Heretical Tendencies the Road to Witchcraft

It's been my experience that people tend to shut down when you begin to speak about certain topics in a church atmosphere. Topics like witchcraft, warfare battles, heretics, tithes, and gossiping. As a church we should be able to hold one another accountable, that is your typical pew warmer or leadership.

I can't say I love you if I see you in error and say nothing. Sometimes a person struggles a while before saying anything because they don't want what they say to be taken the wrong way when they truly are coming in love, but it's a touchy subject. Either way, today we're not addressing anything but how heretical tendencies lead to witchcraft.

In warfare circle there is what we call blind witchcraft. These are areas of witchcraft that are easy to get caught up in because they align with every day life, they're picked up habits or traditions passed down. An example most (not all) women have at least once withheld sex from their husband to get what they want and that is the area I'm speaking of.

Women speak to each other passing on ways to get what they want, and it's often packaged as making your man act right. Truth is it's manipulating a situation to get your desired outcome and that is witchcraft. We call it blind because most people don't understand that witchcraft is all about you trying to get your way by whatever means you use.

Most people think of witchcraft and think of voodoo dolls or stealing someone's DNA so they instantly resist the truth of blind witchcraft. Here is the best understanding of witchcraft at its root it's not spells it is control, manipulation, rebellion, and the desire to influence others spiritually without the Holy Spirit (1 Sam 15:23).

Let's dig in, first let's identify a heretic and what those tendencies would look like. There are two types of heretics, passive and aggressive. Passive heretics have a difference of opinion and keep to themselves in most cases. They're not looking to rock the boat the way an aggressive heretic would. The passive heretic spreads error, they are often seen as perverting grace by twisting scripture to justify their sin. They are often very opinionated, stubborn and unsubmitted. Their problem is usually because of ignorance, immaturity, brokenness, strongholds, lack of study and double-mindedness.

The aggressive heretic is actively, intentionally, or willfully resisting truth and becoming or remaining unteachable. Their behavior is strategic, manipulative, destructive, and spiritually hostile.

Their issues are typically a Jezebel spirit, false authority, pride flattery and a hardened conscience or seared conscience (1 Tim 4:2) These heretics know what they're doing is wrong, and they do it anyway. Their intentional manipulation to spread their difference of opinion is where we see heretical tendencies crossing over into the area of witchcraft. The Jezebel spirit is the one that finds the open door to invite others in to bind and confuse a person.

Heretical tendencies flow from passive to aggressive to witchcraft. There is no time limit to say that a person will operate as a passive heretic for six months, then become an aggressive heretic. It's all about how fast these evil spirits can influence a believer into an area of rejecting repentance and staying there. By continuing to willfully be deceptive, they become wolves in sheep’s clothing, agents of Satan (2 Pet 2:1; Rev 2:20; Jude 10–12).

At first, their beliefs come from the flesh, they move onto personal opinions, emotional experiences, or cultural influences rather than influence from Holy Spirit. They begin to refuse correction and their heart slowly hardens. This unteachable spirit is the turning point. Over time, this stubbornness produces the fruit Scripture warns of: division, instability, pride, and self-deception.

Our roadmap from heretic to witchcraft shows that it starts in the flesh through ignorance (Hosea 4:6) which then leads to pride (1 Tim. 6:3-5, Pro. 16:18; 1 Cor 8:2; James 4:6). Being puffed up in their own minds, they walk in stubbornness (1 Sam 15:23; Zech 7:11–12) only to become unteachable (Titus 3:10–11; Pro. 12:1; Pro. 15:10), deception follows (2 Thess 2:10–12; 2 Tim 3:13; James 1:22), control (Gal 5:19–20; 3 John 9–10), then manipulation (Rom. 16:18; 2 Pet 2:18–19; Col 2:18), and lastly spiritual domination or witchcraft (Acts 20:29–30; Rev 2:20; 2 Cor 11:13–15). Once a person moves from being deceived to producing deception, they have crossed into witchcraft’s territory, whether knowingly or unknowingly. I'd also like to remind us that Samuel tells us that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness as iniquity and idolatry.

Heresy often begins with a desire that seeks a scriptural excuse for a persons' behavior. We can see in the last precepts that people will have a desire to hear what they want to hear, not what scripture actually teaches (2 Tim.4:3-4). 1 Cor. 11:19 also explains to us the purpose of the heretic is to show those who are approved. Lastly we see that every man not one or two, but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust (James 1:14). It's important for us to remember that lust is not just about sex.