January 10, 2022

A couple of years ago, my mom, my daughter, and I took a walking tour of Ybor City in Tampa. It’s an old Cuban cigar factory town established in 1885. It is full of history, with row houses and fancy clubs that once entertained the workers and their families on the weekends. The tour took us through a portion of the city that the Scientologists purchased to do whatever Scientologist do. As we walked through their establishment, I began praying for us because I knew they had bought into something other than Jesus. I could see them jeering and even thought that I’d heard one of them hissing. Thankfully we got out of there pretty quickly. 

As the tour came to an end, the tour guide mentioned that they have ghost tours that take you through The Cuban Club, where they have seen the spirit of a child who had drowned in the pool back in the heyday of Ybor. Let me remind you that if you have felt the presence of spirits in situations like these, you can bet you are in the presence of demons who’ve made themselves known to instill fear. 

These two situations make it obvious where the spirits are coming from, but what’s less obvious is when it comes from the pulpit or an evangelist. Make sure you are prayed-up and tuned in to the Holy Spirit so you can distinguish the difference.

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 1 John 4:1-3