I am very grateful for your sound biblical answers to scriptural questions, this time may you help me with the following on some issues were some of our preachers I believe are divided, I have had reports some do go witchdoctor at night! Should Christians fear ancestoral spirits? I asked some local evangelist if the avenging spirits really do exist who escape from the hadean realm to come and avenge on their killer or the killers family. The preacher I asked now quized whether I was now doubting the existance of the devil and his great supernatural powers. I want to help fellow African brethren on fear of occulticism with your your help from the Bible. ~ Joshua Mukusha
The Devil or Satan is real, of course. Further, Satan actively pursues us to harm our souls. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8), but the next verse says in part, “Resist him, steadfast in the faith…” Satan can be resisted!
The question, today, is whether the Devil or other evil spirits have supernatural or miraculous power. The short answer is, “Positively, No!” In the first place, supernatural or miraculous power used by Satan or evil spirits appears in the New Testament books parallel to the same time when Jesus Christ, His apostles and other miraculously endowed Christians demonstrated supernatural or miraculous powers. It appears that the reason that for this span of a few decades that Satan and his kind were permitted to us supernatural or miraculous powers was so that Jesus Christ and Christians empowered by the Holy Spirit could demonstrate the superior power of God over Satan. For instance, the miracles of Jesus Christ demonstrated power over nature in calming the storm on the Sea of Galilee (Mark 4:39) or turning water into grape juice (John 2), over disease by healing the infirm (Mark 4:23) and over the spirit realm by casting out demons (Matthew 8:16).
Supernatural or miraculous power had a purpose, primarily which was to deliver divine revelation from God and prove that the new revelation was from God (Mark 16:17-20). That new revelation which was validated with miracles is the New Testament, and when the New Testament was complete and miracles had served their purpose, supernatural or miraculous power ceased (1 Corinthians 13:8-13). The early church had miraculously assisted apostles, prophets, elders, preachers and teachers, but after the New Testament was completed, miracles ceased, and church leaders, preachers and teachers today rely not on miracles but on the Word of God (Ephesians 4:11-14). Since supernatural or miraculous power no longer occurs on earth, neither Satan or evil spirits have supernatural or miraculous powers today.
In the second place, departed spirits cannot escape their assignment after death to Hades. Jesus Christ taught about a rich man and a beggar named Lazarus, both of whom died and resided in different chambers in Hades (Luke 16:19-31). Verse 26 says, “between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.” Departed spirits cannot pass between the chambers in Hades, one chamber for the righteous and one chamber for the unrighteous, and they cannot leave Hades to come back to the earth.
Satan can be resisted (1 Peter 5:9)! The power and influence of Satan today is limited to temptation. However, we have this assurance. “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). Neither Satan nor avenging spirits possess supernatural powers today. Witchdoctors and other practitioners of the occult do not possess supernatural or miraculous powers either.
