I happen to like Derek Prince very much. I’ve learned a lot from listening to his godly teaching borne out of many years of loving and serving the LORD, and imparting this godly wisdom to the LORD’S people. However, when I looked at the title of this video I was rather taken aback and thought, “Oh no, is he going to be one of these that is teaching that witches have infiltrated the church houses.’ But as I began listening to what he was saying, I realized that I had jumped to a very wrong conclusion. That is not at all what Derek Prince was talking about, but rather witchcraft that orginates from within the illegitmate use of authority in the church, and I might add, not just through the leadership, but perhaps in many cases through the members of the church. Or, possibly, since we are supposed to be THE CHURCH/EKKLESIA, we may possilby be affected by illegitimate authority in our own personal lifes in our relationships, in the home, or families, and friends.
What is he talking about, this “illegitimate authority”? And how does he define it? It is any self-appointed artificial authority that doesn’t originate with God, but is working according through a person or institution, (even in church settings) that is not of God’s authority or divine will. To simplify, illegitimate authority is witchcraft. This is an eye opener when one thinks about it in terms of how this can possibly effect or has affected most of us at one time or another. When those of us who have been members of churches, we have encountered this illegitimate authority operating over us in the form of legalism seeking to control us through sets of rules established by a man made authority.
So, looking closer, and put more simply, witchcraft is defined this way;
Witchcraft :
the nature of witchcraft which is closer than you might think..basically it is an attempt by people to control you.
1 manipulate
2 intimidate
3 dominiate … the goal is the same… to control you.
God never seeks to manipulate, intimidate, or dominate you, so these things are not of God, but signposts and red flags that you are dealing with a spirit of witchcraft. We must learn to recognize this spirit and behavior and not allow this to have an effect upon us in our spiritual or personal lives.
If you doubt this can happen in church settings; that is to say in the organized church, you should look more deeply into the rebellion that exists, and was in fact established in the very origins of what we have come to know as the organized or institutional churches. These types of churches have their origins in what Jesus said he hated, “The doctrines and deeds of the Nicolaitans”. in Rev, Ch 2. Why does Jesus Christ hate this so vehemently? Because it is a controling, manipulating, form of witchcraft attemptiing to control and dominate the LORD’S Ekklesia, and His legitimate authority. It is a rogue illegitimate authority, not operating under God’s authority but setting up it’s own form, of rule, and in the process usurping God’s lawful purpose for His Body, which is liberty and freedom in the Holy Ghost, not the bondage and chains of Nicolaitism.
“Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” 2nd Cor 3:17
I personally have experienced this bondage back during the days when I was a dedicated churchaholic, and even then, it never did quite set right with me. I felt I was obligated to be there every time there was a “church service” or else I felt guilty. And then there were the members who if I missed a time, would invariably say, “We missed you at “church” last week”, and then expected a reply or reason to be given why you weren’t there. There was a war going on inside of me. Oh, such a heavy weight to be under. And so, even as a new Christian, the Precious Holy Spirit was trying to deal with me and show me there was liberty in the Spirit, not the bondage of the legalism, I was torn between the two and didn’t understand because the “institute” of the organized church is so ingrained in the mindset of the public they equate Christianity with a “church building” and this set of man made rules, that if anyone is a Christian, then he or she by neccessity, must then be connected to one of these gilded bird cages. It is such a lie! This is the essence of witchcraft, right in the church setting, looking for all it’s worth to be pure and holy…..but it’s not, because it is in rebellion to the will of God!
The LORD GOD hates rebellion, because it turns people away from Him and the Truth;
1 Samuel 15:23 (KJV) “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft…”
“For they had rebelled against the words of God, and spurned the counsel of the Most High.” Psalm 107:11
Deuteronomy 18:14 (NAS) “For those nations, which you will dispossess, listen to those who practice witchcraft and to diviners, but as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do so.”
Jeremiah 5:23-25King James Version (KJV)
23 But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone.
24 Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the Lord our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.
25 Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you.
So you see, many of us have been guilty of being ignorant of these truths, and then placing ourselves under the bondage of witchcraft, to our own hurt. This we have suffered out of ignorance, which is not God’s will, but we can also suffer, not from being in bondage by others but by our own wilful stubborn Frank Sinatra musical mindset of “I did it my way”. See the following article to explain more what the Nicolaitan Witchcraft doctrines and deeds consists of:
http://setfreefromtheic.wordpress.com/2010/04/20/the-doctrines-and-practices-of-the-nicolaitans/
Spiritual Abuse Sanctuary 