Blind Sighted

A reminder that spiritual warfare is real... it can even make the news.

Reading the news before the Word is not a pattern I would suggest as a morning routine.

Beginning work today at 7 am meant rushing what has turned into a relaxed routine for waking up every morning.

And so, as i check the BBC for the day the first article that caught my attention was "The white priestess of black magic."

It's focus is an Austrian woman who left her home and divorced her husband to restore the ancient spirits beliefs in Osogbo, Nigeria. The claims are that Christian and Muslim missionaries destroyed the cultural practices. 

 "Followers say she has channelled the river-god Osun into her body, learning the knowledge of pre-Christian deities like no other European has ever done."

Her near death of TB before she received this "possession" was described as part of this ideal of their culture:

"The Yoruba beliefs all depend on sacrifice, that you must give something of value to get something of value, you must suffer pain to gain knowledge."

(I don't want to stretch the connections here, but there seems to be an eerie connection to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil)

There are photos of the statues she has had erected towards the nature spirits alongside of a river, to which people offer sacrifices. 

"Mrs. Wenger believes that the spirit world has long been neglected by Western culture, and spirits can appear to anyone as long as they are willing to accept them. "You need special eyes to see them," she says."

As I am reading in Matthew I can't help but find a contrasting yet parallel truth in scripture.

1 Not to us, O LORD, not to us 
       but to your name be the glory, 
       because of your love and faithfulness.

 2 Why do the nations say, 
       "Where is their God?"

 3 Our God is in heaven; 
       he does whatever pleases him.

 4 But their idols are silver and gold, 
       made by the hands of men.

 5 They have mouths, but cannot speak, 
       eyes, but they cannot see;

 6 they have ears, but cannot hear, 
       noses, but they cannot smell;

 7 they have hands, but cannot feel, 
       feet, but they cannot walk; 
       nor can they utter a sound with their throats.

 8 Those who make them will be like them, 
       and so will all who trust in them.

In "When I don't desire God" By John Piper he discusses the different between the eyes of our heart and the eyes of our head, and how only God can open the eyes within our hearts to see truth. The means of doing this is through the message of Jesus Christ. It is only in hearing this that men's eyes can be truly opened. 

The Spiritual World is all too real. I don't understand most of it, but am reminded through this article that evil will continue to grab hold wherever it can - and disguise itself as truth. How are these people to know that what she claims is "an opening of eyes" to this world, is not the side that will win in the end?