Once I realized the true problem, my first wife and I battled it through in prayer. I’m not going to go into the details but it was a tremendous revelation to me. I’d never encountered anything.Īnd I went to God in desperation, “God, what is the problem?” And he directed me to Galatians 3:1, “Who has bewitched you?” I saw that that congregation which at that time had numbered about 200 people, was bewitched by the wife of the previous pastor. They were Pentecostal but it was like they were numb, they were just incapable of responding. I have never encountered a group of people like that. She was now leading the church-at least, had been up to the time I arrived. The Board member had divorced his wife, the pastor’s wife had divorced her husband the pastor, and the pastor’s wife and the Board member married.
Furthermore, after I’d been there one month there was only one member left on the Board! Now, I cannot go into all the details what had happened to that church, it had been split and the previous pastor’s wife had fallen in love with one of the Board members. Furthermore, that the twelve members of the Board were the only people left in the church. When I arrived there I discovered that the church had been in deep trouble. So, with my first wife and our little African daughter, we set out on the long journey from Minneapolis to Seattle. They told me that all twelve members of the board had unanimously agreed to invite me. I got the invitation from the, quote, “Board” of this church to come and be the pastor. I was very inexperienced, I’d only been about six months in the United States and I had a lot to learn about American church life. This is very real to me because in l963 in Seattle, Washington, I took over the pastorate of a church. What I’m pointing out is the fact that you’ve been saved, baptized in the Spirit and experienced miracles is no guarantee that you will not be bewitched. Nevertheless, Paul said they had been bewitched. In other words, they were just as Charismatic as any of you or as I am. If you go on reading, and we will in a little while, you’ll see that these Galatians had been saved, had been baptized in the Holy Spirit, and saw God working miracles among them. He told me the Greek word, ?vas-can-nee-ah?, which is the same word that’s used here in Galatians. Some years ago a priest from the Greek Orthodox church who was baptized in the Holy Spirit came to me for prayer because he felt that somebody had put the evil eye upon him. The literal meaning of it is “to smite with the eye.” It’s used in connection with the evil eye. I want to point out to you that rather strange question, “Who has bewitched you.” I want to point out on the basis of my knowledge of Greek, that’s the standard Greek word for “to bewitch.” It’s not a metaphor. But don’t worry about that, the essence of it is there, whichever version you read.
There are some versions that are a little shorter because they’re two alternative texts. “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?” In fact, I’m going to begin by reading just verse 1. I’m going to read a few verses from Galatians 3. This theme is dealt with by Paul in Galatians. Because, if we once grasp it, the devil is defeated. I think in a certain sense, his primary aim is to obscure what was accomplished by the death of Jesus on the cross. And that’s precisely what the devil did, has done and is doing. You’d do your best to obscure the work of the cross because once the work of the cross is obscured, you can reassert your control over humanity. Now, if you were the devil, what would you do about that? You would do your best to undermine the work of the cross. A total, eternal, irrevocable defeat to Satan and his kingdom. I explained to you that through it Jesus administered a total, eternal, irrevocable defeat to Satan and his kingdom. Over the last few days I have been trying to explain to you the absolute perfection of the redemptive work of Jesus on the cross, that it covered every need that could ever arise in the life of any of us. I was taken unaware, as usual, but I announced it would be “Witchcraft Unveiled.” That’s what I’m going to do my best to talk about.
I was asked what the title of my message would be this morning.
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