Deuteronomy 18:9–14 (CSB) — “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not imitate the detestable customs of those nations. 10 No one among you is to sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire, practice divination, tell fortunes, interpret omens, practice sorcery, 11 cast spells, consult a medium or a spiritist, or inquire of the dead. 12 Everyone who does these acts is detestable to the Lord, and the Lord your God is driving out the nations before you because of these detestable acts. 13 You must be blameless before the Lord your God. 14 Though these nations you are about to drive out listen to fortune-tellers and diviners, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do this.

The need to know the will of God when facing uncertain times, sorrow, and hardship is one of the basic felt needs of the human soul, so the nations around Israel had devised various magical procedures for seeking out supernatural guidance.  Although they thought that they were seeking the divine will, their practices caused them to drink the cup of demons and God considered their practices an abomination.

Israel was supposed to wait upon God to make his will known and blamelessly follow the ancient ways that he had shown them rather than trying to use the spiritual practices of the pagan nations that surrounded them because God knew that if they sought him out in the manner of the pagan nations, they too would drink the cup of demons and be led astray in rebellion and apostasy.

DIVINATION IS A CONTEMPORARY CONCERN

According to a Telegraph Report, witchcraft has moved into mainstream America and is thriving with an estimated 1.5 million Americans now identifying as witches – more than the total number of Presbyterians.

At the heart of divination – an umbrella term for things like witchcraft, sorcery, magic, astrology, and so on – is a perversion of the human desire to know and understand the Divine will; to touch the supernatural realm and take the forbidden fruit for oneself.

Divination is not only present in these 1.5 million Americans who are now practicing witches, but it is also very much present in many churches today:

Ezekiel 13:1–7 (CSB) — The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who are prophesying. Say to those who prophesy out of their own imagination, ‘Hear the word of the Lord! 3 This is what the Lord God says: Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing. 4 Your prophets, Israel, are like jackals among ruins. 5 You did not go up to the gaps or restore the wall around the house of Israel so that it might stand in battle on the day of the Lord. 6 They saw false visions and their divinations were a lie. They claimed, “This is the Lord’s declaration,” when the Lord did not send them, yet they wait for the fulfillment of their message. 7 Didn’t you see a false vision and speak a lying divination when you proclaimed, “This is the Lord’s declaration,” even though I had not spoken?

The prophets who proclaimed false visions and delivered lying messages in the LORD’s name were exposed as diviners because they were pursuing the divine will through spiritual means rather than waiting upon the LORD and pursuing the ancient way:

 Jeremiah 6:16 (CSB) — This is what the Lord says: Stand by the roadways and look. Ask about the ancient paths, “Which is the way to what is good?” Then take it and find rest for yourselves. But they protested, “We won’t!”

The fastest growing segment of Christianity today embraces an understanding of prophecy that allows people to proclaim “the Lord says” even when he has not spoken and has opened the Church’s door to the spiritual practices of divination that empower false prophecy by rejecting the Biblical tests of prophecy given to us by God (Deut. 13:1-4; 18:20-22) and by refusing to tremble at the word of the LORD (Isa. 66:2).  We must listen to Christ (Deut. 18:15; cf Acts 3:19-23); but many today protest and say “we won’t!”  They are pursuing divination through false prophecy.

DIVINATION IS CARNAL

Even though these spiritual practices by which people seek God appear to many to be “spiritual”, they are carnal works of the flesh:

Galatians 5:19–21 (CSB) — Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, 21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I am warning you about these things—as I warned you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Those who are seeking spirituality in the name of Christ confuse true Christian spirituality with carnality.  One Christian Witch (more here and here) wrote that Christian witchcraft is “for those of us who love Christ and the Craft and are unwilling to give up either…”

This kind of thinking comes from rejecting the exclusivity of Christ to which every Christian disciple is called when they first follow Christ (Jn. 14:6; Mt. 10:37-39; Lk. 9:23-24) and forgetting that God demands that we choose between Christ and “the Craft” (Jos. 24:15; Jer. 7:9-10).

A CONTEMPORARY MESSAGE OF REPENTANCE

The Church will have to learn once again how to engage paganism and divination with the gospel of Jesus Christ and raise the trumpet of repentance to warn those who are practicing these abominable acts of the impending judgment of El Shaddai – God Almighty:

Revelation 9:20–21 (CSB) — The rest of the people, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands to stop worshiping demons… 21 And they did not repent of their murders, their sorceries, their sexual immorality, or their thefts.

Revelation 19:15 (CSB) — A sharp sword came from his mouth, so that he might strike the nations with it. He will rule them with an iron rod. He will also trample the winepress of the fierce anger of God, the Almighty.

Many in our Christian fellowships have ridiculed those who warned of the coming dangers as witchcraft and sorcery were normalized in our entertainment.  Many Christians silenced those who called for separation between the Church and enjoying the things that God forbade.  But now their children have been raised and many of them are becoming witches and embracing the spiritual practices of false prophecy within the Church.

Christians cannot embrace these things, we must be holy!

2 Corinthians 6:14–7:1 (CSB) — Don’t become partners with those who do not believe. For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? 15 What agreement does Christ have with Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16 And what agreement does the temple of God have with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, as God said: I will dwell and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people. 17 Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord; do not touch any unclean thing, and I will welcome you. 18 And I will be a Father to you, and you will be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty. 1 So then, dear friends, since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from every impurity of the flesh and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.