Witchcraft – the greatest barrier to revival in the church

Study 2 – Domination

In undertaking these studies there was no intention of exposing members of the church, clergy or lay, in order to make them feel guilty, the sole intention is to expose the spirit of witchcraft and show from scripture how we can gain victory over it in Jesus name.

In Matthew chapter 20 verses 24 to 28 Jesus called His disciple together after the mother of one of the disciples made an unusual request. As a result of this request the other disciples were indignant so He told them: "When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers.

Jesus called them together and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

The principle He spoke to them about is a principle that Jesus expects His disciples to observe whatever period of time they are in. In the world those who employed people were treating their servants and slaves very severely in order to dominate their lives and take away from them as much freedom as they could get away with. This seems to be the way of most employees today.

Not many years ago it was illegal for an employee to work through his or her lunch period, now people are expected to bring sandwiches to work and continue working throughout their lunch hour. In addition to this, if it is necessary for overtime to be worked in most cases the people will not get paid for it but will know implicitly that it is expected of them.

Jesus required His disciples to live to a higher standard of fairness and action than the world at that time, dominated by the occupying Romans, were demonstrating. You will find today that there are countries who are run in an equally oppressive way where there can be no discussion about anything, if the national leadership make a decision, no matter how wrong it is the people are obliged to carry it out without question.

Unfortunately some churches are run in that same sort of way. If you so much as privately question a decision made by the Pastor or leaders then at the next Sunday morning meeting it will be announced that those in the fellowship should have no contact with the person or persons who have questioned a leadership decision until they have apologised and agreed to fall in line with the leadership.

This is not the kind of freedom that Christ Jesus died for; it is the exact opposite of what He requires of His disciples. In true Christian churches if there are some who do not agree with a decision made by the leadership then the Pastor or Minister will let them have their say about whatever the disagreement is and agree that they are allowed to hold a different opinion from the leadership as in deed they may be right.

They should treat them with love and humility which is exactly the way that Jesus behaved to His disciples when their mother asked a rather cheeky question. The way to get the best out of anybody is to encourage them and point out the good points that those people have rather than to crush whatever gifting those people may have.

In Galations chapter 5 verse 1 we read: "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." Sadly because Christians have been so silent and so weak that today society is becoming more and more oppressive, which is very much the case in countries where freedom of speech is not permitted.

All most every month people in many western countries lose more and more freedom being taken away from them by governments who claim to be democratic. Because there are so few people who are prepared to stand up and make people aware of what is happening, even the western countries are becoming more and more oppressed without anyone strong enough or brave enough to stand up to them.

In many formerly known as "Christian" countries much legislation is being passed by their Parliaments that are contrary to Biblical standards, yet the true born-again Christians in those countries are so unwilling to stand up and be counted that the legislation gets through with very little opposition. This happens not just in western countries but also in many other countries of the Eastern world also.

There is such a spirit of fear in employment these days that the unions know that they have to be very careful or they might make things even worse, even though because of the economic situation in many western countries that some people are being told that they will have to work longer to get their pension and that they will have to take a pay cut if they want to keep their jobs.

Does this sort of thing seem familiar to you? It should do, it is almost a mirror image of what happened when Moses first went into Egypt to bring our the Hebrew slaves that would later become the people of God and eventually the nation of Israel. Exodus chapter 5 verses 1 to 9 inclusive tells how the Egyptian slave drivers drove the slaves even harder after Moses had tried to bring them out of oppression.

Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness. Pharaoh said, "Who is The LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go." Then they said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us.

Now let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to The LORD our God, or He may strike us with plagues or with the sword."But the king of Egypt said, "Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!" Then Pharaoh said, "Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working."

That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and overseers in charge of the people: "You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw but require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don't reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our God.' Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies."

This is a typical re-action from people who were using witchcraft on the Hebrew slaves, for the very nature of witchcraft is to dominate and control its victims so that their spirits are so broken they will not dare to rise up in complaint about how they are being treated. Today many people accept greater and greater oppression in the workplace and dare not raise up against it for fear of unemployment.

We see from the book of Exodus that witchcraft, in the form of domination was being practiced in the days of Moses. We see also that it was being practised by the people whom Daniel lived in Babylon with, where disobedient Israel was banished to for 70 years. It is interesting to note that the story of the golden statue being built in Daniel chapter 3 and the statue that the man of sin will build as recorded in Revelation chapter 13 bear a great deal of similarity.

First let us take a look at Daniel's account of the golden statue built by King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon, Daniel chapter 3 verses 1 to 7. "King Nebuchadnezzar had a gold statue made, ninety feet high and nine feet wide, and he had it set up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. Then the king gave orders for all his officials to come together—the princes, governors, lieutenant governors, commissioners, treasurers, judges, magistrates, and all the other officials of the provinces. They were to attend the dedication of the statue which King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

When all these officials gathered for the dedication and stood in front of the statue, a herald announced in a loud voice, people of all nations, races, and languages! You will hear the sound of the trumpets, followed by the playing of oboes, lyres, zithers, and harps; and then all the other instruments will join in. As soon as the music starts, you are to bow down and worship the gold statue that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.

Anyone who does not bow down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace. So, as soon as they heard the sound of the instruments, the people of all the nations, races, and languages bowed down and worshiped the gold statue which King Nebuchadnezzar had set up." Clearly this is the characteristic of witchcraft categorised as domination, which is the nature of witchcraft.

Now lets look at Revelation chapter 13 where is recorded another statue being built, the abomination of desolation as Jesus referred to it This time the building of the statue and its worship is intended to enslave the people in to having their finances and every one of their movements dominated by the one who forces people great and small to receive the mark of the beast before they can trade.

"He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name. This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is 666."

This time it is not the king of Babylon who is instigating it here the man of sin seeks to gain domination of the whole world through his evil cunning ways. Through this we see that witchcraft (domination) was used by the Egyptians, The Romans, the people of today (although at the moment to a lesser extent) and we can see that it will raise its ugly head once more, though this will be for the last time, the time when the evil behind it will be destroyed forever and remembered no more.

We see also that the reason witchcraft has survived and is being used in the world today is that in the main it is being used on the people of God from the book of Exodus in the days of Moses to the book of Revelation which is a record of what will certainly happen at the end of the age. The fact that we see witchcraft in all its forms more and more in our society today is because this is the end of the age.

How then does witchcraft manage domination? Fortunately we can see this from the early chapters of Genesis. Chapter 3 verse 3 seems to give us a good idea. This verse reads: Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

Please note: When the bible talks about "the serpent" it is a description of someone's character not a description of his physical appearance, otherwise it would talk about a serpent, but this quite clearly says "The serpent" a description commonly used in scripture for the devil. We can see that the way Eve was tempted was to doubt the word of God and its truth.

Even today this same deception is being used to gain mind control over countless people in a very subtle way. If the enemy can get us to doubt the word of God then we have no defence against him and we open up our minds to all kinds of demonic thoughts and spirits. We can see through later verses that God does exactly what He told Adam and Eve He would do if they disobeyed Him in this way.

From that moment the bodies and minds of Adam and Eve began to deteriorate, and although by the grace of God it took a long time eventually they experienced something that God never intended to be in His creation, and that is death. So we see that doubting the word of God opens us up to further deceit of the enemy and the experience of death.

Many people today (unfortunately many theologians) are casting doubt on such vital issues as the virgin birth, the death of Jesus on the cross and even expressing doubt about His divinity and resurrection from the dead. If we do not believe the truth about these issues as clearly stated in scripture then we believe in vain and Christ can do nothing for us since we are in effect making Him out to be a liar.

Verse 16 of Genesis chapter 3 is God's immediate punishment on Eve for her part in disbelieving and disobeying the word of God. "To the woman he said, "I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labour you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."

It is widely believed that the phrase "Your desire shall be for your husband" translated from the original Hebrew actually means "You will seek to dominate him and usurp his authority in the home.

There are many men as we have seen earlier who are so weak in their role as the man of the household that they allow the woman to dominate them. Quite literally, if somebody asks the man to go to a football match or suchlike they have to ask permission from their wives before they can agree to it, and if she says "no" then that is the end of the matter, no argument or discussion is permitted.

The way they get to this point is the same as what happens in many cases in the work environment, and the same trick that the Egyptians used on the Hebrew slaves before they were brought out of Egypt. That is simply to crush their spirits so that they will not dare to complain.

Looking around many countries of the world today we see things happening that are wicked and should never be allowed, but the people's spirits are so crushed they will not rise up against the oppression and repression they are suffering. This applies as much to western countries as it does to countries of the east.

Before we finish this series of studies on witchcraft, how it works and how it can be broken, we shall see the way the curses that witchcraft brings on people and land alike can be defeated without any danger to the population, even those who are taking part in the breaking of this evil.

In our next study we shall look at how witchcraft can gain a hold in a person's life, even though they may not be responsible for it coming in. We shall see that the true definition of witchcraft is much broader and witchcraft much more common than most people would dare to admit.

In our final study we shall look at the words of Jesus just before to His disciples before He ascended back into heaven. He gave His disciples (you and me) power over all the power of the enemy. In that study we will learn how to use correctly the power and authority that Jesus won for us through the cross and the reason we have not seen the victory earlier.

Go to Witchcraft study, Part 3