Why do People Seeking Spiritual Fulfillment Deny the Supernatural?

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Ephesians 6:12

Fact: People in America are seeking spiritual fulfillment in ever increasing numbers. Fact: These same people get very nervous and tend to avoid discussions concerning supernatural events and forces. Why is that?

Most people will admit that they are seeking something greater in life than what they have today. There is an inner yearning for significance that drives them to seek something more than what life currently offers them. Some turn to money and/or materials things, others to obtaining power by climbing the corporate ladder, still others to finding a sense of self worth via accomplishments, and the list goes on and on: advance learning, extreme physical fitness, adventurous sex, and even deepening family relationships. Now not all of these are, in and of themselves, a bad thing. But most everyone will agree, after substantial effort is spent in pursuit of these things, they do not have lasting fulfillment. More and more people are coming to admit that the key to true, long-lasting fulfillment lies in the spiritual realm. Yet, we as Americans are too enlightened to put much credence in the existence of an all powerful, eternal, spiritual force – whether good or evil.

And yet billions of people in the world are not so encumbered by intellectual (or other forms of) hang-ups that they ignore the existence of the spiritual forces in this world and the fact that they are very real indeed. I myself have witnessed this power. But my testimony is not nearly as impactful as that of countless people I have met from Africa, South America, India, China, and more close to home, the Caribbean. They all give similar accounts of spiritual powers that are evidenced on a large scale, and on a daily basis, in these places. Spiritual powers representing both “good” and “evil” are a regular part of their daily lives. Why there and not here? I can’t say for sure, other than perhaps the forces here manifest themselves much more subtly and are typically reserved only for the first hand witness of those who are open to believing what they are seeing. Indeed, in these other locations I have mentioned, belief has existed for hundreds (if not thousands) of years. Let me give you a real-time example…

This evening, as part of my normal business travels, I hailed a cab to take me back to my hotel. Along the way, I struck up a conversation with the driver who had been operating a cab for 14 years. But this was no ordinary cab driver. He was a Haitian minister who had relocated to the U.S. to try to build a better life for his wife and children. He was a particularly well educated and a very conversant man. Had the conversation been about business and the stock market, he would have passed as an upper middle class, educated man at any dinner party.

But there was a difference. This man had been witness to many supernatural powers in Haiti – both “good” and “bad”. He had seen miraculous healings and blessings that were unexplainable other than through supernatural power. Some of you will find that as acceptable and perhaps even physically explainable. However, the more impressive (to me) supernatural powers this man had experienced were of an “evil” nature. He shared with me of stories of people who sacrificed pigs to “Satan” during worship ceremonies and subsequently drank the blood, only to receive great powers that seemingly protected them from personal disasters that the rest of the normal populace would go through. He told of stories of people who sold their souls to “Satan” and subsequently became extremely rich, lacking nothing - but then mysteriously died within 2 years while they were still young and healthy. Voodoo and witchcraft are widespread there and their powers well respected as a normal part of life by all.

As “ugly” Americans we dismiss such stories as hearsay and nonsense, convinced that we know better. And yet, our population is a mere 4.5% of the world population – the majority of which the life described above is accepted as normal. So who is right? Could it be possible that we have buried our heads in the sand, as the stereotypical ostrich and sit cozy on our artificial world of self delusion – completely ignoring the powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms? I, for one, think so.

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