JOSHUA SELMAN AND THE SPIRIT ENTITIES POWERING HIS ANOINTING (PART II)

“The Myth of Supernatural Sponsorship and the Threshold of Dominion”

By Akin Ojumu

In Part I of this commentary, we examined Joshua Selman’s extraordinary assertion that every throne, every position of influence, and every significant human accomplishment is supported, powered, or manipulated by a spirit entity.

According to Selman, there exists a mysterious threshold of dominion beyond which ordinary human beings cannot advance without assistance from the spirit realm.

He applies this supposed principle to financial prosperity, political authority, and extraordinary human influence.

It doesn’t matter whether the individual is conscious of the alleged supernatural connection. It doesn’t matter whether the person acknowledges the existence of the spiritual sponsor.

Selman insists that once someone attains a sufficiently impressive level of success, that achievement itself proves the involvement of a spirit entity, either divine or demonic.

And he presents this extraordinary assertion as an established spiritual reality.

The problem, of course, is that the Bible teaches no such thing.

HUMAN SUCCESS IS NOT PROOF OF SUPERNATURAL IMPARTATION

Selman declares that there is a level of financial achievement, influence, or dominion that ordinary human beings cannot attain without assistance from the spirit realm.

Again, where is the biblical evidence?

The Bible repeatedly acknowledges that human beings possess different abilities, opportunities, resources, skills, and circumstances.

Some are exceptionally intelligent. Some possess remarkable administrative abilities. Others excel in commerce, leadership, scientific discovery, military strategy, or political organization.

Human beings can acquire influence through inheritance, education, ingenuity, hard work, favorable circumstances, institutional advantages, political connections, and sometimes outright corruption.

None of these explanations requires the invention of an invisible spirit entity assigned to power their achievements.

Listen to Solomon.

Ecclesiastes 9:11

“Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all.”

Solomon acknowledges the complexity and unpredictability of human affairs. 

He does not announce that the person who wins the race must have received a supernatural impartation.

He does not teach that the wealthy possess a spiritual connection unavailable to ordinary people.

He does not invent a threshold of dominion beyond which human effort becomes impossible without assistance from a spirit entity.

Furthermore, the Bible explicitly warns against interpreting material prosperity as evidence of divine favor or spiritual superiority.

In Psalm 73, Asaph wrestled with the prosperity of the wicked.

These were people who enjoyed wealth, influence, comfort, and apparent success despite their arrogance and rebellion against God.

Psalm 73:12

“Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches.”

Their prosperity was real. Their wickedness was real. But their success was not presented as proof that they had crossed some mysterious threshold requiring a supernatural sponsor.

The lesson of the passage concerns the deceptive appearance of worldly prosperity and the ultimate judgment of God.

Likewise, in Luke 12:16–21, Jesus tells the parable of a wealthy farmer whose land produced abundantly.

The man’s problem was not that he had acquired riches through a special spiritual connection. His problem was that he trusted his wealth and neglected God.

Jesus called him a fool.

Selman’s theology, by contrast, invites people to look at extraordinary wealth and begin speculating about the invisible spiritual powers supposedly responsible for producing it.

That is not biblical discernment. That is mystical speculation masquerading as revelation.

This distinction is crucial.

Christians believe that nothing exists independently of God.

Acts 17:25

“He himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.”

Acts 17:28

“For ‘In him we live and move and have our being.’”

Every human ability, every breath, and every opportunity exists under God’s sovereign providence. 

But that does not mean every successful individual has established a special connection with a spirit entity who supplies extraordinary power. God sustains believers and unbelievers alike.

He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45).

This is what Christian theology understands within the broader doctrines of divine providence and common grace.

It does not require us to invent a secret spiritual economy in which extraordinary influence is distributed through hidden transactions with supernatural beings.

Selman collapses two fundamentally different concepts into one.

On the one hand is the biblical truth that God sovereignly governs His creation. On the other is the unbiblical notion that human beings must obtain supernatural sponsorship from a spirit entity before achieving exceptional results.

The first is Christianity.

The second resembles the mystical worldview found in various occult and traditional religious systems, where success, wealth, political authority, and extraordinary human accomplishments are explained through hidden spiritual patrons and invisible powers.

Calling such a system “priesthood,” “dominion,” “anointing,” or “spiritual intelligence” does not establish its biblical legitimacy. It merely gives an ancient superstition a contemporary Pentecostal vocabulary.

THERE IS NO BIBLICAL THRESHOLD OF DOMINION THAT REQUIRES A SPIRITUAL SPONSOR

Perhaps the most extraordinary part of Selman’s statement is his insistence that there exists a particular threshold of dominion beyond which human beings cannot advance without assistance from a spirit.

What threshold? Who established it? How is it measured?

Is there a particular amount of money beyond which a businessman must acquire a supernatural sponsor?

Does someone become eligible for a spirit entity after accumulating ten million dollars? A hundred million? A billion?

At what point does political influence stop being the product of political organization and become evidence of spiritual impartation?

Does the governor of a state require one category of spirit, while the president of a country requires a more powerful supernatural entity?

Are there different spiritual sponsorship packages for millionaires, billionaires, presidents, monarchs, and multinational business executives?

These questions may sound absurd. That is because the underlying assertion is absurd.

Selman has invented a spiritual threshold that Scripture neither identifies nor explains, then presented his invention as an immutable law governing human achievement.

The Bible knows nothing of such a law.

And his appeal to what “even unbelievers agree on” is equally irrelevant.

Since when did the agreement of unbelievers become the standard for establishing Christian doctrine?

Isaiah 8:20

“To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.”

The Christian preacher’s responsibility is to explain what God has revealed, not to elevate popular mystical beliefs into theological doctrines.

THE BIBLE WARNS AGAINST EQUATING SPIRITUAL POWER WITH WORLDLY GREATNESS

There is another serious problem with Selman’s framework.

It treats extraordinary worldly success as an indication that some remarkable spiritual power must be operating behind the successful individual.

But biblical Christianity does not measure spiritual legitimacy by wealth, influence, popularity, or spectacular results.

The Lord Jesus explicitly warned against such thinking.

Mark 8:36

“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”

A person may possess tremendous financial resources and remain spiritually bankrupt.

A ruler may exercise extraordinary political authority and be an enemy of righteousness.

A religious leader may attract millions of followers and still proclaim a false gospel.

Indeed, Jesus warned that false prophets could perform signs and wonders so impressive that they would threaten to lead people astray (Matthew 24:24).

And in Matthew 7:22–23, He described people who would appeal to their spectacular religious works as evidence of their standing before Him, only to discover that He had never known them.

The Apostle Paul likewise warned that Satan can disguise himself as an angel of light and that his servants can disguise themselves as servants of righteousness (2 Corinthians 11:13–15).

Therefore, even where genuinely extraordinary spiritual manifestations are alleged, the Christian is not instructed to identify their source through the magnitude of the results.

The Christian is instructed to examine the doctrine, test the claims, and measure everything against the revealed Word of God.

Supernatural claims do not authenticate false doctrine. And extraordinary results do not transform an unbiblical teaching into divine revelation.

The Christian faith is not a competition to determine who possesses the greatest supernatural sponsorship.

Neither is the Gospel a manual for acquiring invisible spiritual patrons capable of delivering extraordinary wealth and influence.

The power of God is not measured by the size of a bank account. The favor of God is not established by political influence. And the legitimacy of a preacher’s ministry is not determined by the extraordinary experiences he claims to have accumulated.

In Part III, we will return to Joshua Selman’s fascination with mantles, graces, supernatural encounters, and spiritual impartations. 

We will examine the theological problem with treating the Holy Spirit as though He were a transferable spiritual commodity.

And, most importantly, we will contrast Selman’s elaborate system of invisible spiritual sponsorship with the supremacy and sufficiency of Jesus Christ.

Because, ultimately, the Christian faith is not about discovering the spirits supposedly powering earthly thrones. It is about knowing and proclaiming the Christ who reigns upon the throne of heaven.

To be continued.