This is what I believe and how I personally feel on this subject.
I will say that I have deep faith! Not because it was taught to me because it wasn’t. Infact as a child I was not allowed to ask questions about God. I had a great grandmother that used to whisper to me “Tonya never doubt Jesus loves you!’ when I asked questions she would not answer or tell me more. Why? Because it was not allowed to be spoken about around me. There were so many things going on around me as a child that was illegal and wrong and I was being used and abused, so I think keeping that away from me was a part of the craziness of it all. I will never really know why. I had a friend at school, and also was my neighbor, and she invited me to go to church. I asked to go and my mom & stepfather said “HELL NO! I did not understand why, my little sister always stayed with my grandmother and she got to go. One day I went anyway, my mother and stepfather were drinking and drugging and didn’t wake up till late anyway, so I was sure I would get away with it. Oh, what a great time I had! Such fun people, and I felt such love from strangers, I had never seen that kind of behavior before. One of the few fondest memories as a child. I cannot tell you what kind of church it was,because I only went that one time. When were getting off the church bus on our street, my mom was there to meet us and she was pissed! She beat the living shit out of me in front of everyone (back then no one ever got involved in such things, much less tried to stop them) and my step dad dragged me back to the house by the hair on my head. Needless to say I never went back to church as a child. But that one day I spent there, I knew something was with me. I also knew it was the same feeling I had been feeling for awhile, just didn't know what it was or what it was called until that day. I know and still know to this day that it was and still is Jesus looking out for me! So many times, he has looked out for me, I cannot even begin to count them. Many times as a child I should've died, including the time I tried to kill myself when I was 12 years old. Jesus helped me become a fighter then, and still does to this day! As an adult I have gone to many churches,and I like all of them. I do not feel drawn to a particular church or religion, but love and respect the church. I do not agree with everything that goes on, but it isn’t my business too, for I am not a member. I work at a church now, and have for many years now. They know I am different, and that I am not joining their church. They are wonderful people and very kind to me and my family, and they are a part of my family, just as you guys are a part of my family.
As a psychic I have learned so much, and have developed stronger faith now than I ever had before. I understand the bits and pieces of the bible that speaks truth, and see where and why it was changed. I have taken many travels with spirit and have seen many things, and if I was to talk about people would just call me crazy. So I don’t bother trying to explain it all. I do try and tell you guys pieces of it when I can, so that it can help you. Some take it, and some leave it, and that’s all ok. Spirit is real, just as God and Jesus is real. People will always have something to say, something to judge, something to argue about. That’s ok if that is what they want to do. God is love…...regardless, and he doesn’t care what you call him as long as you do. Because in the end it is all the same, and everyone’s truth is truth! Love is Love!
What does all this mean Tonya? It means that you have to do what you feel is right in your heart to do. It is you that will answer for your actions, one day, we all do! We all have a life review to watch in the end. The Quote about “the only way thru the father is through me’ is correct. Because Jesus is unconditional love. We must get to an unconditional love state to go back to the light, God, divine, consciousness, whatever you want to call it. I call it God. “You must love God with all your heart”, because he is love and is the maker of unconditional love itself! “Do unto your neighbor as you would have them do unto you”. In other words,love unconditionally everyone. Giving unconditional positive regard to those concepts and ideas that do not resonate, but still give unconditional love. These three simple things take care of the rest of the complexities listed in the bible. Did Jesus die on the cross? Yes, to show the depth of evil, so we could see the majesty of love. If we choose to love God and everyone with all our heart, despite the evil we see,or what evil that has been done to us, then we have arrived at the highest consciousness level of unconditional love. I will say this is just me and what I believe, and it is ok if you do not agree, I totally respect how you choose to believe. What I will say is please believe what you feel is right to believe. Feel it in your soul, and it will be right!
Here is a bit I got from someone that quoted someone's book, that address what bible scripture says on the matter of people like me and many others that are involved in spirituality. I hope that helps some as well.
WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT PSYCHICS
Written by Echo Bodine
The bible itself does not support the idea that psychic abilities are evil. One thing I've come to learn is that the bible itself, in the form we have it today, is not a perfect record of the events and times it contains. This is not to say that the bible is wrong, or that we can simply ignore the parts we don't like. What I mean is that the bible we read in church every Sunday is a translation several times over, and even the New Testament prophets were writing fifty to seventy years after the events they describe.
For instance, it's important to remember that the original scriptures that became the Old Testament were written in Hebrew, which were then translated into Greek and then Latin, which is the language that first English translation is based on. Much of the New Testament was written in Greek, and then translated into Latin, and then English and other languages.
The King James version was first produced in 1611, and over the centuries, it has been revised several times. The revised standard version, published in 1952, remains the most popular translation, while the new revised standard version was published in 1989, and other versions are being developed every year. Currently, there are over three thousand versions of the bible, and over two hundred denominations within Christianity.
THE OLD TESTAMENT
By my count, the Old Testament contains close to five hundred references to seers and prophets (at one time, prophets were referred to as seers), and the majority of them are positive. In fact, eighteen of the thirty nine books in the Old Testament are messages from or about Hebrew prophets. And described in the Old Testament, the abilities of the prophets - the ability to see visions, hear voices, and sense spirits and God - are exactly the same abilities of clairvoyance, clairaudience, and clairsentience. Something I find interesting is that in Old Testament times priests and prophets usually hung out together, and often when God was mad at one of them, he was mad at the other. I also found several scriptures that warn people about discerning false prophets form true prophets. See Lamentations 2:14, Lamentations 2:20, Lamentations 4:13, Ezekiel 13:2-4, Ezekiel 13:19-10, Ezekiel 13:17-23, Ezekial 14:9-10, Hoseah 4:4-6, Micah 3:5-7, Micah 3:11, Zephaniah 3:4, and Zecharia 13:2-5.
One thing the Old Testament makes very clear is that prophets and fortune tellers are not the same thing. Prophets were considered to be messengers of God, whereas fortune tellers were clumped in the same category as sorcerers, diviners, enchanters, and witchcraft. See Leviticus 19:26, Leviticus 19:31, Leviticus 20:6, and Deuteronomy 18:10-14.
These scriptures make perfect sense to me, and none of it says that what I do for people is wrong. Don't turn to fortune tellers. Turn to God. Don't get distracted by sorcerers or enchanters. Don't get involved in black magic and hurt others.
The bible makes it clear that we should turn to God in times of need. I've seen so many "New Age junkies" who have no idea what spirituality is all about. They go from psychic to psychic hoping to be entertained and distracted from their own lives. I've seen people who have lost loved ones become so obsessed with communicating with them after death that they forget to live their lives. In both cases, psychic abilities are not at fault, but the purposes that people put them to become unhealthy and even self-destructive. The message in the scriptures is the same. They simply warn people to turn to God and not get distracted by those who would lead them away, such as scam artists and magic charmers. This advice is just as applicable for today.
THE NEW TESTAMENT
The New Testament mainly describes the ministry and death of Jesus, who was a Hebrew rabbi named Jeshua ben Joseph (Teacher Jesus son of Joseph). After Jesus' crucifixion, the New Testament describes the acts of his disciples (or apostles) and the beginnings of Christianity.
During his era, Jeshua was considered a radical teacher, healer, and prophet. He taught the Jews and Gentiles that God was a loving God, and that they could talk to him directly without having to go to priests and prophets. In essence, he taught spiritual principles and broke the laws of the Old Testament when he felt they weren't necessary or had become a distraction from worshiping God and doing his works, such as when he would heal on the Sabbath even though the priests insisted it must be a day of rest.
As Ken Davis says in "Don't Know Much About The Bible" about modern age: "The bible was composed a long time ago for a very different group of people than we are today. People have to determine what laws are appropriate to desert nomads four thousand years ago, and which are universal laws that transcend time." This is exactly what Jesus did in his ministry, by interpreting the Old Testament for the people of his time.
Jesus performed miracles, healed the sick, and raised the dead. He taught the crowds by telling stories and parables. He came to teach us how to live our lives and to show us our potential as children of God. Jesus had visions (clairvoyance), he knew what others were thinking (clairaudience), and he knew how people felt (clairsentience). He taught his disciples how to prophesy and heal, and he said, "These gifts I give unto you and greater works shall you do" (John 14:12).
Before his crucifixion, he told his disciples that God was going to send another comforter (or counselor) who would never leave us, and that is the Holy Spirit (John 14:16). According to the bible, after the death of Jesus, a young Pharisee named Saul had been given the authority to arrest the followers of Jesus. On his way to Damascus, Saul had a spiritual awakening that changed his life forever. First, he was visited by Jesus, who asked him why he was persecuting him. Saul then went blind for three days, until he was healed by Ananias (Acts 9:17). In order to reflect and embody this life-changing experience, Saul changed his name to Paul, and he began spreading the teachings of Jesus. He traveled extensively and started many churches. He was an educated man, and he wrote letters and instructions to the various churches he started, and some of these letters are now part of the bible. Even though Jesus said Simon Peter was the man who would build his church, Paul was without a doubt one of the main figures who began Christianity.
In Paul's letters to the Corinthians, he talks about the "Gifts of the Spirit", and this is where we clearly see that the counselor that Jesus referred to (the Holy Spirit) has given all of us the gift of Prophecy (1 Corinthians 12); "And now, dear brothers and sisters, I will write about the special abilities the Holy Spirit gives to each of us, for I must correct your misunderstandings about them".
● 1 Corinthians 12:8-11: "To one person the spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another he gives the gift of special knowledge. He gives special faith to another and to someone else the power to heal the sick. He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and to another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to know whether it is really the Spirit of God or another spirit that is speaking. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages and another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. It is the one and only Holy Spirit who distributes these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.
● 1 Corinthians 14:1: "Let love be your highest goal, but also desire the special abilities the Spirit gives, especially the gift of prophecy."
● 1 Corinthians 12:3: "But one who prophesies is helping others grow in the Lord, encouraging and comforting them.
● 1 Corinthians 14:5: "I wish you all had the gift of speaking in tongues, but even more I wish you were all able to prophesy. For prophecy is a greater and more useful gift than speaking in tongues."
● 1 Corinthians 14:22: "So you see that speaking in tongues is a sign, not for believers, but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is for the benefit of believers, not unbelievers."
● 1 Corinthians 12:27-28: "Now all of you together are Christ's body, and each one of you is a separate and necessary part of it. Here is a list of some of the members that God has placed in the body of Christ: first are apostles, second are prophets, third are teachers, then those who do miracles, those who have the gift of healing, those who can help others, those who speak in unknown languages."
It should be noted that nowhere in Corinthians are the words "evil" or Satan" ever mentioned when Paul is describing the Gifts of the Spirit, and he clearly points out that the Gift of Prophecy (which is the result of psychic abilities) comes from the Holy Spirit.
This next quote, not written by Paul but from Acts, is important because it refutes another thing many fundamentalists believe - that only certain people can prophesy:
Acts 2:17-18: "In the last days, God said, I will pour out my spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. In those days I will pour out my Spirit upon all my servants, men and women alike, and they will prophesy."