Doctrine of Demons: Manifesting
One day, a little over a year ago, I was sitting in my office scrolling down through videos on my Facebook while on break. I came across a video where Tinashe was being interviewed by Becky G about her career; and in her interview they began discussing how she “manifested” her success. Tinashe commented on how she was the one who was her own boss, booked her own shows, and really made it all happen by trusting the Universe. She believed in the power of oneself manifesting your dreams and desires into existence if you trust the universe and help direct it. At first impression, I was disoriented from the concept of being able to make your desires into reality by your own will. Fast forward to the present day, I am hearing this concept of “manifesting” everywhere…whether it is on social media, among friends, or my Christian community. It never sat right with me; call me a radical or far-right Christian conservative, but I don’t believe this should sit right with anyone who is a Bible believing Christian. So what is this growing popular concept of manifesting your dreams and desires into reality?
Taken from The Qi , “...people showing how they have been able to bring their dreams into their reality. Manifestation is based on The Law of Attraction, which, in simple terms, is the ability to bring things into our realities through energetic attraction. Essentially, like attracts like, what you are putting out into the world is what you will receive back from it.” Another article from Astrological-Sign reads, “Take inspired action and trust that the Universe will lead us to our greatest desires. So how do we get the Universe to do just that? Well, you’ll need to ask yourself, ‘What does it mean to manifest my dreams?’ By giving the Universe the right signals and pointing it in the direction of your goals, you’re showing it how to manifest your dream life through deliberate creation.” Aside from the fact that “The Law of Attraction” or manifesting was termed and developed by an Pagan occultist named William Walker Atkinson–we should already see the red flags without needing to know the origins of it. Atkinson’s book titled, “Thoughts of Things”, speaks of manifestation in this way,
“Manifestation in the direction of the materialization of our ideals, good or bad, into objective and concrete existence. Thoughts are mental Things, and tend to become material Things. The Ideal becomes Real...Every strong desire, ideal, or feeling is a seed-action that will strive ever to express itself and draw to itself that which will tend to nourish it and enable it to manifest into action and objective shape and form…A strong mental state produces mental unrest in its efforts to materialize itself. In its striving for birth on the material plane it sets into operation both the law of attraction, before mentioned, and also starts into operation the subconscious activities of the mind in the direction of thinking out plans and means wherewith the materialization may be effected” (Thoughts are Things).
Manifestation presents itself to a person as if they can be a god; as if they are God Himself because of their supposed ability to create something from (essentially) nothing. This is the heart of my growing pain regarding the topic of manifesting especially among Christians. We, Christians, should know very well that we are far from being like God. Everything God has given us and everything that exists in our reality is all of His. In God’s hand is the life of everything (Job 12:10). The wealth, strength, talents, careers, and all the blessings we have originated with God and from God. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17). We are incapable of anything and possess nothing unless He chooses to give it to us despite all the signals, effort, direction we give the “universe”. The Lord gives what belongs to Him, and He will take it away as He sees fit (Job 1:21). If we did have the ability to manifest our desires into possession, why then is it that they can be taken away? What is created by the creator cannot be uprooted.
The uprising sensation of manifesting actually displays a perfect picture of how truly fallen we are and how far removed we are from God. Let it be known that the only thing we are capable of manifesting apart from God is sin (Romans 3). But who is like the Almighty God? Not her, not him, not I. If anything, mankind is more like Lucifer. This is but an accurate observation of our spiritual decay—wherein the human heart is so eager to covet things for itself with such a deep passion that it would begin to actually think that it can manifest what it covets. The art of manifesting may seem innocent, but it conveys the gross nature of the fallen Adamic man who is full of pride to think they are able because they say they are able. Humility is dying and I can see an epidemic of gods on the horizon. This is one of the many doctrines of demons that Paul speaks about in 1 Timothy 4:1, “The Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.”
As I’ve said earlier this has been a topic that’s been a growing pain in my heart, and the words I’ve written are genuinely what’s been kindling within. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve actually used this terminology without even realizing it—”Girl, manifest what you want!” However, I am not discussing the simple situation of putting in work so you can lose weight. There are different views around “manifesting” and perhaps I am taking it all too seriously, but there is surely something deceptive brewing from the devil.
I would like to encourage everyone and anyone to take a step back and ask yourself, “Who am I?” Who am I that I can will myself the life I desire—the life I covet? For me, I know who I am. I am someone who God chose to loan blessings to, and one day He will take it back. Who I am is but an image of Christ who died for me; even in who I am, I did not manifest because of “The Law of Attraction”, but because of the law of Atonement. I am eager to share my deep-dive analysis into this ever growing, ever popular demonic doctrine of “Manifesting” that many are flocking to in Part 2 of this blog.
CY