Need some advise

[Guest]

Hello all,

I'm in need of alittle advise.

My sister in law is a believer in Christ but has recently become involved in reiki, and i think is now an official reiki master.

For those that don't know, reiki is a form of "spiritual healing" that is very rooted in eastern mysticism where you hold your hands a few inches from a person to alighn thier "chakras"(energy fields) using the "universal energy source". Christians who practice reiki call the "universal energy source" the Holy Spirit many times.

When we talk about the use of reiki (i don't believe there is any biblical support for it) there is a question that she asks that i dont seem to have a good answer to. Goes like this:

me: You take God's sovereignty out of His hands and designate yourself as the soveriegn one, doing what you see fit instead of trusting God.

sis: Well, you go to the doctor to get better dont you? Whats the difference, your still seeking healing ?...Do you mean we should never visit the doctor either?

I never have a good response to this.......help anyone?

[Guest]

Hi John.

I can appreciate your quandary. Spiritual healing, whether it be through Reiki or some other form of alternative therapy, is a very tricky business to discern accurately. There are indeed people who are able to heal through these alternative therapies, but as I'm sure you know, there are also many, many frauds and charlatans.

Your sister isn't wrong in the answer she gives. Just like Jesus personally healed in the Gospel accounts in three different ways (by anointing with mud and spittle, etc.) and also acknowledged the role of physician as well, there isn't just one acceptable way to be healed.

I don't have a lot of time to write right now, and I can't think of any easy way to help you discern whether what your sister is practicing is true healing -- other than to look at the results and also at where the glory for the healing is going (that is, to God or to your sister).

Just FYI, there is a rather obscure biblical reference which mentions a person's "aura" or spirit. When you read in Genesis 3:21 that God gave Adam and Eve "garments of skins", this is a play on words in the original Hebrew. By changing the Hebrew letter Aleph to an Ayin, "garments of skins" becomes "garments of light." In other words, the garments that God was giving Adam and Eve symbolically represented their "auras" or spirits. (An oblique reference to this is found in Isaiah 30:1 where God accuses the Jews of covering their sins with a garment that isn't made of His Holy Spirit, as opposed to one that is -- such as the one in Genesis 3:21.) This concept of a garment of "light" shows up again in the story of Joseph, in the form of the coat of many colors.

Finally, the symbolic meaning of being clothed with a garment of "light" is that our sins can be covered through the love of God (represented by the Holy Spirit) so that we can grow up to become spiritually mature, as opposed to us covering our own sins so that we never have to be held accountable for them or overcome them. This is what Adam and Eve were trying to do in Genesis 3:7-13.

Damon

[Guest]

I would be very careful sounds so much like "new age".
Personally I have amassage but will not allow any form
of anything other than massage for chronic pain. Why are
so many confessing christians acting like the world and excusing
it just to join with the world,,,,,,,,,,, we are a peculiar(sp) people
set apart for the Master's use.

Pray for discernment the Lord will answer you.

[Guest]

Hi friend.

I very much agree that it's easy to fall prey to New Age deception here, but remember, Jesus had a problem with the Jews building a fence around the Mosaic Law. Right? (ex. Mat. 15:1-9)

Are you sure you're not doing that here?

Damon

[Guest]

Thanx Damon, Thanx friend,

I appriciate your input.

I can't think of any easy way to help you discern whether what your sister is practicing is true healing -- other than to look at the results and also at where the glory for the healing is going (that is, to God or to your sister).

I agree with you Damon...where the glory is going is a good sign (which seems like a blurred line alot of times). But not so sure about results. It seems as if good results can come from very ungodly people too. Not only in the reiki rhelm. Even if it were done in the name of our Lord Jesus, it dosen't gurantee good standing w/ Him (Matt 7: 21-23).

Do you guy's think reiki (or any other form of healing) would be an act of a Medium?

Damon-Im understanding your statemant more and more:

Spiritual healing, whether it be through Reiki or some other form of alternative therapy, is a very tricky business to discern accurately.

AAAmen bro,
Thanxs for the help

[Guest]

Do you guy's think reiki (or any other form of healing) would be an act of a Medium?

Possibly but not definitely. Once again, this is a very tricky business to discern. For example, in Acts 16:16-18, there was the woman with a spirit of divination, who was actually praising God. Why was this a problem? Because one cannot serve two masters, and God didn't want His name mixed up with things that He didn't approve of. Divination (meaning the foretelling of future events through supernatural means apart from God, usually for the purpose of some sort of material gain) is explicitly forbidden in the Old Testament. However, alternative healing isn't forbidden.

The only real way to tell whether a person has a demonic spirit is to look at their fruits. Spirits primarily operate through fear and/or not overcoming weaknesses. A person who suddenly acquires the ability to do alternative healing, but who also suddenly begins to have problems related to fear or not overcoming weaknesses is a good candidate for having a demonic spirit. However, just from your description, it doesn't sound like your sister falls into that category. Then again, you'd know her better than anyone here.

Damon

[Guest]

Thanks again Damon,

Looks like I'll be digging at this one for awhile...

One quick thing though...and I am by no means aquainted w/ the book of Acts as much as most of you guy's in this forum.

For example, in Acts 16:16-18, there was the woman with a spirit of divination, who was actually praising God.

Im not so sure that the slave girl in vs. 16 was the same person that was called a worshiper of God (Lydia) earlier in vs. 14. Seems to be 2 different people because Lydia (the worshiper of God) had been baptized along w/ her household and then asked/begged the men to stay at her house. After that event, they were going to the place of prayer (a different place than Lydias house possibly) mentioned in vs. 13 and then the slave girl encounters them.
What would be your comments on this?
Thanks again

[Guest]

Yes, they're two different people. The slave girl was praising the work of God through Paul (Acts 16:17), but because she had a spirit of divination and was mixed up in the pursuit of material gain, her praise didn't help God's work. Rather, it hindered it.

Make sense?

Damon

[Guest]

aaahhhhhhhh....I see.

Yes, that makes more sense.

17 This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” 18 And this she did for many days.
But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And he came out that very hour. (NKJV)

But I'm still not so sure the slave girl was praising God. Only because Paul was "greatly annoyed" and then cast the spirit out of her. If she was praising God, why didn't Paul join in the praise or respond w/ joy? Seems as if the slave girl was saying "These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation" in a negative way to undercut Paul and the others mission. Or at least in a way that annoyed Paul to the point of casting out a spirit.

Anyway...it really isn't a huge deal or anything. Just wanting to dot my i's and cross my t's.

Thanx Damon