GET TOGETHER- Witchcraft and Rebellion
1Sa 15:23 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.”
This morning as I was standing near our Keurig and getting ready to get J.J. and I our second cup of coffee I heard the Holy Spirit speak this passage as plain as anything as I have ever heard Him speak. King Saul was Israel’s first King. He had been to battle with the Amalekites. He had been directed by God to destroy everything that the Amalekites were, had, or possessed: 1Sa 15:3 ‘Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.” He didn’t do it. He spared King Agag and the livestock. His disobedience would cost him his Kingship. Later on, during the night before he would take his own life after a battle with the Philistines at my Gilboa he would even visit a witch.
Rebellion against God happens when we think that our way of doing something is better than God’s way of living life. When this happens, it opens doors for the demonic influences of witchcraft to have sway in the lives of individuals, in schools, in colleges, and universities, in businesses in communities, in government and in nations.
Many people don’t believe that witchcraft is real. The Bible certainly speaks about the reality of witchcraft. We are told in De 18:10 “There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer.” Witchcraft certainly had a terrible effect on the rebellious Northern Kingdom of Israel through Jezebel the wife of King Ahab : 2Ki 9:22 “Now it happened, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, “Is it peace, Jehu?” So he answered, “What peace, as long as the harlotries of your mother Jezebel and her witchcraft are so many?”
All of us were created by God for a desire for the supernatural. God’s plan for that desire to be fulfilled is through a born-again Holy Spirit filled relationship with Jesus Christ. Joh 7:38,39 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”
There have been several times during our ministry that we have encountered spiritual attacks of witchcraft. Some have happened here in our own community where we serve in Hamilton, Alabama. Some other times in Kenya being woke up in the middle of the night and the enemy sending a spirit of fear telling you that he is going to take the life of a loved one while you are gone. The answer to that is to get out bed and get on your knees and know that as we are told in 1Jo 4:4 ¶ You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. (NKJV) The answer is to put on the full Armor of God as Paul talks about in Ephesians 6:10-18. And pray in the Spirit.
You might say how do you know when you are encountering a demonic assignment that has been released through the practice of witchcraft? That is why we want to be filled with the Holy Spirit. God has given us the gifts of the Holy Spirit to help us as we wage the good warfare. Without going into an extended teaching on the gifts of the Holy Spirit the gift of discerning of spirits will enable us to know where the assignment is coming from and what type of assignment that the enemy has launched against us to inhibit what God desires to do in us and through us. This gift along with some of the other gifts of the Spirit is listed 1Co 12:10 “to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.” 1 Corinthians 12 :7-10 lists other gifts of the Holy Spirit
Right now, there is much rebellion against God that is taking place in our nation. Some symptoms of the effect of witchcraft on our nation are evil being called good and good being called evil. Confusion over people not knowing that God has created us male and female, and God does not make mistakes. Confusion over marriage. Jesus had this to say in Mt 19:4,5 And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ “and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? Confusion in thinking that the vain philosophies of sinful men and women are the answer to racism. The answer to racism is to repent of the sin of racism and do not practice it or glorify it in anyway. And to ask the Holy Spirit to deliver you from it and to give you a love for people of all colors.
The good news for us is that through prayer, fasting and growing closer to God we can be used by God to enforce the victory that Jesus Christ has won for us on the cross at Calvary. The Apostle Paul wrote about this in Col 2:15 “Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.”
More good news is that when we press through and walk in victory over the enemy’s use of witchcraft, we will see big victories. I remember one year when we were in Guatemala. We went into a village where we were told that there was a large practice of witchcraft there. Well, the people in the church had been praying and fasting for a week when we got there. That night there was a demonic attack on the sound system. The Lord took care of that real quick. At the end of the service there was a man there who couldn’t hear. The Lord healed his hearing that night. We also had the opportunity to pray for some women that the drug lords had contracts on their sons. What a great night in was. Remember great battles bring great victories!
Hopefully through this you will have an understanding that rebellion against God and witchcraft go hand in hand. Hopefully this will help you to walk in the victory that Jesus Christ has provided for us in His death and resurrection. and during this time of year when well meaning people and Christians don’t understand that witchcraft is an evil demonic tool of the devil. May we will celebrate every day that Jesus Christ is Lord and that He has conquered death, hell ,and the grave!
Let us Pray
Lord Jesus, we thank you that You have created us to have a supernatural Holy Spirit filled relationship with You. Today we pray for an awakening in our nation and every other nation. We pray that the demonic influences that are attempting not just to destroy this nation, but every nation will be exposed and vanquished. Help us to wage the good warfare and to walk in the victory that You have provided.
In Jesus Name
Amen
Love You All
Your Friend/Kinfolk
Preston
Every day is the day that the Lord has made! We will rejoice in it!
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