This week, let us do a firework analysis on witchcraft. Is witchcraft real? Should a Christian believe in the existence of witchcraft? Is it necessary to give it the importance we give it in this part of the world? What is it that make it so prevalent in our society? Why is it so much a stronghold that we could not bring it down? How do we become a witch or wizard? Are witches and wizard truly wicked and totally unrepentant? Can we support the Biblical basis of the existence of witchcraft or disregard the word of God?
Brethren, let us peep into the word of God and learn a thing or two about the existence of witchcraft. It is written in Deuteronomy 18:10: “There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you.”
The Almighty is here talking straight. This prologue shows clearly that from the beginning God has a visceral hatred for witches and wizards. God recognizes the evil of witchcraft and the irreversible damages it can do to a man’s destiny. Witches and wizards also use curses, divinations, enchantments and familiar spirit and death to torment their victims. In most cases, the helpless victims are placed under demonic control, domination and intimidation and as a result their victims become weary, discouraged, anxious, depressed and suicidal. Realising these catalogue of monstrously wicked deeds of witchcraft, God goes a notch further and demands death penalty for anybody caught practicing witchcraft.
Exodus 22: 18 expressly demands death penalty for practitioners of witchcraft. The scripture states: “You shall not permit a sorceress to live.” This hatred for witchcraft practitioners from the beginning of time has cascaded down to the present time, as we sometimes see in the kind of treatment we mete out to allege witches in our society. In Nigeria, for instance, if a person is exposed of being a witch, what follows is always instant mob justice that leads to public stoning and death. The treatment might be barbaric, but bear in mind also the evil and atrocities being committed in the dark by an average witch.
According to Nahum 3:1-3, witches are killers. They destroy families. They destroy nations. That scripture is loaded and it states that, “Woe to the bloody city! It is full of lies and robbery…. There is a multitude of slain. A great number of bodies. Countless corpses – they stumble over the corpses – because of the multitude of harlotries of the seductive harlot. The mistress of witchcrafts who sells nations through her harlotries and families through her witchcraft.”
Corruption and witchcraft are the twin evil killing Nigeria and holding it down. If witchcraft could be said to be one of the destroyers of nations, then I can safely say that Nigeria’s manifest destiny is being destroyed by the prevalent of witchcraft in our society. There are many occult societies in Nigeria. We have witchcraft in Nigerian churches. We have witchcraft in the corridor of power. We have them on our campuses. In our offices. On our streets. In our families. These dark forces hide and carry out their destiny damaging assignments through the cover of the night.
From human, they project into the body of cat, dog and birds to attack unsuspecting victims during the night season. They sow abominable tares of affliction, barrenness, confusion, demotion, backwardness, unfruitfulness, discouragement, demonic oppression, stagnation, repression, disfavour, shame, sickness, tragedy, poverty and untimely death. And because the spiritual realm is neutral, one could see his mum, dad, brother, sister, cousin, uncle and niece as a witch. Even many urban Christians harbour mortal fear of visiting their villages because of fear of village witches and wizards.
There are occasions where victims have accused their mum as the witch troubling and stalling their progress. There are some victims who do not speak to their mum anymore. There are husbands who have left their wives because of witchcraft. There are wives who have left their husbands because of witchcraft. The ultimate aim of witchcraft after destroying destiny is to kill the victims and satisfy strange coven target or requirement as the case may be. We may probably be forgiven to think that witchcraft is Old Testament stuff. No! In the Acts of Apostle 8: 9, the Bible records: “But there was a certain man called Simon, who previously practiced sorcery/witchcraft in the city and astonished the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great.”
Also, Apostle Paul in the Book of Galatians 5:20 mentioned witchcraft/sorcery as one of the works of the flesh. In ending, we read in Revelation 18:23: “The light of a lamp shall not shine in you anymore, and the voice of bridegroom and bride shall not be heard in you anymore. For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery/witchcraft all the nations were deceived.”
We have to remember as Christians that the very main reason our Lord manifested on earth, according to 1 John 3:8, was to destroy the works of the devil. A ministry like the Mountain of Fire and Miracle Ministries would have ceased to exist if there is no witchcraft. The core mandate of the church, under its able and cerebral General Overseer, Dr. D. K. Olukoya, is to help Christians overcome the damage of witchcraft through Do It Yourself deliverance method.
In spite of testimonies of thousands of delivered victims of witchcraft, we still have some people who believe that the existence of witchcraft is a figment of imagination and not real. People like that are not true Christians. If they are, that means they are in denial because the word of God has proven the existence of witchcraft. And if anybody disobeys the word of God, it means that such person is in rebellion with the word of God which is like the sins of witchcraft. According to 1 Samuel 15:23: “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.”
Once again, is witchcraft real or not? Over to your Bible and let it judge. Happy Sunday.
. Deacon Oladimeji writes from ridet@hothotmail.co.uk.