Rev Dr Edgar Mayer;
For more sermons and other writings
check the following homepage: www.livinggracetoowoomba.org
Is
Witchcraft
Some time ago I read the transcript of
an interview with a local witch who had become a Christian. She said that she
and others in witchcraft had been praying and fasting against certain Toowoomba
churches. Last year Pastor Herman Ruyters alerted us to the fact that they had
found evidence of recent pagan rituals on the building site of their church.
They dug up witchcraft artefacts which had curses on them against the
Christians of the Rangeville church. One pastor shared that he sat next to a
satanist in an airplane. He (the
satanist) was going to a witchcraft
convention and he was quite open about their declared goal to see the
Right. This is not
nice. Witchcraft is threatening us but
for us here today there is no reason
to act surprised because the Bible confirms that we are indeed on opposing
sides. Faith in Jesus Christ and witchcraft do not mix. God absolutely detests
and abhors anything that makes us tap into the powers of darkness.
I read from the Bible Deuteronomy 18:9-14:
Let
no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who
practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or
casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead.
Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord
The nations you will
dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for
you, the Lord has not permitted you to do so. Galatians 5:19-21:
idolatry, witchcraft,
and the like. I warn
you
that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 1
Corinthians 10:14-22:
flee from idolatry
the
sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to
be participants with demons
God cannot and does not tolerate any of
us to commune with demons or seek help
from demons. Our God reigns and commands
absolute allegiance and he has a right to do so. According to the Bible 1
Corinthians 6:19-20:
you are not your own; you
were bought at a price. Therefore honour God
God made a huge investment in us. He sent
his much loved Son Jesus Christ into this world as a man who then died as the
sacrifice for your sins to purchase for you freedom from the devil and all of
his demons. In case you do not know: Any unforgiven sin keeps you in bondage to
Satan [the penalty of sin is eternal death] but because Jesus poured out his blood on the cross your sin can and will be forgiven. This
morning if you turn away from your sin
and ask Jesus to forgive you, he will do so because he paid the highest price
for you. His holy blood was poured out for you on the cross.
Therefore with this background it is not surprising that God forbids us to have anything to do with Satan
and demons. Faith in Jesus Christ and witchcraft do not mix. This is not surprising but and this is surprising almost in every church there is witchcraft nevertheless. It is not the
kind of witchcraft which actively seeks out demons. This kind of witchcraft is
more unintentional and often remains unacknowledged (not even recognized) but it is operating and there are
Christians often mature Christians (in almost in every church) exercising witchcraft power.
I know that this is a radical statement
but the assessment is shared by others. For instance, Pastor David Wilkerson the author of the The Cross And The Switch Blade writes:
this message has to do with a
kind of witchcraft that is . even more dangerous
It
is brought into the church not by
witches but by multitudes of Christians
who dont know they are under the spell of witchcraft! The kind of witchcraft I
want to expose is present here
and in every church in
In the Bible at one time the
king of Gods people the leader with the Spirit of God on him descended into witchcraft in a manner which
is familiar to us all. We are not unlike him and this is what happened. Saul
was a shy young man but God picked him to be the king of his people 1
Samuel 10:9-13: As Saul turned
God changed Sauls heart
When they
arrived at Gibeah, a procession of prophets met him; the Spirit of God came
upon him in power, and he joined in their prophesying
So it became a saying
[among the people]: Is Saul also among the prophets? God was with Saul who later on
still rather shy was hiding among the
luggage when they wanted to crown him king (1 Samuel 10:22).
However, Saul soon grew in stature and
then it did not take long for him to make two fundamental mistakes which cost
him everything and made him descend into witchcraft. 1) He
disobeyed God in the face of a major conflict when he did not wait for the
prophet Samuel to offer sacrifices to God 1 Samuel 13:5-15: The
Philistines assembled [thousands of them]
and camped at Micmash
When the
men of Israel saw that their situation was critical and that their army was
hard pressed, they hid in caves and thickets, among the rocks, and in pits and
cisterns
Saul remained
and all the troops with him were quaking with fear.
He waited seven days, the time set by Samuel; but Samuel did not come to
Gilgal, and Sauls men began to scatter. So he said, Bring me the burnt
offering and the fellowship offerings. And Saul offered up the burnt offering.
Just as he finished making the offering, Samuel arrived, and Saul went out to
greet him. What have you done? asked Samuel
Samuel did not even have time for a
greeting but immediately confronted Saul with his disobedience: What have you done? From your perspective from my perspective how should Saul have answered the question? What had he done?
Samuel would be relentless in his
accusations but was there any reason to get so upset with Saul? No! He had waited
for seven days the time set by Samuel and only then on the seventh day looked for an alternative to Samuel making the sacrifices. He did okay
and missed Samuel only by minutes and was this not also Samuels fault because
he waited until the very end of the seventh day before he came.
Saul was under pressure. The enemy was
assembled and his own army was scattering in fear. He needed to do something
and rallying the troops around God was not such a bad idea. Its not as if he forgot
about God or toyed with other forms of worship. He sacrificed the animals like
Samuel would have done.
He pleaded with Samuel 1 Samuel 13:11-12: When I saw that the men were
scattering
I thought, Now the Philistines will come down against me
and I
have not sought the Lords favour. So I felt compelled to offer the burnt
offering.
Yet, the verdict and judgement on Saul were
harsh 1 Samuel 13:5-15:
You acted foolishly, Samuel said. You have not
kept the command the Lord your God gave you; if you had, he would have
established your kingdom over
[Saul was overwhelmed in a momentary
crisis situation but his behaviour on a certain day of pressure determined his
long-term calling and the future of his kingdom. He did not have this
perspective and who can blame him? Is this fair?]
2) The second mistake of Saul was that he again disobeyed God (this
time not before but after a major conflict) when he did not completely destroy all of the Amalekites and all of
their livestock. The Lord had told him 1 Samuel 15:3: Now go, attack
the Amalekites and totally destroy [them and] everything that belongs to them
However,
then the Bible records 1 Samuel 15:9: But Saul and the army spared
Agag [the king of the Amalekites] and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat
calves and lambs everything that was good. These they were unwilling to
destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally
destroyed.
What should we say about this second
failure of Saul? There was almost complete obedience. Every person but one was
killed. Saul was a good Christian. He did not seem to have a bad conscience,
greeting Samuel with enthusiasm 1
Samuel 15:13: When Samuel reached him, Saul said, The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lords instructions.
Yes the best of the livestock was
spared but this is how he argued 1 Samuel 15:20: But I did obey the
Lord, Saul said. I went on the mission the Lord assigned to me. I completely
destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. The soldiers took
sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in
order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal.
Today in our church and most other churches in the world we could live with this explanation. There
is something unpleasant about crossing every t and dotting every i in the quest for total obedience. We like
church a little more relaxed and looking at a person like Saul we would have to
say: He did a good job. He fought a good battle. Let him have one
prisoner and let him have some freedom in worship. Yes he should not have
used the livestock from the Amalekites for the sacrifices but a sheep is a
sheep and cow is a cow. God will be pleased.
Yet, the verdict and judgement on Saul were
once again harsh maybe almost
incomprehensible for us today 1 Samuel 15:22-23: But Samuel replied:
Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying
the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better
than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft [or a more
accurate translation from the Hebrew would be: For rebellion is witchcraft] and
arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the
Lord, he has rejected you as king.
How are you hearing this? This cannot be
right. How can Sauls behaviour be in the same league as witchcraft and in fact
operate in witchcraft? I dont know how Saul processed
the accusation but he did not query his involvement in witchcraft. Its almost
as if Samuels words did not register with him. He never seemed to grasp the
full extent of the charges against him.
When Samuel told him after his first
mistake that his kingdom would not endure, Saul kept going with his work as
king and after the campaign against the Amalekites before he even sacrificed the livestock which he had
spared he was busy building a monument
to himself (1 Samuel 15:12). He did
not seem to be worried about the previous rebuke and now after the second
mistake he only worried about the here
and now not Gods rejection of him as the king but his reputation before
his men on this day 1 Samuel 15:24-31: Then Saul said to Samuel, I have
sinned. I have violated the Lords command and your instructions. I was afraid
of the people and so I gave in to them. Now I beg you, forgive my sin and come
back with me, so that I may worship the Lord. But Samuel said to him, I will
not go back with you. You have rejected the word of God, and the Lord has
rejected you as king over
Rebellion is witchcraft and while it may
not begin with evident demonic power (Galatians
So far we may have harboured sympathies
for Saul because the verdict and judgement on him were so harsh. Samuel and God
seemed to be picky in their enforcement of rules. However, the ongoing story of
Saul demonstrates how the seed of witchcraft in his two mistakes of
disobedience his rebellion grows into an ever worsening condition of
slavery to witchcraft. A demon comes to reside in Saul. I read from the Bible
1 Samuel 16:14: Now the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and an
evil spirit [a demon]
tormented him. Under the influence of this demon Saul goes from bad to worse and at
the height of his madness butchers eighty-five priests appointed servants
of God and also kills all of their
families (1 Samuel 22). Finally
on the night before he would die within the last twenty-four hours of his
life Saul and the witchcraft in him
would be fully exposed. (The seed of witchcraft had ripened to this.) Under the cover of secrecy Saul the
anointed king of Gods people did go
and consult a witch 1 Samuel 28:8:
Consult a spirit for me, he
said, and bring up for me the one I name.
As soon as he rebelled against God,
witchcraft was in him maybe hidden
at first but then grew more and more
into open rebellion and open witchcraft. Rebellion our rebellion is the problem. It was so from the
beginning. Our first human ancestors Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden rebelled
against God by eating from the forbidden fruit. Are you rebellious against God?
Am I rebellious? As good church people we may not think so.
When Saul got first into trouble if someone
had suggested to him at that time, that he should go and consult a witch, he
would have shrunk back in horror. You cannot do this as a Christian. This is
obvious. However, the devil is a bit more cunning than confronting us directly
with disobedience. The devil took his time with Saul and step by step he
deceived him more enslaved him more until it became okay to make use of open witchcraft go to a witch
(and now all of us read about it in the Bible). What was he thinking? [He
consulted a witch to hear one more time from God through Samuel!] (On a
certain level) he had become
desensitized.
Likewise, in the garden
of Eden the devil did not say: God
said not to eat from this tree but I tell you: Ignore God and eat from it.
This would have been too blatant.
Instead, the devil was sly and deceiving: Did God really forbid you to
eat from this tree? Would God really punish you for eating a piece of fruit?
Why shouldnt it be okay? The devil
made Adam and Eve question Gods directions (lets debate this) and then the whole matter became fuzzy
around the edges and then disobedience
became more and more acceptable.
Saul went down the same track. Deception
took hold of him: Why would it be
so bad, if I offered the sacrifices instead of Samuel? Hes not here and we
need to worship now. If he had known about his delay, he would have recommended
the same thing. Why would it be so bad to leave just one survivor from the
campaign against the Amalekites? Let the king witness Gods justice and did God
really say that you cannot even leave the best animals for the sacrifices? He
must have forgotten that these sacrifices would honour him?
As good church people we may not think
that we are rebellious against God but are we deceived? Are you deceived about
your true spiritual condition? I am asking especially the mature Christians
among us because Saul was the king. The Spirit of God was on him and he was
more advanced than the others. Yet, he was the one practising witchcraft. He
was deceived? Are you? Am I? This is where it gets tricky because deceived
people are absolutely sure that they are doing the right thing. (Many a time) they
cannot be told that they are deceived. Saul said to Samuel: But I did
obey the Lord. I have carried out the Lords instructions. I went on the
mission the Lord assigned to me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and
brought back Agag their king. The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the
plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the
Lord your God at Gilgal. Wrong. God
had said: Destroy everything.
What are some of the tell-tale signs
that rebellion and witchcraft are beginning to have a foothold in your life?
Look at Saul. Its all there. The circumstances of his two mistakes reveal
everything. 1) He was a proud man. At first he was very
shy (hiding among the luggage when they wanted to make him king) but sometimes even shyness is a concealed
way of being proud. Its about you. Did I come across okay? What will people
think of me? When Sauls confidence grew, his proud nature became more obvious.
He built a monument to himself before he praised God for his latest victory and
he was proud enough to modify God and Samuels instructions. When he was
pressured into repentance, his repentance was not heartfelt did not go
deep. He only said sorry because he continued with his own proud agenda 1 Samuel 15:24-31: . Saul
said to Samuel,
I have sinned. But please honour
me before the elders of my people and before
2) He feared people and circumstances more than God. He had no true
revelation of God. First, his army was scared and scattering which made him so
worried about losing the battle against the Philistines that he disobeyed God
and offered the sacrifices himself in order to encourage his troops. Then, he
spared some of the livestock from the Amalekites, saying 1 Samuel
15:24-31:
I have violated the Lords command
and your instructions. I was afraid of the people and so I gave in to them
Finally, even his
repentance served to win favour with the people. He was still worried more
about what they were thinking about him than God: Now I beg you,
forgive my sin and come back with me
honour me before the elders of my people
and before
Rebellion and witchcraft began to have a
foothold in Sauls life because he was proud and feared people and
circumstances rather than God. Okay then: How proud are we? And how much do we
worry about what other people think of us? Do we need to look good in church among Gods people?
The result of Sauls pride and misplaced
fear was isolation. The prophet Samuel retreated from him and with him the Word
of God. Saul no longer heard from God and for a season he may have
welcomed that Samuel stopped bothering him with further instructions from God but
in the end witchcraft leads to
desperation and Saul consulted a witch for the very purpose of hearing again
from Samuel. The witch was to conjure up Samuel from the grave (he had died
in the meantime) that Samuel would speak
once more the Word of God to Saul.
Are you isolated? Are you isolated in
the church? It may not be that Samuel and the leadership have retreated from
you but maybe you have retreated from them. Saul was rebellious against God and
Samuel and sometimes when we are rebellious, we spit the dummy saying: I have had it with this church. They are
so wrong. I am hearing from God but they dont. The services are wrong. The
prayer meetings are wrong. The emphasis is wrong. From now on I just do my own
thing. Its between me and God now. I dont need anyone else. This kind of thinking is dangerous because
it is proud and leads into dangerous isolation and should make us wary of
witchcraft.
As the pastor of this church I am
accountable to every one here (all
are meant to listen to the preaching with discernment) and then the leadership of Living Grace. Further, I am accountable to
pastors and presidents in our denomination and other local pastors in the
Toowoomba Christian Leaders Network. If I ever spit the dummy and say: Living
Grace is my church [not Gods but my church] and I am going to break
away from all other Lutherans and all other local pastors because they are all
wrong. I am just tired of being held back all of the time. I am doing it my way
now. Catch me in this kind of
attitude this kind of rebellion and
you know that witchcraft is not far from me (crouching at the door) even
in my office as the pastor of this church.
Let me spell it out in a more concrete
form. Rebellion is witchcraft but in the church it does not always look like
rebellion. Saul remained the king of Gods people and for all intents and purposes he remained loyal to the worship of God but (truth is) in his
rebellion worship became a means to
manipulate and control people. He offered sacrifices that the soldiers would
not run away. He used the lifestock of the Amalekites to sacrifice to God so
that his people would not be upset. He repented and had Samuel with him at
worship so that he would be honoured by the people. Even when he consulted a
witch, he manipulated her by making a vow in the name of God 1 Samuel
28:10:
As surely as the Lord lives, you will
not be punished for this. Therefore,
when people in the church pray, preach or prophesy with the intention of
manipulating and controlling others, it is no longer about God but the
beginnings of witchcraft. We check ourselves.
[A few years ago a person from the Gold Coast told me about her prayer
group which was made up of a number of spirit-filled people from a number of
churches in the area. One church received a new pastor. At first everything was
okay but then this group resolved to pray against this pastor because they
wanted someone better or more suited to their agenda. This group was
unaccountable to any leadership and blatantly disobeyed Gods command to bless
leaders and not curse them (Romans
Take an even closer look at Saul. We
unpack this further. Before his rebellion at a time when he was not yet isolated he prophesied in the company of other prophets 1 Samuel 10:9-13:
When they arrived at Gibeah, a procession of prophets
met him; the Spirit of God came upon him in power, and he joined in their
prophesying
So it became a saying [among the people]: Is Saul also among the
prophets? [Against his own wishes Saul would have the same experience
later in life (1 Samuel
Yet later in the midst of
his rebellion and isolation Saul still
prophesied (it may have looked like the real thing) but it had become witchcraft 1 Samuel 18:8-12: Saul was very
angry; this refrain galled him. They have credited David with tens of
thousands, he thought, but me with only thousands. What more can he get but
the kingdom? And from that time on Saul kept a jealous eye on David. The next
day an evil spirit
came forcefully upon Saul. He was prophesying in his house,
while David was playing the harp, as he usually did. Saul had a spear in his
hand and he hurled it, saying to himself, Ill pin David to the wall. But
David eluded him twice. Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with him
but had left Saul.
His pride and his fear of people (what they would think of him) made Saul stumble again. He became jealous of David. He worried that
the nation would love David more than him. He was rebellious and isolated and
then as David was playing the harp
as David was (presumably) worshipping God which had previously banished
all demons from Saul (1 Samuel
We may not think that this could be
reality in churches but I think that Saul is not so different from us. Pride, jealousy, worries about our reputation,
manipulation, control, spitting the dummy, isolation rebellion is among us too. Therefore some of our prophetic words, some
of our prayers, some of our worship, some of our words in this building may
very well be witchcraft. There is a power behind the declarations which is not
of God.
In closing, what are we to do? Avoid the
mistakes of Saul. We are careful to obey all of Gods instructions and not be fuzzy around
the edges. We fear God and do not worry about our own reputation or how a
crisis situation may turn out. [If everyone runs away from the Philistines,
then this is Gods problem not ours.] We
trust God. We obey him.
Further, we keep a close watch on our
pride. We humble ourselves and submit to God. We listen to Samuel. We make
ourselves accountable to each other. Under no circumstances do we become
isolated from each other and the counsel of God in our midst. [Deception comes to the proud.]
Rebellion is witchcraft and may it just be the beginning of it but obedience operates in the power of God.
May it become pleasant in our church to cross every t and dot every i in our quest for total obedience to God. Amen.