I want you to open your Bible with me in Acts, Chapter 13. I want to just speak on Witchcraft in Relationships, the operation of witchcraft in relationships, and there's so much could be shared it's impossible to cover it in just one service, but I'm going to bring this out in a way that will help you recognise witchcraft operating in relationships. We'll help you understand what is behind it, and also help you understand how to deal with it. Unfortunately I can't just give you a method. I'll give you some keys, but sensitivity to the Holy Spirit is crucial. I think you'll enjoy this, so let's just open it up, and we'll have a read in Acts Chapter 13.
Paul is on a journey - Verses 6 to 8; Now when they've gone through the island of Paphos they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus, which means son of Jesus. Hold that - notice he's a sorcerer, a prophet and he comes under the name the 'son of Jesus' or as though he's a descendant or something from Jesus. Then what happened was, he was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. This man called for Barnabas and Saul, and sought to hear the word of God; but Elymas the sorcerer withstood them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, fixed his eyes intently on him and said: "you full of deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord? Now the hand of the Lord shall be upon you, shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time." Immediately a dark mist fell on him, and he went around looking for someone to lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul believed.
There are so many insights into this scripture, but I want to look just at two realms of witchcraft offering. I want to focus on the second one. In this particular situation we have a man, a proconsul, who's a major political leader of a region. Wherever you have political leaders, wherever you have leadership who has authority, you will always find the operations of witchcraft coming around them, to try and sabotage them away from God's way of doing things.
Those who carry authority, responsibility, are like a magnet for this kind of thing to come around. The reason is, if a person has a major influence, carries great authority, and their decisions have a great effect; then occultic powers seek to come around, get influence on the person's life, control the way they think, and then work and influence through them, all that is under them. Putting it simply, if you can get a hold of the one in charge, you can influence everything that's underneath them. Now that applies in every arena of life. If a demonic power can come and access, and manipulate, and control a person's life, everything under them lacks the life, vitality, flow, freedom and fruitfulness of the Holy Spirit. It all begins to shut down, in spite of how hard they work, because a spiritual influence is at work.
So I have been around in different places, and seen how frequently that people who practice the occult get in near someone who is operating in a leadership function, in any kind of level of the community. If you operate in business, you'll find people who have the occult will seek to get in near you; they'll seek to influence you; they'll seek to come around you. Notice the occult realm operates through people. It was a connection with the sorcerer Elemis, who means literally the sorcerer. He presented himself as the son of Jesus. He presented himself as having some kind of wisdom and whatever, but behind him there was a demonic spirit, which influenced the proconsul away from God.
One of the things you'll find about witchcraft, it will always move you away from God. It will seek to bring you under the power of, and influence of, and authority of, an evil spirit; then subsequently shut down everything under you, and cause all kinds of problems in it. So we see in a number of places in the Bible, whenever the gospel went out, apostles ended up confronting sorcerers; operators in witchcraft who were attached to leading political figures. Even in the Old Testament, it was the same. If you look back in the days of Moses, when Moses was delivering Israel, and Moses confronted Egypt, his confrontation was with the demonic powers that govern the nation, and specifically through the sorcerers who were gathered around the Pharaoh. So there's many, many things in the Bible on that, but let us just realise that that spiritual power or influences work through people - for good or for bad.
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