Ephesians 6:12..we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood but against evil rulers and principalities in this world. We have to take a moment to talk about demons and the spirit realm only because they are real and you need to be aware of Satan’s tactics. This is to give you an insight and open your eyes to the real fight at hand and battle going on in the spirit realm so you can better fight against them. First let me start by saying there are 2 kingdoms; God’s Kingdom and Satan’s kingdom. Let me give you a background on what I mean, Satan aka Lucifer, was God’s right-hand man so to speak. He was the only one of the angels that could be in God’s presence (can you imagine this?! Wow right?!). Lucifer was beautiful, I know surprising since man makes him out to be an ugly horned man with a pitchfork, but he became very prideful and thought he could be God and be better than Him. When Satan rebelled against God, God cast him and the third of the angels to earth, therefore earth became Satan’s kingdom and the third of the angels are now Satan’s demons. Satan’s name means the resister, his purpose is to resist the very nature of God, he is the complete opposite of God. Jesus’ work on the cross was absolute perfection and is the total, eternal, and irrevocable defeat of Satan and his kingdom. Jesus death on the cross has completed and met every need in our lives. Satan tries to obscure the work on the Cross and if he does this, he can insert his control over humanity.
We have to understand Satan’s counterattack manifestation which is witchcraft. The witchcraft manifestation is legalism, carnality, self desires and a curse which is the result of legalism. Legalism is the work of witchcraft and Paul’s view in Roman’s 4:22-25 tells us that legalism is a greater threat than immorality. It’s trying to either attempt righteousness with God through a set of rules or adding extra requirements. I live in the United States, the land of the free but as I get older I’m seeing more and more rules and laws that are causing more harm than good. Laws that are covering up sinful nature making it appear “ok”.
Carnality means living life consumed by fleshly desires, feeding selfishness while serving the body and starving the soul. Carnality is the opposite of righteousness which is getting lost in society. Billy Graham said it best when he said “Those who desire to live effective Christian lives must not long to live in such a state of carnality. Belonging to Jesus Christ will cost you your sinful pleasures. You cannot invite Holy God into your life and continue in sin.” Its our human nature to desire and want som ething cheap and easy. We can’t do anything to earn salvation, such things are dead works and we must repent from these dead works and place our faith in God (Hebrews 6:1). When a person accepts Jesus as their Lord and Savior and allows Holy Spirit to work within them changing them into who God says they are we now want to see change and transformation in our lives. He will stir up your love and desire for the things of God producing good fruit. Carnality on the other hand cannot produce good fruit. There are more negative rules just feeding the very things we are trying to prevent. This all results in a curse (Jeremiah 17:5), Paul explains this also in Galatians 3:10. The Galatian Church had known the supernatural grace of God but turned to legalism and fell under a curse. It’s important to have rules and laws however when we come out from underneath God’s promises we subject ourselves to cursing. The Bible is God’s rule and law book full of His promises when we follow them. If we loose sight of the cross and the blood shed by Jesus and Him taking upon the curses of the world, then we don’t have faith to receive the blessings God promises us. Since we are all born prisoners to sin, we have to believe in Jesus Jesus Christ to receive God’s promise of freedom.
Now it’s important to understand the witchcraft realm, there are three aspects to this realm. There is witchcraft which is the power arm and operates through spells and curses, the Jezabel spirit. Next is Divination the predictive arm such as fortune tellers, horoscope reading etc. They pronounce Satan’s destiny on you, DO NOT GIVE INTO SATAN’S DESTINY FOR YOU! It’s real power do not partner with it. God does tell us to test the spirits to know if it’s from Him or Satan (1 John 4:1-3) since many false prophets are in the world (meaning anyone who speaks forth not just a person claiming to be a prophet), so this is important when receiving a word from someone. It can look like prophecy and word of knowledge which are gifts from God however like we know, Satan will use anything and anyone. Finally there is sorcery, which uses things to gain control over people. Such things are potions, charms, talismans, drugs, music, things we watch… I think the list can keep going as we age because Satan will continue looking for ways to use and manipulate what was once thought of as fine or innocent.
Let’s make sure we understand the nature of witchcraft, which are works of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21) and an evil spiritual power (Galatians 3:1). 1 Samuel 15:23 says “Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols.” A stubborn person makes idols out of their own opinions. Rebellion and witchcraft are related, think of them like twins and where one exists you can most likely find the other. Rebellion is the rejection of the righteous government of God in your life. There has to be an authority in your life and when you throw off Gods authority you subject yourself to the authority of witchcraft. Its counterfeit and a substitute for Satan to gain illegitimate authority. Where can we find this substitute for legitimate power to maintain illegitimate authority? This power operates in our family relationships, invades the church; pastor v members, prophetesses and super spiritual people.
What are the characteristics of witchcraft? First there is manipulation, this is the weaker spirit, the Delilah spirit (Samson’s wife). Next is intimidation and it’s the stronger spirit, Jezebel spirit (King Ahab’s wife). Lastly is dominant and this one has one goal, to dominate. Guilt is a main tool for Satan, I’m sure we can think of times we were guilted into something or perhaps did the guilting. I can think of plenty of times I’ve let my children guilt me into getting them something.
Now let’s talk about the evil spiritual power we read about in Galatians 3:1. Satan is the original rebel the “bad child” and him and his demon angel’s seek illegitimate dominion and has set up a kingdom with illegitimate authority. Witchcraft is the original religion of unredeemed humanity. It’s a counterfeit and spiritual force that relates to the illegitimate kingdom the natural religion of the fall of man. All forms of occult are apart on this. A good rule of thumb is that if it isn’t from God, it’s from the illegitimate kingdom of Satan. This legalistic witchcraft makes it appear as if it’s ok to have flesh over spirit or be slaves instead of sons. Galatians 4:1-7 explains how we inherit Gods kingdom when we accept Jesus, we become right standing with Him once again. Romans 8:14-17 tells us that we did not receive a fearful slave spirit but instead we receive God’s Spirit and He adopts us as His own. And that we are no longer a slave to the old law or captive by its spirit but now we can serve God by living in His Spirit (Romans 7:5-6). Where do we see the aspects of illegitimate dominion? We see it promoting the carnal law and suppressing the spiritual. Prefers Ishmael over Issac. Choosing human theology over devine revelation. Prefers personal training and education over personal discipling or serving (Roman’s 8:5-9). Exalts psychology over spiritual discernment (word of knowledge). Prefers programs above spiritual directions. Exalts eloquent speech over supernatural power (1 Cor 2:4-5). Focusing on reasoning over a walk of faith (2 Cor 10:4-5). Exalts legalism over love (Gal 5:6-14 and 1 Tim 1:5-6).
If you are in the kingdom of God then you are at war with the kingdom of Satan. How do we fight against this spiritual warfare? God instructs us to put on our full armor of God every day (Ephesians 6:10-18)! We need this proper equipment of armor from God to properly fight against the enemy. Now I’m not saying we won’t have a day where our kids are fighting and we want to scream at everyone and run away for the rest of the day. However if we run, we are giving Satan a foothold, this foothold opens the door to many more evil things to happen. So its important to stand and pray, loving everyone! Prayer is our ultimate weapon! God’s Angel’s come of fight for us, this doesn’t mean we check out, not parent or live life, it means we realize that it is NOT flesh and blood but evil rulers and principalities that are in this world we are fighting against and know how to fight. PARENTS SHOULD BE THE SPIRITUAL UMBRELLA PROTECTING THE FAMILY, BUT IF THERE ARE HOLES IT LETS SATANIC THINGS IN. When you ask God to show you the things that need broken off you and then your family, self righteousness is a big one, self righteousness is basically being full of yourself and God calls us to not be prideful (remember Satan) and boast in nothing but God.
The United Sates was conceived in rebellion, this is the stronghold over the nation. Rebellion is witchcraft and very strong over the United States. Rebellion creeps into our families. We have the power to bind on earth what is bound in heaven and what we loose in heaven we loose on earth. God is waiting on us to act! When two or more are gathered together in God’s name through the power of Holy Spirit miracles take place. This is why it’s so important for husband’s and wives to join together and pray asking God for anything and they will get it. We have to join together with Holy Spirit and harmonize together, the devil will try everything he can to diminish your harmony because he is afraid, he is afraid of the anointing God has placed on your life. Giving thanks is another powerful weapon and vital part of miracles (John 6:23 lord giving thanks). Praise is another weapon (Psalm 8:2), Paul and Silas praise God in the prison and the earth shook and the chains broke! When we have unruly children and they are rebellious remember the one whom you are fighting (satan), he wants to cause division but remember, what God has joined together let no man separate. We have to understand the authority in which God has placed….the order is as follows, God, Christ, Husband, wife, children. The husband is called to love his wife and be the head that is lead by Jesus and God our Father, the wife is to respect her husband and children to obey their parents. Seems so simple right?! Well, Satan tries to get his claws into our families to rip it apart. Wives start to believe that they are in control and the head instead of their husbands and rebel against their rightful places. Husband’s don’t take the lead as head of house to let God render his moves and decisions and then the children rebel and disobey their parents. Everything starts to spin out of control when it is not in the devine alignment with God. But we have the power and right to change that. We can choose to step into the devine alignment of Gods authority. Or choose to let the enemy invade. We must as Christians seal up any and all gaps, cracks and holes we may have in us first. It’s time to stand up and fight against the Jezebel and Delilah spirits.
