I have personally heard some sincere believers propose that a person asking the Lord for a dream, vision, or word of wisdom can instead receive demonic visions or satanic revelations. This teaching has effectively stopped multitudes from asking God for spiritual gifts or seeking divine healing, and it has been a widely accepted teaching in some circles for years.
This concept is not found anywhere in Scripture, and in fact it is a direct contradiction to Jesus’ very teaching in the Gospels:
And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves,
for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’;
and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’?
I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs.
And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent;
or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?
If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”Luke 11:5-13
Steve Thompson says in his book You May All Prophesy about this passage that the man asking his neighbor for bread to give to the man on his journey as symbolic of Jesus. Jesus says in this parable, that the neighbor will not give bread to the friend simply because he is a friend and neighbor, but because the man continues to ask. Also, Jesus tells here that the neighbor will end up giving as much as the friend needs for his journey. This similarly describes us when we ask for a “prophetic word” for those who need to hear from God.
As believers — and you are ministers of the Gospel whether you’re in full time ministry or not — we come across people all the time in our paths on their different journeys who we would love to help but our own human wisdom is not enough to help them. So we go to our friend, Jesus and ask of Him bread (symbolic of a word of knowledge, word of wisdom or prophetic insight) to give to the person. He will give us as much as we need to feed this person or minister to them.
This sounds pretty characteristic of Jesus, and God as Father. Interestingly enough, Jesus goes on to dispel the myth that in asking Him for something to help others, that we must beware of receiving something damaging, harmful or demonic.
I love my other brothers and sisters in Christ from various other denominations and traditions, but I cringe when I listen to people “warn me” about “opening myself up to the demonic” and getting demonic things from being in charismatic settings where the things of the Holy Spirit are more passionately sought after, and welcomed, than other settings.
For one thing, Jesus goes on to say the very opposite in this passage of what many people suggest to me: that if we ask of Him, he will not give us a serpent, or scorpion (symbolic of things demonic). And in verse 9 we are told to seek and knock and it will be open.
Why would God tell us to seek after something, and then turn around and allow us to receive something from the devil. He doesn’t.
Jesus even goes on to say if we who are evil know how to give good gifts, then how much MORE will our Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to them who ask him!
As a side note, it should be interesting to note it’s the Holy Spirit Jesus says will be given if the children ask their Father. Children are a part of a family. This is not talking about unsaved people asking Jesus to come into their lives. This is referring to those who are already a part of the family asking their Father for something. It says right here it’s the Holy Spirit.
“Hmm, but Steve we already got the Holy Spirit when we were saved, what on earth could Jesus be saying here about receiving something if we already have Him?”
Read it and tell me in the comments below.
Anyway, if any of you parents out there had your son or daughter come up to you asking for food, telling you how starved from hunger they are, would you turn around and give them a snake, and tell them to eat that?
Or what about if you said “open your mouth wide, sweetie” and flipped them a scorpion instead? The Bible says right here that even an evil person wouldn’t do that. We have laws against that sort of thing and would put people in jail and put those kids in a better home!
But our Father is NOT like that.
On the contrary, He knows how to give good gifts to those who ask. Seeking spiritual gifts will NOT open you up to demonic influence.
Opening yourself up to demonic influence will open you up to demonic influence, not seeking God Himself, who withholds no good thing from them who ask and upon whom there is no shadow caused by turning.
