What I Wish I Had Known About New Age Spirituality - Part 1 of 2

I was a psychic medium, Reiki practitioner, tarot teacher, and A Course in Miracles teacher. I thought I was helping people until Scripture changed how I understood what I was experiencing, and led me

There are things I wish I had understood when I was deeply involved in New Age spirituality.

I was searching for something real. I wanted healing, peace, meaning, connection, and answers to experiences I could not easily explain.

Maybe you have always sensed there is more to life than what you can see.

Maybe you believe in God, but Christianity has never quite made sense to you. Perhaps your search has led you toward manifestation, energy healing, astrology, tarot, psychic readings, spirit guides, Reiki, Eastern spirituality, A Course in Miracles, Kundalini practices, or simply the belief that the universe is somehow communicating with us.

Or maybe you would never call yourself “New Age” at all, but refer to yourself as “spiritual.”

I understand. I spent decades searching too. Please know that I am not writing this from the outside.

I Was Deeply Involved in New Age Spirituality

This wasn’t a passing curiosity for me.

I practiced tarot and eventually taught others how to read it. I became Reiki certified and practiced energy healing. I became an evidential psychic medium. I studied, practiced, and eventually taught A Course in Miracles.

My mediumship readings were remarkably accurate, often around 90 percent. I could give people information I had no natural way of knowing.

I wasn’t pretending or knowingly deceiving anyone. I genuinely believed I was helping people. At the time, I even believed what I was doing was compatible with the work of the Holy Spirit.

It felt meaningful, loving, and deeply special.

That is one reason I have tremendous compassion for people involved in these practices today.

I was one of them.

I know how sincerely you can believe you are helping people. I also know how difficult it can be to consider that something beautiful, healing, and spiritually powerful may not be coming from the God you believe you are serving.

Eventually I learned something I had not understood:

Sincerity does not protect us from deception. Neither does spiritual experience.

What If the Spiritual Experiences Are Real?

One of the things I had to wrestle with was that my spiritual experiences seemed very real to me.

I couldn’t simply dismiss what I had experienced. I had received information I had no natural way of knowing, and some of those experiences had felt deeply meaningful.

What eventually changed my understanding was not being told that nothing had happened. The Bible gave me a much more compelling framework because Scripture does not present the spiritual realm as imaginary. There is a Creator. There are angels. There are spiritual beings opposed to God. There is spiritual warfare. God acts supernaturally.

The question Scripture taught me to ask was not:

Is this spiritual?

It was:

What is the source?

That distinction changed everything.

“But It Was Accurate”

Accuracy had been one of the strongest reasons I trusted what I was doing.

How could I know something I had no natural way of knowing?

Then I discovered that Scripture anticipated that question.

Deuteronomy 18:20–22 says that if someone claims to speak prophetically for God and what they predict does not happen, God did not give that message.

But Deuteronomy 13:1–4 gives the other side. Even if a predicted sign occurs, if that person leads God’s people away from Him, they are not to follow.

So Scripture gives us an important distinction:

Inaccuracy can expose a false claim to speak for God. Accuracy alone does not prove that a spiritual message comes from God.

Acts 16 makes this even more striking.

A young woman with a spirit of divination followed Paul and his companions, accurately identifying them as servants of the Most High God who proclaimed the way of salvation.

Yet the source was not the Holy Spirit. Paul commanded the spirit to leave her in the name of Jesus Christ.

That gave me a category I had never seriously considered:

Something can contain accurate information and still have a spiritual source that is not God.

The Counterfeit Does Not Have to Look Evil

This was difficult for me because I assumed spiritual darkness would feel dark. Much of what I experienced did not. It could feel peaceful, loving, healing, insightful, even sacred.

But Scripture warns:

“Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.” (2 Corinthians 11:14)

A counterfeit succeeds because it resembles something genuine.

That does not mean every unusual experience is demonic or that Christians should become suspicious of everything supernatural. It means an experience cannot authenticate itself simply because it feels loving, peaceful, or powerful.

John tells believers:

“Do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God.” (1 John 4:1)

I had asked whether something worked, helped someone, felt loving, and was accurate. I had not asked the most important question:

What has God Himself said about it?

I Thought I Was Working With the Holy Spirit

I want to say this carefully because someone reading may recognize themselves here.

I believed what I was doing was connected to God. Then I encountered passages I could no longer explain away.

In Deuteronomy 18:9–14, God expressly forbids practices including divination, sorcery, interpreting omens, consulting mediums, and seeking information from the dead.

I had to confront a question that reached far beyond mediumship:

Who gets to define what comes from God?

My intentions? My experiences? My accuracy? What feels loving to me?

Or God Himself?

As God lovingly confronted me through His Word, I began to see that I had been trusting my experiences more than what He had revealed. I knew I needed to repent.

The Holy Spirit Is Not a Spiritual Energy

This also changed how I understood the Holy Spirit.

One of the things I eventually had to recognize was that different spiritual traditions can use similar words while meaning very different things by them.

Within yogic traditions, Kundalini is understood as a spiritual energy associated with awakening. Practices involving breath, posture, mantra, meditation, and other techniques may be used as part of that spiritual pursuit.

The HBO documentary series Breath of Fire caused me to think more deeply about spiritual authority and discernment. The series traces the version of Kundalini Yoga that Yogi Bhajan brought to the United States and examines disturbing allegations involving abuses of power, sexual misconduct, exploitation, and the experiences of children who were separated from their parents and sent to schools in India. It also raises serious questions about the disparity between what Bhajan publicly taught and how he reportedly lived.

But Christianity does not get a pass.

The documentary Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed examines allegations of exploitation, abuse, cover-ups, celebrity culture, and failures of leadership within the enormously influential Hillsong movement. FX’s The Secrets of Hillsong likewise examines the church’s scandals through reporting and interviews with former leaders and congregants.

Watching stories like these troubles me precisely because I am a Christian. A church can become large, influential, financially successful, culturally powerful, and extraordinarily well branded, but none of those things demonstrate the presence or approval of the Holy Spirit. Neither attendance, celebrity, revenue, music sales, social-media reach, nor a leader’s charisma is the biblical test of spiritual faithfulness.

And Christians should be willing to apply that same scrutiny to other influential ministries.

Bethel Church in Redding has had enormous influence through its church, music, media, conferences, and School of Supernatural Ministry. That influence makes discernment and accountability especially important. Bethel itself has recently acknowledged failures surrounding its response to concerns about previously platformed ministers. Regarding Shawn Bolz, for example, Bethel now says evidence it reviewed undermined trust in his claimed prophetic ministry and that the church should have been more public about its concerns sooner. Bethel has also announced independent investigation and changes intended to strengthen accountability and safeguarding.

I mention Bethel especially because of the subject of this article. Claims involving prophecy, supernatural knowledge, healing, signs, spiritual encounters, and hearing from God deserve more discernment, not less, when they occur inside a church. Putting Christian language around a supernatural claim does not automatically establish that the Holy Spirit is its source.

That does not mean every person associated with Hillsong or Bethel is deceptive, every teaching is false, or every spiritual experience reported there is counterfeit. It means no Christian ministry should be exempt from biblical examination simply because it uses the name of Jesus or has profoundly affected people’s lives.

The same principle applies to historic Christian institutions.

One of the most painful modern examples is the clergy sexual-abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church.

The 2015 film Spotlight tells the story of the Boston Globe journalists whose investigation exposed not only priests who sexually abused children, but an institutional pattern in the Archdiocese of Boston in which allegations were concealed and abusive priests were sometimes moved rather than removed from access to children.

Why bring Hillsong, Bethel, Catholic clergy abuse, and Breath of Fire into a discussion about Kundalini and the Holy Spirit?

Because I want to apply the same standard fairly.

Abuse, corruption, hypocrisy, or misconduct committed by someone claiming spiritual authority does not, by itself, prove or disprove the truth of an entire faith or spiritual system.

If I argued that Yogi Bhajan’s alleged misconduct automatically proved Kundalini false, I would have to accept the same reasoning when someone points to a priest or pastor who abused someone and says his actions prove Jesus Christ is false.

I don’t believe either conclusion follows.

Abuse is evil wherever it occurs. Concealing it, protecting institutions at the expense of wounded people, manipulating people through spiritual authority, or using the name of God to excuse sinful behavior should never be defended simply because the person or institution identifies as Christian.

Jesus Himself warned repeatedly about religious hypocrisy.

So misconduct should make us ask important questions about character, fruit, authority, accountability, secrecy, money, power, and whether leaders themselves live according to what they profess.

But ultimately, the truth of a spiritual teaching must also be examined on its own claims.

And for me, that means asking:

Does this agree with what God has revealed in Scripture?

That brings me back to the distinction that matters most.

The Holy Spirit is not an energy within us waiting to be awakened. He is God.

He is not an impersonal force or something we learn to harness. He is not universal consciousness or spiritual potential waiting for us to activate it through breath, movement, mantra, meditation, or technique.

The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity, fully God. He indwells those who belong to Christ, not because we have mastered a spiritual practice, but because God graciously gives His Spirit to His people.

Jesus said of the Holy Spirit:

“He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me.” (John 16:14)

The Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus.

He bears witness to Christ. He leads into truth. He convicts concerning sin. He gives spiritual life. He produces holiness and increasingly forms God’s people into the character of Christ.

And this matters when we encounter extraordinary spiritual experiences.

People describing Kundalini experiences sometimes report intense physical or emotional phenomena, and some outward manifestations may resemble things people report in Christian settings.

But similar manifestations do not prove a common source.

Nor does shaking, involuntary movement, intense emotion, or another unusual physical response, by itself, prove that someone is demonically possessed.

This is why biblical discernment has to go deeper than what happened to someone’s body or how powerful an experience felt.

Scripture does not tell us that the defining evidence of the Holy Spirit’s presence is an extraordinary physical manifestation.

“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22–23)

A spiritual experience can be intense without being holy.

It can feel powerful without proving that its source is the Holy Spirit. It can produce unusual sensations without producing truth.

And it can use spiritual language while pointing us toward an understanding of God, ourselves, or salvation that contradicts what God has already revealed.

So I no longer believe the right question is simply:

Did something supernatural happen?

Nor is it:

How powerful did it feel?

I want to ask:

What is its source? What does it teach about God? What does it teach about Jesus? Does it agree with what God has already revealed in Scripture? Does it glorify the biblical Christ, Jesus of Nazareth? And what kind of fruit does it ultimately produce?

Because the Holy Spirit will never lead us away from the truth He Himself inspired. He will never teach us that we are divine rather than created in God’s image. He will never lead us toward a different Jesus and He will never compete with Christ for our attention.

The Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus.

That is the distinction I wish I had understood.

The Original Lie Has Never Really Changed

The serpent’s first deception did not begin by asking Eve to worship Satan.

He began by questioning God’s Word:

“Did God really say...?” (Genesis 3:1)

Then came the promise that her eyes would be opened and she would be “like God” (Genesis 3:5).

That stopped me.

I never thought I was trying to become God. I thought I was seeking Him.

Yet I had embraced ideas about discovering the divine within, higher consciousness, creating reality, awakening to our true nature, and accessing hidden spiritual knowledge.

Scripture tells a different story.

There is a Creator, and there is His creation. Human beings possess extraordinary dignity because we are made in God’s image. But bearing God’s image does not make us God.

Throughout Scripture we see the enemy distort, imitate, tempt, accuse, deceive, and redirect worship.

God invites us into prayerful dependence. Counterfeit spirituality often promises spiritual control.

God gives revelation. The counterfeit offers forbidden knowledge.

God gives His Holy Spirit. The counterfeit offers spiritual power apart from Him.

God gives us our identity as His image-bearers. The counterfeit tells us to locate ultimate spiritual authority within ourselves.

And God gives us Christ.

The counterfeit can even give us another “Christ.”

A Counterfeit Can Use the Name of Jesus

This became especially personal through A Course in Miracles.

One reason spiritual counterfeits and false teachers can be compelling is that they may use familiar Christian words: God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, miracles, forgiveness, salvation.

But I eventually learned:

Sharing Christian vocabulary is not the same thing as sharing Christian theology.

The question is not merely, Does this teaching talk about Jesus?

The question is:

Who does it say Jesus is?

Who is God? What is sin? What happened at the cross? What is salvation? Who is the Holy Spirit?

A teaching can retain the language of Christ while changing the identity of Christ.

New Age spirituality may present Jesus as an enlightened teacher, ascended master, avatar, or embodiment of a “Christ consciousness” supposedly available to humanity.

But the New Testament presents something radically different.

Christ is not a consciousness we attain.

Christ is a Person.

Paul summarizes the Gospel:

“Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day.” (1 Corinthians 15:3–4)

A consciousness was not crucified.

Jesus Christ was and there were over 500 eye witnesses to this.

Jesus of Nazareth rose from the grave.

The Counterfeit Is Bigger Than the New Age

The world’s religions and spiritual systems do not all teach the same thing, and we should be truthful about that. Their beliefs about God, humanity, sin, salvation, and eternity can differ profoundly.

But as I began listening more carefully, I noticed a recurring pattern beneath many very different spiritual systems: the answer ultimately rests in something we do, attain, awaken, access, manifest, earn, or discover within ourselves.

The language changes. One tradition may speak of enlightenment. Another of higher consciousness, spiritual awakening, karma, manifestation, divine potential, or becoming aligned with spiritual laws. Even within Christianity, certain prosperity and Word of Faith teachings can distort the Gospel when faith becomes a means of accessing health, wealth, success, or desired outcomes rather than trusting and submitting to the sovereign God.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ moves in the opposite direction.

We do not ascend to God through spiritual achievement. God came down to us in Christ.

We do not save ourselves through enlightenment, spiritual knowledge, right thinking, good works, declarations, or awakening something within us.

Jesus saves us through what He has already accomplished.

Christianity is not fundamentally a message about discovering our power. It is the Good News that sinners who could not reconcile themselves to a holy God were pursued by the God who loved them enough to come for them.

That is why the cross matters so much.

The Gospel is not what can I make happen through spiritual principles?

It is what has God already done for me through Jesus Christ?

“It is finished!” — John 19:30

Not awaken more.

Not manifest more.

Not discover the god within.

Not master the right spiritual laws.

It is finished.

Christ has accomplished what we could never accomplish for ourselves.

And this is where Christianity ultimately parts ways with every spiritual system that offers another answer to the human condition.

The world’s religions and spiritual systems give profoundly different answers to the question Christianity places at the center:

How can sinful human beings be reconciled to the holy God who created them?

Some deny Jesus’ deity. Some deny His crucifixion or resurrection. Some regard Him as a prophet or spiritual teacher. Some incorporate Him into a larger spiritual system. Some redefine Christ as universal consciousness. Others simply make Him unnecessary.

The enemy does not need every false spiritual system to teach identical doctrine.

He only needs to obscure the truth that matters eternally:

We need Jesus Christ and His finished work to reconcile us to God.

Paul warned about receiving “a different Jesus,” “a different Spirit,” or “a different Good News” (2 Corinthians 11:4).

A counterfeit can talk about Jesus, love, transformation, unity, peace, and spirituality.

It can even quote Scripture.

Satan quoted Scripture when he tempted Jesus.

So the question cannot merely be:

Does this sound spiritual?

Or even:

Does this sound Christian?

It must be:

Is this the Jesus, the Gospel, and the God revealed in Scripture?

This distinction between the biblical Jesus and a redefined “Christ” also changes how we understand His promised return.

The Second Coming Is Not “Christ Consciousness”

This distinction matters when we encounter claims that humanity is spiritually evolving toward universal consciousness, religious unity, or the realization that all paths ultimately lead to the same divine reality.

Christians differ about some details of end-times prophecy, so I do not want to claim more than Scripture clearly says.

But Scripture is unmistakable about this:

The Second Coming is not humanity awakening to “Christ consciousness.”

Jesus Himself will return.

The Jesus who was crucified, rose bodily from the grave, and ascended.

The Christian hope is not the arrival of a universal Christ principle.

It is the return of the King.

When Counterfeit Ideas Enter Christian Spaces

Discernment cannot stop at the church door.

Ideas resembling New Age or New Thought spirituality can sometimes enter Christian spaces through altered understandings of revelation, manifestation, meditation, spiritual experience, or inward impressions.

That does not mean every Christian use of words such as presence, meditation, transformation, or spiritual formation is New Age. Scripture itself speaks about meditation, transformation, God’s presence, spiritual gifts, and the Holy Spirit.

The question is what we mean by those things and whether Scripture governs our understanding of them.

This is also why I believe Christians should approach popular Christian books with discernment rather than assuming something is trustworthy simply because it is labeled Christian.

Books such as The Shack have moved many readers through their treatment of suffering, forgiveness, and God’s love. But whenever a book portrays God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, judgment, or salvation, those portrayals should still be compared with Scripture.

Likewise, I believe particular care is warranted with devotional writing that places words in the first-person voice of Jesus, including Jesus Calling. My concern is not with quiet prayer, journaling, or believing that the Holy Spirit personally convicts, comforts, and guides His people.

My concern is confusing our interpretation of an inward impression with God’s authoritative revelation.

I once sincerely believed certain spiritual impressions came from God when they did not. That experience taught me to distinguish between what God has revealed in His Word and what I believe I may be sensing from Him.

That is why I am more careful now with statements such as God told me, Jesus said to me, or the Holy Spirit told me. An impression may be sincere, and it may even be the Lord’s leading, but my interpretation of that impression is still fallible. Scripture is not.

The Holy Spirit will never contradict the Word He inspired.

So rather than asking Scripture to conform to my experience, I want Scripture to help me discern my experience.

Manifestation Is Not Prayer

Manifestation and prayer can sound superficially similar because both involve desires and things we hope will happen.

But they rest on different foundations.

Manifestation commonly places emphasis on aligning thoughts, beliefs, intentions, words, or energy with a desired outcome.

Biblical prayer places our confidence in a sovereign, personal God.

Jesus taught us to ask boldly, but He also taught us to pray:

“May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.”

(Matthew 6:10)

I can ask without controlling.

I can believe without attempting to manipulate reality.

I can surrender because God is God and I am not.

That is not powerlessness.

It is trust.

But What If I’m a Good Person?

This was another truth I had to understand.

I cared about people and wanted to help them. I still do.

I wasn’t consciously trying to rebel against God.

Why did I need saving? Maybe you have wondered the same thing.

I’m not perfect, but I’m a good person.

Most of us measure goodness horizontally. We compare ourselves with other people.

Christianity asks us to look vertically.

The question is not whether I am better than someone else.

It is:

How do I stand before a perfectly holy God?

Have I ever lied? Harbored hatred, lust, envy, pride, selfishness, or bitterness? Have I always loved God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength? Have I loved my neighbor as myself?

I haven’t.

Scripture says:

“For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.”

(Romans 3:23)

If our greatest problem were ignorance, we would need knowledge.

If it were woundedness, we would need healing.

We do need healing, wisdom, comfort, and growth, but beneath those needs lies something we cannot repair ourselves:

We need to be reconciled to God.

And that is why we need Jesus.

Justice and Mercy Meet at the Cross

Imagine standing before a righteous judge after being found guilty.

Saying, “But I’ve done many good things too,” does not erase the offense.

A good judge does not call guilt innocence.

God’s justice matters precisely because God is good.

But this is where the Gospel becomes astonishing.

God did not leave guilty people to rescue themselves.

He came for us.

At the cross, Jesus willingly bore our sin.

“For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

The cross tells us simultaneously that our sin is more serious than we imagined and God’s love is greater than we imagined.

Justice is not discarded. Mercy is not withheld. They meet in Jesus Christ.

Why Blood? From Passover to the Lamb of God

This is where something that once seemed strange to me began making sense.

Why blood? Why sacrifices? Why Passover? Why call Jesus the Lamb of God?

The cross sits inside a story God had been revealing for centuries.

Scripture connects sin with death. Yet God, in mercy, established covenant relationships with His people and gave sacrificial patterns that pointed beyond themselves.

Leviticus 17:11 connects blood with life and atonement.

The blood was not magical, nor was God subject to some higher cosmic law requiring it.

Sacrifice was God’s own gracious provision for atonement, and the pattern of blood, sacrifice, priesthood, and covenant was preparing His people to understand the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ.

Then came Passover.

Israel was enslaved in Egypt.

Before the final judgment, God instructed each household to take an unblemished lamb and place its blood on the doorframe.

God said:

“When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” (Exodus 12:13)

The firstborn was spared under the sign of the lamb’s blood.

Generation after generation, Israel remembered Passover.

Then John the Baptist saw Jesus approaching and declared:

“Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

(John 1:29)

The threads begin coming together.

The lamb. The blood. Deliverance from slavery. Judgment. Life.

And Jesus goes to the cross in the context of Passover.

Paul calls Him:

“Christ, our Passover Lamb.” (1 Corinthians 5:7)

The Old Testament was preparing us to recognize Him.

The New Covenant in His Blood

The sacrifices were not the final destination.

They pointed forward.

At the Last Supper, Jesus identified the cup with the new covenant in His blood (Luke 22:20).

Jesus would not offer another lamb.

He was the Lamb.

The promises, sacrifices, Passover, priesthood, and covenant themes converge in Him.

Something objective happened at the cross.

Christ bore sin.

He established the new covenant.

He reconciled sinners to God.

We Have Been Ransomed

Jesus said He came:

“to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45)

Peter describes believers as ransomed with the precious blood of Christ, the spotless Lamb.

Scripture gives us several pictures for what Jesus accomplished: sacrifice, ransom, redemption, reconciliation, justification, forgiveness, covenant.

One clarification matters.

Scripture does not teach that Jesus paid Satan as though Satan held a legitimate debt God owed him.

Christ gave Himself for us.

Our sin is real.

God’s justice is real.

And Jesus accomplished what enlightenment, spiritual practice, moral effort, good intentions, and self-transformation never could.

He reconciles sinners to God.

Satan Accuses. Jesus Advocates.

This is where another part of spiritual warfare became breathtaking to me.

Revelation calls Satan the accuser of God’s people.

We see glimpses of this accusing activity in Job and Zechariah 3.

Then John tells Christians:

“But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ.” (1 John 2:1)

There is legal imagery here, although we should not turn heaven into an exact replica of a modern courtroom.

The spiritual truth is magnificent.

Satan accuses. Jesus advocates.

And Jesus does not advocate for us by pretending we never sinned.

He has dealt with our sin.

This is why Paul can ask in Romans 8: Who can accuse those whom God has chosen? Who can condemn?

Christ died.

Christ was raised.

Christ intercedes.

The believer’s answer to accusation is not:

I’m actually a pretty good person.

It is:

My hope rests in Jesus Christ and what He has done.

From the Kingdom of Darkness Into the Kingdom of Christ

The Gospel does not merely make us slightly better versions of ourselves.

Paul writes:

“For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son.” (Colossians 1:13)

Rescued. Transferred.

Jesus does not invite us to add Him to a collection of spiritual practices.

He calls us out of darkness and into His Kingdom.

We don’t place Jesus beside divination, spirit guides, manifestation, energy practices, or other spiritual authorities.

Jesus is Lord.

What Does His Kingdom Look Like?

If God transfers us into the Kingdom of His Son, what kind of people does this King form?

Jesus begins the Beatitudes:

“God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.”

Matthew 5:3

That is almost the opposite of the spiritual path I had been pursuing.

I had been learning to discover spiritual power.

Jesus begins with dependence.

Then He speaks of those who mourn, the humble, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those willing to suffer for doing right.

Jesus’ Kingdom is not characterized by secret knowledge, spiritual superiority, extraordinary manifestations, or awakening to our own divinity.

It produces people increasingly marked by dependence, humility, righteousness, mercy, purity, peacemaking, and faithfulness.

The question is no longer:

How spiritually powerful am I becoming?

It becomes:

Am I becoming more like Jesus?

This Is Spiritual Warfare, But People Are Not the Enemy

Scripture says:

“For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world.” (Ephesians 6:12)

That matters enormously in an article like this.

The tarot reader, Reiki practitioner, New Age teacher, person of another religion is not my enemy. The Christian I believe is teaching something seriously wrong is not my enemy.

People are not the enemy.

I know this personally because I was once the person practicing and teaching things I now believe were spiritually dangerous.

I did not need Christians to hate me.

I needed truth.

And I needed Jesus.

Jesus Tells Us to Love and Pray for Our Enemies

Jesus takes this even further:

“Love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!” (Matthew 5:44)

That changes the posture of spiritual warfare.

We can tell the truth without mocking, humiliating, or hating people who believe something different.

I can remember how patiently God dealt with me when I was deceived.

The enemy accuses.

Jesus advocates.

The enemy deceives.

Jesus is the truth.

The enemy tempts toward pride.

Jesus blesses the humble.

The enemy enslaves.

Jesus rescues.

Spiritual warfare is not permission to become unlike Jesus while defending Jesus.

What If Christians Have Hurt You?

Before I ask you to consider Jesus, I want to acknowledge something important.

Not everyone who calls themselves a Christian lives like Christ.

Christians can be judgmental, hypocritical, prideful, controlling, and deeply hurtful. Some people have experienced rejection, manipulation, abuse, or condemnation from people and churches carrying the name of Jesus.

If that has been part of your story, I don’t want to minimize it.

Scripture doesn’t pretend Christians stop sinning the moment they come to Christ.

James tells believers:

“Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” (James 5:16)

Paul writes:

“Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you.” (Colossians 3:13)

The Bible is remarkably honest about the failures of God’s people.

Following Jesus does not mean Christians suddenly obey Him perfectly. We are being transformed, and sometimes we fail badly.

That does not excuse our sin.

When Christians hurt people, we should acknowledge it, repent, ask forgiveness, and change. We are also called to lovingly correct one another when we see a brother or sister caught in sin, not from a position of superiority, but with gentleness and humility.

Paul writes:

“Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path.” (Galatians 6:1)

Biblical love does not require us to remain silent about sin. Sometimes loving someone means caring enough to gently tell the truth, always remembering that we, too, need grace.

I gently ask you to consider one distinction:

Please don’t determine who Jesus is solely by the people who have represented Him poorly.

Look at Jesus Himself.

Watch Him welcome the rejected, touch those others considered unclean, confront religious hypocrisy, defend the vulnerable, wash His disciples’ feet, forgive sinners, speak truth, and ultimately go to the cross.

Christianity does not ask you to place your faith in Christians.

It asks you to place your faith in Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

And if you have been hurt, forgiveness does not mean calling evil good, eliminating wise boundaries, returning to an unsafe relationship, or refusing appropriate accountability.

Biblical forgiveness relinquishes personal vengeance and entrusts ultimate justice to God.

So if Christians have wounded you, I am not asking you to deny what happened.

I am simply asking:

Would you be willing to look again at Jesus?

Because the failure of a Christian does not change the identity of Christ.

The Gospel Is Not “Become More Spiritual”

And this brings us back to Jesus Himself.

The Gospel means Good News.

God created us for Himself.

Humanity rebelled against Him, and every one of us has participated in that rebellion.

Our deepest problem is not that we have forgotten our divinity.

It is not low vibration, insufficient consciousness or a lack of spiritual knowledge.

We have sinned against the God who created us, and we cannot save ourselves.

But God did not abandon us.

New Age Spirituality Told Me to Ascend. The Gospel Told Me God Came Down.

So much of my spiritual journey had been about ascending.

Learn more. Awaken more. Become more conscious. Access more knowledge. Discover what is within.

The Gospel reverses the direction.

We could not climb our way to God, so God came down to us.

The eternal Son of God took on human flesh.

Jesus lived without sin.

He willingly went to the cross.

He bore our sin.

He died.

He was buried.

And on the third day, He rose.

This is not an allegory for awakening consciousness.

Jesus Christ is alive.

Jesus Does Not Ask You to Add Him to Your Spirituality

Jesus said:

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

The late Christian musician Keith Green described something that struck him during his own years of spiritual searching. As he explored different religions and Eastern spiritual teachings, he found that many were willing to make room for Jesus in some way. Jesus could be regarded as a prophet, an enlightened teacher, a spiritually awakened person, or interpreted through another tradition’s understanding of the divine.

But Green eventually recognized the problem.

They could make Jesus one of the ways. Jesus said He was the way.

That distinction matters.

Jesus did not say, I have discovered the way.

He did not say, I can show you one path to God.

He did not say, Follow my teachings and eventually you can become what I am.

He said, “I am the way.”

His apostles understood His claim the same way. After Jesus’ death and resurrection, Peter proclaimed:

“There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

That leaves us with a question we cannot resolve simply by adding Jesus to whatever spiritual worldview we already hold:

Was Jesus telling the truth about Himself?

Because if He was, He cannot simply be one enlightened teacher among many.

We cannot keep the Jesus we like while setting aside what He said about who He is.

Those words eventually required something of me.

For years, I had made room for Jesus within a much larger spiritual worldview. I could appreciate Him, talk about Him, and even believe I was connected to Him without surrendering my understanding of God and spirituality to Him.

Eventually, I could no longer do that.

I could not make Jesus fit into the spiritual worldview I had already constructed. I had to allow Jesus to tell me who He is.

And I repented.

Repentance is more than regret.

It means turning.

I wasn’t merely asking Jesus to forgive my involvement in practices He forbade while continuing to decide for myself what was spiritually true.

I was surrendering that authority to Him.

And this is important:

We do not change ourselves so that God will save us. God saves us, and then He begins changing us.

Christianity is not another self-improvement system.

God gives new life.

He gives His Spirit.

He begins transforming His children from within.

The Doorway Into the Kingdom

For years, I believed spiritual growth meant discovering how much spiritual capacity I possessed.

Then I encountered Jesus’ words:

“God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.” (Matthew 5:3)

I had spent years trying to become spiritually powerful.

The doorway into Jesus’ Kingdom was admitting how desperately I needed Him.

That was not humiliation.

It was freedom.

I did not need to become God.

I needed God.

If You Want to Know Jesus

Perhaps something in you is saying:

I want Him.

Maybe you have known spirituality but never actually known Jesus Christ.

Maybe, like me, you sincerely believed you were pursuing God and are beginning to wonder whether you have misunderstood Him.

You do not need to clean yourself up before coming to Jesus.

Come to Him.

Confess your sin.

Turn from what He shows you is wrong.

Place your trust not in your goodness, spiritual experiences, knowledge, practices, or ability to transform yourself, but in Jesus Christ and what He accomplished through His death and resurrection.

Scripture says:

“If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

There are no magic words.

A prayer does not save you because you said it correctly.

Jesus saves.

But if you want to turn to Him and do not know what to say, you might begin here:

Lord Jesus, I believe You are the Son of God. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I confess that I have sinned against You and sought truth and spiritual life apart from You. Please forgive me. I turn from my sin and place my trust in You. I surrender my life to You as my Lord and Savior. Teach me to know You, follow You, and walk in Your truth. Amen.

Then begin knowing Him.

Read the Gospel of John. Talk to God honestly. Ask Him to help you understand His Word. Find a faithful Bible-teaching church centered on Jesus Christ and His Gospel.

If you are coming out of New Age or occult practices, find mature believers who can walk beside you with biblical wisdom, patience, prayer, and love.

The One I Had Been Searching For

When I look back, I can see how much of my life was spent searching.

I found experiences that seemed supernatural. I encountered things I could not explain. I learned practices that made me feel spiritually powerful.

And for a time, I genuinely believed I had found something beautiful.

Then God, in His mercy, showed me something better.

I did not need another spiritual experience, hidden knowledge, higher consciousness or to discover the divine within myself.

I needed forgiveness.

I needed reconciliation with the God who created me.

I needed a Savior.

And His name is Jesus.

That is why I tell you this.

Not because I think I am better than someone who still believes what I once believed.

Not because I figured everything out.

And not because I want you to become preoccupied with Satan or afraid of the spiritual world.

The Christian story is ultimately not a story about Satan.

It is the story of Jesus Christ.

The Lamb whose blood redeems.

The Savior who ransoms.

The Advocate who stands for His people.

The King who rescues us from darkness and brings us into His Kingdom.

The risen Lord who defeated death.

And the Christ who will come again.

The One I had been searching for was not an energy.

He was not the universe.

He was not a higher version of myself waiting to be awakened.

He was Jesus.

And by His grace, when I finally turned to Him, He received me.

I

f something you read here encouraged, challenged, or helped you, please feel free to share it with someone who may need it too.

“Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.”Hebrews 10:24, NLT

With care,

Pamela

All for His glory.

At the heart of Biblical Counseling is not a set of skills, but a person, Jesus Christ.