Be sober and alert. Your enemy the devil, like a roaring lion, is on the prowl looking for someone to devour.Resist him, strong in your faith, because you know that your brothers and sisters throughout the world are enduring the same kinds of suffering.
Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God – what is good and well-pleasing and perfect.
You are from God, little children, and have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
Look, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions and on the full force of the enemy, and nothing will hurt you.
For the Lord promotes justice, and never abandons his faithful followers. They are permanently secure, but the children of evil men are wiped out.
No weapon forged to be used against you will succeed; you will refute everyone who tries to accuse you. This is what the Lord will do for his servants – I will vindicate them,” says the Lord.
The God of peace will quickly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.
Even when I must walk through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for you are with me; your rod and your staff reassure me.
But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.
Don’t be afraid, for I am with you! Don’t be frightened, for I am your God! I strengthen you – yes, I help you – yes, I uphold you with my saving right hand!
Jesus called his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits so they could cast them out and heal every kind of disease and sickness.
But they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die.
The Lord is good – indeed, he is a fortress in time of distress, and he protects those who seek refuge in him.
We know that everyone fathered by God does not sin, but God protects the one he has fathered, and the evil one cannot touch him.
For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and presumption is like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.”
I repeat, be strong and brave! Don’t be afraid and don’t panic, for I, the Lord your God, am with you in all you do.”
Be strong and courageous! Do not fear or tremble before them, for the Lord your God is the one who is going with you. He will not fail you or abandon you!”
When you pass through the waters, I am with you; when you pass through the streams, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not harm you.
The Lord delivers and vindicates me! I fear no one! The Lord protects my life! I am afraid of no one!
As for you, the one who lives in the shelter of the sovereign One, and resides in the protective shadow of the mighty king –No harm will overtake you; no illness will come near your home.For he will order his angels to protect you in all you do.They will lift you up in their hands, so you will not slip and fall on a stone.You will subdue a lion and a snake; you will trample underfoot a young lion and a serpent.The Lord says, “Because he is devoted to me, I will deliver him; I will protect him because he is loyal to me.When he calls out to me, I will answer him. I will be with him when he is in trouble; I will rescue him and bring him honor.I will satisfy him with long life, and will let him see my salvation.I say this about the Lord, my shelter and my stronghold, my God in whom I trust –
Disarming the rulers and authorities, he has made a public disgrace of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
But those who wait for the Lord’s help find renewed strength; they rise up as if they had eagles’ wings, they run without growing weary, they walk without getting tired.
But you, Lord, are a shield that protects me; you are my glory and the one who restores me.
The name of the Lord is like a strong tower; the righteous person runs to it and is set safely on high.
“I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you release on earth will have been released in heaven.
No, I mean that what the pagans sacrifice is to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be partners with demons.
They passed their sons and daughters through the fire, and practiced divination and omen reading. They committed themselves to doing evil in the sight of the Lord and made him angry.
For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing even to the point of dividing soul from spirit, and joints from marrow; it is able to judge the desires and thoughts of the heart.
You must burn the images of their gods, but do not covet the silver and gold that covers them so much that you take it for yourself and thus become ensnared by it; for it is abhorrent to the Lord your God.
He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son he loves,
They sacrificed to demons, not God, to gods they had not known; to new gods who had recently come along, gods your ancestors had not known about.
“‘You must not eat anything with the blood still in it. You must not practice either divination or soothsaying.
Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, depravity,Listen! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you at all!idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions,envying, murder, drunkenness, carousing, and similar things. I am warning you, as I had warned you before: Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God!
Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the sexually immoral, and the murderers, and the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood!
Persist in trusting your amulets and your many incantations, which you have faithfully recited since your youth! Maybe you will be successful – maybe you will scare away disaster.You are tired out from listening to so much advice. Let them take their stand – the ones who see omens in the sky, who gaze at the stars, who make monthly predictions – let them rescue you from the disaster that is about to overtake you!Look, they are like straw, which the fire burns up; they cannot rescue themselves from the heat of the flames. There are no coals to warm them, no firelight to enjoy.
Josiah also got rid of the ritual pits used to conjure up spirits, the magicians, personal idols, disgusting images, and all the detestable idols that had appeared in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. In this way he carried out the terms of the law recorded on the scroll that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the Lord’s temple.
I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble and suffering, but take courage – I have conquered the world.”
There must never be found among you anyone who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, anyone who practices divination, an omen reader, a soothsayer, a sorcerer,one who casts spells, one who conjures up spirits, a practitioner of the occult, or a necromancer.Whoever does these things is abhorrent to the Lord and because of these detestable things the Lord your God is about to drive them out from before you.
Do not turn to the spirits of the dead and do not seek familiar spirits to become unclean by them. I am the Lord your God.
“‘The person who turns to the spirits of the dead and familiar spirits to commit prostitution by going after them, I will set my face against that person and cut him off from the midst of his people.
He passed his sons through the fire in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom and practiced divination, omen reading, and sorcery. He set up a ritual pit to conjure up underworld spirits and appointed magicians to supervise it. He did a great amount of evil in the sight of the Lord and angered him.
Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, depravity,Listen! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you at all!idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions,
But to the cowards, unbelievers, detestable persons, murderers, the sexually immoral, and those who practice magic spells, idol worshipers, and all those who lie, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. That is the second death.”
They will say to you, “Seek oracles at the pits used to conjure up underworld spirits, from the magicians who chirp and mutter incantations. Should people not seek oracles from their gods, by asking the dead about the destiny of the living?”
Large numbers of those who had practiced magic collected their books and burned them up in the presence of everyone. When the value of the books was added up, it was found to total fifty thousand silver coins.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.
I will remove the sorcery that you practice, and you will no longer have omen readers living among you.
And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done.They are filled with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice. They are rife with envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility. They are gossips,concerning his Son who was a descendant of David with reference to the flesh,slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents,senseless, covenant-breakers, heartless, ruthless.Although they fully know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but also approve of those who practice them.
I will not even consider doing what is dishonest. I hate doing evil; I will have no part of it.
They will say to you, “Seek oracles at the pits used to conjure up underworld spirits, from the magicians who chirp and mutter incantations. Should people not seek oracles from their gods, by asking the dead about the destiny of the living?”Then I will summon as my reliable witnesses Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah.”Then you must recall the Lord’s instructions and the prophetic testimony of what would happen. Certainly they say such things because their minds are spiritually darkened.
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot take part in the table of the Lord and the table of demons.
You foolish Galatians! Who has cast a spell on you? Before your eyes Jesus Christ was vividly portrayed as crucified!
Suppose a prophet or one who foretells by dreams should appear among you and show you a sign or wonder,You must stone him to death because he tried to entice you away from the Lord your God, who delivered you from the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.Thus all Israel will hear and be afraid; no longer will they continue to do evil like this among you.Suppose you should hear in one of your cities, which the Lord your God is giving you as a place to live, thatsome evil people have departed from among you to entice the inhabitants of their cities, saying, “Let’s go and serve other gods” (whom you have not known before).You must investigate thoroughly and inquire carefully. If it is indeed true that such a disgraceful thing is being done among you,you must by all means slaughter the inhabitants of that city with the sword; annihilate with the sword everyone in it, as well as the livestock.You must gather all of its plunder into the middle of the plaza and burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. It will be an abandoned ruin forever – it must never be rebuilt again.You must not take for yourself anything that has been placed under judgment. Then the Lord will relent from his intense anger, show you compassion, have mercy on you, and multiply you as he promised your ancestors.Thus you must obey the Lord your God, keeping all his commandments that I am giving you today and doing what is right before him.and the sign or wonder should come to pass concerning what he said to you, namely, “Let us follow other gods” – gods whom you have not previously known – “and let us serve them.”You must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer, for the Lord your God will be testing you to see if you love him with all your mind and being.
and say ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Woe to those who sew bands on all their wrists and make headbands for heads of every size to entrap people’s lives! Will you entrap my people’s lives, yet preserve your own lives?
He passed his son through the fire and practiced divination and omen reading. He set up a ritual pit to conjure up underworld spirits, and appointed magicians to supervise it. He did a great amount of evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.
For this reason I carefully follow all your precepts. I hate all deceitful actions. פ (Pe)
You who love the Lord, hate evil! He protects the lives of his faithful followers; he delivers them from the power of the wicked.
Do not become partners with those who do not believe, for what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship does light have with darkness?And what agreement does Christ have with Beliar? Or what does a believer share in common with an unbeliever?And what mutual agreement does the temple of God have with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, just as God said, “I will live in them and will walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”Therefore “come out from their midst, and be separate,” says the Lord, “and touch no unclean thing, and I will welcome you,
However, God’s solid foundation remains standing, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from evil.”
Be careful not to allow anyone to captivate you through an empty, deceitful philosophy that is according to human traditions and the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
Be sober and alert. Your enemy the devil, like a roaring lion, is on the prowl looking for someone to devour.
Then Jesus came up and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding.Acknowledge him in all your ways, and he will make your paths straight.
No harm will overtake you; no illness will come near your home.For he will order his angels to protect you in all you do.