Wrapping Up the Spiritual Warfare Series This episode closes out the spiritual warfare series I've been walking through, following the two episodes where my friend Katherine shared her testimony. I know some of this has gotten heavy, and for some of you, it's gotten controversial. I want to say up front, that's okay. You might hear things you haven't heard before, and you might not agree with all of it. I'm not asking you to. I'm asking you to sit with it, take it to the Lord, and let the Holy Spirit speak to you. In this one, I'm focused on how the enemy actually gets access into our lives. Not through some dramatic breach, but through deception, small compromises, and things we've let become normal without ever asking why. I start in Job 1. Job made it his regular practice to cover his kids in prayer and sacrifice, just in case they'd sinned. I'm grateful we don't have to offer sacrifices anymore. Jesus was the final one. But the posture Job modeled still applies. We cover our households through prayer, through seeking the Lord, through being good stewards of our time. I also want to correct something I hear often from clients: Job's suffering was not punishment. He didn't sin. Sometimes we're in a fiery season and it has nothing to do with us being punished. The promise was never that we'd avoid trouble. The promise is restoration. I also point out that Satan is described as roaming and going back and forth on the earth. That's not an Old Testament detail we can file away. He's active, he's studying us, and this lines up with the roaring lion language in the New Testament. From there I get into what I know will stir some pushback: how much of what Scripture explicitly names as forbidden has become completely normalized in our culture. Tarot cards at Target, witch costumes and cartoons for kids, astrology, crystals, Ouija boards, palm reading. I'm not judging anyone who's engaged in these things. You're accountable to the Lord, not to me. But I am making the case, using Scripture, that this is exactly how deception works. It doesn't look dangerous. It looks normal. I use a military picture I've leaned on throughout this series: the enemy operating on interior lines. He doesn't have to breach our walls from outside because in Western culture especially, the door is already cracked from within. Culture, media, and our own flesh already give him access. He doesn't need to invade what's already lined up with his goals. He just has to maintain it. Then I go deep on yoga, and I know this is the part that'll get the most reaction. I lean on a book called The Death of a Guru by David Hunt and Rabi Maharaj, who was raised in a long line of Hindu priests and trained as a yogi before coming to Christ. His argument, and mine, is that yoga can't be separated from its theological roots even when it's marketed here as stress relief or exercise. The word itself means to yoke or unite with Brahman. Specific poses were built as acts of devotion to specific Hindu deities. Sun salutation is a literal worship sequence to a sun god. Warrior pose, dancer pose, the poses tied to Hanuman, all of it traces back to something. Kundalini practice specifically invites what Scripture would call a familiar spirit, and I don't say that lightly. Om and Namaste aren't neutral sounds. They're theological statements. Here's where I land, and I say this pastorally, not to shame anyone. The peace people feel in these practices is real. Maharaj says himself that the enemy doesn't have to lie about the feeling, only about the source. My encouragement is simple: do the stretching, do the breathing, it's good for your nervous system. Just don't call it yoga. Don't call it Christian yoga or holy yoga either. If we relabel something and keep the name, we normalize it for the next believer who's watching us and thinking it must be fine. I also walk through some of the harder material in this episode, the sacrificial practices named in the Old Testament, because I felt convicted to include it even though it's uncomfortable. I connect it briefly to the Epstein files, not to sensationalize it, but because I think we have a responsibility to stay aware rather than put our heads in the sand. We don't have to live in fear of any of this. We just can't pretend it isn't real. I close out with a fuller list of what Scripture names as occult and divination practices, divination, witchcraft, necromancy, consulting the dead, astrology, syncretism, all with their references, and I bring it home with 2 Kings 17, where Israel is exiled specifically because they adopted the practices of the nations around them. That's the whole point of this series. Mixing light and darkness has consequences, even when it feels harmless. Next episode, I'm shifting into a new topic. Shame has been on my heart to go deeper into, since it's one of the primary ways the enemy keeps us from sharing the light of the gospel with others. Scripture referenced Job 1; Deuteronomy 7:25, 18:9-14, 32:16-17; Exodus 20:3-5, 23:13; 1 Corinthians 10:20-21; 2 Corinthians 6:14-17; Colossians 2:8; Acts 19:11-15; Leviticus 18:21, 19:31; 2 Kings 17, 23:5,10; Jeremiah 7:9-13, 32:35; Ezekiel 8:14-16; Isaiah 8:19, 44:9-20; Galatians 5:20; Romans 8:7; Ephesians 2:2
