Strengthen the executive, and you weaken the
law"-Tiberius of Rome. Think we get it yet? how long ago was that said? Political power has it's own destructive reek.
Anglo Saxon hierarchal structures used both as a state and organized religions as it's power base, please review the Anglo Saxon hierarchal history.
Spirit led did not borrow the pagan forms, please read Paul words in the Jamison faucett and brown commentary, the apostle Paul had no use for their structures or forms 1 Corinth 1-4.
Quenching the spirit at Sardis produced and originated out of the same practice's long before any of the pre-post reformation state religions existed .
The Rosicrucian forms were one of the major influences at one point, and well embedded in the time of king James and the influenced bacon had on scripture for years be fore it was published and using Tyndale's works they managed to insert their political esoteric mechanisms, please read history all there. Bacons mystical idea in his book the New Atlantis.
The original form was not compromised for power or wealth but in servitude and unity and bond to Christ alone. Narrowway is moved into a real minus all the additives back to what Paul was talking about, living out side the magician mystics, were trying to reconstruct. We selected the once spirit led body as real live faith.
Please read the commentary use the Greek it really clears up the idea of the all the philosophy washed out the Holy Spirit or reduced him into a human religion, with Ot covenant form brought back in. And it's man made systems. Paul had no use for the wisdom of this world please read the kj3 1 corinthians1 .
I added this because it's serious blow to the spirit led body, The actual body was mobile and on the move all the time, it was conscious of what was going on around it spiritually, and acted into lives it touched by being an ensample of the living gospel, rather than state political system which over time had become deeply distorted and run by money and power, greed does many funny things to people. Thanks
Getting free to know grace and liberty
Melchizedek School of Ministry
Breaking Christian witchcraft
Breaking Christian witchcraft
We all have some sense of what
witchcraft is. Some equate
witchcraft with Halloween, Jack-o’-lanterns, caped women atop broom sticks, or Wicca. The best-selling books and movies chronicling the adventures of Harry Potter continue to sanction
witchcraft in our society through casting spells and mixing potions, while presenting a great saga between good and evil witches. And, of course, who could forget the ever so popular video game Dungeons and Dragons, the fantasy role playing game where players engage dark forces with their magical
powers.
Even though
witchcraft is often portrayed as innocent, it is strictly forbidden in the Word of God (Deuteronomy 18:9-14, Leviticus 19:31, 20:6; Isaiah 8:19).
Regardless of what some think,
witchcraft opens the door to
demonic forces. Package them in the latest fashion or present them on Hollywood’s silver screen, but there are no such things as good
demonic powers. Jesus said, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have
life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). It would be best for all to take heed to His Word.
Witchcraft is a bonafide
demonic power released through various activities such as words, spells, amulets, charms, occult
powers, chants, magic, drugs, potions, or directive prophecies. It’s far more than meeting in a forest to worship Mother Earth and hugging pine trees.
Witchcraft is a
power that influences people, gives a place to demon activity, battles against the
minds of men, challenges the
Church of Jesus Christ, buffets the maturity of
believers, hinders
church growth, comes against families, marriages and relationships, and frustrates the advancement of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Witchcraft, however, is more common that one would think.
I want to break away from the traditional look at
witchcraft and explore some other manifestations of this evil force. I know a true born again believer would never cast a spell or drink a potion, but could there be other forms of
witchcraft mentioned in the Bible? Let’s take a look at
witchcraft operations from a different perspective, through the old fallen nature–the flesh.
BEWITCHED, SPIRIT AND FLESH
Witchcraft can be released through the rebellious and the stubborn, both actions described in the Word of God as workings of the flesh. Scripture says,
“O foolish Galatians, who hath
bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath 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?” (Galatians 3:1-3).
Notice the words
bewitched, spirit and flesh. The word
bewitched, Greek baskaino, means to be charmed, seduced, or to be placed under a spell. In the Old English language
bewitched comes from the word biwiccian, meaning the working or the result of Wicca sorcery. The writer of Galatians ties
witchcraft to the manifesting or workings of the flesh.
The meaning of flesh in this scripture is the Greek word
sarx, meaning the carnal
mind, or better described as the earthly nature of man apart from the Spirit of God. A person, therefore, who is “governed” by the actions of the flesh (
sarx), can release
witchcraft upon himself or others. No, he or she doesn’t become a Wiccan recruit, but, nevertheless, like the Galatians, enters into a foolish and illusory area of
life.
Identifying witchcraft
Have you ever been around a person whose
negative body language, tone of voice, stubbornness, or contentious attitude made you feel like you were walking on eggshells around them? Or his or her actions made you feel like he or she would lash out at you at any moment? Did you get a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach? Could that feeling be the result of a subtle form of
witchcraft emanating from the flesh? Even though nothing much was said, did you still feel some sort of force emanating from the person? Did you understand the nonverbal message? That subtle force from the flesh is a form of
witchcraft. The writer who corrected the foolish Galatians, the Apostle Paul didn’t stop there to make this plain to us.
He said,
“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness (unbridled lust), idolatry,
witchcraft, hatred, variance (contention), emulations (jealous rivalry), wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings (evil carousing), and such like: of the 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” (Galatians 5:19-21).
Here Paul directly connects the works of the flesh with
witchcraft, concluding that those who do (intentionally practice) such things shall not inherit the
kingdom of God.
The works of the flesh, temper tantrums, bad attitudes,
negative body language, stubbornness, and
negative words and confessions are all workings of
witchcraft. I told you this would be a different viewpoint on
witchcraft. Now you can see why there is so much written in the Word of God about the tongue (Proverbs 18:21, James 3:6).
RELIGIOUS WITCHCRAFT
When religious activity is not spiritually motivated but carnally motivated it releases a form of
witchcraft, too. Motivation is everything because its source is the heart of man.
Religion also releases
witchcraft when it intentionally avoids the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Scripture says, “Having a form of godliness but denying the
power (
dunamis) thereof:
from such turn away” (2 Timothy 3:5).
This is a
powerful instruction to Timothy from the Apostle Paul. The word form, Greek
morphosis, means to have merely a shape or to look like the real thing. This religious counterfeit can be identified because it looks like the
Church, yet is carnally motivated and disregards the necessity of the
dunamis power of God. That
dunamis power is the ministry of the Holy Spirit Himself. Paul’s final
instruction is to turn away from such.
There are many religious people in the world who say they are born again yet attack the ministry of the Holy Spirit. They challenge the baptism of the Holy Spirit, miracles, and healing today, speaking in other tongues, prophecy, deliverance, fervent prayer, the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit, and much more. Rather than have Holy Spirit administered lives,
ministries, and
churches, they hold fast to man-made programs, vain traditions, and secular social activities.
Religion releases
witchcraft when it is governed by the flesh, rather than the Spirit of God. It was religious people, supposedly born again, that persistently stirred up trouble for the Apostle Paul.
They couldn’t accept his teaching that it was possible to be born again without circumcision (Acts 15).
The elements of
religion are a lack of spiritual sensitivity, legalism and debate, hypocrisy, self-righteousness, and a form of godliness that denies the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Just get around a person who has that nasty, contentious religious spirit and you will experience the working of
witchcraft from
religion.
Witchcraft, emanating from our flesh, is an enemy of the gospel. The good news is that we can, through our love for Jesus Christ, crucify that old carnal nature. Scripture instructs us to take off our old corrupted manner of living and put on the new man, which is created in righteousness and true holiness in God’s likeness (Ephesians 4:22-24). So the next time you experience the powers of witchcraft it may not be coming from some occult mystic, but from the flesh
Romans 4 KJ3
, AMP.).