The New Age, Counterfeits, and Finding Truth

Why are people drawn to the New Age? What does it have to offer? In this episode, I talk a bit about why the New Age movement is attractive to so many people, and how that same counterfeit spirit has infiltrated much of the church by presenting an imitation of the real thing. I hope you enjoy this episode. Thanks for listening.

Transcript

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Welcome back to the Dissatisfied Podcast. I am Rochelle Smith. Thanks for listening. So if you listened to the episode last week, I talked about the spirit of the age. And this week we're going to talk a little bit about the new age. So, what is the new age? I guess technically it's part of the whole spirit of the age thing. But with the new age, there are some very specific things that the new age envelops. So the New Age movement, as it's called, came out of the 1960s hippie culture. And it was very popular in the 70s, continued to gain traction in the 80s, and it's still pretty popular today. And, you know, this whole New Age thing, it was all about spiritual awakening, which sounds good. We all want to be spiritually awake. It was about transforming yourself. That sounds good. We all want to be transformed. And also higher consciousness, which that kind of sounds weird. But again, you know, do we want that? Do we want to have higher consciousness? Yeah, we would probably all love that. So the new age, you'll hear it talk a lot about finding your inner self. There's a lot of talk of energy and vibrations, things like, you know, we're one with the universe. And a lot of that teaching comes out of Buddhism, Hinduism, astrology, and mysticism. You will see the use of crystals, burning incense. You know, have you heard about people that burn sage in their house to clear out demons? Okay, that's new age because guess what, people? You only need the name of Jesus. If you have the Holy Spirit in you, I guess that's key. If you have the Holy Spirit in you, then you can use the name of Jesus to cleanse your house. You can plead the blood of Jesus. That's all you need. You don't need sage. But anyway, that's part of New Age, burning incense, um, chakra work, which is very Eastern teaching of chakras, astrology, horoscopes, and then positive manifestation, where it's this idea that you can shape your reality through affirmations and visualization and positive thinking. So New Age says the truth is found within you, which is in direct opposition to what Christianity says, right? Christianity says the truth is found in God and in a relationship with him because he is the truth. His word is truth. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. So the new age is really about enlightenment without Christ. So that's where they get it wrong. It's everything that's good without Christ. So that usually doesn't end up well for people. But people are drawn to the new age because they're looking for answers. They're looking to answer questions like, who am I? What is my purpose? How do I find peace? How do I find healing? And those are all really good and legitimate questions. Questions we probably have all asked at some point. But when you look for them in the wrong places, it will lead you into deception and ultimately it leads you to the wrong eternity. And we really don't want that. And all of those things in the new age that bring a sense of peace and power or wholeness, even healing sometimes, all of those things are actually a counterfeit because of the spirit that is behind them. It's a different spirit, it's not of God. And here's the truth: some of those things actually work. You know why? Because the enemy has a certain amount of power on the earth right now. And the Bible tells us this. There's one verse that says that the devil is the prince of the power of the air, which, in my personal opinion, I believe that that points to the alien UFO deception, that the enemy has a lot to do with that. Matthew 24 says false prophets and false Christs will arise and perform great signs and wonders to lead people astray. So there are signs and wonders done by false spirits. And the signs and the wonders are real, but it's the spirit that's false, and it leads people away from the truth. And of course, we know that the Bible says that the devil comes as an angel of light. I've talked about that several times. But here's where we have to ask God for understanding because sometimes the fake things look like the real thing. That's why it's so deceptive. That's why God gives us that warning that the devil can appear as something good. But here's the thing: the enemy is a created being who cannot create anything new. So he is a counterfeiter. He can only counterfeit things. But what does that mean exactly? Well, a counterfeit is made in exact imitation of something valuable or important with the intention to deceive or defraud. That's the definition. So it's a fraudulent imitation of something. And I know you're not stupid, but I'm going to give you the definition of imitation. Because I needed to remind myself, even though I know what it means, sometimes it's nice to clarify. So it is a it's a thing intended to simulate or copy something else. And this is why people are so easily drawn into things like the new age, because much of it mirrors the peace and the power and the knowledge and the love of God. It's simulating what God offers us. So the enemy can only use what God has already created. Because, like I said, he's a created being. Colossians 1 16 says this. It says, For by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through him and for him. So there are some things that people would classify as the new age that I personally believe God created and uses for our benefit. And I think, well, what a what a great and perfect devious plan of the enemy to take things that God intended for our good and use them to pull people away from God and then to give credit to something else. And not only that, but in this master plan, the enemy has also, in my opinion, deceived Christians into rejecting many new age things that are actually for us. And let me say this, I want to clarify. I know this is a very controversial subject. There's a lot of debate around this kind of stuff. And honestly, I used to be on the complete opposite side of where I'm at now. I used to believe that anything that was about frequency or energy, you know, out-of-body experiences, anything like that, it was immediately demonic. And it's because that's just what we've been taught in the church. And you know what? There are things that are like an immediate no. The Bible says not to practice sorcery, witchcraft, casting spells, all that stuff. So visiting a psychic is a no. Tarot card or palm readings, that's an automatic no. Trying to do spells, cast spells, or mad do magic, that's a no. So the key is using discernment and God's word to help us understand. Because number one, I don't want to open myself up to anything with the wrong spirit, because that's just going to open demonic doorways. But I also don't want to close myself off to things that the enemy has claimed for himself, but they actually belong to God and therefore belong to us. For instance, when the new age talks about your energy, right? They'll say things like, oh, he has such a negative energy, or wow, your your energy is so positive. That's not a lie. Now, their source of that information is a liar, but the actual information is accurate because our bodies are literally made up of energy. And sometimes as Christians, what happens is we immediately dismiss that type of talk or thought of about energy or things like that because it sounds so, you know, new age, but it's not a new age concept that our bodies have energy and vibrations and frequencies. That's just a fact of how God made us. So human lungs apparently resonate between 25 hertz and 33 hertz. There's also recent research suggesting that human cells resonate at ultra high frequencies, and our brains, our magnificent brains, continuously emit electrical activity with different frequencies. And then the earth itself has a vibration, and it's called Schumann's resonance. Have you ever heard of that? Schumann's resonance. It's this pulsating type of vibration that the earth emits. And there's research that shows that spending time barefoot in the grass on the earth beneath your feet can actually help reduce inflammation. It can help normalize your circadian rhythm, it can lower anxiety, and it's because the earth releases electrons that are actually beneficial to our bodies. And some people think that that's new agey. But it's actually not. It's the way God designed everything. It's the way He made things. And He made those things for us to benefit us. Earlier I mentioned how the New Age is very much about positive manifestation and how they believe that through affirmations and this visualization, positive thinking, you can shape your own reality. And, you know, although I don't believe we can shape our own reality, I do believe the Bible teaches us that our thoughts and our words can influence it. So Proverbs 1821 says, Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit. So there can be good fruit or rotten fruit from the power of our tongues, our words. Philippians 4 8 says, think about whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Hmm, sounds like positive thinking to me. So there is power in our words and our thoughts. That's not a new age concept, that's a God concept. And there's scientific research showing that our self-talk affects us mentally and physically. So negative self-talk has a negative effect on you. Positive self-talk has a positive effect, which makes sense when everything has energy and frequency. Your thoughts literally have energy in the form of electrical brainwaves. There's a reason the Lord tells us these things in his word. So although I don't believe you can think about a Ferrari and manifest it, I do believe that our thoughts are directly connected to the way we feel. Most of the time. Most of the time. So again, there are some things that have the new age stamp on them that actually belong to God. And I'm tired of letting the enemy have things that aren't his. I want all the things that God has for me. So now I want to slide into this next conversation by saying that some of us know how to spot the counterfeit, right? We've gotten pretty good at seeing when the enemy is behind something and we've sharpened our discernment so we can see certain things, like what I've just talked about with a new age, where it's like, no, I think that there's a different spirit behind that than the Lord. And we've kind of trained ourselves to see when the enemy is at work. But mostly we've trained ourselves to see it outside the church. When really we need to be training ourselves how to see the counterfeit inside the church. And there's a whole lot of people right now who are in churches where there is a counterfeit spirit leading them. It looks like God, it sounds like God, it even feels like God, but it's a false light. There's something else that sits in the high places of those churches that is not God. So remember in Revelation, Jesus was dealing with the spirit of Jezebel inside the church, not outside. And he said, You tolerate it. So a question we should ask ourselves is why do we tolerate it? Why do people tolerate that? Well, maybe it's because it does such a good job of imitating the real thing. Right? We tolerate it because it feels like the real deal. So even when we start to feel some things that might be off, or we start to realize there's some issues, we end up just burying our heads in the sand because, you know, the good outweighs the bad. And, you know, God's really moving. So we're just going to tolerate the gossip, we're going to tolerate the mistreatment, we'll tolerate the lack of accountability because, well, God is here. Not realizing that it's just an imitation. It's the counterfeit. It's the fraud. So how do we know when something is a counterfeit in the church? Well, I gotta say, it's not easy. So I would say this: number one, we have to pay attention when the Lord shows us what he wants to show us. And number two, we have to be willing to see what he's showing us and then not run away from it because it might shatter our perfect little picture. Because that's what we tend to do sometimes. That if something is gonna mess up my plans or if it's gonna be too hard to face, it's easier to ignore it and just keep, just keep praying about it. Sometimes that's a cop out, by the way. That's a cop out sometimes when you say you're just gonna keep praying about it. Sometimes that's because you're too afraid to confront something. And listen, when you build an entire belief system, when you build friendships and a foundation, and you spend a ton of time and energy and you've poured love into a place like a church, it is extremely difficult to allow the Lord to remove your blinders. Because what's on the other side of that? Many times it's a complete breakdown of what you thought was true, and then that leads to an exit, which also leads to a lot of loss. Because in those environments where there's a counterfeit, if you leave, it means you leave the people. You divorce the family when you leave. You're an ex now with no visitation rights. But like I've said, the counterfeit is often very difficult to recognize. That's why people are drawn to the new age. That's why people are drawn to churches that seem to have it all. Looks like God's presence, it must be God's presence. It can be very confusing. So how do we spot the counterfeit? Well, you know how people will hold a hundred dollar bill up to the light to verify if it's authentic. So they're checking for two security features that are apparently really hard to fake. So there's a watermark and there's an embedded security thread. And when you hold an authentic $100 bill up into the light, you should see a faint watermark of a portrait of Benjamin Franklin. And then there's also a thin plastic ribbon with USA followed by the number 100 across this embedded strip. And you can't see those things unless you hold it up into the light. So it's the light that will reveal the authenticity. If you're not looking at it through the light, the counterfeit will look exactly the same as the real thing. And I think it's the same with what we're talking about. It's the light of God's truth that will reveal the counterfeit. You will start to see, you know, that when they trusted you with information and it made you feel special, it made you feel seen and like you're actually part of the inner circle, you'll see that that information was actually just gossip. You'll start to see that what you thought was structure was actually control. You'll see that what looked like love and care for people was often manipulation to keep people close. You'll see that much of what you thought was the authentic presence of God was actually manufactured by talent and lighting and, you know, a good buildup on the bridge of that song. And can I tell you that the Lord is revealing the counterfeit everywhere? It's happening all over. There is a tearing down of systems and structures and control and man-made kingdoms. And it's happening across the board in the church realm. So we need to pay attention. And we need to understand that maybe the church doesn't really look the way it's supposed to. And that's why God is exposing these man-made systems. You know, I haven't been to church in over a year. Well, actually, we did visit one that was massive, so that was a no, but we haven't been in over a year. And I pray about it and I'm I'm in the word almost daily. I talk to God all the time. I have a strong prayer life. I want what God wants for me. So I'm constantly seeking him, asking him for dreams, asking him to speak to me through his word. So it's not that I'm completely closed off to going to church. I'm just gonna wait on him. Because the reality is we have a whole lot of people who are kind of obsessed with themselves who lead churches. And I'm just over that. I'm over it. I'm also tired of megachurches. I just am. I'm just gonna be honest. I'm tired of mega churches with celebrity pastors who are basically just motivational speakers. Now, I will say I have learned my lesson though. I I learned to never say never because I was about to say I will never go to a megachurch. But there was one time I said I would never homeschool, and now I've been homeschooling for like 13 years. So, you know, sometimes when you say never, God likes to prove you wrong. And he did that with me with homeschooling. So I try to never say never. But anyway, I don't want a counterfeit. I don't want an imitation church that's led by self-righteous, self-obsessed, so-called Christians. I experienced that. I experienced that for way too long, and honestly, God is still working on me, and I have a lot of places that still need to go through maybe a process of maybe it's not even healing, but I I think it's more revelation. I need more revelation why I stayed in an environment like I did for so long. It does a number on you, and it makes you really look at everything so differently. So I'm just gonna keep taking my time and I'm gonna keep waiting on the Lord to show me and to lead me because it's getting a little difficult to find a church that leads with. Humility. I think that's a important one, humility and integrity. That's really important. It's hard to find a church that truly cares for the people that they are leading. And when I say that, I mean that they care enough to keep themselves accountable and the people that they lead accountable. Because listen, without accountability for our words and our actions, churches become breeding grounds for demonic activity. That's just the truth. And the spirit of Jezebel loves that kind of environment, especially leadership where there's no accountability and where there's an enabling for crappy behavior. Jezebel thrives there. One of the things that I've thought about over the years is the lack of true, strong leadership and the lack of mature leadership, godly leadership from the place that we came from. And this is just an example of that. So I had gone to one of the leaders with an issue. And the issue was that one of my sons had gone to a youth gathering with one of the youth leaders. And I think it was the next day that my son actually came to me and talked to me because something was bothering him. And he explained to me that he was really uncomfortable at this youth gathering because the youth leader put on an anime show. And in this anime show, it showed some of these anime characters, these girl anime characters, and basically they were nude. They were naked, except their hair covered their, you know, the hair covered the nipples and their legs were crossed. So you couldn't see the Vijay J. And so basically naked anime girls, but you couldn't see anything, but it was very clear that they were naked. And mind you, again, it was a youth leader that had these boys over, and the boys were 15. And how how crazy is that? Where's the common sense? You're a youth leader, a man old enough to know better. You're supposed to be leading these young men, these young teenagers who are already living in a world that is bombarded with hypersexuality and pornography everywhere. So I was thankful that my son came to me and told me this. And so we talked about it. And I said, you know, I think that we need to have we need to, we need to talk about this. Number one, I knew we needed to tell a leader of the church because, you know, this guy was a youth leader. He was also on um the teaching team. So I thought, you know, this is probably pretty important that a leader needs to know so that they can keep him accountable, so that there can be some accountability brought. So I took this to a leader and I explained what happened. I said, hey, this is what my son told me. This is what he saw. This is the show that was being played in front of these boys. And, you know, my thought was I was bringing this concern, and it was a it was a legitimate concern. Like this should be something that gets taken care of, right? I brought that thinking that they would take it seriously and see the issue and say, Oh, yeah, we're gonna take care of this, we are gonna have a conversation with him, even say something like, How about we all get together and have the conversation? That's not what happened. So this leader told me, Well, why don't you have a conversation with them? Sounds like you have you need to have a conversation with him. Number one, I was not a leader at this church. Number two, this guy was a leader. He was leading the youth. And he was also on the teaching team. And the the leader that I had brought this concern to was actually the head of the teaching team. So whose responsibility do you think that was to bring accountability? It would be on that leader. And this wasn't the first time that something like that had happened, to be honest. It had happened at other times, but I was disappointed. And so that responsibility fell on me. And so I took it, and my son and I actually went to that youth leader and confronted him on that after church one day. And I have to say that the youth leader looked completely shocked that he was being confronted and that he was being called out. And he didn't receive it very well. He listened, but he didn't have a whole lot to say. There was no, there was no um repentance, there was no even acknowledgement that what he did was wrong. That's concerning. So, in my opinion, and in my experience, when there is a a lack of accountability, or even maybe accountability isn't taken seriously, it's not too high up on the priority list, that is a cause for concern. Because, like I said, that is prime soil for Jezebel to take root. But there are some churches that lead well. It's not every single church. But I will say it's not easy. It's not easy to be authentic and spirit-led. It's not easy to bring accountability to yourself and your leadership and your congregation. For instance, here's a story of some friends that I know who lead a church. So they had a married couple who had been coming off and on to their church. I guess they weren't super consistent in coming, but they would just come here and there. But one day the husband approached the pastor, and he mentioned that a lady at the church would come up to his wife when they came to church, and this lady would ask his wife, Why haven't you been at church? Why aren't you coming to the woman's group? And supposedly it was making his wife really uncomfortable. So the pastor asked this guy, he said, Well, what lady is doing this? And the guy points to a woman in the church, not knowing that it was the pastor's mother-in-law, which the pastor did not reveal in that moment that it was his mother-in-law. But then what happened is another accusation came from this guy's wife. So there was a time that this wife was helping with some decorations at the church along with some other people, including the pastor's mother-in-law. And the wife ended up telling her husband that this woman had made her cry for some reason or another. So the husband goes back to the pastor, tells him what had happened, says, Hey, you know, she's made my wife cry now. So now the pastor says this. He says, Okay, well, we need to deal with this because that's my mother-in-law, and we're not going to allow this to continue. So we all need to sit down and have a conversation. Now, notice that the pastor did not put the responsibility on the guy. He said, We all need to sit down. So the pastor was willing to sit down with everyone and talk this out and deal with it. But here's what's funny is the man and his wife, they refused to have a conversation. They refused. They would not sit down and have this conversation. So the pastor actually told them, he said, if you are not willing to deal with this, you'll have to find a new church. Wow. That might seem harsh to some people, but listen, that's how you keep divisive Jezebel counterfeit spirits out. Because here's the truth: if that spirit hasn't already gained a foothold within your church's leadership, it will continue to try. So when you see it, deal with it. And if you're at a church where you see signs of a Jezebel counterfeit spirit within leadership, guess what you need to do? You need to leave. Say what you need to say, if anything, and leave. Stop making excuses for all the reasons to stay and just come out from under it. And then you know what you do? You pray. And you allow the Lord to take you through the process of healing and revelation that you need to go through to come out the other side. The reality is there are a lot of people who are enchanted by the spell of Jezebel. And it's dangerous. And I think we're at a place where we need to be unafraid to talk about it and call it out. It's a real problem in the church. And guess what? It's not gonna go away if we keep turning our heads. It needs to be confronted. So I want to end with this thought. Any of us can fall for a counterfeit. I did, my husband and I did. But we can also see it when we examine it in the light of God's truth. Does it have the watermark? Does it have the true markers of who God is and how he would operate? Does it have the security ribbon? The authentic Holy Spirit who brings conviction and discipline? And more than just emotions and feelings? If you hold it up to the light long enough and you ask God to show you, he will. So don't be afraid to ask him. And then once he starts to show you, don't be afraid to receive what he's showing you. And then act accordingly. Thanks again for listening, and I hope you join me next week.