First the Question: Will we meet again and recognize our loved ones in the hereafter? Yes or No?
Take a moment to respond at the LLM Question of the Day
And now the answer to the LLM Question of 5-20-2012
Question: Does God command evil spirits? Yes or No?
Answer: YES! Well, of course, YES, He certainly does. Now, out of the 793 responses we received to this question, 91.4% of you got it right! Terrific! Therefore, NOW, let us take a look at,
SPIRITISM-ARE WE ABLE TO TALK WITH THE DEAD?, Part 3 of 3
DOES GOD COMMAND EVIL SPIRITS?
Let us stop here to discuss who this spirit being was if it was not Samuel. The Bible scholars who believe God would never allow the spirit of a righteous servant to be called back into earthly dimension through the forbidden Satanic ritual of Necromancy believe this spirit was a demonic being masquerading as Samuel, an ungodly supernatural being under God's direct command!
Does God exercise this kind of control over a demonic being? Well, of course, YES, He certainly does.
In Job 1:6-7, we see that God required both His holy angels and Satan's unholy angels to report to Him while He was sitting on his throne. God required the ungodly Satanic demons to report their activities to Him! With this in mind, you will better understand the account in 2 Chronicles 18:18-22, when God commanded a demonic entity to be a "lying spirit" to deliberately lead wicked King Ahab astray, in order that God might bring Ahab into judgment. Read here, 2 Chronicles 18:18, "Therefore hear the word of the LORD; I saw the LORD sitting upon his throne, and all the host of heaven standing on his right hand and on his left."
Let us stop right here to identify the "host of heaven" which the holy prophet Micaiah saw in his inspired vision. Based upon what Jesus told us about the final judgment, we can safely identify the angelic host at God's right hand as holy angels, and the angelic host at God's left hand as unholy angels, or demons. In Matthew 25:33, we see that the human order at the final judgment shall be the saved on God's right hand [sheep], and the unsaved on God's left hand [goats].
With this arrangement in mind, consider the flow of the Scriptural account. "And the LORD said, 'Who shall entice Ahab, the king of Israel that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?' And one spake saying after this manner, and another saying after that manner. Then there came a spirit and stood before the LORD and said, 'I will entice him'. The LORD said to him, 'By what means?' And he said, 'I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets'. And the LORD said 'You SHALL entice him and also succeed. Go forth and do so'. Now, you see, the LORD put a lying spirit in the mouths of your prophets ..." [2 Chronicles 18:19-22]
Since the Bible tells us that God is above all evil, and cannot perform evil, we can see that what He has done here is to command a demonic spirit to go to Ahab to whisper a lie in his ear that will cause him to make a fatal mistake on the field of battle. This lying spirit was under God's direct order, and he performed his duty right well: King Ahab was killed in battle [2 Chronicles 18:33].
We see a similar scenario in 1 Samuel 16:14, as the hand of God began to move against King Saul. "But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD tormented and troubled him." God commanded an evil spirit, an ungodly demon, to come to King Saul to trouble him as part of His divine judgment against the King.
In 1 Samuel 18:10-11, and 1 Samuel 19:9-10, we see that another evil spirit, an ungodly demon, acting under God's direct orders, persuaded King Saul to try to kill David; however, the LORD ensured that David escaped. "The next day an evil spirit from God came mightily upon Saul, and he raved [madly] in his house, while David was playing on his lyre with his hand ... and there was a javelin in Saul's hand. And Saul cast the javelin, for he thought, 'I will pin David to the wall'.”
Therefore, we do not have much trouble believing that the spirit being coming forth from this ritual performed by the With at Endor was really a demonic being under direct orders from God to not only appear AS Samuel, but to give King Saul the message God wanted to deliver ! [1 Samuel 28:15-19]
Should Christians disguise themselves and go to a woman witch, or psychic, by night to talk with the dead? If they should be so wicked and immoral as to do such a thing, they ought to disguise themselves and wait for the darkness of midnight; but after they do, they ought to do what Saul did after his evil act...“He fell straightaway all along the earth.” Remember that the Holy Spirit had departed from Saul and he was possessed with an evil spirit at the time of his visit.
The human heart is desperately wicked, an evil heart of unbelief that will not receive God’s revelation. God has clearly answered that old, but ever new question...“Man wasteth away, yea man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?”
God in His Holy Word has told us all about the hereafter, that great unseen world, and man’s eternal experience after his days on earth are over.
My dear friend, if you have lost a loving companion, and you are lonely, sad, discouraged, almost desperate, do NOT seek solace in some Satanic delusion. Believe God’s Word. In that blessed Book, The Holy Bible, you can learn all about the present whereabouts of the dead, the whence and whither of the human race. However, if you reject the Bible, there is nothing but darkness, uncertainty and despair.
Thousands have been deceived in ancient and modern Spiritism. Satan can easily impersonate any relative, or lost loved one, by means of his evil spirits and deceive the soul of man. Do you remember what the Apostle Paul said to a sorcerer in his day? “O full of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the LORD?” Acts 13:10.
Then, the Apostle Paul met another one, a woman, a soothsayer, our present day psychic or medium, possessed with the spirit of divination. He said to the evil spirit in her, “I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her, and he came out the same hour.”
Demon possession is a very common thing, in fact it is rampant, in religious circles today, even the worship of demons; but there is nothing new about it. Satan is still the same Satan, though he may change his tactics.
Many splendid people have seen and communed with others in the spirit world; but they have always been deceived by an evil spirit. The “others” were not spirits of people who had ever lived on earth. I am going to quote here several verses of Scripture so you can get God’s answer to this question:
“If a man die, shall he live again?” Job 14:14
“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he, (Christ) also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the Devil”. Hebrews 2:14.
“But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the Grace of God should taste death for every man”. Hebrews 2:9.
“Who hath saved us, and called us with an Holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and Grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel” 2 Timothy 1:9-10.
“I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death”. Revelation 1:18.
“Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live”. John 11:25.
“And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how He spake unto you when He was yet in Galilee”. Luke 24:5-6.
“Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God”. Acts 7:56.
“And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, LORD Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, LORD, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.” Acts 7:59-60.
“We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the LORD”. 2 Cor. 5:8.
“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming”. 1 Corinthians 15:22-23.
Now we spoke of the message God has for each one of us in the story of the rich man and Lazarus. We quote these words of the One who conquered death and who is now seated at God’s right hand in heaven.
“There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day; and there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom; the rich man also died and was buried; and in hades he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you, there is a great gulf fixed; so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, which would come from thence.
Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house, for I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.
Abraham said unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And Abraham said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead”. Luke 16:19-31.
I want to call your attention to the statement of David concerning his little baby that had died, “But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me”. 2 Samuel 12:23. God would teach His children by this verse that we can go to our loved ones who die, but they cannot come back to us.
Now, compare this statement of David with the statement in Hebrews 13:20, “The God of peace, that brought again from dead our LORD Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep.”
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, He was buried, He was raised again the third day according to the Scriptures. He became the firstfruits of them that slept. And at His coming those who are His will receive resurrection bodies and thus be made alive.
Then, if we want to be sure that we shall be made alive at the coming of Christ, we must be sure that we are His. In order that you may see just what will take place when Jesus comes again we quote for you 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.
“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the Word of the LORD, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the LORD shall not precede them which are asleep.
For the LORD Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the LORD in the air; and so shall we ever be with the LORD. Wherefore comfort one another with these words”.
Some of those who are to be Christ’s at His coming are those who have fallen asleep in Jesus; those who have died in The Faith. Mortality is the common heritage of all people. Only BELIEVERS have eternal life. Only those will have eternal life after death who have eternal life before death. Eternal life is the free gift of God. Jesus said “Verily, I say unto you, he that heareth My Word and believeth Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life and shall not come into judgment; but is passed from death to life”. John 5:24.
The Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul said, “You hath He made alive who were dead in trespasses and sin.” Ephesians 2:1
All who belong to Christ are rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God; for Christ is in them, the hope of glory, “When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.”
When the believer, the member of the Body of Christ, passes from this life, his body goes to corruption, but his spirit goes immediately to be with the LORD Jesus in heaven, and there he remains in a conscious state, out of the realm of sin, and sorrow, and death, and sickness, and temptation, until Jesus Christ shall come back again. At that time, the time of the Rapture, when the LORD comes to be joined to His Body in the Air, that believer shall be clothed upon with his house which is from heaven, and in that incorruptible body he shall enjoy that inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. Not only this, but at the same moment of this, every living believer on this earth will be caught up to meet Christ in the air. “And so shall we ever be with the LORD. Wherefore comfort one another with these words”.
However, when the UN-believer dies, his body likewise goes to corruption; but his soul goes to torment in hades, to remain absent from the body in a conscious state of torment until the resurrection of the unjust, AFTER the millennium, to be judged in the body at the Great White Throne judgment. And then to be banished into outer darkness to suffer the sorrow of the second death.
This is the plain teaching of God’s Word. So listen up...“And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life” Revelation 21:27. “And whosoever was NOT found written in the book of life was cast into the Lake of Fire”. Revelation 20:15.
Hades is only the temporary abode of the wicked. The final doom is called the Lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. “The wages of sin is death.” “It is appointed unto men once to die and after this the judgment.”
“There is therefore NOW no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Romans 8:1
How true the words of the LORD, “If they believe not Moses and the prophets, they would not believe though one were raised from the dead.”
Remember this solemn warning of the LORD Jesus Christ: “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.”
“Behold, I have told you before”. Matthew 24:24-25.
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In Ephesians 1:13 the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul declares that men are saved and sealed by hearing and BELIEVING the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your Salvation. Therefore, here, now, is declared unto you the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your Salvation: "that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures" 1 Corinthians 15:3-4. BELIEVE today. The time is short.
So There You Have it!
Spread this message to everyone you know, far and wide.
Grace be to you and peace, from God: our Father, and The LORD Jesus Christ.
In The LORD Jesus Christ,
The Lion and Lamb Ministry
Pastor David Picos, D.D.
Minister and Ambassador for Christ in the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-20)
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