Of "Spiritual Wives and Husbands"

I received the following comment on my last post, Beware the Ng’anga, and thought it worthy of another post as it shows how prevalent the ng’anga virus is becoming.

disciple.com said...
Amen to that!!! Its unfortunate what the microwave technology has done to our christianity. We want quick fixes to our situations and not take time to seek God the whole 9 yards...

Truly Mtumiki 'These gullible believers don’t make any effort to grow in their understanding of God’s truth so they are easily deceived'.

No wonder some gave away all their life's savings before 21st May! lol!

A question for you Mtumiki, one of my sistaz went to one 'prophet' and she was told she has a spiritual husband, hence the delay in marriage.

She is very confused and is asking questions like 'If God is my Jehova shamma, where was He when this spiritual husband was marrying me?'

She loves the Lord and wants to be free of this chi-issue! unlike the examples (stories) you have specified above, this one can not be proved with physical evidence?! i think:-(

what would you advise?

Is this a true prophetic word? or its another ng'anga?

First of all, there is no biblical basis for belief in a so-called “spiritual wife/husband.” Definitely if such phenomena existed, Jesus or Paul would have dealt with it and given us ample instruction in the Bible. The Bible does recognize the existence of a hierarchy of demonic spirits at the top of which is Satan as Paul explains about the nature of our warfare to be “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 4:12b). However, Paul does not delve into the intricacies of how these demons operate for the simple reason that Christ has defeated the powers of the enemy on the cross as he writes to the Colossians: “He [Christ] disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him” (Colossians 2:15). This authority over the demonic realm has been passed on to those that believe in the resurrected Christ who says in Matthew 28:18 to His remaining eleven disciples that “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” On a theoretical level, if it were true that such things as spiritual husbands exist what’s to stop there being “spiritual parents”, “spiritual schools and teachers”, “spiritual cars”, and “spiritual” everything. Such kind of thinking is obviously absurd. But even if it were true – granted the flimsiest chance that it were true – the biblical response is that Christ has already triumphed over such powers and principalities.

Secondly, in true ng’anga fashion the teaching on “spiritual wives/husbands” instills fear as it relies on a witchcraft scheme reality, points to the ng’anga as the solution, and belittles the authority the believer has in light of Christ’s victory at Calvary. Like our sister in the above story, such tales bring fear into many people which are what drive them to witch-doctors to “protect” themselves from witchcraft (which is illogical as the witch-doctor is able to “protect” because he/she a more powerful witch/wizard). This is based on the witchcraft “reality” that seems to have a diabolically distorted world where witches play “soccer” with your head in the night so that when you wake up with a heavy headache chances are you were the soccer ball last night. They also claim to fly to the various capitals of the world by night in their “airplanes”. All this is a parody of reality so that it is not unexpected that one can speak of a “spiritual wife” in this scheme of things. Moreover, the answer to the “spirit wife/husband” solution is really with the ng’anga so that an adherent need not fret because the ng’anga can provide the solution (at a fee, of course). There really is no difference between the traditional ng’anga and some of these “prophets” as they are using the same worldview. Most dangerously though is that such thinking belittles the powerful authority the believer has in Christ and makes the cross of Christ of no effect before principalities and powers. Yet the Apostle Paul when praying for spiritual insight for the believers in Ephesus prayed that they may know:

19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Believers are filled with the same power from God that raised Christ from the dead! So it is impossible for a “spiritual husband/wife” to stop one from entering into God’s blessing of marriage. Does Satan resist God’s will upon our lives? Yes, he does. But the James 4:7 says: “Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Are there “spiritual husbands/wives” for real? That’s the wrong question to ask. What matters is Christ has triumphed over the powers of darkness and the believer in Christ should exercise that authority.

Finally, we should appreciate the various gifts that God has placed around us in our faith community. Could it be that our sister’s issue can best be handled by those more experienced in this area of concern that are around her in church, perhaps an older more experienced believer who has gone through a similar situation? It could be that the issue may be less “spiritual” than the ng’anga is exploiting it to be. In any case, “A wise man is full of strength, and a man of knowledge enhances his might, for by wise guidance you can wage war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory” (Proverbs 24:6).