Witchcraft in the church is a real problem. A really stubborn problem. You’ll find it in every church you go to, because every church has people just as there are people everywhere – in families, in workplaces etc.

This is how it starts: the person allows jealousy, envy, rivalry, competition, and pride to grow in the heart.

The mentality is such a person is, “I am the best here. I am better than everyone else. Anyone who appears to be better than me is an enemy, a threat and must be dealt with. This is my territory.

I am the centre of attention, audience and affection here. No one is allowed to have more, be more, or do more than me. I am better, bigger than everyone else and my goal is to make sure everyone stays smaller than me, no matter what I have to do.”

The person’s eyes towards other people then becomes an evil eye especially towards anyone who appears to be a potential ‘competition’.

Spirits of control, domination, manipulation and deception find a loophole in the person. The person starts operating in witchcraft, right inside the church. God forbid that you should experience such a battle. It’s one of the most stubborn, frustrating, tiring warfare experiences ever.

Sometimes you feel like the person or the people involved are trying to kill you physically. I mean you start feeling you’re sick, literally, even if you know very well it’s not physical sickness but demonic oppression through them. The devil uses them to suffocate your prayer life, your capacity to give yourself or your wealth to God, your capacity to serve, anything good in you, they are used as demonic platforms to try kill, steal or destroy.

You’ll see them in dreams stealing from you, attacking you or quarreling with you. If you’re spiritually sensitive, you’ll sense it when they’re thinking evil against you, gossiping about you or praying against you. If they’re not careful, they become full blown witches right there in the church.

What I’m not sure of is whether they know they’ve been recruited by the enemy to work for him, because some of those I have personally encountered and suffered through, are people I’ve seen serving at very sensitive levels in the church, and most of them manage to get very close to the top leadership in churches.

They are very manipulative, smooth talkers, and very ‘loyal’ to church leadership. Their target is to make sure that they have access to the top, and then prevent everyone else from having that access, so that they are the only ones who have access to the leadership.

How do they get up there? They deceptively portray very high levels of servitude and commitment when dealing with top leadership, so that they can earn trust and positions of authority.

But their motive is control and elitism, and they use the access they have to fight those lower than then, or anyone who seems to have potential in the group.

I call them fire extinguishers in the church. When God releases His fire in the church, these people pour water on those God sets on fire, and they switch off their lights, by releasing witchcraft spells against them. They are enemies of revival. Enemies of church growth. Very frustrating.

Manifestations include but are not limited to:

1. Praying against other people

2. Targeting people one considers to be ‘competition’ or ‘threats’ to block them, fight, and oppose them secretly by attacking them spiritually in the name of prayer.

3. Being used by the enemy to release spells against others sometimes without this person’s knowledge

4. Engaging in gossip, slander and character assassination in the church without any remorse or sense of guilt.

5. If they get access to the people they are targeting, they’ll attack them directly in words or by the way they treat or handle them. But mostly they’ll try to hide it very well and only through discernment can you identify them.

6. For them, everything is a competition. They will even compete over things that are holy and unto the Lord, things that are supposed to be done for His glory, which is what church is purely about.

7. Their mentality when desiring to be active in service within the church is not to serve the least in the church from a place of humility. Their goal is to be popular and in control of others.

8. To them, church is not a spiritual hub where we gather together AROUND CHRIST to minister to Him and receive ministry from Him through one another. To them, church is a social club where we gather AROUND ONE ANOTHER. That kind of erroneous target is what makes them play such dangerous games in the church. They have forgotten why we gather.

When the Word of God tells us to pursue love, one of the reasons is to guard our hearts from being available for the enemy to use as demonic portals.

If a person does not allow the Spirit of God to release love into their hearts, they’ll be singing, dancing, speaking in tongues, even serving in church in very sensitive, key positions, but operating in full blown witchcraft against other believers.

God forbid in the Name of Jesus Christ.

God forbid.

Beloved, let us love one another.

Love is the wall of defense.

Love is the way out.

Love is the key.