There are always two spirits at work: the Holy Ghost and a satanic or false spirit. Witchcraft comes from a satanic spirit and opposes God's Spirit.
God wants believers to serve Him in truth. In fact, it is this very issue that will determine “of what sort” our work is at the judgment seat of Christ.
Most men would rather accept lies than to believe the truth. This bias against the truth has been present as far back as the garden of Eden.
When an individual gets things right with God, he should likewise look for opportunities to make things right with others he might have done wrong.
Many people choose to continue in sin thinking that the consequences are not mounting up. The scriptures indicate something quite different.
Most people assume the Lord’s actions are motivated almost solely because of His love for man. Yet, God works for His own glory and for His own name’s sake.
The relationship between the master and his stewards is one built upon trust. The master places his possessions into the hands of a steward. He will be reluctant to do this unless that man has proven himself trustworthy. The apostle Paul found no shame in claiming to be a faithful steward of God (1 Corinthians 4:1). As such, he understood the principle that the ministry was placed under his care because God had entrusted it to him (1 Corinthians 9:17; Colossians 1:25; 1 Thessalonians 2:4; 1 Timothy 1:11; Titus 1:3). This fact affected everything the apostle said and did. This truth constantly reminded him that he did not live for himself, and that one day he must give an account for his stewardship.
The Bible has many examples of reputations that were changed. For instance, Moses grew up in Egypt, specifically in the house of Pharaoh. One day, when he was a grown man, he witnessed an Egyptian smiting a Jew. Moses killed the Egyptian in order to protect his kinsman. Bad news travels fast and Moses immediately developed a reputation as a short-tempered killer. He learned of this when he attempted to intervene during a dispute between two Hebrews. After the Pharaoh found out Moses’ identity, Moses ran for his life and spent the next forty years in hiding. Eventually, the Lord spoke to Moses and called him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and into a land of promise. Moses failed to lead the people into Canaan, but he succeeded in changing his tarnished reputation into something that God commended (Numbers 12:3).
Sin can never be flippantly disregarded. If the Lord is just, and He is, He must mete out consequences for rebellion. The biblical descriptions of the Lord’s reaction to rebellion varies from “he will be wroth” (Joshua 22:18) to “then shall the hand of the LORD be against you” (1 Samuel 12:15) to “ye shall be devoured with the sword” (Isaiah 1:20) to “I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee” (Exodus 33:5) to “I will purge out from among you the rebels” (Ezekiel 20:38) to “I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings” (Malachi 2:2). Though there are variations in the response, the constant truth remains that the Lord hates rebellion and responds to the rebellion with judgment.
Man’s opinion concerning the sinfulness of sin very rarely reflects God’s holy, perfect, and righteous declarations. This is because man does not think like God. The Lord expressed these sentiments in Isaiah 55:8-9 when He said, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, . . . For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Even a cursory study of rebellion verifies these truths as a man generally thinks of it more lightly than he ought. Man describes rebellion as strong willed or independent; however, God provides an accurate description as He states that “rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.” Because God likens rebellion to witchcraft, the Old Testament punishment for rebellion was likewise death (Deuteronomy 21:18-23). There can be no doubt as to the seriousness of this sin from God’s perspective.
