SPIRIT OF DIVINATION
Divination is “the art or practice that seeks to foresee or foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge usually by the interpretation of omens or by the aid of supernatural powers.”
The term “divination” originates from Latin divinare “to foresee, to foretell, to predict, to prophesy” related to divinus, divine, or “to be inspired by a god.” Divination is the effort to obtain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic, standardized process, or ritual. To engage in divination is to reveal mysterious knowledge by supernatural practices. It is correlated with the occult and involves fortune-telling or soothsaying, as it used to be called.
Divination in any manner is sin, as a corrupted seeking of spiritual knowledge. The practicing of divination will deceive you and separate you from the wisdom of God. Christians should avoid all endeavors related to divination, including fortune-telling, astrology, witchcraft, tarot cards, and spell-casting. The spirit realm is real, but it is not harmless. As taught by Scripture, spirits that are not the Holy Spirit or angelic beings are malevolent spirits.
One of the most interesting and controversial facts in Saint Paul’s Secondary Mission, took place at Philippi in Macedonia where Paul exorcised a demon-possessed slave girl. The story follows after Paul and Silas work on evangelizing and the first converts to Christianity.
“As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.
First of all, we need to clarify that the words of the slave girl were not an epiphany be the Holy Spirit. We already know that Prophecy is one of the charismas of the Holy Spirit as is discernment of spirits and mighty deeds (deliverance/exorcism) (1Cor 12:10). Satan has a counterfeit gift for every true gift of the Spirit. This slave girl had a counterfeit demonic gift at work and Paul presumably felt this spiritual discernment. When Paul performs the exorcism, he certainly did not cast out the Holy Spirit from the girl, nor deprive her of any true gifting of the Holy Spirit.
Moreover, the words of the slave girl were ambiguous. As Craig Keener explains: “Most High God” is ambiguous, a common designation for God in Jewish texts but also occurs in pagan sources for Zeus or for the Jewish God with whom pagans sometimes identified Zeus. Magical texts show that pagans respected this supreme God, often identified with the Jewish God, as the most powerful. The spirit ambiguously reduces the missionaries’ deity to a chief role in polytheism.” Eventually, while Jews, proselytes, and God-fearers would have recognized “the Most High God” as YHWH, the average Greek might not. They might think the girl was saying that Paul and the rest were representatives of Zeus. Paul could not let that confusion go unaddressed and this is the fountain of his annoyance.
Christians need not dread the spirits connected to divination; neither are Christians to inquire knowledge from them. True, benevolent wisdom comes from God as said in James 1:5, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”
MANAGING YOURSELF 