Update: Nearly 6 years ago, when I write this article, the phenomenon of individuals identifying as "Two Spirits" was relatively isolated to Canada. Now, it has hit the mainstream here in the United States as well with addition of LGBTQ2S or other such labeling gaining popularity.
Today I was reading about the time that Paul encountered a young slave girl who possessed a spirit of divination which allowed her "owners" to make a lot of money from her fortune telling. There were 2 spirits in one body, one human spirit belonging to the owner, the other an intruder. He cast the unclean spirit out of her.
Native Americans were certainly no strangers to the idea of spirits. In the same way that ancient Ba'al worshippers laced wine with drugs in order to get high and have visions and communicate with their pagan gods, some Native American tribes used sweat lodges or Peyote to get high or go into a trance and communicate with their spirit guides. It is being claimed that some of the Two Spirits were Shaman and Medicine Men and that their tribes believed them to possess special wisdom because of the two spirits inside them, much the same way that the fortune teller girl Paul encountered seemed to have secret knowledge that others desired.
In John 4, we learn to be careful and discerning concerning spirits. Verse 1 warns us:
Dear Friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God.
Many of you might remember the song we sang growing up in church "Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the World." This comes from verse 5 which helps us understand that Christians are under the influence of the Holy Spirit inside of us and unbelievers are under the influence of Satan. There is a war going on for the hearts and minds of people and the role of every Christian is to protect them from harmful spiritual influences. The cruelest, most uncaring and unfeeling action a Christian can take is NO action when we encounter people who have been deceived by Satan, or even worse, to affirm and encourage them to continue in that deception. This verse actually tells us that we can overcome such spirits:
You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
One result of the 1st Jerusalem council in Acts 15 was that the Holy Spirit and the Apostles affirmed the Biblical definition of sexual sin and required both Jewish and Gentile believers to abstain from sexual immorality. John, one of the apostles, writes the following statement in verse 6 of John Chapter 4 which we have been looking at:
We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us; anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we know the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Deception.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. Satan and his spirits, which we understand to be fallen angels or demons, are the spirits of deception. As a matter of fact, John also provides a description of this deception in John 8:44:
You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
The most powerful tool in Satan's belt is his ability to deceive. He is a liar and a mocker and relentlessly endeavors to make fools out of people. When he can convince a man to think he is a woman, or a woman to think she is a man, or if he can twist a person's desires against God's will for them, he controls that person.
James, the brother of Jesus, describes the plight of a person who has not placed their faith in God. In James 1:8, He explains:
Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.
In the original Greek language, the term double-minded describes someone who has 2 psyches at war within them. Sounds a lot like Two Spirits doesn't it? The word unstable specifically refers to someone torn between who will be in charge of them, who will be their ruler, in this case whether it will be God or Satan.
All of us were, at one time, deceived and disobedient to God before we came to faith. Paul explains this in chapter 2:1-5 of the letter to the Ephesians:
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.
2. Accept the truth about Jesus. Agree with God's word that Jesus died for our sins and rose again so that we could be saved and so that we could have His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, in our lives.
3. Ask Jesus to come into your life, to forgive you of your sins, to fill the emptiness with His life-giving Spirit, to be your Guide. Accept Him as your Savior. End the war for your heart and mind by making the choice. Let God be in charge, make Him the ruler of your heart and He will set you free. To live in deception is to be in bondage and slavery to sin. To live in the Truth is to be set free. 2 Corinthians 3:17 delivers the Truth of God's promise to us:
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
-----------------------
If you are interested in learning more of what the Bible teaches about human sexuality from the One who designed and created our bodies and invented sexuality, you can read about it here:
http://thetrustworthyword.blogspot.com/2016/04/identity-crisis-created-in-image-of-god.html
In John 4, we learn to be careful and discerning concerning spirits. Verse 1 warns us:
Dear Friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God.
Many of you might remember the song we sang growing up in church "Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the World." This comes from verse 5 which helps us understand that Christians are under the influence of the Holy Spirit inside of us and unbelievers are under the influence of Satan. There is a war going on for the hearts and minds of people and the role of every Christian is to protect them from harmful spiritual influences. The cruelest, most uncaring and unfeeling action a Christian can take is NO action when we encounter people who have been deceived by Satan, or even worse, to affirm and encourage them to continue in that deception. This verse actually tells us that we can overcome such spirits:
You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
One result of the 1st Jerusalem council in Acts 15 was that the Holy Spirit and the Apostles affirmed the Biblical definition of sexual sin and required both Jewish and Gentile believers to abstain from sexual immorality. John, one of the apostles, writes the following statement in verse 6 of John Chapter 4 which we have been looking at:
We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us; anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we know the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Deception.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. Satan and his spirits, which we understand to be fallen angels or demons, are the spirits of deception. As a matter of fact, John also provides a description of this deception in John 8:44:
You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
The most powerful tool in Satan's belt is his ability to deceive. He is a liar and a mocker and relentlessly endeavors to make fools out of people. When he can convince a man to think he is a woman, or a woman to think she is a man, or if he can twist a person's desires against God's will for them, he controls that person.
James, the brother of Jesus, describes the plight of a person who has not placed their faith in God. In James 1:8, He explains:
Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.
In the original Greek language, the term double-minded describes someone who has 2 psyches at war within them. Sounds a lot like Two Spirits doesn't it? The word unstable specifically refers to someone torn between who will be in charge of them, who will be their ruler, in this case whether it will be God or Satan.
All of us were, at one time, deceived and disobedient to God before we came to faith. Paul explains this in chapter 2:1-5 of the letter to the Ephesians:
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.
Satan is at work, relentlessly tempting, manipulating and lying to the minds of people. Any spirit that disagrees with God's Word, the Bible, is a spirit of deception. God's word says that He created us as male and female and that the only type of sexual activity that is acceptable is between one man and one woman inside of the covenant relationship of marriage.
The only way to defeat a spirit of deception is with the Truth. Jesus said I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through me. The way to kick any spirit that is deceiving you out of your life is to invite Jesus in. You need to end the war and make the choice. Which spirit will guide you, the Spirit of Truth? Or the spirit of deception?
Here are 3 Steps to escape from the devil's web of lies and get free:
1. Admit you were wrong. Yes, I know, this is the hard part. We all need to come to the point in our lives where we humble ourselves and agree with God's word that our sin is wrong. This is called repentance. We change our minds, disagree with the deceiver and agree with God.
2. Accept the truth about Jesus. Agree with God's word that Jesus died for our sins and rose again so that we could be saved and so that we could have His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, in our lives.
3. Ask Jesus to come into your life, to forgive you of your sins, to fill the emptiness with His life-giving Spirit, to be your Guide. Accept Him as your Savior. End the war for your heart and mind by making the choice. Let God be in charge, make Him the ruler of your heart and He will set you free. To live in deception is to be in bondage and slavery to sin. To live in the Truth is to be set free. 2 Corinthians 3:17 delivers the Truth of God's promise to us:
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
-----------------------
If you are interested in learning more of what the Bible teaches about human sexuality from the One who designed and created our bodies and invented sexuality, you can read about it here:
http://thetrustworthyword.blogspot.com/2016/04/identity-crisis-created-in-image-of-god.html
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