Are Empaths Biblical?

In today's episode we answer the question, Are empaths Biblical?

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TRANSCRIPT

Are you the type who feels deeply? Perhaps you’re highly sensitive to the feelings and moods of others. You may even get over-stimulated often and need a lot of alone time to regenerate. You could be considered what many would call an empath. And for all intents and purposes, one would likely call me an empath. 

So what is an empath? Well, in the dictionary an empath is defined as a person with the paranormal ability, to apprehend the mental or emotional state of another individual chiefly in science fiction and paranormal activity is encompassing term that includes not only ghosts, hauntings, and demonic activity, but also other unexplainable phenomena such as unidentified flying objects, and extrasensory perception ESP, just to name a few. Much of the paranormal activity we see today is actually a total hoax.

But if there is paranormal activity, it’s coming from demons and as Christians, we should not be intrigued with or drawn to this type of activity, but rather turn from it as it is part of a spiritual battle that is taking place in the Heavenly Realms. Ephesians. 4:27 says, “Give no place to the devil.”

So, let’s take some of the qualities that cause you to believe that you’re an empath and examine them biblically.

Trait #1 – Highly intuitive. Those who believe they are empaths would describe themselves as having high intuition. Well, the truth is that the Bible never mentions intuition. In fact, it tells us not to trust ourselves. Jeremiah 17:9 says “the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick, who can understand it.”

One site describes empaths as clairsentient. They went on to define it as this clairsentient is the most common of the four clairs of intuition with messages coming through as feelings. In the case of empaths, they are naturally strong in the clairsentient or feeling psychic pathway. Does this sound biblical to you?

Trait #2 – Highly in tune with others. Those who consider themselves empaths pride themselves on being able to feel others emotions, and they often described themselves as having the ability to know what someone is feeling. They’ll often use words like we’re so connected. And the claim that empaths can perceive the physical sensitivities of others is a characteristic shared by many in the occult. No one except God has the ability to perceive the motivations and intentions of someone else. You can find this in Psalm 139, John 2:25,  1st Corinthians 2:10-11.  1 Corinthians  2:11 says this,” who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them.”

We are not given that insight. Sometimes these perceived abilities are a manifestation of learned codependent behaviors. So every person I have ever met, who calls themselves an empath actually displays codependent traits.  Now, on the other side, it is possible that God has given you a gift of discernment, but the enemy is looking to distort it.

Trait #3 – Often feeling over-stimulated. Those who identify as an empath will often struggle with feeling over-stimulated. They may claim that others negative energy and emotions, could send them into a total tailspin. And while I can agree that there are people out there that are more sensitive than others. I’m being one of them. Low tolerance for external stimuli doesn’t make me a new age empath.  It makes me less tolerant to external stimuli and as a unique creation of God, we would do well to honor those limitations, but not put in a cultic name or label on it. And