A bizarre demonstration on Fox News and an eerie statement by a Roman Catholic exorcist may be signals to believers that we are entering a time of heightened spiritual warfare.

I was a bit surprised when Fox News commentator Jessie Walters recently invited a medium onto his show. This is probably the largest conservative network in the world, and there was a live demonstration of someone dabbling in the occult, which is strictly forbidden in the Bible (Deuteronomy 18:10-12).

Walters had invited the psychic to predict what Donald Trump’s chances were of winning the 2024 presidential election using Tarot cards.

Even the psychic appeared a bit surprised when she drew a card for Trump of a dark figure with goblets that had fallen over. The psychic interpreted this to mean that Trump would experience loss.

However, Trump was the only loser that night. When she pulled a card for President Joe Biden, it predicted the president would come into an unexpected windfall of money.

Aside from this public occultic display, in a recent article for the International Association of Exorcists (IAE), Father Andrés Esteban López Ruiz warned about the growth of the Santa Muerte Cult (SMC), the Christian Post reports.

Father Ruiz serves as a Catholic priest in Mexico City, and the IAE is a Catholic organization based in Rome to serve the 200+ exorcists officially recognized by the Roman Catholic Church.

The Santa Muerte Cult, which includes the worship of a female deity representing death, is obsessed with the underworld and involves several occultic practices which Ruiz believes opens the door for the demonic in people’s lives.

He believes it is satanic and in areas where the SMC is experiencing this resurgence, he says there is a corresponding “increase in the extraordinary action of the devil.”

He particularly cited Mexico City’s Tepito market where he stated there has been an explosion of SMC activity and stalls promoting the cult and its rituals.

Perhaps not coincidentally, articles are also warning travelers about visiting the market. READ: Is Mexico City’s Tepito Market the Most Dangerous in the World?

Ruiz added that along with the resurgence, there are instances of individuals making “formal pacts with the devil.”

They do this with the hopes of getting supernatural powers and benefits, and he added that even those who do not officially dedicate themselves to Satan are participating with the hopes of gaining favor from the Satanic realm.

“These very serious sins place those who commit them under the direct control of Satan and, with divine permission, can easily become occasions for his extraordinary action,” Lopez stated.

Along with this overt increased satanic activity, I suspect there will be a corresponding increase in attacks against the Kingdom of God.

This will manifest itself in multiple ways, both politically and culturally.

Though these attacks often come through human sources, Paul is quick to warn that our enemy is not physical but rather spiritual:

“¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12, NASV)

Because of this, the battle must be ultimately engaged and won in the spiritual realm before there can be victory in the physical.

In other words, this is not a battle of words and ideas, but rather one involving prayer.