There are two forces at work on this earth – good and evil.

Every story, every book and every movie has the underlying theme of good versus evil. God is the force of good on this earth. Satan is the force for evil.  Yes, Satan is very real.  Unfortunately, he is very good at influencing us and others to do things that are wrong, mean and evil.

Spoiler alert – Satan’s power is limited  He wins some battles here on earth but he has already lost the war.

God’s power is limitless, eternal and he has already won the final war.

Satan uses his power on earth well – confusing us, distracting us, helping us rationalize the bad things we do and even making wrong things look like right things.  He is the Father of Lies.  He’s sneaky – he gets people who have given into his lies to tell others that ‘it’s all okay.  I’m doing this, you should, too.”

Satan has power in this world and we should not take that power lightly.  This is why God told King Saul to get rid of all the mediums and witches among his people.  Mediums and witches and all of those types of people have power –

but it’s not from God.  There is no such thing as a good witch.

Satan is the source of their power.  They willingly open their minds to Satan and he gladly uses them for his purposes.

The story of Saul going to the witch in the book of Samuel in the Bible makes me sad.  Saul knew better.  Unfortunately, he did not have a strong enough character to keep his behavior in line with what he knew to be true.

Saul asked the witch to ‘bring up’ Samuel after Samuel had died.  First she protested but then she did it, ‘crying at the top of her voice’ when Samuel actually appeared.  She was so surprised when Samuel showed up because she probably knew where her powers came from and she never expected a man of God to respond to her summons.

God obviously took this opportunity to override Satan’s powers with his own to give Saul a chance to talk with Samuel one more time.

But Samuel was mad that Saul had called out to him. (I would be, too – who would want to leave heaven?)  Samuel reminded Saul that God was fulfilling Samuel’s earlier prophecies about the end of Saul’s reign as king.  It was all happening.

Not long after this episode, Saul was killed.  This is such a pitiful end to the first King of Israel’s reign.  He had reached out to a servant of Satan in order to get what he wanted.

Yes – witches, warlocks, mediums, seances and even Ouji boards can be used by Satan as his hands and feet here on earth.

That’s why God has made it very clear to us to avoid getting close to any of it.

Please help us keep focused on you, Abba Father.