Does Everyone Have Some Psychic Abilities?
Many people, with good reason, believe that everyone has psychic abilities to a certain extent and that those abilities can be enhanced through various practices. Almost everyone has experienced having a dream about a happening before it occurred. Most people also have experienced the working of what's known as a sixth sense. They knew something was wrong though their natural eyes could not see a problem. It isn't uncommon for a person to know that his or her death, whether untimely or not, is approaching or perhaps the death of a loved one. Danger and tragedy have been sensed by people before trouble fell upon them. Should it be said that these people have psychic abilities that they would do well to develop?
The Christian Bible on Psychic Abilities
Turning to God's word for understanding of what appears to be innate psychic abilities and their source requires knowing that man is a three-part being composed of a soul or mind, a physical body, and a spiritual body. The scripture of I Thessalonians 5:23 records the prayer of the apostle Paul, Silvano and Timothy for the brethren of the Christian church of the Thessalonians in which he said, "...And I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Everyone has a physical body, at least while he lives on the present Earth, a spiritual body, and a soul (mind). The Bible speaks about the power of the thoughts of a man (proverbs 23:7) and it teaches us that there's a natural (physical) world and a spiritual world or realm (I Corinthians 15:46). The Christian Bible also lets us know that it is the spirit man that detects things of the spirit realm as the natural man can only perceive and understand the natural world. This is why the natural man is incapable of receiving the things of the Spirit of God. Natural deals with natural and spirit deals with spirit.
In I Corinthians 2:14-15 it's taught that, "...The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things...." The Christian Bible also teaches that it is the spirit man at work when one person perceives or "picks up" something about another person. For example, most of us have experienced being disturbed by someone who shows no outward signs that would cause disturbance. Nevertheless, their very presence or spirit can be disturbing to the spirit of others. Should it be said that the one who is disturbed has psychic abilities? No, because scripture explains what's going on. It explains that a person's spirit can "know" things about someone else that haven't been revealed in the natural world such as the knowledge that that person is not to be trusted. We read, "For what man knoweth the things of a man, save (except) the spirit of man which is in him..." (I Corinthians 2:11).
Did God Give Psychic Abilities?
God is the Creator of the whole being of man: soul, body, and spirit. His word reveals how the spirit body is able to perceive things about the spirit realm because it is the realm to which it belongs just as the physical body belongs to the natural realm. This is the Creator's design and set-up; this is not psychic abilities. We should remember that a spirit body is essential to be able to relate to the Spirit of God and since God made man to relate to him, it should not be a wonder that man has a spirit body; therefore, he has spiritual experiences. The important question is what type of spiritual experiences should he be having?
The Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Satan
Satan, also called the Devil, that Old Serpent, and the father of lies, "deceives the whole world" (Revelation 12:9, 20:2). He is a master at taking what is God-given--a spirit body and twisting it into something that is not God-inspired--the development of psychic abilities. The attempt to develop psychic abilities involves the practice of things that are strongly condemned by the Lord. These are practices of the occult such as guided imagery, lucid dreaming, Eastern forms of meditation, crystal ball gazing, divination, astrology and the list could continue (Deuteronomy 18:10-11).
The Saints of Old Who Had "Psychic Abilities"
It's often said that the Old Testament prophets and shadows of Christ had God-given psychic abilities. However, closer examination of the scriptures of the Christian Bible reveal that these saints practiced none of the things that pagans practiced to develop psychic abilities. The Old Testament records God as the one who initiated direct contact with his saints and prophets when they prophesied. The New Testament confirms that the Lord's true servants did nothing to invite or develop psychic abilities in order to make predictions or to prophesy. The apostle Peter taught that, "...the prophecy came not in old times by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost (Holy Spirit)" (II Peter 1:21).
We clearly see scripture teaching us that those prophets of God did not gaze into crystal balls; they did not consult the stars, practice divination, or become a medium to peer into the future and into the spiritual realm. Doing such would have been acting in their own will, which scripture says they did not do. Scripture says that they were "moved by the Holy Ghost" to speak, not that they moved themselves to speak. Listening to the God-given "sixth sense" of the God-created spirit man is not psychic ability. It's simply being the type of creature that God made man. Becoming involved with the occult to interact with the spirit realm is moving oneself by one's own will to learn things from a source that is not of God.