Most people think that witchcraft is done by witches who wear tall black pointy hats, with green tinted faces and a wart, who cackle when they laugh and boil things like bats and newts in black cauldrons and cast spells on people and astral project to listen in on people’s conversations.  Yes there are some witches who could fit that description but there are far more who are doing witchcraft every day who look normal and are in leadership of most churches around the world as well as have their own ministries.  And many of them are also men.

Truth be told – at the simplest level – witchcraft is when one person tries to make another person do what they want which goes against what God wants for them (sometimes in very subtle ways while others are more overt).  It is not loving or true freedom to try to make a person do what you want them to do when it ultimately hurts them.  Controlling other people to do what you want is done by both men and women and is witchcraft. Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Corinthians 3:17). The reason people control other people is because their souls (mind, will and emotions) were hurt when growing up and demons attached to their wounds and they hear voices from the enemy causing them to do bad things.  The spirit that causes people to do witchcraft and control other people is called Jezebel (1 and 2 Kings).

The spirit of Jezebel causes people to come into the church or ministries and try to position themselves into some type of leadership so they can start controlling others and shut down the Holy Spirit from flowing and cause all kinds of ungodly behavior and no righteousness or holiness. Jezebel causes people who are in ministry to lie about true godly people to hurt their good ministries and churches in order to shut them down. Many who do witchcraft will give people who have a godly or gentle spirit a tainted prophetic word or counsel to try and shift them out of doing what God wants them to do to doing minimal things for the Lord.   They often will say that they had a dream or vision about them and it actually comes against allowing them to flow in all their true giftings and callings.  Or they will say that they are more seasoned and godly and hear the Lord clearer to cause you to doubt what you actually heard from the Lord.  They often accuse you of the very same thing that they are operating in (saying you have pride or are operating in Jezebel when they are the ones who are). It can be very subtle or more overt.

Revelation 2:18-23 New King James Version (NKJV)

The Corrupt Church

¹⁸ “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write,

‘These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass: ¹⁹ “I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first. ²⁰ Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. ²¹ And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. ²² Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. ²³ I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.

Those who have not had their soul wounds healed yet will walk in the flesh and are going to have fruit of the flesh in their lives as they are listening more to demons in their minds and behaving accordingly instead of the Lord or Holy Spirit.  The demons will tell them to control godly people to make them do what they want and convince them that they are justified for doing so as they see godly people as the enemy and partner with ungodly people who are hearing demons.  When a person is not delivered from tormenting demons in their mind they never see the fruit of the Spirit in their lives no matter how much they attend church as they will simply be acting in front of the church and not actually be a godly person behind closed doors.

Galatians 5:16-26 New King James Version (NKJV)

Walking in the Spirit

¹⁶ I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

¹⁹ Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, ²¹ envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. ²⁴ And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵ If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. ²⁶ Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

So let’s list some things that people do which are witchcraft:

• Controlling another person to do what you want them to do which goes against what God wants them to do. This can be done directly through the person operating in witchcraft who tells other people that they really should do what they are recommending that they should do and if they don’t then bad things will happen or they are disobeying God.  They will often give them a prophetic word or say they had a dream to warn the person to do what they want in order to shut them down from their true direction from the Lord.  They will also manipulate scriptures as the demons in them know the scriptures and how to twist the real meaning. This is spiritual abuse.
• Manipulating another person’s freewill to choose what you want for them to do by making them feel guilty or condemned whether subtly or vociferously. “If you listen and follow what that person from X Ministry is doing then you are going to be hurt because they are not of God….blah blah blah” is what a person often says to their victims.  This causes their victims to think perhaps they should no longer follow the person or ministry that the controlling person suggested anymore when in reality that ministry person could have been a very godly person and the person who operated in Jezebel was simply jealous of them and trying to steer them off course.  Discernment is needed to know who is telling the truth and who is lying.
• Shutting down the true Holy Spirit from flowing in other people’s lives by continuing to tell them “no” to what the Holy Spirit is actually telling them to do or causing them to doubt that they hear from the Lord as clearly as they do. They actually want you to idolize them and give them your time and money and will often times put undue pressure on you to give more money to them or give them food and gifts.
• People who raise their voice or have a tone in order to control another gentler person who wants to do something for the Lord thus causing them to fear you more than they do God if you don’t do what they want. The victim will usually back off and pull back from moving forward with their calling in the Lord in order to keep the peace with the person operating in Jezebel.
• People will spread lies and rumors and gossip about good godly people in order to shut them down as no one will look at them the same way anymore. Then those with pure and godly hearts are not able to be as effective in ministry because many people believe the lies and will have nothing to do with them.  Jezebel is a master at lying.
• When you actually listen to someone’s gossip and lies who are targeting an individual to hurt them. One woman lied about a godly man’s ministry because she began talking to actual witches who got her mind twisted to believe their lies about the man – so she would tell lies to as many people who would listen which in the short-term caused several to believe she was telling the truth but a few months later the fruit in the man’s ministry became very evident and she had no fruit in her life as the Lord began to expose the truth of her evil to others.
• People who are jealous and bitter will often operate in the spirit of Jezebel and will target their victims who are loving and kind as the demons in them tell them to torment godly victims so they will never be happy and enjoy their lives. They have an anger and hatred for others and want to take vengeance upon them so they will not have any peace.
• People who operate in witchcraft always have impure sexual thoughts and behaviors (often they are extremely sexually perverse or they will use their sexuality to try to control their victims).  People who are married to them will often times have to do everything they demand or they will not give them sex and it is never true intimacy or pure.  When you use your sexuality to persuade someone to do what you want then that is witchcraft.  Often times you will see women wear revealing clothing or touch men in a way by brushing their hands on the man’s shoulders or arms (men can also touch women to try to seduce them to do what they want).
• People who operate in witchcraft will overtalk their victims so that they can control their false narrative and the truth will not be revealed about them. This way they will usually “win” most arguments and continue to be able to control their victims.
• People who operate in witchcraft are professional grade actors and actresses who will act like they are godly and pure and that they are the victims when in reality they are very dark, evil and impure with evil intentions of the heart. They know if they can get you to feel sympathy for them then they can get you to do what they want. They will often have a fake sweetness and voice playing the victim card to play on your heart strings. God knows the truth about them though.
• They will often try to manipulate you into giving them money and gifts. Sometimes they will give you gifts to make you feel like you owe them back and will give them what they want in the future.  They can also curse the items that they give you so they can continue to cast spells and control over you.
• Practicing new age, occult, yoga, Freemasons, Scottish Rite, Shriners, Eastern Star are all open doors to allowing ourselves to be taken over by demonic spirits and need to be repented for.

To be freed from operating in witchcraft a person needs to get their past soul wounds healed by Jesus and truly forgive all who have hurt them.  They can then command the demons who attached to them to go from those wounds.  They also need to repent for their own pride (spirit of Leviathan – Job 41) and the sins they have committed against people and God.  True freedom is worth fighting for so that we can walk in the fruit of the spirit and not the fruit of the flesh.  We want to hear “well done my good and faithful servant” and not Matthew 7:21-23:

Matthew 7:21-23 New King James Version (NKJV)

I Never Knew You

²¹ “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. ²² Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ ²³ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’