God does not waste commandments on things that are not real.

He forbids necromancy, mediumship, divination, and every form of spirit communication because it actually works, and because what responds when you try to contact the dead is almost never who you think it is. In this episode, Leah and Malaine go into the Hebrew of Deuteronomy 18 and pull apart the nine practices God named as an abomination, word by word. What they find hiding inside the original language, connections to the serpent in Genesis, the true meaning of "familiar spirit," and a link between channeling and biblical meditation that uses the exact same Hebrew word, will change how you read these passages permanently.

The centerpiece is 1 Samuel 28 and King Saul's encounter with the witch of Endor. A desperate king, a medium who screamed when something showed up that was above her pay grade, and a word of judgment that came true the next day. Both hosts also share personal testimony from their own time in the New Age and the occult, including Malaine seeking a medium after her son's death and Leah unknowingly naming herself after the exact Hebrew word for what a medium is. This is spiritual warfare, spiritual deception, and biblical truth taught by two women who walked the new age to Christianity road and came out the other side with receipts.

If you or someone you love has been involved in channeling spirits, consulting mediums, séances, or any form of contact with the dead, this episode covers what was actually operating behind it, what it costs, and what deliverance and freedom look like on the other side.

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The Bible doesn't say you can't communicate with the dead. The Bible says God forbids it. And those are two entirely different things. One says it's impossible. The other says it's real enough to be dangerous, real enough to defile you, real enough for God to call it an abomination, and real enough that a king of Israel lost his life over it."
— Leah Steele Barnett

Featured Scripture

"Should not a people seek unto their God? For the living to the dead?"
— Isaiah 8:19 (KJV)

Key Takeaways

• Why God forbids necromancy, and why "He forbids it" and "it's not real" are two very different statements
• What the Hebrew word for enchanter has in common with the serpent in Genesis 3
• What "familiar spirit" actually means in the original language (it is not what you think)
• How familiar spirits gather information across generations and why the medium's accuracy is the bait
• The connection between King Saul, the witch of Endor, and why God killed a king over this
• What the Hebrew word for "mutter" in Isaiah 8:19 has in common with "meditate" in Joshua 1:8
• Both hosts' personal experiences with channeling, mediumship, and spirit communication in the New Age
• What freedom and deliverance look like for women coming out of the occult

Timestamps: 

0:00 Welcome to Faith on the Fringe 

0:48 Can You Actually Talk to the Dead? The Bible's Real Answer

1:52 New Age Testimony: From Channeling to Christ

16:20 When a Medium Came Into Our Home: The Portal That Opened

20:24 Deuteronomy 18: Nine Practices God Calls Abomination

29:20 Menakesh: The Serpent Root Behind Every Enchantment

32:40 How 98% Truth With 2% Poison Gets Past Your Discernment

36:20 Acts 16 and the Python Spirit: Source Over Accuracy

40:43 Ba'alat Ove: What "Familiar Spirit" Actually Means in Hebrew

47:55 1 Samuel 28: What Appeared When Saul Called Up Samuel

53:13 How Familiar Spirits Monitor Your Bloodline for Generations

1:06:14 Freedom From Mediumship: Repentance and Restoration in Christ

Resources:

The Hebrew & Greek companion document for this episode:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AwMjoJG0p87FS8MF-KA480Phu9jmQq4aQNI0-cd5pSM/edit?usp=sharing

RENUNCIATION PRAYER: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1umE9b-X_o_3l77iB_9zoxe_hpp2OS57MaNIRd57YIiY/edit?usp=sharing

Connect: 

Faith on the Fringe:

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Leah Steele Barnett:

The Cul✞ure Cast Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-culture-cast/id1797035500
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theleahsteele
A House of Health: https://www.instagram.com/ahouseofhealth
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X: https://x.com/theleahsteele

Malaine Lea Butler:

Kingdom Talk Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/kingdom-talk-podcast-with-malaine/id1813854951
Eden House: https://www.theedenhouse.co
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/malaine_lea_butler
Eden House IG: https://www.instagram.com/xoedenhouse
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/15kz1zU1XL/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Historical and Theological References

Ba'alat Ove. The Hebrew title given to the Witch of Endor in 1 Samuel 28. Ba'alat means "mistress" (feminine form of master). Ove means "wineskin" or "hollow vessel," referring to the medium as a container that a spirit fills and speaks through. The Septuagint translators rendered ove as angastrimythos, meaning "ventriloquist" or "one who speaks from the belly," connecting the practice to subterranean spirit communication.

Menakesh (Enchanter). The Hebrew word for enchanter in Deuteronomy 18. Its root word Nakesh is the same word used for the serpent in Genesis 3. It means to hiss, to whisper, and to enchant through a low sound. All enchantment linguistically traces back to the serpent in the garden.

The Tememteo Cave. An archaeological site in the Jerusalem hills identified as a necromancy site from the late Roman period. Researchers found a 21-meter shaft believed to function as a ritual pit for summoning subterranean spirits, corresponding to the Hebrew concept of the ove as a portal to the underworld.

Scriptures for Further Study

Deuteronomy 18:10-12. God names nine forbidden practices including divination, enchantment, witchcraft, charming, consulting familiar spirits, wizardry, and necromancy. All are called to'eba (abomination), the same word used for the practices that caused God to drive out entire nations.

Leviticus 20:27. Prescribes the death penalty for anyone who has a familiar spirit or is a wizard. Capital punishment by stoning as a community-wide act of purging.

Leviticus 19:31. Engaging with familiar spirits defiles a person. The Hebrew word tame means to become ritually and spiritually unclean, unfit for the presence of the Lord.

2 Corinthians 11:14. Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. The counterfeit feels like warmth, love, and light because the enemy knows how to replicate proximity to the divine.

Acts 16:16. The girl at Philippi had a Pneuma Pythona (spirit of Python), named after the serpent spirit that guarded the Oracle at Delphi. Luke names the entity behind divination as a serpent spirit, connecting to the Nakesh of Genesis 3.

1 Samuel 28:7-20. King Saul consults the Witch of Endor to call up the prophet Samuel. The medium sees Elohim (plural spiritual beings) ascending from the earth and screams because what appeared exceeded her familiar spirit's authority.

1 Chronicles 10:13. Names necromancy as the direct cause of Saul's death. He died for his transgression against the Lord, specifically for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit.

Isaiah 8:19. The call to seek God rather than mediums who "peep and mutter." The word for seek (Daraash) is the same verb used for seeking the Lord throughout the Old Testament.

Isaiah 29:4. Describes the voice of familiar spirits as whispering out of the dust, out of the ground, connecting to the ove concept of subterranean spirit communication.

Luke 16:26. Jesus confirms a great gulf fixed between the living and the dead, a boundary that God established. What crosses that boundary in a seance is not what it claims to be.

Ecclesiastes 9:5. The dead do not know anything. Solomon writes from the perspective of life under the sun, meaning the participation of the dead in the earthly realm has been terminated by God's design.

Hosea 4:6. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. The warning that ignorance among believers serves the enemy's agenda.

2 Corinthians 5:17. Old things are passed away, all things become new. The promise for anyone who has been the ove: when you invite Jesus in, you are no longer that old wineskin. You are a temple of the Holy Spirit and no familiar spirit has jurisdiction over a house that belongs to the living God.

Jeremiah 29:11. God's plans to prosper and not to harm. The gifts and calling the enemy perverted in the new age were always meant for the kingdom of heaven. God restores what was stolen.

If you have been the hollow vessel, if you opened yourself up to channeling or mediumship or sat across from someone who claimed to have a message from your dead, hear this: you are one act of repentance away from being clean. The same God who killed a king over this practice is also the God who sent His Son so that you could be washed from it. Confess it. Name it. Renounce every invitation and every agreement. Plead the blood of Jesus Christ of Nazareth over yourself and over your bloodline. And then go read 2 Corinthians 5:17 until it lands in your bones. You are not the old wineskin anymore.

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