I am talking about witchcraft of a different kind. The kind that works in the individual life and in the Church. The kind that Paul talks about in his epistle to the Churches of Galatia:
"O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus was clearly portrayed among you as crucified" (Galatians 3:1, NKJV, emphasis added)?
The Galatians have been bewitched by an evil force working in the Church to obscure what Jesus Christ has done on the Cross. The work of witchcraft caused the Galatians to turn away from the true Gospel to a different gospel (Gal. 1:7).
One of Satan's tactics is to obscure what happened on the Cross. Satan does not want the Church to know he has been completely defeated by what Christ has done on the Cross. The evil force that obscured the work of the Cross is called in the Bible, witchcraft.
I believe the contemporary Church, in a certain extent, is in the condition stated by Paul in Galatians 3:1. Christians might not pursue an obvious form of "different" gospel, but once the Church loses sight of what was accomplished on the cross, the Church no longer able to administer Jesus' victory over Satan! The Church then becomes weak, blinded, religious, complacent, worldly and an easy target for wrong doctrines.
The Work of witchcraft in the Church and in the Lives of Believers
Witchcraft is an illegitimate power that supports and illegitimate authority. The power behind witchcraft is a supplanter or a usurper. So, God's ordained authority is set aside by man's rebellion and another authority is set in its place. This authority is maintained by the supernatural power of witchcraft.
Witchcraft does its work in the soul realm of Christian (Please refer to my earlier messages concerning Spirit, Soul and Body). As a result the following things can happen:
1. The Spiritual is supplanted by the Carnal
Isaac (speaks of the spiritual) was supplanted by Ishmael (speaks of the carnal). When carnality takes the place of spirituality in the Church, every decision made by the carnal mind is by voting and consensus independent from the leading of the Holy Spirit. Instead of excercising discernment the Chruch does what seems good or right to men.
Paul said, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God" (Romans 8:14).
In other words, those who are not led by the Spirit of God mignt not be the sons of God. All sons of God must depend on the leading of the Holy Spirit.
2. Revelation is supplanted by Theology
Revelation is spiritual but theology is soulish. Revelation comes from the Holy Spirit, but theology comes from human intellect through reasoning.
3. Discipleship is supplanted by Education
Education teaches people's mind, but discipleship trains people's character. Just to educate the mind of a person without training his character is to promote disasters - lawlessness.
Paul said, "The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be" (Romans 8:7).
If you just get people into a religious atmosphere and educate their carnal mind independent of God, what you are educating are enemies of God. The finished products are educated enemies of God. Major seminaries and Bible schools are educating the carnal mind of Christians by carnal minded professors and lecturers.
4. Discernment is supplanted by Psychology
Much of the teachings in the Church is based on books written by Christian psychologies or psychologists with Christian background. Some of these materials are good but spiritual discernment is needed to ensure such materials are food for the spiritual mind and not the carnal mind which must be starved to death. We must let the spiritual overcomes the carnal.
Paul said, "For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace" (Romans 8:6).
Psychology is the study of the human mind (part of the human soul). It does not understand the human spirit. The Bible is the only book that feeds the human spirit.
5. Supernatural Power is supplanted by Eloquence
Paul said, "And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God" (1 Cor. 2:4, NKJV, emphasis added).
In other words, the power of God must not be supplanted by wisdom of men.
6. Headship of Man is supplanted by Women in the Home and in the Church
Paul gave the principle of Headship in the Church and in the Christian home in 1 Corinthians:
"The head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God" (1 Cor. 11:3).
The Divine Order is : "God, Christ, man and woman" and NOT "God, Christ, woman and man"!
(Please read my earlier posting: "Divine Authority and Headship" - 1st March 2005)
Paul reminded Timothy of the above principle, "And I do not permit a woman to teach (in the Church) or to have authority over a man, ..." (1 Tim. 2:12, NKJV, emphasis added).
It is impossible to appoint a woman to pastor a Local Church without disobeying the divine principle of Headship!
Many Christian homes have also violated this divine principle. Here is a classic example:
I know a Christian home where the wife is the head of all things. She makes all decisions in all areas concerning the needs of the family - in managing family budget, spending in eating out, paying of bills, children's education needs, holiday plan and plan for buying a new car or shifting to a new house etc. Her hasband receives pocket money from her. She checks his wallet regularly and she'll take back any unspent money! He enjoys no privacy at all.
This family is living in total disobedience to what Paul said to the Christians in Ephesus:
"Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord, for the husband is head of wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything (Eph. 5:22 - 24, emphasis added).
The above is not a complete list, but the examples are sufficient to show the power of witchcraft at work in the Church of Jesus Christ and in the Christian homes!
Manipulation is a form of Witchcraft
Manipulation is a form of witchcraft in disguise. The root of manipulation and all other forms of witchcraft is rebellion.
Samuel told Saul why the Lord has rejected him as king:
"Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king" (1 Samuel 15:22, 23, NKJV, emphasis added).
Not only is rebellion as sinful as witchcraft but both are related forms of apostasy. Rebellion being denial of God's authority, and witchcraft is the recognition of another supernatural power distinct from God.
When you manipulate someone you cause that person to do the things you want that person to do. In other words, you influent that person to do your will. Manipulation is a form of witchcraft because it uses human wisdom and authority (independent from God) to change a person or a situation.
Manipulation is not the will of God. God Himself never manipulates us, and He never authorizes us to manipulate other people either. Whenever we resort to manipulation, we have passed from the realm of the spiritual to that of the soulish. We are operating in a form of wisdom that is not from above (James 3:15).
Manipulations in the Christian Family
1. Parents manipulate children
You might have heard a mother said to her child, "If you want mommy to love you, go and water the plants".
The mother was exploiting affection - letting her child to believe that her mother's love for her depends on her good behavior. The fact is children need not earn the love of parents.
2. Children manipulate parents
Every child is born with a rebellious nature. No one needs to learn how to be a rebel. As an example, a child knows when no visitors are around her mother would not allow her to do certain things. So, the child waits until her grandmother comes for a visit. Then she would do the things she likes to do knowing that her mother would not refuse her in front of a visitor.
Another form of manipulation is by crying and throwing of tantrum to seek attention. By not checking the children's manipulative behavior is to starting them on a bad course through life. When they become adults they become a terror to their families.
3. A wife manipulates her husband and vice versa
Withholding sexual relation or offering sexual relation in exhange for a favor. This is forbidden by Scripture:
Paul said, "Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does" (1 Cor. 7:3, 4).
Manipulations in the Church
1. Appealing for money
One common technique used by the preacher of the "prosperity gospel" is motivated by guilt and fear - make people offer money out of the sense of fear and guilt.
(Please read my earlier posting - "Can a Christian commit the unpardonable sin?" - 14th March 2005)
A preacher came to a local Church said, "The Lord told me, some of you businessmen failed in your business last year because you did not tithe properly to this Church. Now, make sure you do not make the same mistake again this year or worse things might come upon you!"
2. Manipulation through fear and threat
A pastor was heard saying to a Church member, "Now hear this, if you leave this Church you'll never prosper".
This pastor has unknowingly invoked a curse on the Church member who was thinking of leaving the Church.
3. Manipulation through the demand of unquestioned loyalty
The same pastor said, "I'm your pastor, you have to obey me. If you don't obey me you're disobeying God"!
This is a lie - The pastor makes himself equal to God.
4. Manipulation through prayer
It is foolish to assume that prayer is always acceptable and its effects are always good. The Bible says otherwise - we can sin against God with our careless praryer.
Solomon warned us, "One who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be an abomination" (Proverbs 28:9, emphasis added).
The phrase "hearing the law" does not merely mean "hearing and obeying Moses Law".
This also means "the law and the will of God". The will of God is revealed by the Holy Spirit, our divine Helper. What Proverbs 28:9 says is:
"Unless our prayer is led by the Holy Spirit it would not be acceptable to God". Apart from the Holy Spirit we are incapable of praying in a way that will please God and accomplish His purpose.
Paul explained this divine principle clearly in Romans 8:26, 27.
Here is a classic example. Irene (not her real name), the only Christian girl in her family, wants to marry her Christian boyfriend Michael (not his real name). But her non-Christian father would not allow her. So, Michael went to see his pastor and requests the Church to pray that Irene's father would change his mind. If prayer is made according to the wishes of Michael, this is a perfect example of manipulation. First of all the Church does not know Michael's integrity. Secondly, no one knows, except Michael and Irene, the reasons why Irene's father objected the marriage. Irene's father is in a far better position to know more than the Church concerning his own daughter's plan for the future.
The right thing to do is to get someone from the Church to share the Gospel to Irene's father and pray for his salvation. And then the pastor can start to counsel the whole family including Irene and Michael. Whatever the outcome, let God's will be done.
Paul's Remedy
Just to understand what Jesus has done on the cross for us is not good enough. We must learn how to appropriate the work of the cross in us - This is Paul's remedy for those who are deceived by witchcraft:
"Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father" (Galatians 1:3, 4, NKJV, emphasis added).
In other words, it is God's will and purpose to deliver his people from the "present evil age". The Amplified Bible says, "present world order" and the King James says, "evil world".
The present world order is an order that is in rebellion against God. But, the Church is a group of people called out from the world (1 Peter 2:9,10). The Church is in the world but not of the world.
Jesus said, "If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you" (John 15:19, emphasis added).
Notice the word "world" occurs five times in the above verse. Jesus has taken us, the Church out of the world, we have no reason to get back into the world again. Or even worse, let the world gets into the Church. Therefore, we must not be complacent if the world does not hate us. If the world is more than half inside the Church there is no reason for the world to hate its own!
I strongly believe God is going to take His true Church (the Bride of Christ) Home just like He took His Son, Jesus Christ Home - by way of the Cross with persecutions, trials, sufferings and tribulations!
Are we ready for it?
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