One of the greatest areas of demonic exertion of power is to be seen in the involvement of various practices of the occult. For this reason, God commanded Israel to totally stay away from any occult activity because, behind all occult activity , is the presence and control of demons.
We find the command along with the various facets of the occult spelled out in Deuteronomy 18:9-14: When you are come into the land which Jehovah your God gives you, you shall not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found with you any one that makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one that uses divination, one that practises augury, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For whosoever does these things is an abomination unto Jehovah: and because of these abominations Jehovah your God does drive them out from before you. You shall be perfect with Jehovah your God. For these nations, that you shall dispossess, hearken unto them that practise augury, and unto diviners; but as for you, Jehovah your God has not suffered you so to do. The various facets of the occult power are spelled out, especially in verses 10-11, and they can be listed as follows: Divination, fortune telling; Augury, soothsaying; Enchanter, magician; Sorcerer, witch; Charmer, hypnotist; Consulter with a familiar spirit, a medium controlled by a demon; Wizard, clairvoyant or psychic person; Necromancer, a medium who consults the dead.
All of these are various facets of the occult, and behind each one of them is the power of demons.
The very word “occult” refers to things which are “covered over,” things which are “mysterious, concealed or hidden.” Involvement in the occult, then, involves an attempt to go beyond the five senses to gain knowledge and understanding. It is an attempt to gain something that is beyond human understanding.
God strictly forbids believers to have any type of involvement with the occult. There is no form of fortune-telling, astrology or any of these things for believers. The Bible strictly forbids any type of involvement.
There are six important, specific characteristics concerning the occult. First, in every occult practice there is some contact with the demonic world. In spite of claims by mediums, they are not really speaking to the spirits of departed dead ones, but rather, they are speaking to demons who are impersonating the dead. Demons are able to impersonate loved ones and, in séances, this is often what is taking place.
A second characteristic is that all occult practices involve the uncovering of hidden knowledge of the past or the future. As was stated earlier, involvement in the occult is an attempt to gain knowledge and understanding that goes beyond the five senses and to discover knowledge that is hidden or concealed. It is especially this aspect of gaining hidden knowledge to which people are all too often attracted in the area of the occult.
A third characteristic is that most occult practices promise to give the experience of extra power. In many magazines today, one sees advertisements from occult groups, and in most of these cases, they offer some hidden power. The offer of hidden power is a valid one, but it is not of God, for it is a demonic power. Yet this aspect will attract people since they have a desire to be able to control others, either by controlling the mind or by the casting of spells. The promise of power is something that strongly attracts people into the occult. However, once they have gained this power, they become prisoners of the demon who gives them this power and are only opening themselves to total subjection to the darkness of demonism. Many of the so-called “miracles of healings” are really occult power that comes through the means of demons.
A fourth characteristic is that all occult practices may be passed on to the third and fourth generations in a family. Any attempt to seek out the demonic, occult world for knowledge or power is to set the true God aside and to replace Him with the worship of another god. Because this involves the worship of another god; namely , a demon, this kind of involvement creates punishment that can be passed down into the third and fourth generations as stated in Exodus 20:3-5. Many people suffering today through demon oppression and control are suffering not because of their own involvement in the occult, but because of their parents' or grandparents' or even their great-grandparents' involvement in the occult. For this very reason, any believer who knows that someone in his family, even in previous generations, was involved in the practice of the occult, should pray a prayer of renunciation to make sure that there is no continuing demonic control being passed down from generation to generation.
A fifth characteristic is that all occult practices require a meditative or passive state before the demonic world can operate or take control. A demon simply cannot take control of a man, but a man somehow must allow it to happen when he submits himself to demonic control or somehow empties himself in such a way as to let go of his will and neutralize his mind. Hypnotism is an example of this. No one can be hypnotized against his will; he must let go of his will in order to be hypnotized. But having let go of his will, he has opened himself up to control not only by the hypnotist, but by the demonic world as well. Eastern meditation also requires a state of passivity and the neutralizing of the mind. Involvement in drugs can create the same kind of thing in the mind, and opens up this person to demonic activity in his life. Any kind of activity that neutralizes the mind and lets go of the will only allows the will to be thrown up for grabs into the demonic spirit world.
Another characteristic is that many occult practices create a strange magnetism that draws and, at the same time, scares the participant. Many people crave the power and knowledge that involvement in the occult gives. But once they are entangled in the occult, there develops an underlying fear of the very source of that power and knowledge.
These are the six characteristics of the occult world that tend to entrap the practitioner in demonic activity.