New Testament – Witchcraft
· Today. I am going to the New Testament about people who were involved in witchcraft before they were born-again and what they did after they learned the truth.
New believers: Many of those also who used occult arts brought their books together and burned them before all men; and they counted up the price of them and found it to be fifty thousand pieces of silver (Acts 19:19). Why would they burn all the occult things? Would you give someone something you didn’t want to be part your own life.
Girl with the spirit of divination: Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation. And this she did for many days.
· But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out that very hour. But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities.
· And they brought them to the magistrates, and said, these men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city; and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe. Then the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods.
· And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them secure. Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks (Acts 16:16-24).
My experience: I had lunch with some ladies 1993, and while we were eating, one of them began to prophesy, and I knew she was not operating in the true gift. The Spirit had me to speak to her about it. The lady said she, her mother and her grandmother had the gift and she had been using it for years. As I began to dig deeper about her history, it was revealed that they go to events for witches in Salem, Massachusetts every year.
Excerpt from the internet: Today there are between 800 and 1600 witches in Salem. A number of the downtown shops are operated by Wiccans and sell herbs, charms, talismans, and other magical equipment. If you want to have your palm read or a spell cast to find a new love, there are plenty of people in Salem who can help you out. Not surprisingly, the month of October is Salem’s busiest time of year, with a full slate of Haunted Happenings.
· Divination is the practice of consulting beings (divine, human, or departed) or things (by observing objects or actions) in the attempt to gain information about the future and such other matters as are removed from normal knowledge. Any child of God who seek after information from sources of those who are unsaved and practice these evils is treading on dangerous grounds.
· Isn’t the Word of God free? It baffles me when I hear about people seeking to get something that the devil used somebody to put on them from these ungodly people.
· If you don’t believe witchcraft is real, you don’t believe the devil is real. He tries to imitate God in every way. The coming of the lawless one [Satan] is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, (2 Thessalonians 2:9). In fact, he is going to possess a man during the tribulation, sit on the throne in Jerusalem that belongs to Christ.
· That is not all! He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God (2 Thessalonians 2:4). Thanks be to God; we will be in heaven with The Christ while all hell is breaking loose on earth. Nothing like this has ever occurred in story.
Next week – Voodoo in New Orleans and Harry Potter
~ Betty A. Burnett ~
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