Saul: The Medium and The Lying Spirit vs. TD Jakes: Yoga and Meditation.

1 Samuel 28:7-14

Then Saul said to his servants, “Find me a woman who is a medium that I may go to her and inquire of her.” And his servants said to him, “In fact, there is a woman who is a medium at En Dor.” So Saul disguised himself and put on other clothes, and he went, and two men with him; and they came to the woman by night. And he said, “Please conduct a séance for me, and bring up for me the one I shall name to you.” Then the woman said to him, “Look, you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums and the spiritists from the land. Why then do you lay a snare for my life, to cause me to die?” And Saul swore to her by the LORD, saying, “As the LORD lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing.” Then the woman said, “Whom shall I bring up for you?” And he said, “Bring up Samuel for me.” When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. And the woman spoke to Saul, saying, “Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul!” And the king said to her, “Do not be afraid. What did you see?” And the woman said to Saul, “I saw a spirit ascending out of the earth.” So he said to her, “What is his form?” And she said, “An old man is coming up, and he is covered with a mantle.” And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground and bowed down.

The key phrase in this passage is: Saul perceived that it was Samuel. However it was not Samuel it was a lying spirit. Saul had violated a specific commandment from God not to seek out and inquire of Mediums because Mediums were not of God and could only call up lying spirits:

Leviticus 19:31

Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.

Leviticus 20:6

And the person who turns to mediums and familiar spirits, to prostitute himself with them, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from his people.

1 Chronicles 10:13

So Saul died for his unfaithfulness which he had committed against the LORD, because he did not keep the word of the LORD, and also because he consulted a medium for guidance.

God has given specific instructions on how to seek him out, also nowhere in Scripture does it say that those who have died can be contacted by the living. The commandment from God also more importantly points out that God has specific methods for seeking him, and there are methods that are not to be used:

Deuteronomy 12:29-32

“When the LORD your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’ You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way; for every abomination to the LORD which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. “Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.

The use of mediums was part of the idolatry that was practiced by those people in Canaan that the Children of Israel were not to copy.

TD Jakes in a Washington Post Article says its ok to do Yoga and Meditation if the intent is correct, in other words If you are a Christian and have no intent of doing it to follow a Hindu belief system. Does TD Jakes in saying this show both his ignorance and blindness to God's Word?

As TD Jakes view violates not only God's Commandments in Leviticus but also the teaching of Paul in 1 Corinthians Chapter 8:4-13:

Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live. However, there is not in everyone that knowledge; for some, with consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. But food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse. But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.

TD Jakes as a supposed knowledgeable man of God should know not to place a stumbling block via his words or actions in front of weak Christians. The sad fact is that a large portion of Christians in our morally bankrupt America of today are constantly seeking after “Signs and Wonders” without living in obedience to God’s word, and they would jump at the chance to hear from a “familiar spirit" while utilizing Yoga & Meditation to their own detriment, fall and destruction.

Practicing Yoga and Meditation goes far beyond eating foods offered to Idols. Because Yoga is part of the Theology of Hinduism, it is used to prepare the person for meditation which then opens the person up to make contact with the "Higher Self" or the "Universal Consciousness" as Hinduism teaches that all of creation is one single integrated consciousness or being. There are hundreds of New Age books that have been written by people who have went into transcendental mediation and supposedly been contacted by spirits who gave them messages. Meditation has also been used to "Channel Spirit Guides" that use the person meditating to give "messages" to other people or mankind as a whole.

The Book: "A Course in Miracles" by an atheistic psychologist from Columbia University named: Helen Schucman who began to channel messages from a spirit she thought to be “Jesus”. She ultimately produced, or she says this “Jesus” revealed to her, over a thousand pages of revelation over a period of seven years. This "Spirit Jesus" supposedly told Schucman that who he was and what his purpose was had been misunderstood and that he was actually a "spiritual big brother" to everyone and that his real purpose was to show everyone how they could find their own "inner spiritual guide" to help them learn that they too could be a Jesus just like him and be part of the "sonship" the same as him. Chapter three of "A Course in Miracles" even denies that Jesus crucifixion established the atonement for our sins!

So the question has to be asked, is TD Jakes truly ignorant of all of this? I would tend to say no he is not, after all he holds to the heretical "Oneness" Theology which teaches that there is no Trinity, and that God actually operates in different modes all on his own. When he needs to be Jesus the Son, he becomes Jesus the Son, when he needs to become God the Father, He becomes God the Father, when he needs to be the Holy Spirit he becomes the Holy Spirit. But there are not three persons: God the Father, God the Son, & God the Holy Spirit in the Godhead. Which if you think about it, is a ridiculous concept, as when Jesus was baptized in the Jordan by John the Baptist (Matthew 17:5), God the Father spoke from heaven and said “This is my son in whom I am well pleased” So if God operates in different modes and at that time he was in the Mode of God the Son (Jesus), was God the Son doing a slight of hand? Throwing his voice? The very idea of “Oneness” Theology throws the whole of Scripture into total nonsense!

If a person already holds to a major Heretical anti-Biblical Theological position such as “Oneness Theology” Then they have opened the gateway to acceptance and incorporation of other heretical anti-Biblical positions and beliefs

TD Jakes “Oneness” Theology, his approval of Yoga & Meditation also falls in line with him stumbling on the question of whether Jesus is the only way to Heaven, on a Radio program in Seattle Washington just as Joel Osteen did on Larry King Live when asked by a caller who happened to be a Hindu, whether Jesus was truly the only way to heaven, Jakes told the caller that only God knew who was going to Heaven, now to show that he wasn’t just trying to avoid the question by using a political answer, Jakes went further to misuse the words of Jesus in John 10:16 where Jesus says “And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.” to say that there would be people who did not believe in Jesus who would go to heaven. But there is a major problem here. Jesus was speaking to a group of Jews, and Jesus was referring to the Gentiles who would come to believe in him and be saved though the missionary work of his disciples and others, beginning in Acts chapter 10 with Peter going to the house of Cornelius the Roman Centurion.

John 14:6:

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me

I wonder why there are no well known "Televangelists" practicing the role of the Watchman and calling out TD Jakes on his major departures from Biblical Truth? Where is Kim Clement "The Prophet", to be a "troubler" to those who do not speak Biblical Truth? Oh I forgot he is out promising more abundance to those who already have far too much abundance! Could it be that none of them want to lose their position on the National and International Podium of Power and Fame?

None of them wanting to be booted off of the trough of Total Biblical Nonsense that is TBN? It should be a warning to all Christians that something stinks in the World of Televangelism!

John Baker