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Understanding Witchcraft: A Biblical Perspective
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Witchcraft means influencing or an attempt to influence a person’s thought, will, or actions by means that are not approved of by God. That is, making someone do things that you want them to do or become what you want them to be by any other spirit that is not the Holy Spirit. So witchcraft involves manipulation and deception. We see from the above definition that witchcraft is a practice that is desperately opposed to the ways and the will of God. Witchcraft is rebellious in nature, which takes us to the origin of it.
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The book of 1 Samuel chapter 15 verse 23 says, “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.” So witchcraft is as old as man. Witchcraft started right from Genesis when Adam rebelled against God through his disobedience. They failed to keep the commandment of God, the word of God, which is the source of their life, and allowed the manipulation and deception of the enemy into their lives, which is witchcraft. Hence, through Adam, man rebelled against God, and this rebellion brought witchcraft. So witchcraft is a religion of the fallen.
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You need to understand clearly what witchcraft is; otherwise, it will be going on around you, and you won’t know it. All these practices fall under witchcraft: enchantment, sorcery, divination, necromancy, magic, clairvoyance, fortune-telling, séances, mediums, charms, spells, hypnosis, tarot card activities, and so on. The scripture forbids every form of witchcraft, as can be seen in Leviticus 19:26: “You shall not eat anything with the blood, neither shall you use enchantment nor observe times.” Verse 31 says, “Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.” God’s position on witchcraft is very clear. Exodus 22:18 says, “Thou shall not suffer a witch to live.”
I want you to understand that this is not an invitation to murder. In the past, misinterpretation of this passage of the scripture has led to those who practice these things being stoned to death. But here, God is saying that witchcraft is not permitted among His people. The activities of witches and wizards should not be found resident wherever the people of God are. So believers should distance themselves from anything that has to do with the operations and activities of witchcraft. It is either you chase them away or you distance yourself from their practices.
The Purpose of Witchcraft
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Witchcraft exists to ensnare believers and their souls. The essence of witchcraft is to ensnare the soul of believers. The activities of witchcraft are targeted at believers. When witches inflict harm or misfortune on others, the main target is the soul of that person. The intention is to lure you away from God. Witches and wizards love to keep people in pain, agony, depression, bondage, and regression so as to weaken that individual’s soul and their relationship with God. Look at what the Bible says in Ezekiel 13:18 concerning witchcraft and ensnaring of souls: “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to the women who sew magic charms on all their wrists and make veils of various lengths for their heads in order to ensnare people. Will you ensnare the lives of my people but preserve your own?”
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So we see how witchcraft ensnares people. If we read further, verses 21-23 say, “I will tear off your veils and save my people from your hands, and they will no longer fall prey to your power. Then you will know that I am the Lord. Because you dishearten the righteous with your lies when I have brought them no grief, and because you encourage the wicked not to turn from their evil ways and to save their lives, therefore you will no longer see false visions or practice divination. I will save my people from your hands, and then you will know that I am the Lord.”
Another thing that is evident from this verse of the Bible is the source of information. Any vision or prophecy that is not by the Holy Spirit is falsehood. It is based on prediction and is intended to deceive. The purpose of prophecy or vision is to save and draw you closer to God, but this kind of vision or prophecy that is operational in witchcraft does not build a relationship with God; rather, it encourages idolatry. It takes people’s hearts away from God. This takes us to the three kinds of witchcraft.
The Three Types of Witchcraft
1. Witchcraft as a Work of the Flesh
The number one type of witchcraft is called the work of the flesh. This is the form of witchcraft that Galatians 5:19 is talking about: “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcrafts.” So we see witchcraft here as a work of the flesh: hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies. Verse 21 goes further to list more works of the flesh: envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like, of which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
The King James version uses the word witchcraft, while some translations use sorcery. Someone may ask, “What does witchcraft have to do with the flesh? I thought it is a spiritual thing.” Though witchcraft is demonic in nature, it is also a work of the flesh. Witchcraft functions as a work of the flesh when it involves manipulation, intimidation, and domination.
Manipulation is the exercise of harmful influence over another. People who manipulate others attack their mental and emotional sides to get what they want. The person doing the manipulation seeks to create an imbalance of power. Manipulative behavior occurs when a person uses controlling and harmful behaviors to avoid responsibility, conceal their true intentions, or cause doubt and confusion. Manipulative tactics include lying, blaming, and criticizing. Manipulation is a form of emotional abuse, causing the person who has been harmed to question reality. A manipulative person claims the frame, controls the timeline, and distorts the truth—all in an effort to manipulate things for their own gain.
Witchcraft as a work of the flesh occurs when a person manipulates, intimidates, and dominates another person. If someone becomes possessive, it is a work of the flesh, and that’s witchcraft. The Holy Spirit is not possessive as some people say; rather, it is you that possesses the Holy Spirit and allows Him to live inside you. The Holy Spirit does not control someone; the Holy Spirit works with us but does not push or drive us the way we drive our car. The Holy Spirit does not manipulate, intimidate, or dominate. The Holy Spirit leads us if we allow Him to lead us, just like the way someone leads a sheep. Human beings should be led, not driven like a car. We walk with the Holy Spirit through partnership, through agreement, but He does not push us around or force us to do anything. When a pastor or general overseer intimidates, dominates, and manipulates the congregation, it is a work of the flesh, and that is witchcraft. When a husband dominates and intimidates the wife, or when a wife manipulates the husband, and when children manipulate their parents, that’s witchcraft.
2. Witchcraft as an Evil Force
The second form of witchcraft operates as an evil force. It is when witchcraft is sponsored by satanic or demonic force or power. Ephesians chapter 2:2 describes Satan as a spirit and as the Prince of the power of the air: “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.”
In this regard, witchcraft is a spiritual force. Here, divination, enchantments, spells, and curses are in operation, backed up by satanic power. Job 3:8 says, “Let those curse it who curse the day, those who are ready to arouse Leviathan.” Leviathan here is a symbolic spiritual force that causes havoc or destruction. Those who seek visions understand that when evil people send evil arrows, it comes in the form of snakes. Leviathan symbolizes the python or serpentine spirit. Leviathan is awoken or activated when satanic agents release spells and curses on people. So we see how charms, curses, and spells are backed up by satanic power so that those words pronounced are not empty words. The Bible says those who do these things arouse Leviathan—they invoke demons.
Saul was killed because he went to seek the services of a witch. 1 Chronicles 10:13-14 reads, *”So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it; and inquired not of the Lord: therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the the son of Jesse.”
Witchcraft as an evil force has to do with divination, enchantments, spells, charms, necromancy, séances, and spiritism. This is exactly what the Bible forbids in Deuteronomy 18:10-11: “There shall not be found among you anyone that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.” There are people who practice necromancy and make others to worship the spirits of the dead, especially ancestors. The Bible prohibits this.
Witchcraft as an evil force can also function as a monitoring spirit. Psalm 91:6 talks about the pestilence that stalks in darkness, which refers to witchcraft monitoring spirits. Some Christians don’t even know that they are being monitored. Some people are not aware that someone is monitoring their activities and their lives. These monitoring spirits try to frustrate people by obstructing their blessings. This is why every believer needs to be prayerful.
If you see yourself regularly struggling in your dreams, fighting with strange beings, or encountering evil in different forms—arrows, strange birds or animals, spiritual husbands and wives—you should know that it is the effect of witchcraft as an evil force. If you always see a particular bird monitoring your movements, that could be a familiar spirit in the form of a monitoring spirit. Many people say that the Bible does not talk about spiritual husbands and wives. But 1 Corinthians 11:10 talks about a woman having a “sign of authority on her head because of the angels,” which may refer to evil spirits looking for access to attack. Witches monitor people’s progress and try to bring them down.
Witchcraft as an evil force often tries to pervert the purposes of God. We see an example in the book of Acts chapter 16:16-18 where a girl had a spirit of divination. She followed Paul and his team, trying to make them endorse her as one of them. The girl was proclaiming that they were servants of God, but the information she gave was out of divination, not out of the Holy Spirit. We see here how witchcraft and divination try to create confusion by seeking recognition. But Paul rebuked the spirit of divination, and the girl was freed.
3. Charismatic Witchcraft
The third form of witchcraft is called charismatic witchcraft, which occurs within the church. This happens when attention is diverted from the gospel and the finished work of Jesus Christ to something else, such as personal ambition, worldly materialism, or strange doctrines. The book of Galatians talks about how the church can be bewitched. Galatians 3:1-3 reads, “O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” This shows that witchcraft can creep into the church when believers allow strange doctrines, superstitions, and man-made ideas to take them away from the grace of God. When people forsake the message of Christ crucified and focus on other things, they open themselves up to deception. We need to be careful so that the church does not fall into charismatic witchcraft.
Witchcraft is a form of rebellion, manipulation, and deception that opposes the will of God. Whether it manifests as a work of the flesh, an evil force, or charismatic witchcraft, it is an abomination before the Lord. Believers must stand firm in the word of God and reject every form of witchcraft that seeks to ensnare their souls. Keep your focus on Jesus, walk in the Spirit, and resist every attempt of the enemy to lead you into deception.
