Don't Mix the Pure Spirit with the Impure

This is one of those passages which are like, you must not muzzle the ox that treads out the grain. It has an application then, but it has another application now.

In Deuteronomy 22, verses 9 and 11:

“You shall not sow your vineyard with different kinds of seed, lest the yield of the seed which you have sown and the fruit of your vineyard be defiled.”

And then it says:

“You shall not wear a garment of different sorts, such as wool and linen mixed together.”

The principle is, serving the Lord, don't mix two different kinds of things. Sow your vineyard with mixed seed, you'll get a crop that God does not accept as holy. Wearing partly linen and partly wool, you're in two different spiritual worlds, because linen is a type of spiritual purity. Wool is a type of human effort that generates sweat.

So, you, we, you and I, and the church, we have to examine ourselves. Are we sowing with mixed seed? Is there the good and also the false? Am I wearing a mixed garment, partly the righteousness of Jesus and partly my own fleshly nature? Because ultimately, the blessing of God will not remain on that which is pure and impure mixed.

Let me just review that because I think it's important. Different ways in which error can enter, deception. People prophesy beyond the proportion of their faith. They start in faith and then go, because they get puffed up, they go beyond their faith.

Various different kinds of fortune telling. See, people pay a lot of money to fortune tellers. You know that. People don't pay for nothing. In Germany today, West Germany, which is now the western half of Germany, in West Germany, most German businessmen will consult a fortune teller before they do a business deal. They never think of going to a church or a minister.

Now, businessmen don't spend money for nothing. It doesn't mean that what they get is right, but part of it is right. And they can probably quote you instances in which they've been marvelously helped. I think perhaps the classic example is that the previous president of the United States, his wife was in continual contact with a fortune teller and astrologist, and much of his official calendar was dictated by that lady. Including the meetings with Gorbachev and so on. This is not something from another age. It's right in our midst.

And then I want to warn you again, don't accept Satan's destiny for your life. It may be some of you here have been to a fortune teller. It'd be very unusual if some of you hadn't. You really need to get clear of every involvement. In this book of mine, which I held up, I speak of a case when I was in a prayer meeting with a young man. I'd never met him before.

And we were just chatting together, and I said, “Have you received the Holy Spirit?” And he said, “Yes, but…” Well, anytime anybody says, “Yes, but,” to that question, you know what the “but” is. “But I don't speak with tongues.”

So, I commented, another trunkless elephant. And I didn't argue with him about that. I simply said, “Did you,” and now I said this by inspiration, “Did you ever go to a fortune teller?” And he thought over, “Yes,” he said, “once when I was about 15, but I only did it as a joke. I didn't mean anything by it.”

“But,” I said, “you did go, and you did have your fortune told.” So, he rather reluctantly said, “Yes.” So, I said, “Would you be willing to confess that to God as a sin and ask Him to release you from the consequences?”

So, he said, “Yes,” I think just really to, you know, get me off his back. So, I led him in a little simple prayer. “Lord, I confess as a sin that I went to a fortune teller, and I had my fortune told, and I repent, and I ask you to release me from all the consequences.” I didn't say anything more, put my hand on his shoulder, prayed for him, and he immediately began to speak fluently in a tongue.

You see, the invisible barrier had been removed. There was a shadow over his life that had to be lifted.