Transcription
The truth about witches in your church. What if I told you not everyone who sits in the church is there to worship Jesus? Some people come hungry for God. Some people come out of a habit. Some people come for community. And yes, sometimes people come with dark spiritual activity with assignments to monitor, manipulate, curse, seduce, and even cause division.
Now listen, this video is not to make you a paranoid or to turn you into a spiritual deliverance detective. Nor is it to create a witch hunt in the body of Christ, but it's something that we need to restore in the body of Christ. And that is discernment. Because the Bible says we don't wrestle against flesh and blood. We do wrestle against spiritual powers. And the enemy loves to hide in religious environments. And today I'm going to share with you the truth about witches in the church. What the Bible actually shows, how the enemy operates in the house of God, the signs of occultic influence without you accusing people unjustly and what to do biblically as a believer.
If you see this in the church, now from the beginning, I want to set the foundation very clear. The Bible clearly prohibits witchcraft and occult practices in Deuteronomy chapter 18. The New Testament shows even deeper reality of the spiritual world. You will see a guy in the Bible, in the New Testament, Simon the sorcerer, who tried to mix power with the gospel after he professed to be a follower of Christ. In book of Acts chapter 8, you will see also a demonized girl used for divination, following Paul and saying all the right things. You will see Emas the sorcerer resisting the gospel in book of Acts chapter 13. So you see these interactions with the men of God, preachers, and the occultic world in some cases where the occultic world tried to infiltrate the churches.
So it's true that dark influences exist. But you must remember not everybody that's struggling is a witch. Some people are bound, some people are deceived. Some people need deliverance. Some people need discipleship. That's why the scripture teaches us in 1 John 4:1 that test the spirits. That means we test. We don't jump to conclusions. We don't accuse. We discern. We don't slander.
So what do I mean by witches in the church? Because when you hear the word witch, some people think of movies. But biblically, the deeper issue is witchcraft, which is an attempt to control reality or manipulate reality spiritually outside of biblical borders or outside of submission to God. Witchcraft is more than just lighting candles and casting spells. Witchcraft in the Bible is tied to manipulating, dominating, intimidating, and rebellion. As the spiritual nature of it in Galatians chapter 5, where actually witchcraft and sorcery is listed as the work of the flesh.
So in the church setting, occult influence shows up usually in two kinds of lanes. Occult practitioners or people who practice occult who attend with hidden involvement. So they, they practice witchcraft and they are there as like spiritual spies. And the other one is the witchcraft-like control that operates through people who are not necessarily involved with spells and are not in a contract or covenant with demons, but they're through the flesh allowing manipulation, domination, and spiritual intimidation to operate in the church. And they'll never call themselves witches, but they do act like those.
So, here are the five realities or warning signs of occultic influence in the church. Now, remember, these are patterns. Uh, we're talking about fruit. We're talking about behavior. So, don't use any of them to right away label somebody in your church. But it's important that we highlight them.
Number one sign is these people are drawn to power, not to God's presence. So, they don't love Jesus, they love power. You'll notice things like an obsession with manifestations, but not the fruit of the spirit or not transformation. They're interested in codes and secrets, especially revelations, but they're not interested in scripture. Um, they want a lot of influence and they want access, especially being near leaders or prayer teams. And this is actually a sign in book of Acts chapter 8. He saw power and wanted to buy it. So, the question you got to ask is this: Does this person hunger for holiness or do they hunger for control and power? Now you may say, is it wrong to be hungry for power? Not necessarily. But as Christians, our hunger, the Bible says, blessed are those who hunger for righteousness. The hunger for the word of God and the hunger for the presence of God has to become first for the Christian, not for power. Do we want power? Absolutely. Do we ask God for power? Absolutely. Our main hunger is for the presence.
The second sign is this: they resist repentance but they do love attention and platform. So when the word is preached, broken people repent. Often occultic influence reacts to the word of God when it's preached with irritation when conviction is present, offense when correction is given, anger when they are confronted, and refusal to submit to leadership or any sort of accountability. So when somebody's operating with occultic influence, you will notice when they are convicted, they're irritated. When they're corrected, they're offended. When they're confronted, they they get angry and they refuse to submit to any accountability, but they still want to be seen. They still want to lead and they still want access. And so that's a red flag when somebody wants authority and wants no accountability because witchcraft and the occult will never submit and they will never correct their behavior when they're confronted and repentance is not on the radar. Control is influences and access is. It's a big draw, drive for access and influence, not full repentance.
The third sign is they operate through whisperings and divisions. Dark demonic influence loves to plant seeds. And the seeds go like this: Did you hear what the pastor said? I don't feel peace about this leader. God showed me something about them and it's always destructive. They would rarely confront someone biblically, but they will recruit emotionally. So they don't bring solutions. They always bring suspicions. And the enemy knows if he cannot stop the church with persecution, he will seek to stop the church with division, which starts with emotional recruitments where people sow seeds of suspicion. They would never go talk to that person because there's nothing to talk about. They'll go and talk about that person and they're just pretty much they love whispering. They're they're into whispering about people.
The fourth sign is they try to attach themselves to spiritual leaders and people in position and many times even intercessors. In book of Acts 16, the demonized girl, interestingly, she didn't follow just any Christian. She followed Paul. Close proximity. Occultic influence comes to monitor what God is doing. Gather information and intimidate sensitive people. Disrupt prayer. Paul was headed to prayer and moments of encounters with God. And that they'll often be unusually interested in who is on the worship team, who is on the deliverance team, what the pastor is planning, and who has the influence. Not because they love the church. Listen to this. It's because they love leverage and they love that access. Sometimes they'll even buy that access through giving. Sometimes they'll buy that access through contributions. And that's why as leaders, people in positions, we have to be very careful. Not everybody who says these are the servants of most high God. The source is God. You have to discern otherwise you will be leveraged and you will fall prey. Well, they said all the right things. They did all the right things. But the spirit with which they did it was wrong because they needed access to the leader. And so you got to practice discernment.
The fifth sign is there is usually a spiritual cloud around this person or these people. They have confusion, heaviness, intimidation. This is harder to explain, but this stuff is real. When a cultic influence is near, you will notice sudden mental fog during worship or around that person. You will notice heaviness and distraction around the time when it's a time to go to the altar. You will notice fear, intimidation rising and paralyzing the room. And you will also notice strange manifestations that pull away from our focus on Jesus. Let me say this very clearly. Not every strange moment is a witch. Not every manifestation is demonic. But things that constantly induce confusion, fear, control, and distractions from Christ, that is a red flag because the Holy Spirit exalts Jesus. He doesn't distract us from Jesus.
So what should you do? What should the church do? Well, number one is that don't panic, but also don't accuse. Accusations destroy churches. If you start labeling people witch without evidence, you actually become a weapon in the hands of the enemy. Discernment is quiet. Wisdom is slow. And love is careful or patient. So don't rush. Don't panic. And nor should you right away start whispering and labeling people as witches. Pray and ask God to bring things to the surface. Ask God to expose what needs to be exposed and heal what needs to be healed. Sometimes people are just hurt, deceived, and sometimes they're set their minds to actually sent by Satan into churches. Light and God has a way of exposing things and that's when we need to start praying. Sometimes you need to start fasting.
And then there's also a biblical order to follow, which means if you're going to go and confront this person and you know that this person has an occultic agenda behind it, don't confront this person alone. Involve pastoral leadership. Um, document things as well, patterns, not just your feelings and your preferences, and and handle things with maturity, but also protection, which is why it's very important not to do it alone. Uh, church leadership, pastors, leaders should also guard their prayer teams. We should train our ushers, our altar workers, and we should have protocols for disruptive behaviors. We should prioritize discipleship and deliverance, but not major on drama, not seek the drama that we should as church have grace, but also boundaries. And remember, the goal of Christian confrontation is repentance and deliverance, not humiliation. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. Sometimes the person you suspect is actually bound. They just need freedom. Sometimes they're truly involved in darkness, and the church needs wisdom, firmness, and actually remove that person from the fellowship. But the heart behind all of that is the people to be rescued, redeemed, and delivered. Yes, darkness can walk into the church, but darkness is not close to light. When the church is full of prayer and fasting, full of God's word, full of holiness, and full of love, witchcraft will try, but it cannot dominate the atmosphere.
So, this is my call to action to every believer, and that is this: If you're a believer walking on fire for God, please don't be naive. Have some discernment. If you're a leader, do not tolerate manipulation, division. Guard the flock. And if you're watching this and you are involved in witchcraft or a cult, listen to me. Jesus can set you free. You don't have to hide. You don't have to stay bound. And if you want to renounce that darkness and return to Jesus, say this with me. Say, "Lord Jesus, I repent for any involvement with the occult, known or unknown. I renounce witchcraft. I renounce sorcery. I renounce divination and every demonic lie. I belong to Jesus. Cleanse me right now. Forgive me and fill me with the Holy Spirit in Jesus name. Amen."
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