Ever wonder why witchcraft is on the rise? Many church goers would like to point the finger at the “New Age” people but this has been yet another big deception the devil has poured out upon the church, to convince us it’s “those witches out there” that are doing witchcraft and it’s all outside the church.
I challenge you to ask yourself, would YOU qualify as per God’s standards to be committing witchcraft? According to the Bible, rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. (1 Sam 15:23) You can attend church every Sunday and be a faithful volunteer and STILL be committing witchcraft if you are disobeying God’s commandments!
Why is there so much rebellion inside the church walls? One part of the answer is “The people perish for a lack of knowledge.” In 2014, a Canadian Bible Engagement Study of 4,500 Canadians was released that showed that only 14% of Canadians read the Bible at least once a week. And only 6% of Canadians talk about the Bible at least once a week outside of church services!
http://www.bibleengagementstudy.ca/
This study was only addressing engagement with the Bible, not focusing on a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. However, there was one detail that may hint at the solution to eliminating witchcraft from the church. Evangelicals were only 7% of the study population but accounted for a whopping 43% of frequent Bible readers!
Granted, reading the Bible can still send you to hell just as fast as not reading the Bible if that’s all you do. The Pharisees studied God’s word thinking that in the scriptures, they would have eternal life but they refused to come to Jesus Christ that the scriptures taught about! (John 5:39-40) To put it into modern day language, Pharisees are people who have a love affair with their love letter instead of their lover! For anyone who knows me personally, please hold your chins so they don’t smash into the ground because what I’m about to say will shock you. It is better to throw the Bible out the window and have a personal relationship with the Author of the Bible because He can tell you what He wrote in the first place!
Is it possible that Evangelicals are more likely to have had an encounter and relationship with the Most High God who sent His son Jesus Christ to save us from our sins? Is it possible that they have experienced the reality that the God they serve isn’t impotent and unreachable like most churches make Him out to be?
In our fast paced society, we prioritize what we value. When you have HEARD God’s voice and had conversations with Him, SEEN His angels, SMELLED His presence, FELT His liquid love pouring over you, TASTED that the Lord is good, you are more likely to value a relationship with the Most High God because you are manifesting the positive benefits in your daily lives.
Maybe it’s time to learn a lesson from the New Agers. Why not try tossing the sermons and church programming out the window? How about tossing church buildings out the window while we’re at it? After all, having a church on every corner has proved ineffective in transforming our culture and bringing more souls into the Kingdom of God. Pleading with people to read some dry, dusty book that puts us to sleep has obviously failed as statistics have shown. Why not try something so crazy as creating an atmosphere where people can encounter the God who created the Heavens and the Earth for themselves. When the eyes of our hearts have been enlightened (Eph 1:17-23), THEN the Bible will become alive, birthing a hunger for more and more conversation with a God who desires to be our best friend.
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