Studies

From Darkness to Light
Mathew 24:5, 23-25 “5For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ, ‘and will deceive many.
23“Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it.
24“For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.
25“See, I have told you beforehand…”
Revelationj19:20 ‘Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone.’
Revelation 20:10, 15 10‘The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.’
15‘And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of Fire.’
New Age and Occultic Experiences:- While at boarding school we got caught up in some very evil and dangerous things, such as Ouija boards and levitation. I remember not really believing that the glass on the Ouija board was moving on its own, but felt someone’s hand was moving it. Maybe God was protecting me with my thoughts. I know now that we were opening ourselves up to all sorts of problems and manifestations later on. Then there was levitation, because I was the smallest in the dormitory, I was used to be levitated. I believed some sort of science was going on, rather than anything spiritual, again was God protecting me from something? If so it wasn’t because of who I was, but because of his grace.
What happened at school could be why I got involved in allowing other people to read my palm; it interested me because I always wanted to know what was around the corner. I had unknowingly opened myself up to the occult. I went to Peterborough to nurse, and I met a nurse who read palms and was also a Christian. She felt, as I did, that this was a gift from God (this was not a gift I felt God had given me). We hadn’t read Deuteronomy 18:10 ff. Both of us joined the Christian Union and the two leaders were trying to warn us of the dangers of this type of journey. My friend was eventually persuaded about the perils, but I’m sorry to say that at the time I was not so easily convinced; I was a bolshie teenager. The leaders kept saying I needed my own faith not my father’s. Eventually I came to see the truth of their words, but not until a lot of heartache and soul-searching had gone on.
Later while on a Christian youth weekend at Willersley Castle in Derbyshire, (as a leader), a few older members of the group decided to call a spirit up, thinking they were just playing a game with an Ouija board. They got a little more than they bargained for – a spirit, an evil spirit. It took the only committed Christian in the room to be able to break the glass against the wall and send the spirit packing. Why he was there in the first place, God knows. Only explanation could be that he didn’t realise these things are real. The others were so terrified they were all at communion the next day, saying there has to be a God if there is such evil. If we don’t give the right teaching, then these things will invade our youngsters!
New-age (Aquarius) verses Christ. New-age is basically an old religion going into everything we are told by God not to. Channelling is another word for medium; believing in a one world religion, palm reading, reading horoscopes (horror being the operative word). People say there’s no harm in it, as long as we don’t take it too seriously. I used to read my horoscope, thinking it might show me my future. I remember reading that I would get a letter from America, I did; I was waiting for a letter from a certain singer’s appreciation society, the devil would have known this and used it to his advantage: demons don’t know the future, but they know the past and present enough to calculate what might happen in the future sufficiently to make us believe they are telling us our destiny. (Demons are intelligent beings, as are angels, and they have a will). I read up on my zodiac sign and another person’s to see if we could be friends and all the time looking for God through this. My faith was in people, hoping they could give me the stability and encouragement I needed to make it. After I’d been to see a particular person, realising it was a large mistake, I cried all the way home wheeling my bike, but something in the spirit had broken. I knew what I’d been doing was wrong, searching for God in all the wrong places; but that didn’t matter to God because I was still searching for him. He let me go so far and then slowly started to reveal who he really was. When I gave up going my own way and started to walk towards him, I found him running towards me, picking me up and turning me around.
In amongst this, another ‘friend’ of mine was determined to read my ‘tarot cards’, even after telling her I was not interested, she read them anyway. Having gone to bed late that night I woke up feeling evil looking in on me. I was terrified, but in the name of Jesus I told it to go. If it was trying to scare me back, it didn’t work.
Deuteronomy 18:10-13 10‘Let no-one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft. 11Or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. 12Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord, and because of these detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out these nations before you. 13You must be blameless before the Lord your God.’(NIV)
As we have just read, if we get involved in anything such as mediums, divination, etc. we are an abomination to God. Yet, in books like ‘From witchcraft to Christ’ by Doreen Irvine, we see how God, through Christ, still managed to reach a Queen of the witches, a prostitute, drug addict etc. all in one person, for no other reason but that he loved her and wanted to claim her for himself. He can do the same for anybody who calls out to him, whomever and where ever their lives end up. No-one still living is out of the reach of Jesus. John 8:1-11 – no-one is beyond His redemption.
Several times since, I’ve felt the manifestation of evil and have allowed it to frighten me. Then once before going to Israel, a Demon pounced on me while asleep, when I woke I even felt the pressure of where he’d been. By this time, being so fed up, I said, ‘O go away, I’m not afraid of you,’ and turned over. It went immediately. It never came back until around nine years later, before going to work at a care home, believing the job was of God. Again, I felt its presence and told it to go away in the name of Jesus. It took several goes, but it went, and I went back to sleep. That disturbed me, but I knew what was inside me was more than what was in the world. When I went to work at this particular ‘care home’, I felt as if every demon there raised up their ugly heads against me. The atmosphere completely overwhelmed me, and I was out within three weeks.

Do all religions need to God?:- It is not a case of, where we were born as to what God you believe in, it is not just another path!
If you are a Muslim – God can’t have a son; if you are a Hindu – there are many gods, and you will come back as many times as it takes to become perfect, even as a fly if you are naughty enough, or in a lower caste sweeping the streets to be treated less than human by others, or if you good enough you may come back as a priest. Buddhism is a philosophy (as I have since found out) and you create peace by thinking lovely thoughts, or even no thoughts at all, as you empty your mind of everything, giving Satan a chance to put his thoughts into your head; you may come back in another body, until you find perfection. What a confused God. In every other religion we have to reach for perfection.
Through Christ God came down to us while you were still sinners. God tells Christians through his word, the Bible, he has a Son and only through belief and faith in his one and only Son, can we come to know God. He is the Light, and no-one comes to the Father except through Him. He said it, I believe it. Romans 5:8 ‘…while we were still sinners Christ died for us.’ We can’t do anything to earn our way to heaven.

A very good friend of mine called Jan, who works in the prophetic, gave me this warning, before making a trip to Cambridge about 17 years ago, she told me to, ‘Beware of the false Prophet’. As is my wont I love to go into bookshops when I have the time, and at that stage went to Cambridge every week or so. The Christian bookshelves always drew me, so upon entering the shop I would make my way to that floor or section. On this particular occasion, I walked into a large bookshop and located the appropriate floor (religion), when I saw all of these books on new age, some of them were by a couple called Mark and Elizabeth Clare Prophet (note the surname). They started the ‘Church Universal and Triumphant’. One book I picked up, had a lot of misquotes from the Bible, especially from the book of John. How we think can go so seriously wrong when quoting the Bible, twisting the words to suit our own purposes. The Bible as quoted, without the inspiration of the Holy Spirit can be so dangerous. How we can make our own prisons and believe the lies that Satan spins us. Know the devil’s schemes.

Elizabeth Clare Prophet taught that her husband Mark, upon his death, became an Ascended Master known as the Ascended Master Lanello[6] (the name comes from the combination of two of the names of his many asserted former incarnations, Sir Lancelot and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow). It is believed by those adherent to the Church Universal and Triumphant and other Ascended Master Teachings organisations that the Master Lanello was previously incarnated as a high priest at the Temple of the Solar Logos in Atlantis; Noah, Ikhnaton, Aesop, Mark the Evangelist, Origen, Sir Lancelot; Bodhidharma, founder of Zen Buddhism; Clovis I, first King of France; Saladin, St. Bonaventure, Louis XIV, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; and Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia.