Feature Writer: Craig Hawkins

Feature Title: The Modern World of Witchcraft / A Christian Perspective

Link: http://www.patholliday.com / no longer available

 

The Modern World of Witchcraft

CAN DEMONS HAVE YOUR SPIRIT SURROUNDED AND BOUND?

Jesus says in Mark —

“For from within, [that is] out of the hearts of men, come base and wicked thoughts, sexual immorality, stealing, murder, adultery; 22 Coveting (a greedy desire to have more wealth), dangerous and destructive wickedness, deceit; unrestrained (indecent) conduct; an evil eye (envy), slander (evil speaking, malicious misrepresentation, abusiveness), pride (the sin of an uplifted heart against God and man), foolishness (folly, lack of sense, recklessness, thoughtlessness). 23 All these evil [purposes and desires] come from within and they make the man unclean and render him unhallowed.” (7: 22 – 23)

These names that shown above are all names of demons. Look at these early Christians that had backslide and how the Apostle Paul dealt with them.

“In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, and my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus”
(1 Cor. 5:4, 5)

Apostle here deals with disobedient and sinful believer in the church at Corinth. Verse 10, specifically emphasizes that he is speaking not about evildoers of the world but in the church. Verse 12, Again it is made clear.

Terrence McKenna defines ecstasy as a complex emotion containing elements of joy, fear, terror, triumph, surrender and empathy. It derives from the Greek word Ekstasis, meaning displacement, trance, to take flight, to drive out of one’s senses.

The  Women’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets defines it as standing forth naked. Einstein referred to it as the ultimate religious feeling state, while author Chris Griscom views it as the higher self in action.

A defining trait of ecstasy is its immediacy. Ecstasy is not some splendid event, like a ravishing sunset, that happens in the external world before our eyes and ears. Ecstasy happens to our selves. It is a momentary transformation of the knower, not merely a transformation of the knower’s experience.

JOURDAIN, ECSTASY AND THE BRAIN FIRE

The Apostle Paul discusses contention and disputing over doctrine. Believers are have
evidently slipped and need to —

“Recover themselves from the snare of the devil, who are taken captive of him at his will.” A born again Christian must make it a habit to give no place to the devil. “Neither give place to the devil. 28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. 29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. 30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: 32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven
you.,” (Eph. 4:27 -32)

A member in Corinth — overcome by a spirit of lust.

“It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is
not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife. 2 And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. 3 For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, 4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus,” (1 Cor.5-1-5)

Any part of the body can become a place for a demon. If you give your self into your
fleshly nature and give a hand, or an eye, or an ear, a demon with a particular characteristic may take hold of that particular part and occupy it. A spirit of lust may occupy the eye. Compels one to stare at x-rated magazines or porn movies.

“He that is begotten of God (born again Christians) keepeth himself, and that wicked
one toucheth him not,” (1 Jn. 5:18)

Keepeth ourselves means hard-fast abstinence from the wickedness of the world. This means continual walking in the Spirit, keeping under the blood of Christ and unceasing fellowship with Jesus. We receive strength to maintain our walk through the Word of God. Then we are not open for a demon. Jesus rebuked a spirit of fever in Peter’s mother-in-law and made her well.

“When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. 26 And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead. 27 But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose. 28 And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out? 29 And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting,” (Mk. 9:25-29)

Jesus uses this same term to rebuke Satan.

PATRICIA KING NEW AGE MYSTIC

Today’s church is becoming a modern New Age supermarket where pleasurable and
hedonistic God experiences are handed out like fresh fruit. We must examine the fruit they say — it is fine as long as the fruit is good. Well, yes I agree the fruit is good. If Sin were not pleasurable it would not tempt us. It is good to look at, it is good to hold, but should you be unfortunate enough to eat this New Age fruit — it will kill you. Doling out more than her share of this mysterious new (age) fruit is Patricia King of Extreme Prophetic. Patricia King admits to being in both the occult and New Age prior to coming to Christ. Her teachings are blatantly New Age and she openly refers to herself as a
New Mystic. Her most recent dalliance into neo-paganism comes with her promotion of
Ekstasis, a form of trance dancing. Her itinerant pastor who doubles as a traveling DJ calls the show Club Mysterio.

Ekstasis (ecstasy) is from the ancient Greek, έκ-στασις (ex-stasis), means to stand
outside of oneself or to be removed to somewhere else. Ekstasis worship or trance dancing is known to every pagan culture and is meant to bring the participant to a level of excitement called ecstasy. Trance dance is a “healing tool” with its roots in many ancient cultures. It is practiced by shaman.

“The purpose of a trance dance is essentially to bring you to a place in the sacred zone
where the spirits can reach you — in trance dance, the rhythms and movements combine with the music to create an altered state of consciousness that allows entry into the sacred realm — allowing the body, and parts of the body, to move to and express rhythms it finds engaging in the moment leads to this meditative state of mind and allows entry into a deeper mythic reality.”

PANTHEISM – TRANCE – CAPTURING THE MIND

Polytheism, the seeking after other gods, or believing all pathways lead back to God has captured the imagination of many Christian leaders. They are boldly teaching this blasphemous error to unsuspecting churchgoing people to seize them for the one world religious system that is being formed for the Antichrist.

These ungodly false Christian leaders are using the power of mass hypnotism, neurology, and psychometrics to bewitch Christian churches. Karen Berggren writes — “Across time and culture, dance has long been revered for its power to heal body, mind, and soul, strengthen the bonds of community, and to commune with spirit and nature allowing us to discover deeper aspects of who we are as human beings. Dance is also used as a form of worship, celebration, story-telling and myth-making, and to commemorate important rites of passage. We can glean some of the significance dance held in ancient tribal life, for next to hunting, it is the second most common activity shown in cave paintings.”

Ms. Berggren goes on to say — “Cut off from its healing and esoteric roots, western culture has reduced dance to a form of entertainment, a way to socialize, or to attract a mate. It’s generally not thought of as a way to pray, meditate, evoke visionary experience, or commune with spirit and nature. Yet in the past decade or so, it seems that the ancient understandings of dance as a healing and spiritual modality are impressing themselves upon the modern mind, as if  welling up from old, vibrant memories of the tribal soul within. The idea of dance as a symbolic language of the psyche that can initiate healing, visionary, and ecstatic experience through rhythm and movement is being explored by increasing numbers of people searching for new levels of health, wholeness, and spiritual connection.”

 

SHAMANISM — WITCHCRAFT CAPTURING THE SPIRIT

Shamanism is a range of traditional beliefs and practices concerned with communication
with the spirit world. A practitioner of shamanism is known as a shaman. There are many variations of shamanism throughout the world; following are beliefs that are shared by all forms of shamanism:

• Spirits exist and they play important roles both in individual lives and in human society.
• The shaman can communicate with the spirit world.
• Spirits can be good or evil.
• The shaman can treat sickness caused by evil spirits.
• The shaman can employ trance inducing techniques to incite visionary ecstasy.
• The shaman’s spirit can leave the body to enter the supernatural world to search for answers.
• The shaman evokes animal images as spirit guides, omens, and message-bearers.

Shamanism is based on the premise that the visible world is pervaded by invisible forces or spirits which affect the lives of the living. In contrast to organized religions like animism or animatism which are led by priests and which all members of a society practice, shamanism requires individualized knowledge and special abilities. Shaman operates outside established religions, and, traditionally, they operate alone. Shaman can gather into associations, as Indian tantric practitioners have done.

Ms. Berggren tells us — “Ecstatic experience is the oldest form of healing and spiritual practice known with evidence of it dating back over 30,000 years to ancient traditions of shamanism. It is believed that shamans were the first to discover and codify the use and power of rhythm through drumming, dancing, and chanting to carry them on their journeys into a world beyond the ordinary.

The flight of ecstasy is an anthropological term given to the shaman’s journey into these non-ordinary realms. In the world is as you dream it, John Perkins introduces us to dream change, a translated term Ecuadorian shamans use to describe this flight of ecstasy and its purpose. The basic tenet of shamanism holds that our physical universe is an emanation, a protrusion, a dream, from this non-ordinary reality that is believed to be the source of all creation.

Some names for this primary reality are the sacred realm, the mythic world, the Dreamtime, or in humanistic terms, the psyche. Even some physicists recognize its existence, referring to it as ‘the implicate order. ‘The shaman’s work is to effect change in physical reality for the benefit of an individual or the tribe by journeying into this other realm. Once there, the shaman’s goal is to intentionally engage or reconcile the issue at its source, understanding that the results of this encounter will manifest in physical reality, thereby ‘changing the dream.’

With the music on, or drumming in the air, the dancer gently surrenders her body to the
rhythms, allowing her movements to express and intuitively entrain to the energy of her intended dream change. The mind remains in a relaxed, yet attentive state, observing the process more than directing it. As the body moves within the SSC, a deeper wisdom begins to stir — Hidden doors in the psyche open and information in the form of images, sensations, or insights related to the intention arise into conscious awareness, holographically.

The dance then becomes a dialogue of sorts between the worlds; the body listening and responding to deeper cues and information through movement, while the mind makes note of journey imagery and interjects a telepathic question or comment now and then. The dance becomes not only a place to express one’s intention through movement, but also to listen for feedback and guidance on that intention from deeper sources of being. It’s not unusual for ecstatic dance to open up into what people describe as a visionary experience of a mystical or spiritual nature.

SERPENTINE POWER

So there you have it. Trance dancing is connected to witchcraft and therefore, can Christians clean it up and use it for Jesus? Well, can we use Jeanne Dixon’s crystal ball? Could King Saul go to the witch of Endor for her divinations to get answers from her concerning his battle plans? If Ecstasies trance dancing’s history is directly traced to the roots of witchcraft, is it safe for young Christians to be led into this occult practice? Since when did Jesus mix his word with such foul things?

TREE OF LIFE — KUDALINI

Therefore, if this “new thing,” is not being motivated by the Holy Ghost power,
whose power is operating? Kundalini power is the power of the serpent. The Bible shows holy dance before the Lord.

“And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand;
and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. 21 And Miriam
answered them, Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.” (Ex 15:20-21 )

“Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the
timbrel and harp,” (PS 149:3)

The also reveals demonic, suggestive, seductive dances for the devil too.

“But when Herod’s birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced
before them, and pleased Herod. 7 Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her
whatsoever she would ask. 8 And she, being before instructed of her mother, said, Give me here John Baptist’s head in a charger.” (Matt 14:6-8)

SHAMBHALA TRANCE STAGE — EKSTASIS

“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2 For men
shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. 6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, 7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (2 Tim 3:1-7)

“That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; [Be no more children]” (Eph. 4:14; Eph. 4:15)

Children, here, are opposed to the perfect man in the preceding verse; and the state of both is well explained by the apostle’s allusions. The man is grown up strong and healthy, and has attained such a measure or height as qualifies him for the most respectable place in the ranks of his country. The child is ignorant, weak, and unsteady, tossed about in the nurse’s arms, or whirled round in the giddy sports or mazes of youth; this seems to be the apostle’s allusion. Being tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, refers to some kind of ancient play, but what I cannot absolutely determine; probably to something similar to a top, or to our paper kite.

CHRISTIAN FREEDOM

Christians can live free from mental torture, panic, envy, hatred, pride, self-pity,  addiction, gluttony and all other forms of bondage, oppression and defilement! There are two main causes for a person’s inner problems. The first issue is as the Word of God calls it, “the flesh, or the ‘old man,” and the old man that part of the person who is living in the carnal nature of the person’s flesh. It is the rebellious person’s will that is being influenced and tempted by Satan. The second cause for inner problems is the working of evil spirits. Demons will tie themselves to the person’s mind or flesh or emotions. This bondage will cause terrible physical manifestations. These demons will not relinquish their evil hold unless compelled to do so by a Christian who is empowered by Jesus.

Many Christians are totally unaware of the reality of the subliminal world of demons.
They are invisible to the natural eye but they are real! The Bible says, that my people perish for a lack of knowledge. Multitudes are tormented because people choose to ignore the power to cast out devils. Jesus had great compassion for the possessed. He used His power to free them. Then the first assignments that He gave His followers were empowerment to cast out devils.

However, remember that every problem is not because of demons. Some problems come
from the person’s willful sin life. The scriptural answer to the sins of the flesh is complete
surrender to Jesus, (Rom. 6: 6-11). If the problem is caused by the person’s submission to the sins of the flesh, then counsel must direct that person to commitment to the Lord and His Word.

If it is a demon, then we must cast it out.

Clearly, correct diagnosis is of major importance. We must discern what we are dealing
with each case. Is the problem being caused by oppression of the flesh? If this is the reason, then we must counsel the person to totally commit his/or life to Jesus Christ.

“And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” (Gal. 5:24).

If it a question of demon possession, then we must cast it out according (Mk. 5, 8, 16:17 and Acts 8:7,) and only born again Christians have this supernatural ability. Remember, you cannot cast out a person’s flesh nor can you crucify an evil spirit!

“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven (left, remitted, and let go of the
debts, and have given up resentment against) our debtors,” (Matt. 6:12).