Why Doesn’t God Usually Use Signs and Direct Communication to Talk With Us?

I thought I would share some things I’ve found in the Bible for why God doesn’t speak to us with the cheap signs and promptings that the brain generates when one is in psychosis, and that is common in New Age, such as a butterfly flying passing by that is supposed to mean God is with you, or that He’ll give you new beginnings out of the pain you’ve been experiencing. And, also why God usually doesn’t speak to us with direct messages, like what mediums experience in the New Age.

I don’t claim to have all the answers, just to be clear, but thought I would share some of the things I’ve found in case it helps someone…As always, I encourage my readers to correct me from the scriptures if you see anything to be in error. I appreciate that kind of help 

To be clear, the caterpillar going into its chrysalis to emerge as a butterfly, is a perpetual object lesson in nature that shows us what God wants to do in our character, to mold us to be like Him. The fact that the caterpillar has to melt into an indistinguishable liquid, fully surrendered to the re-creative process, shows us how thorough the process God needs to do in us must be, and how much of a surrender will be required. The striking beauty of the butterfly that emerges is a testament of the glorious change from a heart of selfishness to one of love that radiates the beauty of Christ’s own character features.

God wrote lessons of redemption into the whole scientific world. The leaves are at their most glorious color when they are dying, a testament to the glory of Christ on the cross, and the glory a Christian gives to God when they die to self.

There is already a message in the butterfly, a message that is repeated and retold every time a caterpillar emerges transformed as a new creature. This message bears the divine imprint; it is an elevated, ennobling message given in a very dignified and holy way, the Creator speaking through the created world.

Why then do we feel like we need to cheapen such messages, down to the level of taking an individual butterfly and believing God guided that butterfly to cross our path to give us a personal message? Similarly the promises of the Bible are God’s pledge to us personally – they are meant to be taken personally. They bear God’s mark of authority. He’s given His Word that He sees us a certain way, has certain benevolent thoughts towards us (infinite love directed towards us personally), hears our cries, keeps our tears in a bottle, sympathizes with us, and is preparing a glorious future for us. Why then do we feel the need to part with the Word of God looking for cheap personal messages? If we had an official statement from a worldly king to an inheritance from Him, we would value it above everything else we own. But God’s official statements – His very Word that He swears by His own Name because there is no higher Name to swear by, making the promise absolute – given with all His authority and infinite love aren’t enough for us.

It seems to be a common desire people have – a common fallen desire – to want God to speak to us the way mediums channel spirits.

Some of this may come from good desires to be more in God’s Presence. After all we did lose more direct communication due to sin. We lost something real and significant, and it was a profound loss. We were supposed to hold open communication with God face-to-face, and we don’t have that now. But the answer to that dilemma is to have perseverance, and active patience, and cooperate with God’s process of restoration, so we can be in His direct Presence in heaven, not to seek out a short-cut way to feel like we’re in His Presence through signs, when in fact we can’t be in His Presence right now, no matter what we do, because there’s still sin in us, and there’s still a sin problem in our world at large.

Remember the response the Israelites gave in Exodus 20 when God spoke His law from the mountain? They were terrified because of the holiness of God, and begged Moses to speak to them instead of God, because they feared the holiness of God would consume and destroy them.

We desire God’s Presence – indeed we cannot have full happiness without it – but yet we are sinful, and so being in the Presence of God, seeing Him face-to-face or hearing His audible voice, is not a pleasant experience due to our sin.

I think we forget this sometimes. We have a real, monumental dilemma. And Jesus is the only One who can solve this problem. And He solves it by living a perfect life, dying in our place to forgive our sin, and then leading us through a process of conversion and sanctification where He hews away more impurities, more sin from our character as we go through calculated trials that He sends our way to refine us. (Not everything we go through is a trial from God, just to be clear; people have free will and they use it for evil purposes sometimes, but we can be sure that while there are other factors and influences going on in our lives, God is also sending us the right trials to mold our characters and He is faithful to do.)

The reason these trials are so severe is this is what it takes to make the more-than-superficial changes needed to prepare us to stand in the Presence of a holy God. We must become completely liquidated like the butterfly, and re-formed into a completely different image. Or if you take the object lesson of the potter with the clay, you’ll notice that as he forms the clay, there are many times that he works hard on a formation, and then completely demolishes that formation. You learn that the initial formation wasn’t the goal; he formed the clay that way for the purpose of working it into a more moldable state. Like this potter with the clay, there are often multiple times in our lives where we feel like we’ve lost everything, or nearly everything, where what we had whether it be spiritual or temporal, has been utterly demolished. Where our faith is severely tested and we just don’t understand what is going on, at all. It seems like defeat and final loss, but it’s not. The potter is working us to be even more moldable, removing the traces of pride that would make it impossible for Him to make a finished vessel. Once He gets us into these more moldable states, He then continues the process of forming a useful vessel to His glory.

This process is the only way to one day be able to stand in the Presence of a holy God, and not cry for His Presence and voice to be removed as the Israelites did, but to love and enjoy His Presence and His holiness and not have any sin left that would bring shame and guilt and terror.

Any short-cut ways to feel the Presence of God or receive more direct communication on this earth, are of the enemy, because there is no short-cut way.

When the prophets had visions of God, they cried “Woe is me for I am undone!” They didn’t enjoy their visions and dreams of God. It was a terrifying experience. But also one where they – and us because we received their prophecies through the Bible – got a glimpse of just how wonderful it could be to dwell in God’s Presence if we do cooperate with Him in this process of making us holy.

We can have a quality of life where we are 100% holy, and our God is holy. Jesus said “Be ye holy even as your Father in heaven is holy.” There can be no quality of life higher or better than that. This is what it means to live.

Some of this desires for communication may be from fallen desires. The unstructured, loose way in which mediums get information from spirits, appeals to the fallen part of our heart that wants us to do our own thing, and not take God’s Word as our authority, to not be bound by God’s rules and His structure of order, to not have to obey His truth.

The fallen heart desires extra-biblical sources of spirituality. In fact, the Bible says sorcery is one of the common works of the flesh, along with envy, greed, fornication, and other common sins. (Galatians 5:19-21)

The fallen heart has a distaste for pure Bible spirituality, and wants sorcery instead.

This is a temptation even Christians face, just as they face temptations of greed, hate, fornication, and all the other sins. Until we have a perfect character, temptation will always be a part of our experience.

And it’s important to know this, and to resist temptations to turn our spiritual experience with God into sorcery rather than pure Bible Christianity.

Many of us – often unknowingly – keep trying to find ways to make Christianity like sorcery, with the Holy Spirit communicating messages to us, keep looking for scriptures that might mean God does do this with us, keep joining branches of Christianity that allow for and encourage this kind of thing such, as very charismatic circles or the Word of Faith movement, to name a few.

It seems like a drug that is hard to break away from, has a real addictive quality to it, and is hard to give up for good.

I believe this road of wanting God to be like that and to communicate in that way is a dangerous road. The end of this road is death.

It’s hard for us to accept that God’s way of dealing with us just may be fundamentally different from New Age and other types of false spirituality that appeal to the flesh. And I think if we can see from the scriptures this fundamental difference, it can be easier to accept this as truth, and make a complete break from those dangerous practices. When we are honestly confused and not sure if God communicates in those ways, it’s harder to make a complete break.

I think this question is really important to ask: Why is God’s manner of dealing with us so different from mediumship and channeling?

I don’t claim to have all the answers, as I said earlier, especially with a topic this complex and that involves Satan’s deceptive false miracles and communications, a being who is much more intelligent than any of us, but one key difference I believe is that Christianity is centered in the Word of God. Our whole religion as Christians centers in the Bible, and this is distinctly different from false religions.

In New Age for instance, there’s no cohesive doctrine, because Satan doesn’t have the truth – the Word – and he doesn’t abide by the Word. So these demons can say one thing, and then say something opposite, whatever they can deceive you with.

Full and true unity only exists in those who believe in and live by the authority of the scriptures. This is why angels in heaven have cohesion and unity, but demons on earth lie and create thousands of false religions.

The Bible says there is Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. (Ephesians 4:5-6)

Indeed Christ died to reconcile a lost world to the original family in heaven, for humanity to join the angels as one family. Though in a different situation due to sin, Christ reconciled human beings to Himself and joined us with the angels into one united faith.

“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,
and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”
Colossians 1:19-20 NIV

“he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,
as a plan for the fullness of time, to bring all things in heaven and on earth together in Christ.’
Ephesians 1:9-10

“For this reason I kneel before the Father,
from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.”
Ephesians 3:14-15

How is this family united? It’s the truth that unites us and makes unity possible. (The devil has counterfeit unity, but it’s not the genuine article and there is hatred and discord, and lies.)

In Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane on John 17, He prays for oneness among His people, who He says He’s given the Father’s Word to, and the world hates them because they have this Word. It’s this Word – The Father’s Bible truths – that cause others of the faith to love the believers and join them, and those who do not love the faith to hate and war against those of the faith. The Word – or the truth (thy word is truth), is the unifying factor.

“Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.”
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.
He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.
John 8:43,44,45,47

“Then You are a king!” Pilate said. “You say that I am a king,” Jesus answered. “For this reason I was born and have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to My voice.”
John 8:37

Speaking of Christ, the prophet Ezekiel prophesied:
“My servant David will be king over them, and there will be one shepherd for all of them. They will follow My ordinances and keep and observe My statutes.”
Ezekiel 37:24

Notice that the truth, a.k.a the Word, as they are the same, is what unifies God’s people and divides them from the world. It’s the dividing line.

Notice in the following passages, how Jesus says His sheep hear His voice. How do they know it’s His voice? It’s the same concept as above; because it’s the truth, and they want and love truth, so they respond to His call to follow His truth.

“When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.”
John 10:4

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:”
John 10:27

The tones of Christ’s voice are not given as the distinguishing factor to know His voice from a stranger’s, from a counterfeit Christ’s. It’s the truth He speaks that causes them to recognize His voice. It’s also the truth that causes those who are not of His flock to rebel and hate Him.

Truth is the dividing factor.

When it comes to the backstory of Satan, the Bible says he abode not in the truth. John 8:44 Then it says: “Your Word is truth.” John 17:17

What Satan did is he took himself as his authority rather than God and His Word.

Wisdom on what to do with your life, which road to take, which major decisions to make, comes from reading and understanding His Word. God doesn’t give us nudges or signals like we do with dogs when we want them to come, or do specific things. Dogs lack understanding, and this is why it’s ok to give them commands that they mindlessly perform without reasoning, but it wouldn’t be ok for God to direct human beings made in His image with these kinds of signals. It would stifle our mental and spiritual growth.

No, rather God makes us the managers of our life under Him, so there’s a lot of thought on our part that goes into that.

God wants sons and daughters, not slaves, and so He deals with us in ways that respect our dignity as sons.

There seem to be a lot of people – in and out of the New Age – who want to help others psychologically and emotionally, for instance to help them heal from past trauma. This is of course, a good desire. But it’s important we do so in a way that agrees with the scriptures. People want gifts from God…many times this kind of gift is referred to as the gift of discernment…where God’s Spirit tells them what a person suffered from in their past, and gives details of the person’s life, so they can connect with them and help them heal. But, how is this manner of working with God any different from how a medium works with spirit guides? It really doesn’t seem to be fundamentally different at all. Spirit guides have just been replaced with the Holy Spirit.

Does it pass the test of God’s Word? How does God’s Word say He gives wisdom and knowledge to us?

Notice how God’s guidance involves teaching and instruction, not a to-do list that we blindly obey:

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;

I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.

9 Do not be like the horse or the mule,

which have no understanding

but must be controlled by bit and bridle

or they will not come to you.

Psalm 32:8-9

God’s Word says God doesn’t blindly give details or guidance like a checklist, rather He instructs and teaches instead.

Look at the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30. God gives talent and ability – raw assets – and he leaves us in charge of these raw assets to develop them and increase them. He treats us as managers; He doesn’t micromanage us and treat us as slaves who are to go through a daily checklist mindlessly. He doesn’t command us the way we command a golden retriever to obey. Rather we learn a set of principles from His Word, and He helps us implement these principles in a wise way.

So, when working with someone who you think may have past trauma…if God just dictates to you everything, how does this in any way follow the way of working outlined in His Word? It really seems to go contrary to it. People who have information dictated to them do not become more efficient workers. They are stifled mentally and morally. They don’t become better managers and workers.

Let’s say you’re a Bible worker, or a Medical missionary, and you’re trying to help someone heal who’s been through trauma. God wants us to study the human body. Study how the emotions and the mental processes work, how trauma impacts the body and brings on body and brain inflammation, how God designed our mind to make moral judgments, and life decisions. To really get to the root of what is going on with that person, and give them effective treatment and help.

If God just gave you signals or communications and told you everything about the person, once again He’d be micromanaging the medical missionary. The medical missionary wouldn’t have to learn how the mind and emotions work. The medical missionary wouldn’t have to use their own mind to think through a problem and come to a helpful solution. They’d just obey blindly whatever God told them and gain no real skills in the process.

(Not only this but for God to give private information about another person is a breach of confidentiality. The reason we can’t read each other’s thoughts is a privacy issue. Every human being on earth has a certain privacy in their thoughts with themselves and God alone; and it’s a human right for them to have that privacy and that intimacy with God alone that no other person can share in, and the fact only God can read our thoughts gives us an intimacy with Him that is His right alone to share with us, and that no other person has a right to. The person then decides what information to share with you and what information to withhold – and God wants them to use the principles from His Word to wisely judge which information is right to share with another and which should be shared only with God. It’s their responsibility to decide whether to share and to be managers over their lives in that way. If God were to tell us secret details about that person, he bypasses that person’s agency and their responsibility as manager of themselves and disrespects it.)

This is what mediums do and how demons work with mediums, and you can see how they just end up being the mouthpiece of demons, just pawns on his chess board that he moves any which way he desires. Demons don’t have any qualms with using people, and treating them as less than human, but God would never mistreat us, and He wants the kind of relationship with us that involves respect, and treating us as sons and daughters made in His image. He wants us to learn and increase in knowledge and wisdom.

It isn’t possible to live a godly life and make wise decisions blindly, without understanding. If you try to blindly obey, you’ll miss the underlying principles of what makes something right and something else wrong, and you’ll make the kinds of mistakes that make shipwreck of your life. (I don’t mean to say that God never asks us to do things we don’t understand – sometimes He does – but we are not meant to blindly obey without understanding all the time, in a routine kind of way. We are meant to have a good grasp on the commands of God, so we understand them enough to know how to carry them out in our lives, without needing the details and specifics to be dictated to us).

In God’s Word God lays out these underlying principles, and the better we understand them, the better choices we’ll make in life.

He doesn’t micromanage us. He wants this kind of a relationship with us where we are growing as a person, multiplying abilities and talents, and rendering back to Him an increase from the raw assets He gave to us. He doesn’t want to micromanage us, and tell what to do in every single detail, and the person just goes through the checklist every day mindlessly. That stifles a person’s mind and they will end up unable to reason and understand God’s Word.

Notice in this verse in 2 Timothy, that the purpose of scripture is for teaching, and training in righteousness. God wants to teach and train us to make wise decisions and live godly lives, not blindly have us do a checklist of things we don’t understand.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,

so that the servant of God[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work

2 Timothy 3:16-17

Again we see in Exodus God explaining that His people need to be taught and they need to learn, not just blindly obey without understanding.

Teach them his decrees and instructions, and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave.

Exodus 18:20

Here in the Psalms, David asks God to teach him through His Word His path of righteousness, so David can live a godly life pleasing to God.

Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths.

Psalm 25:4

He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.

Psalm 25:9

It is not true that God isn’t daily involved in our lives and active in our lives. He didn’t just give us His Word, become a man and die for our sins, go home to heaven, and then leave us to ourselves. This is not what the Bible says at all! Rather He teaches us every day. He comforts us every day. He is with us every day. He just does all these things through His Word, not independent of His Word.

In New Age communication comes independent of any book. You just meditate or seek the universe or spirit guides. But Christianity is fundamentally different, because it’s the truth, and not a false, deceptive religion. In Christianity the Holy Spirit is very involved in our lives, but He’s involved through the Word.

He teaches and instructs us about godly principles as we read and study God’s Word.

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things…

John 14:26

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears…

He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.

John 16:13-14

The Holy Spirit, unlike spirits in the New Age, will not just speak anything and everything at His own discretion. He will magnify the Words of Christ, the same Words that Jesus received from His Father and taught when He walked on earth, the eternal Word of God, the Bible.

The true doctrine found in the Bible is eternal (Isaiah 40:8, Matthew 34:25, 1 Peter 1:25). It will never change, because its basis is God’s own character and His own perfect ways of dealing with us, which God will never stray from; He never changes (Malachi 3:6). And the Holy Spirit will never speak against God’s Word, rather He magnifies it and teaches us from it.

God dwells with us and even in us at conversion. He is a daily presence in our lives. However, unlike New Age, everything is centered in God’s Word. For instance, did you know that when we were born again it came about as a result of God’s Word? All the divine miracles that happen in a Christian’s life happen due to the Word.

For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

1 Peter 1:23

He chose to give us birth through the word of truth…

James 1:18

Did you know that when you are washed clean of your sins by the blood Jesus shed for you, that this is accomplished by God’s Word?

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her

to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word…

Ephesians 5:25-26

It’s through the promises in the Word that we are forgiven of sin, cleansed, and given a new nature…

Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
2 Peter 1:4

That’s how central the Word is to Christianity. It was even through the Word that God created the world. His Word is alive and active; through it He uses His creative and Almighty power to create the world and recreate our hearts, and even to hold up the entire created world, and our very lives.

God doesn’t create us, and then we live of our own power. No, He creates us, and then His word and power sustains our life moment-by-moment.

By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
Hebrews 1:3

By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all the stars by the breath of His mouth.
Psalm 33:6


The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.
Hebrews 1:3

He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
Colossians 1:17

For in him we live and move and have our being.’
Acts 17:28

This is what God the LORD says–He who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it and life to those who walk in it:
Isaiah 42:5

And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.
Acts 17:25

It’s really important to understand how central the Word is in Christianity. The Bible tells us, when there was nothing else except God, God’s Word brought everything else into existence. It also tells us that heaven and earth will pass away, but His Word is incapable of ever passing away. The things which are seen are temporal, but the unseen things – His Word – is eternal.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:18

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
Matthew 24:18

This is really significant here. God’s Word is telling us that it’s the Word that serves as the basis for reality, not the physical world or the things we see around us. Indeed people have life through God’s Word and power – not just by existing. And everything that exists is like that; it’s being held up by the Word of God.

What this means is God’s Word is more real than the things we see around us, and if He has given His Word on something, we know it stands firm and is truth. If it’s something that hasn’t happened yet, we know it will come to pass and cannot fail. Because the Word makes the physical world exist and causes changes in the physical world and is more true and more foundational than the physical world.

So…a religion that has the Word as its basis…is a religion that cannot be sifted, cannot fall or fail. There is nothing stronger to base our faith and religious experience on than the Word.

AND if we base our faith or religious experience on anything else besides the Word, our faith and experience will fail.

Jesus tells a parable to illustrate this central truth…

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
Matthew 7:24-25

When Jesus gives us His Word as the basis of our faith, too often we think He’s withholding blessings from us, and that we’re missing our because we aren’t getting direct communications. We think direct communications are a step up, and a better kind of relationship to have, and that His Word alone without those communications, is a step down and second-rate, of inferior quality, and even though we won’t usually say this out loud, we often feel cheated. It’s a common thing to feel. (But it’s not right or ok of course as it’s the fallen heart that feels this way)

But God has not given us something inferior when He tells us to build on His Word, and that His Word is the basis of our faith. He’s given us the greatest, most trustworthy and solid thing to build our faith and relationship with Him on.

He’s given us the highest kind of relationship it’s possible to have.

Keep in mind that even the angels who see Him face-to-face have the Word as their basis. They don’t have New Age type experiences with God; like us they have to read and learn the Word and even in heaven the Word serves as the basis of their faith and God teaches them out of the Word.

The Word is so foundational, that God’s Word tells us any supernatural experience must be vetted and tested by the Word. So if you were to have a dream or hear a voice or feel the Presence of God, guess what? You can’t take it as truth. You have to undergo a thorough process of evaluating it by God’s Word (Isaiah 8:20, 1 John 4:1).

So once again you’d just end up back at the Word anyway. So if God just teaches us directly from His Word, then we skip a difficult step (it’s not always easy to test the spirits), and go straight to the truth. It’s more effective to just go directly to the Word.

I think too often we forget our daily interaction with God is supernatural in nature. Let’s say we sin today…we told our sister we’d do something for her and we didn’t do it…we gave our word and failed to carry it out. We go to our sister and to God and ask forgiveness. Then the next time we promise to do something, we pray to God asking Him for strength to actually do it this time, and we make sure to do it. We’ve changed in character, and that is actually a divine supernatural miracle. We can’t change to be more faithful without God’s supernatural power at work in our hearts.

So there’s this tendency to gravitate towards voices and signs, when really these are on the outside of us, but the bigger miracle that actually takes divine power and that Satan can’t counterfeit – giving us a new character that is faithful like God – we downplay too much and don’t see it as supernatural when it is a fully supernatural thing.

God is very health-focused and humble. It’s amazing but the all-powerful God is also meek and humble! And so He uses His divine supernatural power to do things like give us a character like His own, help us overcome sin, implant His own holy desires and motives in us.

But we tend to discount those kinds of things because they are so humble, and having some fallen desires left in us, we want the flashier supernatural experiences. And that’s not right. We need to repent of that and allow God to change us so we can accept who He truly is, otherwise we won’t be ready for heaven where He will use His divine power to serve us and for the purpose of love, not to put on a rock concert and impress and excite everyone.

So…the Christian has the Comforter, the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit, but this is accomplished through the Word, and the Holy Spirit has a relationship with us through the Word.

The Holy Spirit has a much closer relationship with us than any demon in the New Age could ever have with us. Though the demons claimed to be benevolent beings who loved us and though they communicated with us daily, the Holy Spirit does more than this…He actually gives us a new heart of love that keeps God’s commandments. The Holy Spirit gives us his motives, pure desires, benevolent impulses, and recreates us using divine power. There’s no religion that gives a closer God than the One who died for us, and then comes and lives within us to give us His own heart.

When a person channels demons pretending to be God, these demons will often give feelings of being in God’s Presence, feelings of comfort, joy, and even something that feels like holiness, and they will claim these feelings are proof we’re in God’s Presence and we’re close to Him, and right with Him…in pantheistic false religions demons claim to be the divine universe itself, the love and divinity that permeates all things…they claimed to have this unity…and they gave feelings of unity…but it is a show; it isn’t truth. Feelings are not foundational as truth is, and the devil masquerading as an angel of light can give what feel like healthy, holy, and comforting feelings. But none of this means we’re actually right with God because of having such feelings.

If you really think about what these false doctrines would mean if they were true -mit’s a disgusting picture indeed. If everything was God – there’s no beauty in that, just crazy disorder and impurity. For a rock to have the status of God is a debasing doctrine of demons; it’s not the beautiful truth of the scriptures that edifies.

The Bible says we will become like whatever god we worship (Psalm 135:17-18). So if we worship a perverted, sinful picture of god, we become sinful and debased ourselves. It isn’t good for people to worship pagan gods like that. It harms them. It pollutes them.

It isn’t good for people to worship an image of God where He is divorced from His Word and the highest form of communication is personal signs and communications, and not His eternal Word. This picture of God alters Him to be like pagan deities, and will have a corrupting influence on those who adopt this image.

Praise God that He has something pure and foundational for us; a religion based on the truth, pure and perfect. Let’s not go back to any of that, and make a clean break from anything resembling mediumship or channeling, not desiring to worship God in the way of mediumship and New Age practices, but according to Bible truth.

“be careful not to be ensnared by their ways after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, asking, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.”
You must not worship the LORD your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the LORD hates.”
Deuteronomy 12:20-31

It’s common for people to believe that signs and visions are indicators that someone is very godly, very close to God. In some charismatic circles you are not even considered to be saved unless you’ve spoken in tongues. And those who have the most supernatural experiences are considered to be the most godly people.

Thus, a Christian in these circles may spend many years seeking out supernatural manifestations, believing this is the pinnacle of the Christian experience, the highest goal to be desired. I’ve heard people in such circles say things like “If you only have the Word of God and a changed heart, you’re missing out on the greater experience God wants to give you by giving you prophecies and dreams and spiritual manifestations. Don’t hold yourself back from the greater blessing that could be yours, start praying for these spiritual gifts right away.”

They think dreams, visions, and supernatural manifestations would give them a higher or greater Christian experience that is superior to having the Word and a changed heart through the Spirit alone without those other things.

But what does God’s Word say?

anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:19

A very godly Christian, one whom heaven calls great, is the person who embraces, and builds their life on God’s Word, and teaches and helps others to do the same.

To the extent that we build our lives on the Word, and accept the ingrafted Word into our hearts to change our character, we glorify God. We can of course glorify Him to a greater or lesser extent depending on how surrendered we are to His Word and how obedient we are. We should aim for glorifying Him to the greatest extent we are capable of.

Visions, and dreams, and spiritual manifestations are not the mark of true greatness according to the Bible. John the Baptist Jesus declared to be the greatest person who had ever lived (Matthew 11:11), and he did no miracles. What did he do to receive such approval from Christ? He had a character like Christ’s; he lived and taught God’s Word and was changed by it into an image that reflected Jesus. He prepared God’s people for Christ’s coming by preaching the Word, and brought many people into the faith in so doing.

It’s what we do with the Word – with truth – that determines whether we are great in God’s eyes or least in His eyes.

In the book of Jeremiah, God compares false visions and dreams to straw, and His Word to grain.

Let the prophet who has a dream retell it, but let him who has My word speak it truthfully. For what is straw compared to grain?” declares the LORD.
Jeremiah 23:28

What good is straw? God asks. It can’t provide nutrition. It can’t feed the people. Instead, they starve. But the Word of God is like grain, that can sustain and nourish us spiritually.

Flashy visions and dreams can’t meet the soul’s need. What we need is forgiveness of sin, a new heart, the Holy Spirit dwelling within us and giving us holy motives, desires, and thoughts. We need the hope of the resurrection and the Second Coming of Christ, freedom from sin, and a life calling to join God Himself in His work for the lost. We need truth instead of lies, clarity, and wisdom to live our daily lives and walk in obedience to God.

Where do all these things come from? The Word of God, and the Spirit working through that Word. They don’t come from visions and spiritual manifestations.

In this same chapter in Jeremiah 23, God speaks harshly against those who flippantly use the phrase “I received a message from the Lord” and whose false prophecies go directly against His Word to mar His name. We need to sacredly guard the Lord’s Name and be careful to conclude a prophesy is from Him only after much searching of the scriptures and prayers for wisdom. If the prophecy goes directly against His Word in some way, including the nature of how it is given; if it’s given in a cheap way that would take God’s Name in vain – then we can be sure it’s not from God and we should not be telling others about it.

Here is what each of you people keeps on saying to your friends and other Israelites. You ask, ‘What is the Lord’s answer?’ Or you ask, ‘What has the Lord spoken?’
But you must not talk about ‘a message from the Lord’ again. That’s because each person’s own words become their message. And so you twist the Lord’s words. He is the living God. He is the Lord who rules over all. And he is our God.
Here is what you keep saying to a prophet. You ask, ‘What is the Lord’s answer to you?’ Or you ask, ‘What has the Lord spoken?’
You claim, ‘This is a message from the Lord.’ But here is what the Lord says. ‘You used the words, “This is a message from the Lord.” But I told you that you must not claim, “This is a message from the Lord.”
’So you can be sure I will forget you. I will throw you out of my sight. I will also destroy the city I gave you and your people of long ago.
I will bring on you shame that will last forever. It will never be forgotten.”
Jeremiah 23:35-40