paying her money…
Nothing actually happened… [pause]
And so there is an example of Satan using something… or someone in this woman at Endor… to trick people into thinking they are summoning spirits…
[pause] And while Satan is involved… spirits are not actually being brought up… I’m Talking about all the times before Saul… [pause]
And so with AI… and people believing they are awakening dead spirits…
I personally believe the same thing is happening… [pause]
It’s the pre-Saul medium at Endor… and this woman tricking these people…
It’s sin… [pause]
The enemy is involved…
But spirits are not being called up… [pause]
And by the way… this medium at Endor event happened over 3,000 years ago… it was channeling spirits… it was New Age… [pause]
But you can see… the New Age stuff isn’t really anything new… [pause]
It’s just repackaged… relabeled… wrapped in confusion… changed with culture… and right here again… [pause]
Play ChatGPT Religion 0:51-5:27; 16:44-18:16, 18:49-19:25
Ok- so that’s a bit about the channeling… or attempted channeling…
Again- I don’t believe these user are even channeling actual spirits… but they are attempting to…
the verses I shared with my group back in 2020… I shared those because they clearly show that the Mosaic law prohibits consulting mediums
God’s law prohibits communicating with the dead (Lev 19:31),
So anyone who tries to channel a spirit… that’s sin…
those who do this face God’s direct opposition and separation from the community
Leviticus 20:6
6“If a person turns to mediums and necromancers, whoring after them, I will set my face against that person and will cut him off from among his people.
Now… it’s not just about not following God’s law… at a layer deeper it’s about not trusting God…
Isaiah frames consulting the dead as a misplaced trust… contrasting it with seeking God directly and questioning whether the living should seek the dead
Isaiah 8:19-20
19And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,”
should not a people inquire of their God? [pause]
Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? [pause]
20To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. [pause]
Isaiah shows us the root of the sin…
channeling spirits represents a fundamental misdirection of spiritual trust….
Rather than approaching God through established means… channeling seeks guidance from alternative spiritual sources…
whether understood as demonic forces, deceptive spirits, or the dead themselves…. [pause]
remember we just read about King Saul who had previously kicked out all the mediums from his kingdom…
later he’s seeking out a medium to contact Samuel
Saul’s went to channeling even though he had legitimate channels of divine communication… dreams, sacred lots, and prophets…
Saul’s desperation drove him to violate his own laws…
Saul shows us spirit channeling becomes attractive when… faith and trust in God’s direct guidance… weakens….
channeling spirits is sinful because it represents spiritual infidelity
it represents an attempt to access supernatural knowledge and power through sources other than God…. [pause]
Ok… ? So What? [pause]
We learned about spirit channel and people trying to awaken their AI chat-bots…
? what in the world does this have to do with me today?
You say “mike… I’m never going to talk to ChatGPT like it’s a human… and I’m certainly never going to attempt to channel a dead spirit through AI or grave sucking or anything…
So how does this apply to me tonight… [pause]
Tonight is 1 part… in a multiple part series… about not being led astray…
Underneath… as a foundation to everything we are talking about during this series… and everything we will talk about in this series… is 2 Thessalonians…
That’s why we spent that one night just reading through it…
2 Thessalonians 2:7
7For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.
Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way.
When the restraint against lawlessness is removed… all that’s left in the heart of men is to do evil…..
Even your life and my life, the only thing that restrains us is the Holy Spirit…
The Holy Spirit restrains us from doing what our sin nature wants us to do…
Paul says in the last days when there will be corruption in the church
There will be a generation arise who don't esteem the word of God.
They have their own thoughts…
they have their own ways of perceiving truth…
and they will bring this into the church…
They will boast of their study, but their study will never bring them to the place where God would have them to be… or to become the people that God would have them to become….
I believe… I interpret this verse… that the restrainer is the presence of God's Holy Spirit within His church on the earth….
It is you and I that God uses to hold back this darkness that would swallow our entire society….
It would swallow up goodness….
It would swallow up our families...
It would destroy our society….
? How is it possible that this restraining power of God's Holy Spirit can actually be taken out of the way, allowing evil to reign?
it's important to understand this…
because you and I have the power to stand against this lawlessness.
We can push it back
The Bible tells us that when we pray… we can command mountains to be cast into the sea and they will obey us.
There are incredible promises that God gives to us when we walk with Him in truth, in righteousness, and with faith in the core of our hearts.
Now, the restrainer is taken out of the way when the Word of God is no longer the guide for people’s thoughts and actions
This is what Paul says is going to happen in the last days.
There'll be people who will choose what to believe and choose what not to believe…
They'll make excuses for not following the Bible…
Excuse for immorality
Excuse for cheating… lying… slandering…
They’ll make excuses for everything…
They'll pick and choose what they want to believe.
They're always learning…. But the restraining power of God will not be working through them….
Their speech does not restrain evil.
Their behavior does not restrain evil.
Their presence does not restrain evil.
But they will join in the evil and cover it all up with Christian talk…. [pause]
This is AI Jesus… talking to AI like it’s a spiritual leader… creating that AI Jesus chat bot from 2 weeks ago… [pause]
For us… for you and me tonight…
we can’t ever resist certain parts of the Bible… and then embrace other parts that we like
we can’t push away the hard parts… and then just agree with the parts that make us feel good…
The Bible has to be the source of our thinking….
When we came to Christ… we became new creations in Christ
The old things are passed away, and all things become new….
Everywhere we walk, every room we go into, every conversation we have,
we become that restrainer
pushing back evil… putting forth the thoughts of God… [pause]
I’m trying to do this with my new unit- and I know I’ve been met with a little resistance but also met with some who are already now praying with me…
And sharing their faith with me…
And we need to be very intentional that everywhere we go… people would at least see we are different…
We have the presence of God, the anointing of God…
He walks with us and goes into every room we go into…
and you and I are those who God will use to set captives free…
to be a bright light in this increasing dark world…
It's through our lives that others can see the love and light of Christ…
This is who we are on the earth…
This is our purpose on the earth….
And you know a really practical way to accomplish this…
Just a simple prayer…
“Lord God…
I want your ways to become my ways.
I want your words to become my words.
I want your thoughts to become my thoughts.
I want to go to the places you want me to go to…
I don't want one ounce of my own energy, my own thought, my own logic….
I want more of You…
I want You to be the consuming fire of my life….
I want you to take me where I can't go.
I want you to make me into what I could never be in my own strength.
I want you to be glorified through my life… even if it means I lose friends.. I lose family… I’m not welcomed in a church group anymore… I lose my job…
even if I lose my life….
I don't care… [pause]
as long as You are glorified…. [pause] [pause] [pause]
When we pray prayers like that…
And we ask God to use us… [pause] and we desire more of Him… [pause] and we desire to be a light in this world…
A light shining for Christ… [pause]
evil is pushed back…. [pause]
Questions, Thoughts, Comments
