A: While there is no verse in the Bible that says that psychics have a prophetic gift from God, there are numerous passages in the Bible that, if taken together, paint a picture of a loving Heavenly Father who gives gifts to every single person from the time of his or her conception. Some of these passages include:
- Jeremiah 1:5
- "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."
- Psalm 139:13,16
- "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."
- James 1:17
- "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."
- In the parable of the lost son, we are reminded that the gifts of the Father can be misused and wasted.
Luke 15:11-13
- "There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living."
- The Bible also teaches us that even when we misuse the Father's gifts, He does not take them away. He still has a purpose and destiny for us.
Romans 11:29
- "...God's gifts and his call are irrevocable."
As you look around in society, you can see that there are people with many different giftings: in music, art, sports, politics, business, education, science, and many other areas of endeavor. Some of these people use their gifts for the glory of God, and some use their gifts for their own selfish, and even demonic, purposes.
We believe that it is quite likely that people who end up operating as psychics were born with a prophetic gifting from God, which has been turned to a wrong use which the Father did not intend.
But the Father, in His infinite wisdom and love, does not take His gifts back, nor does He bring immediate judgment. As it is written in 2 Peter 3:9, "He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."
Using the analogy of a radio, we could say that some people are born with a built-in "prophetic radio". Unfortunately, some people decided to "tune in" to the wrong "frequency". Our job as the Church is to win these hearts back to God, so that they are in love with Jesus and submitted to His Lordship. Then their "prophetic radios" will be "tuned in" to the original "frequency" for which God gave them that gift.
We have had numerous people bring up the passage in Acts 16:16-21, where it talks about a slave girl who earned a great deal of money fortune-telling through demonic power. She needed to be set free from that demonic control, and through Paul's ministry she was.
Could it not be possible that she had a God-given prophetic gift, which was being misused for the purposes of the devil? Once she was set free, could it not be possible that she turned her heart towards God and submitted her life to His Lordship? And could it not be possible that her prophetic gifting could then be used for the pure and good purposes for which the Father originally gave her that gift?
Whether or not psychics have a prophetic gift from God is not the main issue. John Wimber, the founder of the Vineyard Churches, used to say that people are never your enemy, the enemy is the enemy. Psychics are not the enemy, but lost sheep that the Good Shepherd wants us to find and bring back. We as the Church need to bring psychics into God's Kingdom with divine strategies that will open their hearts to God, not close their hearts. Doug Addison, for example, has been seeking God for many years to discover these divine strategies and to learn how to implement them.
You may not agree with our views on this issue. That's OK. We would all do well to follow the advice of a wise Christian from past centuries: "In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; and in both charity."
