Opposition Of Witchcraft

Thank you again for your welcome to Ruth and me. We are really happy to be here with you. We trust that those of you who are expecting to hear and receive from the Lord will not be disappointed.

Last night I stated that the overall theme for these four meetings would be ‘Make Your Calling Sure.’ I gave an introductory talk last night on being called of God. I explained that God’s purpose in our lives starts in eternity. There are things that God did in eternity before anything ever happened in time—God foreknew us, He chose us, He predestined us. But then God’s purpose impacts our lives when God calls us. And God calls us to salvation through the proclamation of the gospel, but then after we are saved He has a calling for the rest of our life, and that calling is not according to our works but according to His purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before time began.

And then I tried to give you some principles for making your calling sure, and I suggested to you that the one word which sums up what is most important is the word single-mindedness. A person who’s going to make his calling sure has to be a single-minded person with that one option continually before His eyes. The Bible says elsewhere,

“A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Let not that man think he will receive anything from the Lord.”

So the basic requirement is to be single-minded. And then I spoke about certain things—sins and weights—which could hold us back from running our race. And I notice that both last night and again here this evening, that emphasis was taken up, I think, by the Holy Spirit on the importance of eliminating the weights in our lives that would hold us back—weights that are not necessarily sins, but they hinder us from fulfilling our calling.

Tonight I want to speak about what I consider to be at the present time in the church, the greatest single hindrance to men fulfilling their calling. It’s a hindrance to women as well, but I think that the particular force that I’m speaking about tonight particularly seeks to hinder men of God from fulfilling their calling. It is something that is directed particularly against men, and particularly against men who should be leaders in the church. Now if I were to give you a hundred guesses as to what I have in mind, unless you are familiar with my recent teaching, not one of you would guess right. So I’m not going to waste time by giving you the hundred guesses. I’m going to tell you the particular force that I’m going to speak about tonight which hinders men, and also women, from coming into their calling, and many of you will be astonished when I give you the word—it is witchcraft. Many of you couldn’t conceive but that would be something that would hinder Christian men and women from achieving their destiny in God.

Before I turn to the Word of God and speak from that, I want to read to you a prophecy which was given in a meeting where I was present but not actually ministering at the time, in the state of Missouri in the United States in a family conference on the date of the 15th of April 1979—so that is more than six years ago. It was a prophecy that was not exactly in the context of anything that was being taught in that particular conference, but it was something that impacted Ruth and me. It was given by a young man whom I didn’t know and whom I have never consciously met every since. I didn’t write the prophecy down, but it was recorded on tape and a young man, a friend of mine, got a copy of the prophecy, and many years later because of something I was saying, he passed it on to me. And I’d have to say that in the subsequent six years since this prophecy was given, it has been altogether remarkable how it has been worked out in my experience and in my ministry. It’s God who’s speaking in the prophecy and He says this:

“I would tell you truly now that I have chosen to raise up an army, and I’ve instructed you in the last day or two in some powers that you will need as My new army. In the past I have only been harassing the enemy, and I am preparing now to unleash a frontal assault, saith the Lord God. I have in the past only been skirmishing with the enemy, but now I tell you that I am ready to unleash an attack at the very heart of the kingdom that has stood against Me.
Now I give you one specific instruction today. One enemy I point to you and charge you to attack and never fall back. This enemy is the spirit of witchcraft which dominates so many millions in this country. [This country was, of course, the United States.] I tell you that my enemy has captured thousands and millions and bound them with witchcraft. But I tell you to fear not witchcraft, for I have decided that it is time to loose those millions for they are needed in My army that is to be raised up to attack Satan and his forces. I would point a finger at witchcraft and I would tell you that it is now time to stop shrinking back. It is the time to attack witchcraft in this country for this is not a feint. This is the first step in a final assault which will cripple Satan, which will cast down the gates of hell for they will not stand against this assault, saith the Lord God.
I would tell you one other thing, as you would attack witchcraft, you will encounter curses that have been passed down through families, but I have told you and taught you in the past months that you do not need to fear a curse. My Son was made a curse that you might receive the blessing. So as you encounter witchcraft and curses, I tell you not shrink back but to stand fast to attack and to bind and rebuke this spirit to loose the millions that I need in My army that I’m raising up, saith the Lord God.”

Now the latter part of that prophecy concerns curses over families which run from generation to generation. When that prophecy was given more than six years ago I had never consciously dealt with that issue. But in the last six years I have been forced by the leading of the Holy Spirit and the situations that I’ve encountered to come to grips with this reality of curses. Since I have been teaching on it and how curses operate in people’s lives and families and communities, in nations, and how, through the substitutionary death of Jesus on the cross, we can be released from those curses. I have seen more dramatic results than through any other theme that I have taught in my ministry. I have seen whole communities transformed overnight when this factor of a curse has been dealt with. I have a series of three teaching messages which are available here called ‘Curses: Cause and Cure.’ And if you’re further interested in this subject you can obtain those tapes.

However tonight I don’t want to focus on the issue of curses, I want to deal with that major enemy of God that according to that prophecy binds millions of men who are needed in God’s army. Now that statement was made about the United States, but I believe it is equally true in Britain, in Ireland and in many, many other nations. Although the way witchcraft operates is usually adapted to the particular cultural context in which it is operating.

So now I want to give some teaching about witchcraft. If you want the text to begin with so that you can see this as relevant, I’ll just give you Galatians 3 verse 1:

“O foolish Galatians! Who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently portrayed crucified among you.”

I remember taking over the pastorate in a church in a city in the west coast of the United States in 1963. I was told that the board of the church had unanimously invited me. Being unwary in those days and not familiar with American church life, I stepped into the devil’s trap. There were twelve members on the board and when I arrived I discovered they were the only twelve people in the church. Within a month all the members of the board had resigned. I found myself in a difficult and precarious situation. What really baffled me was the congregation that assembled, because they were like people who were beaten down, and incapable of really being happy or free, yet they were ‘Pentecostal.’ I’d never dealt with a situation like that in my life and I turned to God in desperation. I said, ‘God, show me,’ and He gave me Galatians 3:1. He said,

‘They are bewitched,’ and I had to believe it. There was no other adequate explanation for the condition of those people.

Furthermore I discovered very quickly how they had been bewitched. They had been bewitched by the wife of the previous pastor who was a very dominating but very gifted woman. And in the course of the previous two or three years she had divorced her husband, the pastor, the leading board member had divorced his wife, and the pastor’s wife and the board member had then married. Now if you can get away with that in a Pentecostal church there has to be some unusual explanation. But she had so subdued those people that they wouldn’t dare to resist anything she said or did. It was a most amazing situation.

Well, when I realized I was dealing with witchcraft, I began to seek God for the scriptural answers and for the scriptural weapons, and ultimately my first wife and I prevailed in that situation. We defeated witchcraft in the church and we saw God’s blessing return. But, that was such a vivid personal lesson. I had never before that conceived that Christians could be bewitched. And yet there it was right in Galatians chapter 3 verse 1—Who has bewitched you…?

If you read the following verses you’ll find those people were saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit and had witnessed God’s miracles, and yet they had become bewitched. If it could happen to the Galatians, friends, why should we assume that there’s any Christian congregation to which it could not happen?

Now I want to tell you a little bit about the nature of witchcraft, first of all in general and then in the church. There are three related words in English—witchcraft, divination and sorcery. One translation will use witchcraft, another may use divination or sorcery. But essentially they are just three layers of one and the same cake. There’s a certain difference. Witchcraft is the dominating force. It operates outside the church in the natural by curses and spells. And let me tell you, curses and spells are very real.

Divination is essentially the fortunetelling aspect. It seeks to disclose the future. If you go and have your palm read, if you go to a fortuneteller, you are going to a diviner, to somebody who practices divination. And let me just remind you that had you lived in Israel under the law of Moses, the penalty for that was death!

Sorcery operates through objects such as charms or talismans or drugs. The whole drug culture is an aspect of sorcery. Sorcery also operates through music and much rock and roll music today is simply an operation of sorcery—it bewitches people. You watch the eyes of young people after they’ve been listening to that kind of music—they’re glazed, they’re out of touch with reality, there’s a satanic power behind that music which captivates them.

All this is not new in the world. In fact, you’ve only got to go to Africa, get in touch with a witchdoctor there, you’ll find all those aspects—the curses, the spells, the fortunetelling, and the use of music to captivate people. And much of the drum music that we have today amongst our young people comes from Africa. It went by one roundabout route I understand by way of South America to North America and from North America it’s basically spread around the world.

Now witchcraft—I’m going to use the word witchcraft mainly (you understand it covers the whole cake)—witchcraft is closely connected with rebellion. 1 Samuel 15:23 he says:

“Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft…”

Wherever you find rebellion you’ll end up with witchcraft. Those words were spoken by the prophet Samuel to King Saul because he had deliberated disobeyed God’s word to him, and Samuel rebuked him and said, ‘Your rebellion against the word of God is just the same as witchcraft.’ And it’s no accident that before King Saul died he was consulting a witch. That’s cause and effect.

And you’ll find, for instance, the generation of the young people in the 1960s that really went into drugs and all that—basically they were all rebels: rebels against parents, rebels against the government, rebels against the institution, against the church and so on. And almost without exception they ended in the occult.

Now the relationship between rebellion and witchcraft is important to understand. Rebellion sets up illegitimate rulership; that is, rulership that is not of God. Witchcraft is the power that supports the illegitimate rulership. So wherever there is illegitimate rulership you’ll find that it will normally operate through witchcraft. The key words when you think of witchcraft in English would be control, dominate, manipulate and intimidate. And wherever you run into those operations, people who control others, who dominate others, who manipulate others, who intimidate, you’ve run into Satan. God doesn’t do those things. God allows liberty to human individualism. Witchcraft suppresses it. Witchcraft prefers to dominate, but it if can’t dominate, it will manipulate. It occurs in all sorts of settings. I’ll give you a few simple examples from ordinary life.

God has ordained that a wife should be under the authority of her husband. Of course, this can be sadly abused by the husband I fully recognize that. But where a wife takes the leadership role in a family you’ll find witchcraft, because she will usually do it by manipulation. And there are countless ways to manipulate. Every time her husband says or does something she doesn’t like, she throws an emotional fit. That wears her husband’s nerves down, so to avoid the emotional fit, he bypasses the issue and his wife gets her way.

There’s another situation that I encountered years ago of a dear Christian woman who was married to a minister, had a family of five children, and they really were committed Christians.

But she had been in the occult in the background of her life before she became a Christian and she wasn’t altogether free from that occult influence. And without herself in any way realizing it she dominated her family. And one of the ways that it came about is if anything happened in the family that she didn’t like, she got migraine—I mean most intense migraine. And the whole family had to tiptoe around because mother’s got migraine. And so to avoid the agonies of mother’s migraine everybody gave way to her. You see? That’s manipulation. Most manipulation is not conscious. It’s done because there’s something in the person that causes them to do it.

Then again God has given parents authority over their children, but many times it’s the children that run the parents, and they do it by manipulation. All right, little Johnny doesn’t get his way, so he throws a temper tantrum especially in front of the guests. And mother and father are so embarrassed that they hush it up and give Johnny what he wants. What is that? It’s manipulation. Let me tell you, parents, if your children throw temper tantrums more than two or three times, you can be sure that a demon spirit will enter into them in those tantrums. And after that you’ll not be manipulated by your child, you’ll be manipulated by the spirit in your child, and a very small child may have a very strong spirit. Don’t judge the force of the opposition by the size or the age of your child. It’s not the child—it’s the spirit in the child.

I tremble when I see parents allowing their children to display their temper fits. It’s very common—our brother here from India would acknowledge—among Orientals. And most of those children have demons in them. They enter when the child is not restrained. Understand? Discipline of parents is designed to protect children from spiritual forces that are too strong for them to hold out against themselves. But if the parents don’t exercise discipline, the children are exposed to the spiritual forces.

Then another very common thing—and my background for years has been in the Pentecostal movement—is the lady ‘prophetess’ who runs the church by her prophecies. In small Pentecostal churches you’d be surprised how many pastors are dominated by one or two ladies, and they’re the only ones that ever get interpretation of tongues and basically their interpretations tell the pastor what to do. And woe to that unhappy young man if her ever parts company with his prophetesses. There’s many, many other examples, but I think I’m showing you that always there’s illegitimate rule supported by illegitimate spiritual power which is witchcraft.

Now witchcraft is a work of the flesh. In Galatians 5:20 Paul lists it as one of the works of the flesh, so it’s an aspect of the nature of fallen man. The reason is that man was created by God to rule, but he was created to rule under God’s authority. When he rebelled against God’s authority he lost the right to rule, but he didn’t lose the desire to rule. But once he’s fallen, he’s very prone to use illegitimate power to rule. So what is initially simply an aspect of the fallen nature, the desire to manipulate people, to get them to do what you want, exposes such people to the spiritual force of witchcraft, and then they are no longer free agents. They are no longer just doing it because it’s their character to do it; they’re doing it because they’re controlled by a spirit that makes them do it.

And so we get the situation spoken about in Galatians 3:1, where a force was at work in the church in Galatia, which was just not fallen human nature although the door by which it entered it was fallen human nature. But it was a dark, evil, satanic power that was frustrating all the purposes of God for the church in Galatia.

Now in the Bible there are two main biblical types of witchcraft. Because the word witch happens to be feminine and we seldom use the masculine form which is wizard, although it’s a perfectly valid word, but because the word witch is feminine we tend to think of witchcraft as something exclusively female. But, dear ladies, I want to tell you that that’s an unjust position to take, because the first real aggressive witch or wizard in the Bible was a man and his name was Balaam.

There are two main types. The male, Balaam, the fortuneteller, the soothsayer, the witch doctor whom Balak, King of Moab hired to curse Israel, and Balak said to them, ‘I know the ones you curse are cursed, and the ones you bless are blessed.’ Many people in Africa would say that to the witchdoctor. ‘If you bless my family I’ll be blessed, and if you curse my enemy he’ll be cursed.’ That’s essentially the province in which this operates.

Then the great other type of witchcraft is Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab, who manipulated her husband and ran the kingdom through her husband. One of the most characteristic actions that she performed was to take the sealed ring of authority from her husband and sign the death order for Naboth whose vineyard they had wanted to take. You see that is witchcraft. It’s taking the male authority symbol and using it to promote the female purpose.

Now the interesting thing is both these two types of witchcraft from the Old Testament are mentioned in the New Testament in the context of the church—not outside the church but in the church. Balaam is mentioned in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 15 in connection with false prophets in the church. He’s mentioned in the same context in Jude verse 11 and he’s mentioned as being in one of the churches of Revelation, in Revelation 2:14. Now I say that because I want you to see that though these things were outside the people of God, their greatest aim is to insinuate themselves inside the people of God.

You see, the church is never defeated from without. Jesus said about His own experience, ‘The prince of this world, the devil, comes and has nothing in Me.’ And because the devil had nothing in Him, the devil could never defeat Him. And if the church could say the devil has nothing in us, the church would be invincible. The devil defeats the church through the fifth column. You know what the word fifth column means? Are you familiar with that? We’ve been having gone through World War II, I’m of course very familiar.

Let me tell you the origin of the word fifth column. It so happened that I was on a walking tour over the Pyrenees from France to Spain in 1936 when I was twenty-one years old with a friend of mine, I found myself in Spain in the middle of a civil war which we hadn’t anticipated. Anyhow, there was a civil war in which two different factions of the Spaniards were fighting one another in 1936, and General Franco was the one that ultimately came out victorious. But this story is related about a certain Spanish general who was attacking a Spanish city, and another general came to him and said, ‘Tell me, general, what is your plan to capture this city?’ So the first general said, ‘Well, I have four columns advancing on the city—one from the north, one from the south, one from the east and one from the west.’ Then he paused and added, ‘But it’s my fifth column I’m expecting to take the city for me.’ So the second general said, ‘And where is your fifth column?’ The first general replied, ‘Inside the city.’

That’s the origin of the phrase fifth column. The fifth column is the group of traitors inside who betray the city to the attackers from without. And you see it’s only the fifth column in the church that ever permits us to be defeated. We are never defeated from without whether it is individually or corporately. If I can say tonight the devil has nothing in me, then the devil cannot defeat me in any way. If we could say as a group of Christians here tonight, the devil has nothing in us, the devil would be powerless against us, but it’s his fifth column. That’s why his most persistent policy is to insinuate himself, his agents and his forces into the midst of the Christian church.

There are two other witchdoctor types in the New Testament, but they’re not very significant.

One is Simon the Magician in Samaria, the other is Elymas whom Paul and Barnabas encountered on their first missionary journey in Cyprus. But they’re not such significant figures. Now looking particularly at the example of Balaam, we see that witchcraft has two main approaches against God’s people. First of all to curse God’s people direct. Balaam was hired to curse Israel, but as long as Israel were in obedience to God, God would not permit Balaam to curse them. And so you remember the story, every time he tried to curse them he ended up by blessing them—much against his own will and much to the chagrin of the man who’d hired him. If you read the Bible carefully and you have to put together several different passages, you’ll find that Balaam didn’t give up and this is typical. Knowing that he could not curse Israel directly he recommended the King of Moab, Balak, to entice Israel into sinning with the Moabite women and worshiping their idols. And when he succeeded in that, God’s curse came on Israel from God, not from Balaam. Do you understand? So bear in mind, dear brothers and sisters, if witchcraft cannot defeat us directly it will seek to entice us into something which causes God’s curse to come upon us because of the way God has ordered the universe.

Now I want to turn from the general to the particular and I want to look at the operation of witchcraft in the church. And I would like to read just a few verses from Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter three is the key verse in this context. Galatians 3 the first 3 verses.

“O foolish Galatians!”

None of us like to be called foolish do we? I mean there’s a lot of other words we’d prefer to hear, but there are a lot of foolish Christians, you know that? Some of them are here tonight.

“O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you …”

The Greek word means literally to smite with the eye. Really it’s the evil eye. I had a Greek orthodox priest come to me some years back in the States who was baptized in the Spirit and flowing in the Charismatic. He came to me for help because he somebody had done this to him, put the evil eye on him, and he used the same word vaskania (phonetically) that is used in Galatians. It was interesting. He was very well aware that it was something real.

“O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?
This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of Faith?
Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?”

You see, whatever results were produced were produced by witchcraft. What name would we give to the problem of the Galatians in modern theological language? One word? The word is legalism. How many of you realize that legalism is the expression of witchcraft in the church. When I realized that it really shook me, because I saw the whole nature and operation of the church in a completely different light.

You don’t have to answer this question, but how many of you would agree that legalism is perhaps the number one problem of Christians in Northern Ireland? And how many of you could believe that it’s the problem of witchcraft? You say, ‘It couldn’t be, Brother Prince.’ Are you so much better than the Galatians? They were a real live New Testament church, filled with the Spirit, witnessing miracles. They’d had the Apostle Paul preaching to them in person. How many churches contemporarily could say well we’re far beyond the Galatians. You don’t have to believe me but I ask you to consider it. I never jump off the platform, point my finger in somebody’s face and say, ‘That’s your problem.’ The way I operate is this. I believe the Bible is a mirror, I hold it up and I say to people, ‘Just look in the mirror and act on what you see about yourself.’ I’m not going to charge you or accuse you or condemn you, but I am tonight holding the mirror up to you.

Now how should we define legalism? Usually it’s a term of abuse used to describe people who disagree with us. You know? It’s one of the favorite terms of abuse. But let’s not indulge in that kind of cheap religious abuse. I’ll offer you two definitions of legalism and I’m not suggesting that they’re final or exclusive. First of all it’s a seeking to achieve righteousness by keeping rules. I’ll say that again. Seeking to achieve righteousness by keeping rules or a law. I want to point out to you something that will come up again. Most of the places in the New Testament where we have in our Bibles that righteousness does not come by observing the law, the word the has been put in by the translators. What it actually says is righteousness does not come by observing law.

Now the pattern of law is the law of Moses, but that statement is not confined to the law of Moses. If you want to check on this and you’re sufficiently interested you can get a New American Standard Bible, and read it and you’ll find that it puts the in italics when it’s not in the original text. And in most of the key texts it’s not there. In other words, the law of Moses is the pattern law because it was a divine law, a perfect law, it was a God-given law. If righteousness could not be achieved by observing the law of Moses, then there’s no other law that could possible produce that result.

The other possible definition of legalism is adding to God’s requirements for righteousness. Demanding of people that they do more than God demands of them to achieve righteousness, which is really putting yourself in the place of God. If God says this is all you have to do, no church, no minister, no religious body has any authority to add one more requirement than God has stated.

“Now you’ll see from what Paul says in verse 1, he says
…Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?”

What is the way that witchcraft operates? It’s implied in that verse. It operates by obscuring the work of the cross. It blinds the people of God to what was achieved by the death of Jesus on the cross. Being blinded they then have to turn to other sources of righteousness. Now there are three aspects of what Jesus accomplished on the cross, all of which are relevant. First of all He abolished law as a means of achieving righteousness with God, once and for all. Romans 10:4, Catholic or Protestant, Jew or Gentile. It’s the same for everybody. Christ is the end of the law as a means of achieving righteousness with God for everyone who believes. Once you become a believer, that shuts you off from law as a means of achieving righteousness with God.

Secondly, and this is not appreciated by most people at all, what Jesus experienced on the cross is the demonstration of God’s judgment on our fallen carnal nature. Romans 6:6 says Our old man, our carnal nature, was crucified with Him. So the cross shows you what God thinks of man’s fallen nature. It’s his demonstration of his attitude. The mercy of God is that instead of doing it to us, He did it to Jesus. But if you want to know what God thinks about man’s fallen nature, picture Jesus on the cross, because that’s His last word about our own unregenerate carnal nature. The cross is where it belongs. The cross was made for our carnal nature.

Thirdly, there’s a message in the cross that applies to the way we live. The cross is not merely something external where our redemption was purchased, but it’s an inner principle that has to apply in our lives. But once people are blinded to the cross, they’re blinded to that inner principle. Paul says in Galatians 5:24, Those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts.

Note that defines those who are Christ’s. It doesn’t use the word Catholic, it doesn’t use the word Protestant, it doesn’t use the word Baptist or Pentecostal or Methodist. It just says those who are Christ’s. They are not defined by denomination. They’re defined by what the cross has done in them.

Those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts.

You see Romans 6:6 says God did it in Jesus. Our old man was crucified with Him. But there comes a point where that principle has to be applied by us in our lives. So Galatians 5:24 says, We have crucified the flesh. We could not do it if God had not done it in Jesus, but it means that that principle of the crucified life, the denial of self, the denial of the will of the flesh, is part of the work of what Jesus did on the cross. But when people by witchcraft are blinded to the reality of the cross they lose those three dimensions. They no longer understand that God has abolished laws as a means of achieving righteousness. They no longer understand that the cross represents God’s estimate of our carnal nature, and they no longer apply the principle of the cross in their own lives. They become carnal, self-indulgent, self-pleasing, self-satisfied.

Now legalism has one great hold on the human mind—it appeals to human pride. That’s its grip. That’s why people enjoy it. That’s why people can be passionately dedicated to a legalistic religion. I hope I’ll offend nobody, but I’ve lived in the Middle East for years, I’ve lived amongst Moslems, I’m familiar in some outline with the religion of Islam. And I’ve said many times it has never made one person in more than thirteen centuries. Not one person has ever been made happy by Islam. It’s a religion of misery, of iron, of slavery. Why then are Moslems so passionately dedicated to it? Because it appeals to their pride. They can quote you all the things they’ve done to earn God’s approval.

But that is not limited to Moslems. It’s really a feature of nearly all religious people. We become proud of our good works, and we become like Cain who offered to God the fruit of the ground which God had cursed. You see? That’s our old nature. Our old nature is under the curse of God, and whatever we give to God out of our fleshly nature is like the offering that Cain brought. It’s an offering from something that God has declared cursed. And there is no way that it will ever be acceptable with God.

Paul says many times, and I used to read that and think it was almost superfluous, but he said, ‘We are saved by grace, not by works lest anyone should boast.’ You’ll find it’s said at least three or four times in the New Testament. I thought you know, why say lest anyone should boast? And then it suddenly dawned on me because that’s what people do boast about. And that’s why people like legalism, because it gives them something to boast about. Like the Pharisee, ‘I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all I possess. I don’t commit adultery.’ But he was not justified. You see if we think we can offer to God something acceptable out of our old fallen nature, we are telling God in effect Jesus didn’t need to die.

Paul says if righteousness can come through law, then Christ died to no effect. And when we say that to God we incur His disfavor, because anything we do to dishonor Jesus incurs the disfavor of God. It doesn’t mean God will banish us from His presence, but it means that we cannot live in the favor of God while we are in any way undermining what Jesus accomplished on the cross. And that’s what legalism does.

It’s very interesting you find Paul wrote to a number of different churches—the Romans, the Corinthians, the Colossians, the Ephesians and so on. If you study his letters, almost every one of them he began by thanking God for the people he was writing to, even the Corinthians. When one man was living with his father’s wife, and there was drunkenness at the Lord’s table, he still thanked God for the grace of God. But when he got to Galatians he was so upset he missed it out. His first sentence is ‘I marvel that you are so soon moved from the grace of God.’ They weren’t committing adultery. They weren’t getting drunk. What was their problem? Legalism. But you see it was far more serious in Paul’s eyes then those obvious sins of the flesh which religious people are so quick to condemn such as drunkenness and immorality, or things like that.

Now what are the consequences of witchcraft enticing God’s people into legalism, and you’ll see it’s exactly like Balaam. It entices God’s people into an area where they are not longer under His blessing. You’ll see if you go on a little further in Galatians, Paul says those that are under the works of the law are under a curse. Not because a witch doctor cursed them, but because they’ve moved out of the area where God’s blessing rests.

What are the consequences? You’ll find if you read the following verses. First of all it puts Christians back under law. Second it leaves no room for God’s supernatural. Paul said, ‘Now, miracles, do they come by observing the law or do they come by the hearing of faith?’ And of course the answer is by the hearing of faith. You see what happens is when the church becomes legalistic under the influence of witchcraft it loses the supernatural. That’s why most churches don’t have any demonstration of God’s supernatural. The problem is legalism, because God will not grant the supernatural to the efforts of the fleshly nature. They never qualify.

The next step in degeneration is theologians begin to tell us that God has withdrawn the supernatural—it was only for the apostolic age. First of all we sin by rejecting the supernatural and then we compound our sin by explaining God has taken it away. That’s a lie, it’s a theological lie, it’s a cover-up for our own failure. Thirdly, going back under the law brings a curse. Instead of being in the blessing of God we find ourselves under the curse of God. Let’s go a little further down in Galatians chapter 3 beginning at verse 10,

“For as many as are of the works of the law or law [the the is put in by the translators] are under the curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.’”

You see, if you’re gong to be justified by the law you have to keep the whole law all the time. You can’t choose little bits of the law and say we’ll keep those and not others. The law is an entire single system. You either observe it all, all the time or it is of no benefit for you in achieving righteousness with God.

“But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for ‘the just shall live by faith.’
Yet the law is not of faith, but ‘the man who does them shall live by them.’ Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’).”

You notice the word curse occurs three times in that verse. What’s the cause of the curse? The law. How do we come under the curse? By going back from grace and from the supernatural which always goes with grace, and by relying on our own efforts.

Now you say, well that’s the law of Moses. True Paul had that in mind, but there’s a curse pronounced in the book for Jeremiah which concerns all of us. Jeremiah the 17th chapter and the 5th verse.

“‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man
And makes flesh his arm [or his strength],
Whose heart departs from the LORD.”

You see, when we rely on our own fleshly ability we have come under a curse. ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man.’ How many churches are filled with people who trust in men? I don’t need to answer that question, but the Bible says the one who trusts in man is under a cruse. Why? Because his heart departs from the Lord. Basically I would say that’s the history of the Christian church. God visits His people, they experience His grace, they experience His supernatural power, but very rarely does it last more than one generation, and then they turn away into self effort, human rules, human systems.

My own inexpert summation of church history is nineteen centuries of trying to find a system so safe we didn’t have to trust the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately there is no such system. And the riskiest thing you can ever do in the long run is cease trusting the Holy Spirit.

What is the basic error? This is very, very central. The basic error, why it is so serious, is rejecting the Holy Spirit. We are no longer relying on the Spirit of God. And when we reject the Holy Spirit we create a vacuum which is filled by the spirit of witchcraft. You see it’s cause and effect. If you analyze these first fourteen verses of Galatians chapter 3, they are totally logical. They are a logical projection leading up to the diagnosis. What is the end result? The end result is that flesh usurps rule over the Holy Spirit, and we have Ishmael ruling Isaac. See, I’ve said this sometimes, religious leaders are afraid of anything they cannot themselves control. But anything that religious leaders can control does not have the power to do what’s needed. So if we settle for what we can control, we are settling for something which God doesn’t accept. Many, many people feel it’s dangerous to rely on the Holy Spirit. In a certain sense it is. You could be wrong. It’s happened before. But I want to tell you it’s much more dangerous not to rely on the Holy Spirit. That’s the way to disaster and it insults the third person of the Godhead. He’s very gracious, very patient, very gentle. But if we persistently say ‘Thank you. We don’t need you,’ we’ve got ourselves in a problem.

There are only two possible ways to achieve like(?) righteousness. There are no others. It’s either by law or by grace, and these are mutually exclusive. You cannot combine them—very important. Romans 6:14 says this,

“Sin shall not have dominion you for you are not under the law [but the Greek says under law] but under grace.”

The implications of that are startling. If you are under law sin has dominion over you. If you want to be free from the dominion of sin, you cannot be under law but you must be under grace. And then Romans 8:14 says,

“As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
And Galatians 5:18 says,
If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

So to be a son of God you have to be led by the Holy Spirit, but if you’re led by the Holy Spirit you’re not under the law. They’re incompatible. And Galatians 4:30 perhaps we should look at just for a moment. In the latter part of Galatians chapter 4 Paul uses an allegory of the two wives of Abraham—Hagar the slave woman, the Egyptian; Sarah the princess, the free woman. He says Hagar is a type of the covenant of the law which begets slaves. Sarah is a type of the new covenant which begets free sons. And notice the birth of Isaac was supernatural. It was a physical impossibility. Grace is never limited to man’s natural ability. And then applying this Paul says, what do we have to do in relationship to Hagar and Ishmael if we are in the company of Sarah and Isaac? And this is the Scripture. It’s very powerful.

“Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? ‘Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.”

In other words Ishmael and Isaac can never share the same house. Once Isaac comes Ishmael has to go. Law and grace will never be partners together. It’s either law or grace, but you cannot combine the two. I have to tell you honestly, I believe that if you will accept that principle it would change the lives of most of you here tonight, and it’s a liberating principle. It’s so liberating it’s frightening.

Now what’s wrong with the law? Well let me say this first of all, we are dealing with a basic problem of human nature which goes back to the fall. The essence of the problem of man’s fall was that he wanted to be independent of God. His motives were excellent. He wanted to be like God. Well what more could you want than that? But the way he wanted to achieve was in independence of God, so that in fallen man the child of Adam, there is this bias that causes us to go astray, the desire to be independent of God. That’s the root of all human problems, and until that root is dealt with our problems do not cease. And Romans 8 verses 5 through 8 says, ‘Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.’ The carnal mind is enmity against God. See, it’s not a question of being difficult to please God, it’s impossible. The fleshly nature cannot do anything to please God.

Now the law, when we seek to achieve righteousness by it releases the fleshly nature. That’s why the problems come from legalistic people. Have you noticed in general in the history of the church, in the history of Israel, it was the legalistic people who were God’s biggest problem. It was the legalists who crucified Jesus and the apostles. It wasn’t the harlots, or the tax collectors.

God’s biggest problem, let me tell you that, is religious people. Let’s look in Romans chapter 7 for a moment, Romans 7 verse 5 and 6,

“For when we were in the flesh, the passions of sins which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.”

I think I’ll just read that—have you ever noticed that phrase, ‘… the passions of sin which were aroused by the law’. Why? Because when the law comes I say I’ll do it, and I’m relying on my own carnal nature. And when I rely on my carnal nature I release what’s in the carnal nature. You want to know what’s in the carnal nature? Well I’ll tell you, Galatians 5—it’s not a pretty list. But this is what is released the moment we begin to rely on our own natural ability and righteousness.

“Now the works of the flesh are evident [and the list differs slightly according to texts] which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness,
idolatry, sorcery [notice witchcraft or sorcery is one of the works of the flesh, and then there comes] hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,
envy, murders drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I told you beforehand, just as I also told you in the past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

There are really four categories of the works of the flesh. The first is sexual immorality, the second is the occult and false religion, idolatry and sorcery, the last one is licentious living, reveling, drunkenness and so on. But the major category is every form of strife and division. And you see, that’s why churches divide. The real issue is not doctrine or theology. It’s the fleshly nature. The fleshly nature cannot get on with itself let alone with your brother or your sister. And as soon as Christians become carnal in their thinking and their attitudes you can be sure the church is headed for division, and you basically could say the most legalistic Christians are the ones who divide the most often. Who can count the number of Brethren Assemblies? Why have they split so often? Because of their intense legalism which has released these ugly works of the flesh. They may stay away from drunkenness and immorality, but they certainly don’t stay away from strife and bitterness and hatred.

Now that’s not an attack. It’s just an evaluation. But I think you’ll find basically, the people who attach most importance to being right are the ones who divide most often. Let me leave this little thought with you, God gives grace to the humble, not to those who are right.

Okay, now this obviously raises a question which I’m sure is in the minds of many of you and I would like to just briefly touch on it. Is there no place for law or for rules or for system? Obviously there is. Anarchy is no blessing, lawlessness. So we have to determine from Scripture what is the place of rules or a system. And I’ll just offer you certain simple thoughts which are not by any means exhaustive. The first and the most important thing to recognize is we never achieve righteousness by keeping rules. All right? It’s not our righteousness. Okay? And if I keep one set of rules and you keep another set of rules, my set of rules doesn’t make me more righteous than your set of rules. You see that?

Second if we have been made righteous by faith and if the rules are pleasing to the Holy Spirit, He will direct us to them and give us grace to keep them. For instance take the speed limit. I think the speed limit, Holy Spirit will always direct your attention to the speed limit and say, ‘Observe the speed limit.’ I believe basically we required to observe almost all secular law. We are required to obey magistrates and rulers and governors. It’s much easier to do that when you’re a child of God then when you’re not. It takes the grace of God to do that. But when it comes to the realm of religious law we cannot simply go to a law and say I’ll do this. We have to say Holy Spirit do you want me to do this? Sometimes the Holy Spirit will ask us to keep unreasonable laws, just as a way of dealing with the ego. But the decision must always be made by the Holy Spirit. Do you understand? We must never take the initiative from the Holy Spirit and decide simply on the basis of a rule.

If the rules are not pleasing to the Holy Spirit He will probably steer us away from them. I’ve said this really, but I’ll say it again, we must never bypass the Holy Spirit and rely merely on rules. This is to short-circuit the Holy Spirit in our lives. It’s never a question of the rules say I must do this. The question is Holy Spirit what must I do? If you leave out the Holy Spirit you’re making your own righteousness.

I’ve sometimes used an example of two different ways of finding your way to a destination. One is a map, the other is a personal guide. The map is a little picture of the law, the personal guide is a picture of the Holy Spirit. God gives us the option—you can have the map, you can have the guide. Being what we are by nature none of us will bypass the map. Everyone of us says, ‘I’ll follow the map.’ And God doesn’t object. He says, ‘Carry on.’ Well we start out and it’s a beautiful sunny day and the birds are singing, but after a few days journeying, it’s the middle of the night, it’s a rain storm, we’re on the verge of a precipice, and we don’t whether we’re facing north, south, east or west. And we say ‘Help!’ We can’t even see the map, it’s too dark. And a gentle voice says, ‘Can I help you?’ ‘Oh, Holy Spirit I need you. You’ve come at just the right moment.’ ‘Well, take my hand and I’ll lead you onto the right path.’

Well you get onto the right path and the sun comes out and your say, ‘Holy Spirit, I’ve got this map here. Would you like the map?’ The Holy Spirit says, ‘Thanks, I know the way. I don’t need the map, but if you’ll stay with me I’ll help you to understand the map in a way you’d never understand it without me.’ Well, if you’re like some of us, and I’m not excluding myself, that’s not enough. So after a little while we’re on the highway, the sun is shining, we can see where we are on the map, the Holy Spirit has pointed it out to us, then we say, ‘Really it was silly to get in such a panic there in the dark. I could have made my own way out if I’d just had a little more gumption. I think I can find the way with the map.’ And while you’re talking to yourself like that you don’t even hear the Holy Spirit say, ‘See you when you need me.’ And you’re left on your own with the map.

It isn’t long until you’re in the middle of a swamp, your feet are sinking into the mud, you’re tired, you’re thirsty, ‘Holy Spirit where are you?’ And that gentle voice says, ‘Here I am. Take my hand. I’ll lead you.’ Just how many times do we have to make that mistake? It’s marvelous that the Holy Spirit is so gracious.

I’ll tell you the key to success in the Christian life is learning not to depend on yourself. You are not dependable. ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man.’ That includes trusting in yourself. When you do that you’re under a curse. I think the most important lesson to learn in the Christian life is continuing moment by moment dependence on the Holy Spirit. Never make a decision without the Holy Spirit.

The Lord spoke to me through a prophecy just recently and He said I was entering a new phase in my ministry and I was walking a way that I had never walked before. And He said, ‘You’re going to have to be extremely sensitive. Don’t go one step ahead of Me. Don’t speak one syllable before Me.’ And I realize that’s the key to success and it’s not easy for me. By nature I’m an independent person. I made my own way in life and in many ways successful. One of my brothers said of me I’m the most self-dependent that he ever met, and I wouldn’t deny that assessment of myself. The greatest, perhaps the most persistent problem in my Christian life has been not depending on myself.

Let me suggest, when you get into a car do you pray? Being in a car today is being in a very dangerous place. There’s a high probability that you’ll have an accident. Do you ask God’s protection? Do you buckle your seat belt? I think that’s one of the rules the Holy Spirit would encourage us to obey if you ask me. I’ve known several dear brothers in the Lord who had serious automobile accidents simply because they weren’t wearing a seatbelt. I suppose in this country it’s legally obligatory, isn’t it? It isn’t in America, and thousands of people suffer injury and death every year simply because they don’t buckle their seat belt. I think the Holy Spirit would tell you fasten your seatbelt. Your know His little gentle nudges? You’re going to say something and the Holy Spirit says, ‘It isn’t time to say that.’ One of my problems is I tend to say anything when it comes into my mind, but that isn’t always the right time to say it. You know what that takes? It takes patience. How many of you would pray for patience? Well do, but remember God has His ways of teaching us patience. The Old King James word is longsuffering, and generally we learn longsuffering by suffering long.

I do think I have learned not to get frustrated when things don’t go the way I want. I think I’ve learned God has a reason for this delay. God has a reason why this person didn’t keep the appointment. ‘Holy Spirit show me.’ Believe me I know I haven’t arrived, but I do want a good relationship with the Holy Spirit. I have no confidence in my flesh. I have come to that place where I know it will not produce anything that I would want to see produced.

Let me close what I consider to be a beautiful pictures from Romans illustrating what I believe should be a place of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Romans chapter 7 and verse 4. This is a rather complicated statement. It took me years to be quite sure that I knew what Paul meant, but I believe I do know.

“Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law…”

Did you absorb that—‘dead to the law’? You see there’s only one way out from under the law. Once you’re under it you’re under it for life. There’s only one way out. You know what that is? Death. The law has no more control over a dead person. He’s passed out from under the jurisdiction of the law. There was only one way we could pass out from under law, that was through the death of Jesus, that He opened the way. So Paul says,

“Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—even to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.
[And then he goes on.] For when we were in the flesh, the passions for sin which were aroused by the law [note that phrase] were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.
But now we have been delivered from the law [notice that phrase], having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.”

See, Paul is talking in terms of a marriage union, and he says by the law we were married to our fleshly nature, because it’s our fleshly nature that says I will keep the law. And the only way we could get out of that marriage without becoming adulteresses was by death. Paul says when a woman’s husband dies she’s free to marry another. And then he says, ‘Through the death of Jesus, you flesh was put to death. Therefore you no longer become an adulteress if you marry somebody else.’ And then he says, ‘Now we’re free to be married through the Spirit to the resurrected Christ.’

See, those are the two alternatives. They’re very vivid. Married by the law to the flesh—the only way out is death. If you take the way out through the death of your fleshly nature in Christ on the cross, then without becoming an adulteress you’re free to be married to another. To whom?—to the resurrected Christ. How are you married to Him?—not by the law but through the Spirit.

I think the greatest single ministry of the Spirit of God in our lives is to give us marriage union with the resurrected Christ. And whatever we’re united to, we will bring forth the corresponding fruit. If we’re married to the flesh, we have no options—we will bring forth the works of the flesh. But if we’re married to the resurrected Christ, we will bring forth the fruit of the Spirit. See, it is not a question of effort—it’s a question of union. To whom are you united? If you’re under the law you’re united to your carnal nature and it’s works you will produce no matter how hard you try. But if you’re dead to the law through the body of Christ you are free to be married through the Spirit to another—to Jesus the resurrected one. But the marriage union with Jesus is through the Spirit.

Let’s look for a moment and this is the closing Scripture—1st Corinthians 6, 1st Corinthians chapter 6, verses 16 and 17. This is a very remarkable passage. I was speaking to a group of Jewish believers in Israel about a month ago and I said to them the Bible is a Jewish book and the Jewish people are very outspoken people. They tell it like it is. And I said I’m actually somewhat amazed at the picture that Paul uses here to describe our union with Christ. He says in verse 16,

“Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For ‘the two,’ He says, ‘shall become one flesh.’
[But the next verse says,] But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.”

You see the contrast which is also a comparison—the sexual union with a prostitute. But it’s contrasted and compared with the spiritual union with the Lord. So by the flesh we are tied to that, but through the Spirit we can be united with Christ. And ultimately the way we live will not be determined by our efforts. It will be determined by the one we’re married to.

Jesus said, in just another picture, ‘I’m the vine, you are the branches.’ Vine branches don’t bear grapes by trying. A vine branch could try for a millennium and never produce a grape. A vine branch bears fruit because it’s united with the vine. The same life that’s in the vine flows into the branch. That’s the secret of the Christian life. It’s not self-effort, it’s not keeping rules, it’s not following a system, it’s union with Christ. But that union with Christ can only come when we are free from our union with the flesh.

Now I’ve said, it’s a personal opinion and you’re free to disagree with me, I think perhaps the main problem is the one that I have analyzed this evening—it’s legalism but it’s more than that. It’s a spiritual bondage to an evil force called witchcraft. And in my own experience which I won’t describe in detail, I realized that it was not enough just to change my mind. I had to ask God to release me from that force. And I went through a real experience of release from a spirit of bondage when I saw what my real condition was. What I believe we need to do in such a situation is repent—repent of slighting the Holy Spirit, of insulting the Holy Spirit. I don’t mean to say we’ve committed the unforgivable sin, but we have actually insulted the Holy Spirit.

A very strange example comes to my mind from my days at Cambridge where I was a student of philosophy. There was another student who’s name was Smithers and he was an anarchist by philosophy, by conviction. And he wore a dark black straggly beard which was very unusually in those days. He was much of a marked man. Well, the tutor of King’s College who was a very dignified and important person, went to see Smithers to see if he needed a grant for further studies. Well we knew that his anarchistic principles would make it difficult for him to be polite to the tutor. So when the interview was over we asked him, ‘How did you behave?’ And he said, ‘I tried to act as if he wasn’t there.’

Well, why do I say that? Because I think a lot of us have had that attitude to the Holy Spirit. We’ve tried to act as if he was there. We’ve ignored His presence, and that’s an insult. We have insulted the Spirit of grace and any of us need to repent, and when we have repented we need to ask God to release us from the spirit of bondage which has held many of us captive. Now I’ve held up the mirror, but it’s up to you to make the decision. I would like you to do this. If you feel that what I have described tonight accurately represents your basic problem, a problem that maybe you’ve been struggling with for years, and you’ve tried your hardest and done your best but it never really seemed to produce the results spoken of in the New Testament. Tonight you would like to send a distress signal to the Holy Spirit. Say, ‘Holy Spirit, I’m stuck in this bog. I don’t which way to go. I can’t get out. I’m sorry that I tried to do without you. Please, forgive me, Holy Spirit. I yield myself afresh to you. I desire that spiritual union with Jesus. Will you grant that to me? Will you come to my help?’

Shall we just be quite in an attitude of prayer for a moment? Now if you want to send a cry for help to the Holy Spirit tonight, would you just pray in your own words to Him. Would you says, ‘Holy Spirit, I’m sorry I’ve insulted you. I’ve done my best to ignore you. I’ve gone my own way. I’ve trusted in my own self. Forgive me and deliver me tonight from that spirit of bondage, I pray. In Jesus’ name, in Jesus’ name, in Jesus’ name.’

Now, Lord, I just pray for those many that the Spirit of God will come to them and that they’ll know the liberty which comes where the Spirit of the Lord is, that you’ll free them from legalism, from witchcraft, from all the pressures that have dominated and controlled, and enslaved them. Let them be set free, I pray tonight, in the all prevailing name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Amen.