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Sadly, the Christian church puts forth a lot of misinformation. A lot of commentary condemning certain behaviors, things and more that are not even mentioned in the Bible. There are countless examples.
But the most recent one comes from Pastor Jamal Bryant.
According to The Christian Post, Bryant, the former Maryland-based pastor who now leads the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Georgia, had some things to say about the practice of burning sage in order to clear energy.
During a teaching session with the women of his church—which was also streamed on YouTube, Bryant said that burning sage was witchcraft and “satanic aromatherapy.”
Bryant was compelled to do some research after two people offered to sage his new home.
“Another word for burning sage is smudging. The thought of the Native Americans is that certain herbs carry spirits in them … and when you burn certain herbs you’re calling on those spirits to dispel evil or vexing spirits or energies from a space, from an object or person. And so it is their contention that when I am burning sage, I am then calling down a spirit or calling up a spirit to then wrestle with that energy that’s in a room, that’s in a car or in a person.”
Bryant said that the New Age movement which appeals to quite a few African Americans does not bring glory to God. He said it is not of the Bible to seeks to make humans like gods. Bryant argued that these people, though spiritual, are problematic because they take issue with church and religion.
He said church and religion demands accountability and submission to authority. He said that even when they reference God or having praying hands tattooed on their body, we can’t assume we’re praying to or worshipping the same God because they’ve made themselves a deity.
“The spirit of the anti-Christ is now slithering into our children and the next generation by putting a seed plot of rejection of authority and order. God is a God of order. God is a God of authority so you can see where demons show up in church,” he said. “…Satan never wants to fall in line to authority and order so people who are out of order are operating out of the spirit of satanic principalities.”
He went back to the sage to say that people who burn sage are not operating under God’s authority. Instead, he said they’re practicing satanic intercession.
“I’m practicing satanic intercession ‘cause I am invoking these spirits that are not holy, that are not sanctified to reveal themselves. To reveal themselves and I am telling weeds and grass and herbs you have authority over the spirits in my house. And nowhere in there am I calling on the name of God. Nowhere in there am I calling on the name of Jesus,” he said.
He said burning sage ignores Christ’s anointing in their life.
“This level of witchcraft is in-depth … I’ve so questioned the strength of my anointing that I believe who comes into my presence can contaminate my spirit. How weak am I that I can’t be in the presence of somebody whose spirit is off. If I am anointed … and somebody who is not like God comes into my presence I shouldn’t be the one backing up. It should be them backing up ’cause they sense what’s on me,” he said.
There are a few things going on here. One of them is a misunderstanding about what sage is believed to do.
It does no call forth negative energy or spirits. It is supposed to neutralize a space. Sage is believed to release negative ions that neutralize any positive ions in the environment. Afterward, the space where the sage was burned becomes neutral. And the people in the room then dictate the energy. Someone said it is important that anyone trying to make an environment better check their energy before burning sage because no matter how much you burn it, if your energy is “off” or negative, that is the energy that will persist in the space. It’s about intention.
Most Christians will tell you that our fight is not with flesh and blood but with spirit and principalities. And as people who believe that the power of God resides in us, why is it blasphemous, ungodly, or satanic to fight against those spirits?
In the little bit of research I did, I found that the Latin word for sage is “salvia,” which means to heal. It looks a lot like the word we use for the liquid that our mouths produce “saliva.” If you look at the miracles Jesus performed in the Bible, saliva was involved. And that’s because the people of that time believed saliva had healing properties.
Jesus, the son of God, didn’t need spit. He could speak and what he said would be done. But he used spit to show the people around him that he intended to heal. And that is the same thing with sage. People of every religious background use physical objects to communicate their intention to heal.
The wise men brought oil to Jesus. Myrrh is an anointing oil. The wise men already believed Jesus was who he was. He was born anointed but they still brought the oil as a gift, a physical symbol of what had already taken place spiritually. Many Christian churches still anoint heads, palms and other body parts with store bought oil to express that same anointing. And just like the sage, it’s not the oil that gives Christians power, it’s the intention of the person touching you.
Someone else mentioned that when God showed Himself to Moses, he did so with a burning bush.
We live in a physical world. God created it and fullness of it. And He did so knowing that His people would need to use His creations to sustain and heal themselves. And sometimes that healing means fighting against the spirits that mean us harm.
Whether Bryant wants to use sage in his healing practices are entirely up to him. But to accuse those who do of practicing satanic intercession is ignorant and untrue.
