 A few weeks ago I started a little serious called the spiritual warfare where I talked about the serpent, the fiery serpent. The main idea was the complaining does to the devil what worship is to God. Then after that I shared a little bit about the spiritual strategies for spiritual warfare. How Satan uses evil days to make us into evil people. A few weeks before I left I shared also about the spiritual missile. What we mentioned that prayer is a weapon and our mind is the battle. I think I mentioned at that time that that was my last message in the series and I gently lied. Well I didn't lie but I have something that I want to share today and I believe that God is going to minister today to us in Jesus name. I will give credit first of all to late Derek Prince for the contents not just of this message but the impact he has made upon the Christianity and our church in the terms of deliverance. And I'm saying that because I received few remarks where some people say that I copied a phrase from Derek Prince and I said it's not a phrase it's his whole teachings concerning deliverance. And they said why don't you give him credit? If I would give him credit after age statement I would be mentioning his name more than Jesus. So I said I stopped giving him credit long time ago. But I'll just mention it once I do encourage every person to read his books on spiritual warfare and listen to the message called witchcraft which actually I'm going to share today in portion. I want to speak today about shades of witchcraft. Now I understand you came here on the Pentecost day you're like I'm not really excited here about witchcraft. And you may think witchcraft is something that is so far away from your zip code and somewhere in Africa or India but I'm going to bring it down home. It's a lot more near to us than we imagine or we think. First of all the definition of witchcraft and again Derek Prince mentioned this. It's the attempt to control the person and make them do what you want by the use of any other spirit than the Holy Spirit. It's controlling people. That's what it is. In witchcraft world a woman is called a witch and a male is called a wizard of people who control other people. In the Bible there is so much that is said about witchcraft. First of all we know it's forbidden and it's denounced. It was practiced by Egyptians, it was practiced by magicians, by Balaam, by Jezebel, by Ninevites, by Babylonians, by Simon the Sorcerer, by Bart Jesus, the one that Paul made blind because he was distracting others from the name of Jesus Christ. It was practiced by a girl at Philippi who was filled with spirit of divination. It was practiced by false prophets. We know that this witchcraft in the Bible was also and there's a scripture where it's mentioned that it was practiced by people taking body parts or the parts of animals and chanting over it to create kind of spells over people. They would take bones, they would take rods, they would take certain objects by which they would exercise these demonic enchantsment and witchcraft. We know that the biggest one that happened was the king Saul when he went to a witch to see a witch and after that he died and it's interesting that after his death it says he died because he consulted a witch. He did a lot of nasty things in his life but it's not why he died. He died after he consulted a witch. We know an apostle Paul brought revival to the city of Ephesus. He asked people to burn witchcraft books, books that have to do with witchcraft, with magic. And we know also that in the last days there will be a huge witchcraft and sorcery in the world that the Antichrist will use to help him bring people under his subjection. People are not going to blindly just worship a man unless he will use some kind of a power to entice them and he will use that power in the last days. And so it's the power that is at work today and what Derek Prince said which was powerful, he said that witchcraft is the religion of the fallen humanity. If you have your Bible let's go with me to Galatians chapter 5 and verse 19. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are idolatry, fornication, uncleanness, ludeness, verse 20, idolatry and I want you to underline this, sorcery. Some translation says divination and others say witchcraft. Works of the flesh are and we see the works of the flesh, it mentions the drinking, it mentions the hatred, it mentions the idolatry, idolatry, fornication and it's interesting that one of the works of the flesh is witchcraft. And so the three shades of witchcraft, number one is witchcraft as a work of the flesh. Meaning it's not something demonic, it's something fleshly. Where witchcraft in the core of sorcery or witchcraft is being able to control another person. And witchcraft as fleshly or as work of the flesh manifests itself in three different ways. One is manipulation, intimidation and domination. And these three are works of the flesh and they are evident everywhere in the life today. In every sphere of the world whether it's in politics, sometimes even in church, sometimes in the household especially. Manipulation, women know how to do this really good. Kids are experts at manipulation. When a kid is very young it manipulates the parents. They know it comes with the mother's milk. Why? Because witchcraft is the religion of the fallen humanity. It's the work of the flesh where we manipulate other people. Sometimes women do it with their tears. Sometimes children they do it with crying also uncontrollably. Just to be able to twist the arm of the parent, twist the arm of the husband to do whatever they want. Husbands are really good at intimidation. Many times that's done in the government, many times that's done in the company. It could be even done in the church where one particular person who is very controlling. It's not a personality, it's the work of the flesh and behind that is demonic forces that are at work. No marriage can succeed if witchcraft is in the center. No church will succeed if pastors control their people or if there is someone who has a gift from God and uses that gift as a way to get their agenda pushed through the pastor and control the pastor. That's witchcraft. No business will succeed if the employees or the employer will look to control another person because that is not a blessing and that is not a gift or a skill. It doesn't give you a right because you have more degrees than a speedometer to control another person. It's just simply demonic and that is the work of the flesh. Amen? Many people that use that in relationships and they use that in church where they will look whatever they can to control another person and we have to understand as Christians today that that is not from God. Amen? God called us to honor other people's will, honor other people's choice even if that hurts us or hurts them. Imagine how respectful God is to our choice. Interestingly, He allows us even to go to hell but He will not violate our free choice. Anything that violates your free choice, anything that subdues that controls that is from the devil it is not from the Holy Spirit. Amen? And that is one side of this spiritual thing called witchcraft. Number two, the shade of witchcraft which is a spiritual force. This is demonic. It's people who practice, who are witch doctors, sorcerers, people who cause spells, people who send dark forces and who want to control other people's lives through the act of sorcery and through the act of the dark spirits and through the act of all of these ungodly things. And these things exist everywhere. We were in Seattle just a week and a half ago and right in the center, right before the space needle on the corner, a little place where you can come and you can have your future being read. You can come and you can cast spells. And today, and that's very popular in our movies, most selling movies in America today, almost every weekend some kind of a movie comes out that really hits high has to do with witchcraft and magic. And I know that those are movies but what it does is it causes our culture to be okay with the terminology and ideology of casting spells in witchcraft. And then when people hear speaking in tongues, they have a heart attack. Somebody falls on the floor and their blood pressure rises. Demon speaks to somebody, ah, that's from the devil. Really? And you can watch six Harry Potter movies in a row and that's normal. The devil is a liar. And that is the work of the devil. So the enemy wants to desensitize our culture, to cause it to be okay with the darkness. But hate the light. Amen? And I'm gonna bring you down to the work of the devil forces, the witchcraft. The first one is witchcraft, which is a spiritual power that operates by spells and curses. And this is very clearly evident in Balaam when Balaam was hired by Balak to curse Israelites so that he can defeat them and battle. These guys knew spiritual world better than sometimes a lot of preachers today. Instead of going to battle, they first hire a sorcerer. And for those of us, we have to understand Balaam was one of those guys that sometimes he was open to the Holy Spirit. But because of his greed and because of his not having been born again, he was open to the demonic spirits. And he would cast spells as a sorcerer upon certain countries and then his king would go and defeat those countries. And that's exactly how it happened with Israel. Balak hired him and says, we'll give you money. If you cast some spells, you can pronounce some curses. And then Balaam was not let go by God. And then eventually he, you know, maneuvered his way and decided to go. And when he went there, it's interesting that God didn't let him curse Israel. Israel was sleeping. They didn't even know. There's some kind of a guy on the mountain trying to curse them. Israel had problems to their throats. Yet when Balaam stood to curse them, he says, I see no iniquity in Jacob. Because God in the spiritual world pulled the curtain and said, Balaam, you're only going to see what I show you. And what I show you, they're righteous. You can't curse them. I already blessed them. This gives me a lot of comfort. There can be witches, wizards, warlocks and witch doctors and everybody. They can fast and pray and do all kinds of herbs and all kinds of smells. But I can sleep like a baby because during the night God, the spirit, puts a curtain over my life. I might not even know it and protects you and protects me. Amen. I remember I was reading once a story about he came to set the captives free. Rebecca Brown discouraged every one of you from reading that book. But because it's very intense about the spiritual battle. And so after I finished reading the book, I read it in a setting, in one setting. It was three in the morning. I felt I was living at the time I had my own room. I was living with my parents. And I felt like every witch in the world was lurking at the window of my house. Because your senses, you become so aware of the spiritual world that you literally become to be afraid. And so I was about 17 or 19 years of age. I was really, really intimidated. And at that time I went to sleep and I said, Jesus, you've got to help me out because it's kind of embarrassing. I'm a youth pastor. Go to my parents and ask my parents to sleep with me. Plus I know the Bible. I know your authority and your power. But I'm scared because I read this book about spiritual warfare. And at that time I remember the verse with the Bible says, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not walk. I shall not want. And it says that his staff, it comforts me. And his rod, it comforts me. And being young person, I didn't put too much theological preferences on it. I only imagined this. Jesus is a shepherd and his stick is to beat the wolves. So in my mind, I drew a mental picture that as I'm going to sleep, I see Jesus standing with a rod and any witch that will come into my room, he will beat them out of my room. And that's the image I planted in my mind. And that's what that image I fall asleep. And no, it might not be theologically correct, but honestly, spiritually applicable. When you sleep during the night, you have to understand is that there are spiritual forces. They seek to curse. Even right now there are spiritual forces that are surrounding so that our president will be assassinated. There are prayers being gathered by witches to bring him down. There are prayers that will be gathered even against your family, against the pastors in our city to bring them down. The spiritual people who know the spiritual world will do that. But we take comfort, not in the fact that we pray more or fast more, but in the fact that when we rest and not even aware of who's trying to cast something on us, there is the God and he covers us with his precious blood. Come on, somebody, come on. You're clapping like you don't know what I'm talking about. We know that God is on our side. Can somebody say amen? And this lady, she was describing in this book how one time she was writing a book about someone that she was delivering from demons who happened to be the wife of Satan. It's a whole deep story. I'm not going to go into it. But they used one episode where during the night, these witches, they decided to attack the house of a Christian, this house that had a lot of children, very wonderful family. They decided to gather up the witches. They came out of their bodies and they tried to go into the spiritual world and come and attack the house of these Christians, cause some kind of a fight, some kind of a stir. And as they came out of their body, they got all prayed up and worked up and everything. As they were going out, they came to their house really late at night. Lo and behold, they saw a wall of giant figures surrounding them. And both of these figures had swords on both ends. And they surrounded the house, literally like some invisible bodyguard. And they tried to cast their spells on these forces, on these giant figures. The more spells they cast, the weaker they came. Until they got so weak, they quickly ran into their body. In the spiritual world, they came back to their body and the next day, demons were punishing them for being defeated. And this lady who was serving Satan, she describes, she says, she was explaining to demons that we can't defeat them. Why are you punishing us? You should give us more power. He says, that's how the money kingdom works. One, they can defeat you. And number two, they get punished for not defeating you. Why do you think demons don't want to leave people? Why do you think they hold on to every bit of him? Because that demon, every demon that leaves a person will face a judgment by Satan first himself. Because he let them go. And that's one of the reasons we have to stand our ground and understand we are on the Lord's side. God is on our side. We may not be perfect. We will never be. Israel wasn't perfect. But in the eyes of the enemy, God closes the curtain and only lets the enemy see the blood of Jesus Christ. And we are protected. Because somebody shout, hallelujah! The second part under the spiritual force of witchcraft is divination. Divination is pretty much similar to that. We see a girl being possessed with a spirit of divination in Book of Acts 1616. And this girl, she was there in the city of Philippi. And the demon that came out of her, in some of our Bibles, it says actually in original, it says spirit, not of divination, but spirit of python. Spirit of python. It's very interesting. I've read something that the spirit of python was a python serpent. The Greek mythology believed that python serpent guarded the oracle of Delphi until Apollo slew it and then took the name python. The word was later applied to diviners, soothsayers inspired by Apollo. We have to understand one thing. Everything about Greek mythology, it's not mythology, it's demonology. When I was younger, I just thought like, my goodness, people just came up with cool names and cool stories, zoos, and lightning and everything. And then when you watch the deliverances, and we watched the deliverance, first I saw that is with Bob Larson. And I've realized that actually all of them are demon names. All the fights, the war that's going on in the Greek mythology, it's actually demonology. It's actually what happens in the demon world. And those things are not naive. They're not just cute ideas about the past. These are demonic. These people didn't worship zoos. They worship Satan. They didn't worship, you know, these Diana and so many other goddesses. These were demons. They were tormenting people's lives. And it's clearly evident this girl, she had a demonic spirit, python, who, you know, just these were the people who practiced sorcery in that day. And that demonic spirit, I want you to see something. How witchcraft is dangerous because this girl, she was not saying anything wrong. What she was saying was true, but it wasn't the truth. What she was saying was true, but it was provocative. And we see the Paul was provoked in his spirit. She was saying, these are the servants of most high God. They're here to declare the word of God. That's not false. That was true. But this is where the trick is about the spirit of divination and the snake is that sometimes people get it right. Sometimes people get people who have this kind of demonic spirit in their life. They're more likely to get dreams, visions and even prophetic or some kind of a words. And they sometimes get them right. And if you are not a person who lives in the word of God, you will get quickly fooled by that stuff and then controlled by this stuff. I had this happen to me numerous of times. At first I was very immature and I fell prey to it. Or somebody gave a word that totally messed up my life for that first few months. Completely disoriented me and then what it did is that person gained authority over my life because now everything they say, I have to rearrange my life to it. And then the word of God takes the back seat of what I knew. It was divination. And just because somebody put some spiritual words behind it that doesn't mean anything. When I was a little bit older, similar happened again. This time people had visions for me. And these visions were very bad. And people like that, they had their visions come true all the time and those are the most dangerous. When they come and they gave you a resume like everything I see happens. Let me tell you what I see about you. No. And then they tell you everything bad and you're like oh Jesus, what am I going to do with that? And if you are mature and you live by faith, not by somebody's nightmares, righteous man lives by, not by someone's dreams, not even by your own dreams, prophecy words of knowledge are important, they're great, but we live by the word of God. And so what I would do is I would take that, I would say thank you. And then I would just pray about it I don't feel right, I put the way back. And some of those people that would give those words, later on they would be delivered in the conferences we would have and you would be shocked what spirit would come out of them. Spirit of python. And I'm like I'm glad, I didn't rearrange my life over some kind of a word that you got in your nightmare. Be very careful because this stuff especially we are church that is open to the words of God visions and dreams and everything. Be very careful on who you follow on Facebook just because somebody puts a prophet before their name that doesn't make them a prophet. We have our church today who is very open today on Facebook there is more prophets than users. Everybody is a prophet and I respect, we respect the prophets. I mean you see in our church we invite them, the apostles and everything, but not everything on Facebook and not everybody the emails and writes we follow because a lot of times the enemy will get a grip of your life and control your life. You know how python kills its victims? Not by venom, by surrounding it and squeezing life out of them. What the first thing the enemy will do he will use those kind of people to squeeze your trust in the basic truth of the Bible. And you will be fishing for the latest and the greatest prophecy and you will no longer be living by this but you will be twisted and moved by all kinds of doctrine. And that stuff is dangerous church. That's why we have to stand on what God says, we welcome prophecies, we welcome words of knowledge, we welcome visions, dreams and we sort that out, we pray the truth but we stand on the word of God. What God says it settles it in Jesus name. The third thing is sorcery. So witchcraft, divination and sorcery. And sorcery is what works by objects, charms, music and drugs. The New Testament Greek word translated sorcery is pharamakia, which is a source of our English word for pharmacy. In Poles day word, this word was primarily meant dealing with poison or drug use. And it was applied to divination and spell casting because sorcerers often use drugs along with their incantations. So what happened is that do you see this in the church many times or in Africa where people would say native doctors or they would say these doctors they would people go in who used medicine and witchcraft in combination. And so that's what happens with sorcery. It's interesting that in Revelations 9 verse 21 it says that in the last days the people who practice sorcery will be destroyed the word sorcery in that word is actually drugs. I don't really believe yet drugs you know has become legal in our state. I want you to know this it's a legal open door to demonic. I want you to read something to you from Bob Larson's blog. In Hinduism Marihuana which is in their language called Ganga has been used to worship the demon of death and destruction for thousands of years. Bob Larson said I have confronted possessed people who never practiced eastern religions by God Shiva and other Hindu demons like Kali Jezebel by taking a joint. Chinese tausum has a long believed that inhaling Marihuana is a way to communicate with spirits and tell fortunes. In pagan Norse organism part has been used to pray which is another form of Jezebel a demon that Bob says he often dealt with when ministering to those Scandinavian descent. Pot was important to Celtic Druids when practicing witchcraft. Tentic Buddhism employs pot as well as Sikhism. In many religions of the world where witchcraft is implied, weed is involved. It's legal to open door to demonic. I understand some of you may be here today this is not to judge and to guilt chip anybody. It's for those of us who've been delivered to know what we got delivered from. You didn't just get delivered from smoking grass you got delivered from the demonic oppression. That's why Mark your life see the moment weed came in so did the poverty lower grades bad relationships, immorality and so many other things it's not just marijuana that brought that there was other spiritual forces that came in one out of six people that drinks the smokes weed gets introduced to heavier drugs I've had friends that I knew that I lost them to death because of weed started with weed they convinced themselves it will never go further it went into heavier drugs and their life got destroyed. First they lost their mind they lost everything they heard everyone around them and then the enemy took their life I do believe that the chief way that Satan gets into people's lives in America and specially in our city is through drugs yeah we may not be practicing white and black magic but through this stuff you may say but I don't feel demon possessed. Now Satan is a thief thief is only as successful as his ability to penetrate your life being anonymous do you think Satan will come to you after you smoke a joint and says I'm a devil I came to get you of course not it will make him dumb and he's not dumb he is crafty and he is sneaky and he is crazy and so I know that some people maybe have to take you may say well but it's for medicine purposes get a hike for medicine purposes get some sleep for medicine purposes go to prayer line if you have such a depression that you need to smoke it out not at the expense of relieving one problem to create another problem Satan gives with one hand and with another hand he takes what your life depends on and so yes it's legal in our state but it's a legal door in a spiritual world against the possibilities and forces of darkness and for those of us who got delivered from that stuff we are glad that Jesus Christ delivered us from that spirit in Jesus name can somebody say amen and if you are here today and you are addicted to that and you may say you know what after service today we are going to pray but afterwards you will be able to come and we will have pastors here we will be able to minister to you minister this freedom if you want to be free Jesus will set you free if you don't want to be free Jesus will never be able to set you free because Jesus will only set you free from enemies not your friends if you make drugs your friends he can set you free they are yours for life you know have fun and get high but if you want if you are tired of it and you say I cannot be free on my own I just need help from God God will help you church will help you in Jesus name can somebody say amen and the last thing the last shade is the witchcraft in the church witchcraft in the church Galatians chapter 3 come to a close after the re-description Galatians chapter 3 verse 1 2 & 3 of foolish Galatians who has bewitched you bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Christ Jesus was clearly portrayed among you as crucified this only thing I want to learn from you did you receive the spirit by works of the law or by hearing of faith bewitched in Greek it means an evil eye when there was an obscured revelation or obscured vision now of Jesus crucified it's when Satan does his best to remove from the upfront of our vision Jesus and his cross Jesus and his cross for one reason for three reasons why Satan this is called witchcraft where Satan wants to remove and put all self-help anything that could replace the power of the cross cross is not cute we have made it romantic in the 21st century you wear a little crucifix but imagine carrying electric chair on your chain it's brutal we had a chance to go see one of the places where they believe that Jesus was crucified for me is when they pulled out history and they said Romans didn't crucify people on hills they crucified them on intersections on the busiest highways so that the most people can see the crucifixion and the people will be terrified to rebel against the Roman regime by looking at these victims and never ever to oppose Roman Empire the fact that they put the writing over Jesus' head indicates he wasn't crucified on some distant hill as we see in the Passion of the Christ and they show us the place where most likely yes, everything there in Israel is a hill but most likely it was in a place that there was a huge traffic and Jesus stood there bleeding Isaiah says unrecognizable as a human thick thorns were driven into his skull and nails everywhere and that wasn't romantic that was shameful and that got used to crush the kingdom of darkness that got used to become the message of Christianity that's what Paul says to Greeks it's foolishness to a Jews they're saying it's nonsense but he's just to us it's the power of God no, we don't see the crucifixions today and we don't have to be concerned of the gruesome of that event but we remind it of the benefit of that event the cross is the way to heaven the cross is the heaven's way to us the cross is the license for my healing the cross is the license for my joy and not only to get saved but to live a saved life as a pastor, as a church member as a stay home mom as a politician, as a police officer as an unemployed person the cross is my only source of victory because somebody say amen all the benefits come through the cross cross is the means of Satan's total defeat cross is the only source for our living some of you heard my unfortunate story before going to Israel I was very careful to check my wife's passport make sure it's not expired but of course I wouldn't check mine because mine never gets expired until I got to the airport and I realized that they told me I can't go to Israel and I said why? I have my bags already packed I got my cameras ready I got everything prepared I am dressed for Israel I'm leading a team that's what I said, I wasn't really leading a team but I was leading a team and I said you can't go because of one thing because your passport is not correct passport and I felt like the man in the Bible who got sent from the feast because he didn't have the wedding garments and there in the Pasco airport disappointed and heartbroken I realized there are certain places you can't go without a passport you can't go to healing without the passport of the blood you can't go to salvation without the passport of the blood and see, blood of Jesus is your passport to living a successful life it's not your bachelor's degree it's not your virginity it's not the fact you went to church all your life it's not the fact your mama and your papa were Christians it's not because your grandpa was a pastor maybe all of that stuff is nonexistent in your family history if you got a passport called the blood of Jesus Christ you qualify for a successful life people will look at you and say I worked harder than you you say yes but I got a passport for a successful life they say but I went to college and you got the job because the blood of Jesus Christ is not only paying for my sin it's the source for my life can somebody say amen hallelujah how many of you got a passport this morning how many of you believe you're gonna live a better life than ever ever you thought before how many of you believe because of the blood you will aim for what you don't deserve thank you for watching this content I hope this was a blessing to you if you're like me and you like to click on things click on this subscribe to our channel and the content will come to you every time we post it and remember the best is yet to come