Marriage, as the Bible defines it, is a spiritual joining together of one man and one woman in a life-long committed relationship. It is something created by God, for our benefit, and carries His blessing. Although the word “marriage” is not used there, we see the very first couple, Adam and Eve, joined together by God in marriage. He said of them:
Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. – Genesis 2:24
Mariage, as God designed it, is clearly a spiritual relationship. While there is a physical aspect to it, the joining together as “one flesh” really refers more to the soul and spirit, than it does to the body. Although I will have to say that the body helps with the process of joining the soul and spirit together.
Today, there is much confusion about marriage, confusion that has been raised intentionally by those who want to destroy or change the institution that God created. Same-sex marriages, marrying pets, and even marrying yourself are options that people have explored. These efforts are undermining the truth of what marriage is and what it is meant to be. Add that to the high divorce rate in our society today, and it is clear that the institution of marriage is in trouble.
This is worrisome, because the family is the foundation of society and marriage is the foundation of marriage. If the devil can destroy marriages, through destroying our understanding of what marriage is, it will have a major impact on society’s ability to live according to God’s precepts.
It is said that “nature abhors a vacuum” and that applies in the spiritual sense as well. Many of the places where Satan has made the greatest inroads are those where the Gospel message is sorely lacking. This obviously applies to places in the world where the Gospel is not preached; but it also applies to marriage, as the definition of marriage is changed.
This brings us to the idea of spirit husbands and spirit wives. There are some who think this is a Biblical concept, just because of the word “spirit.” Those who don’t really know the Bible can easily be fooled by such terms. But in reality, these terms can’t be further from the truth that the Bible teaches. Not only that, but fi we understand what they are, we realize that the Bible is strongly against involvement in these sorts of relationships.
Where Do Spirit Spouses Come From?
The whole idea of spirit spouses, both spirit wives and spirit husbands, comes from shamanism, not the Bible. But just what is shamanism and how does it fit into a Biblical worldview?
The idea of shamanism has existed almost since the beginning of mankind. It is a part of many ancient religions, ranging through many different cultures, from all around the world. The shamans were religious leaders in these ancient religions, who were supposed to have the ability to contact the spirit realm and perform various different things, including seeing the future, healing people of their illnesses, and help people get the results they desired from their labors. By biblical definition, the things that these shamans did, was called witchcraft.
In many ancient cultures, shamans were able to make their connection with the spirit realm through the use of various hallucinatory drugs. This naturally brings to question whether they truly made contact with a being in the spirit realm, or whether they merely had a hallucination of such an encounter. They believed they made contact with spirit beings, as did those who sought the shamans’ aid.
Shamans supposedly operated in partnership with spirit beings. Their principal partner was their spirit wife or spirit husband. As both men and women could become shamans, spirit spouses would be of the opposite sex to the shaman. Put another way, as being a shaman was considered a calling, the spirit would call someone to be a shaman, who was of the opposite sex to the spirit. Ceremonially “marrying” the spirit was supposed to create the same sort of spiritual bond that natural marriage does.
This allowed the shaman to call upon their spirit spouse whenever needed, to perform actions in the spirit realm, which would have an impact on our natural one. Much of the shaman’s supposed power, if not all of it, came from their connection to this spirit and what the spirit spouse would do for them.
Just Who Are These Spirits?
There is an attempt to portray this spirits that the shamans “use” as benevolent spirits. That may be at least somewhat true from their viewpoint; but it is not from a biblical viewpoint. There is nowhere in the Bible, where benevolent spirits of this type are mentioned.
Spirits in the Bible fall into four categories:
- God’s spirit
- The spirits of people
- Angels (people don’t become angels when they die, we are a higher class of spirit being)
- Unclean spirits, otherwise known as evil spirits or demons
All angels work for God, whether we refer to Him as Jehovah (the Father) or Jesus Christ (the son). We know a little of them and their work, because it is referenced in the Bible. Mostly they are messengers, sent by God to speak to specific people. There are other works which we know that they do, such as worshiping God in heaven. Some are also given the responsibility of watching over us and protecting us. This is where the idea of the “guardian angels” has come from.
For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. 12 In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. – Psalms 91:11-12
This leaves only the category of unclean or evil spirits available to be called on as spirit spouses for the shamans. But just where did these unclean spirits come from?
When the archangel Lucifer rebelled against Jehovah God, he convinced one-third of the angels of heaven to join him in his rebellion. That rebellion didn’t last long, as Jesus Himself testified to, saying “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18). Just as Lucifer’s character changed, with the evil side becoming more obvious after this fall, so did the rebellious nature of these angels become more predominant after their fall, turning them into demons or evil spirits.
These are the spirits that the shamans call upon to do their work. While the work they do may seem good or to do good for some people, it ultimately serves the purpose of entrapping those people and making them serve those evil spirits. This is only one of the many ways that Satan uses to entrap people, keeping them from building a relationship with Jesus Christ and ultimately having a place in heaven.
Can Believers Have These Relationships?
The Bible is clear and consistent in its condemnation of all types of witchcraft and divination. To make that a bit clearer, the Bible is referring to any spiritual act, which is intended to influence or control another person, as being wrong. This can include a pretty wide gambit of activities, including tarot card reading, horoscopes, Ouija boards, and palm reading, as well as spells and incantations. It also condemns making any sort of sacrifices to strange gods, which would, of course, include these evil spirits.
There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11 or one who conjures spells or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. 12 For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you. – Deuteronomy 18:10-12
We must be aware that those who practice these things will always make themselves out to be innocent of wrongdoing and their activities to be beneficial to you. This is not true. God calls it an abomination and we have no place or right to call it otherwise. To do so is to state that we do not accept God’s ultimate lordship over our lives.
Having spent a considerable amount of time in Mexico, I have come face-to-face with witchcraft and shamanism. The ancient Mayan people had their own type of shamanism and it is still in existence today. Those shamans, who may also be referred to as “brujas” (witches), “curanderos” (faith healers), or “hechiceros” (sorcerers), are often hired by people to perform a number of spiritual acts, very similar to the acts that the shamans performed in the past.
We must be aware that contact with these people, being a part of their rituals or spiritual acts, is extremely dangerous. Such acts can have a lifelong impact, inviting evil spirits into the lives of those so involved. Those spirits will continue to work to influence the lives of the people they become connected with. While they may seem, at times, to do good, it is always with evil intent.
More than anything, the purpose of these spirits and the shamans they work with, is to keep people from entering into a life-saving relationship with Jesus Christ. While Jesus is powerful enough to free us from such influence, the longer a relationship we have with those spirits, the harder it will be for us to recognize that we need that help. Some people reach a point where they believe that the evil spirits speaking to them are actually the Lord speaking and will so declare to others. They are misled, blinded by the influence of these spirits.
For the believer in Christ, there is no place for such relationships nor is there any reason to attempt making contact with either shamans or the spirits that they work with. We must recognize what and who they are and keep our distance.