Witchcraft in the Name of Jesus

When we think of witchcraft, we tend to picture black clad people speaking spells over candles and other miscellaneous items, whether the intent be for good or for ill. God’s definition of witchcraft is not so colorful.

Anything that compels someone to do something against their will is witchcraft. Anything that exercises some form of manipulation and control to obtain an object or objective through another individual is witchcraft.  TGhjis is the essence of witchcraft.  It seeks to obtain its desires or objectives separate or apart from submitting itself to God’s will, wisdom and providence.

Standing in the place of playing divine providence in the life of another is just another form of witchcraft praying.  Let me give you an example.

I sat in on a prayer meeting at a small fellowship. One person asked the pastor to pray for an individual that had left this particular fellowship and the city to seek his prospects elsewhere. They told the pastor that they really felt that this person needed to come back. The pastor agreed and so they prayed that this person would come back to the city and that this person would come back to this particular fellowship where they belonged. This is witchcraft praying. There was absolutely no recognition or acknowledgement that God may have had a plan or a purpose for this individuals life that they knew nothing of.

Here is another example. I was at another fellowship that was involved in the G12 or Government of 12 program. Part of the program consisted of each member of the fellowship praying for three people in the community. This particular fellowship prayed individually for the people on their list every day as well as corporately  every Sunday. Their prayers consisted of taking authority over all devils that stood between them and the truth, praying against all their yokes and bonds such as drugs or alcohol and the like, and many more prayers of the same nature.

Most of the people being prayed for had no idea what was going on. It was also interesting to note that most of the bondages noted for the people being prayed for happened to be those of witchcraft. It was the result of the witchcraft praying of this fellowship.  This particular fellowship had been praying for this town in a similar fashion for a number of years such as the town itself gained a reputation for being a graveyard.

Understand that God is not the only one that answers prayer, nor is He the only one that can move you to pray. Most people are praying out their own wants, needs and desires for another persons life. These types of prayers can destroy a person’s walk with God.

Every area of unrighteousness in your life that is not confessed and repented of before God so that it can be cleansed by the blood of Christ is an area of your life that can be exploited by the enemy. This was the issue behind Jesus’ prayer for Simon Peter before he denied Christ three times.

Jesus prayer was not that Peter would be delivered from the temptation, but that his faith would hold, and once he was converted, that he would strengthen his brethren.  Jesus prayer inthe garden of Gethsemane was not that God would take His own out of the world, but that He would keep them from the evil.

We are all sifted by Satan, by God’s permission. I went through a year long siege of witchcraft praying that would have destroyed my life in I hadn’t fallen before the Lord in tears begging Him for someone to pray for me. He gave me a name to call, and when they started praying for me, I actually ‘saw’ this black oppressive spirit lift off of my mind and I was free. After it went the Lord showed me how it had gained access to my life, and when I repented and cleansed my ay before Him in the light of the truth that He had shown me, I was utterly delivered and have never had the problem since.

The times are here right now when the Church no longer knows how to pray. It is so filled with its own will and its own ways that even those things done in the name of the furtherance of the gospel have been reduced to nothing but witchcraft, and all that is witchcraft can be reduced to the issues of manipulation and control.

If your own prayers, even if they be for your own life are rooted in efforts to manipulate or control your own life or circumstances, you are also working witchcraft.  You do not need to make God’s promises or blessings materialize in your life.  When you walk in obedience to God and are willing, you will eat the good of the land.  Your prayers need to be unto the end that you can see the light, that you may have light to give and to speak before others.

There is going to be a time of great apostasy within the church. It will be when those who came into the church through the witchcraft prayers of others fall away, for they had no heart for righteousness or the truth in the first place. Those who participated in such wrongful praying will also fall away, for those who lead into captivity will also go into captivity. They built their own prison through their own self-willed prayers.

God does not force anyone to come to Him. He draws with cords of love. He draws a soul to want to come to Him. How He does it, only He knows, but He is able to make a rebellious enemy a devoted servant, and it isn’t through the witchcraft prayers of His children. One who comes to God according to His  drawing will be one who will endure the storms, tests and trials of their faith. One who comes to God through the witchcraft of another will never stand, for they have no heart or will of their own to stand.

The great influx of people that are coming into the Church at the present time and in the days to come will not be coming in due to any great desire or hunger for God or for righteousness or for truth. God will use these to punish, chastise and bring to destruction the Church that has persisted in walking in its own ways and after its own desires, using His gifts and graces for their own ends, desires and purposes.

Study the prayers of Paul the Apostle. He prayed for God’s mercy upon His people. He prayed that we would see the light. He prayed that we would be strengthened to receive the truths. He prayed for many things for the good of the Church, but no where is it recorded that he prayed for the unsaved.

Prayer will never, repeat, never replace the preaching of the Gospel. When the truth is restored to the Gospel, and faith restored to that which we preach, and the people overcome their fears and their doubts to preach, then the harvest will come in. But know this, it will not come in through prayer, for it was never purposed to come in through prayer, but to be strengthened and edified and upheld through prayer.

Get prayer back to the purpose for which it was given that the Church may stand strong. Let the Church cleanse its ways and rise up in the glory that was appointed and ordained for her, so that there is something that God can bring His harvest into.