Lakara Foster probably saw it coming: A self-proclaimed “psychic medium,” her hiring as a licensed minister by a group known as The Vision Church Atlanta has stirred up controversy.
The Christian Post reports that Foster embraces her mediumship: “A psychic medium, what I try to explain to people is, psychic is a very umbrella term. I believe to some degree we all have some type of psychic intuition. A medium falls under that umbrella. Being a medium allows me to communicate with our loved ones who are departed. So I tell people all mediums are psychic but all psychics are not medium[s],” the website quoted Foster as telling the Good Day Louisiana television program.
“My church family has been super supportive,” Foster says, claiming that her father “shares a similar gift” of mediumship, while her mother serves as executive producer of Foster’s YouTube series that explains her ministry.
Claims Divine Authority
Foster claims divine approval for her necromancy: “When I asked God, ‘Why this gift? Why not singing?’ God said, ‘I promised my people eternal life, how will my people know that I’ve kept my promise if you don’t demonstrate your gift?’”
“For me, it was very important that I was able to merge the two. My love for God, my love for Jesus. But really ... I knew that I could heal through ministry but I’ve always been healing, so it was kind of natural to be able to merge the two to continue that level of healing,” she added.
Foster said she was determined to find academic support for that merger, earning a degree from the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, a consortium of seminaries: “One of the reasons I pursued my doctorate on this topic is because I really wanted to understand my gift … and why the church believes this gift shouldn’t be considered a spiritual gift among those listed in the Bible.”
But instead of finding direction to abandon her psychic path, Foster found affirmation and now seeks to expand her ministry. She claims that the words of James 1:17 authorize her work as a psychic: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”
According to The Christian Post, no one at The Vision Church, which claims 3,000 members, was available to comment on Foster’s hiring.
It’s easy to dismiss one relatively small congregation—there are plenty of megachurches in the Atlanta area whose membership dwarfs it—and its hiring practices as irrelevant. And in one sense, it is: There are no reports of other churches rushing to hire a psychic medium of their own.
Is it safe to seek guidance from a psychic?
Does God Really Approve?
What is more striking, however, is that neither Foster, nor her congregation, nor the seminary that granted her a doctorate could blithely bypass the strict injunction of God found in Deuteronomy 18:10, 11, which outlaws all sorts of occult practices: “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, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.” (A footnote in the New King James Version says making a child “pass through the fire” could also be rendered, “[b]e burned as an offering to an idol.”)
Now, if God didn’t want a medium “found among” His people who had just left Egyptian slavery, why would it seem right that God would want a practicing medium in the church today? A key example of a New Testament encounter with a “psychic” didn’t end well for those supporting her efforts. In Acts 16:16–19, we read the story of a slave girl who would follow the apostle Paul and Silas around the city of Philippi, saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.”
Paul recognized that the young woman was possessed by an evil spirit, and commanded it to leave her “in the name of Jesus Christ,” which the spirit did immediately. “But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities,” we read in verse 19.
While this incident was the key to the Philippian jailer and his household being saved, it also illustrates God’s continuing opposition to trying to communicate with the dead. “For the living know that they will die; but the dead know nothing,” we read in Ecclesiastes 9:5, so there’s actually no one with whom one can communicate. It’s not Uncle Harry or Aunt Florence the psychic is “talking” to—if it’s anything other than her imagination or trickery, it’s a demonic spirit. (For more evidence of this, read the story of Saul and the witch of Endor found in 1 Samuel 28.)
What does the Bible actually say about the prophetic gift? Does it apply to astrologers, psychics, and mediums? Or are there crucial distinctions to be made? Our free Bible study “Does God Inspire Astrologers and Psychics?” has the answers. Pastor Doug Batchelor also expands on this subject in a presentation from the series A New Revelation.
It is vital to your eternal destiny that you know what God thinks of psychics and their customers. Revelation 21:8 has a warning: “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”