The study this week is taken from the book “Under Cover” written by John Bevere. Much of it is stories from John’s personal experiences. When I read through this ahead to glean through the information to pass to you, I was at a loss to express this in any form of an equivalent.
Rebellion is witchcraft. The effects of this hidden principle of lawlessness are obvious in our society, and no less apparent in our churches, even though it is more subtle in its entrance. This chapter provides an in-depth vantage of witchcraft’s influence over a believer in rebellion. We’ll draw from the Old Testament, the New Testament, and present-day accounts to study the control that occurs from disobedience.
First, let’s look at Israel. During their wilderness journey, the descendants of Abraham camped on the plains of Moab. They had just attacked and defeated Bashan and had already destroyed the Amorites when they were refused passage through the territory.
As the Israelites camped in the plains of Moab, Balak and the people he led, the Moabites and the Midianites, were worried. The people trembled with fear. The Lord had promised the Israelites, “I will sent My fear before you, I will cause confusion among all the people to whom you come” (Ex 23:27). They knew the Israelites had conquered each nation that opposed them and had utterly destroyed the most powerful nation, Egypt.
King Balak sent ambassadors to the prophet Balaam requesting his help. He was well known for his spiritual accuracy and insight. The king knew that Balaam’s prophecies happened. If he blessed, they were blessed; if he cursed, they were cursed. After receiving two sets of ambassadors from Balak, Balaam consented to travel with the princes to the king with the intent to curse the children of Israel. The king’s offer of money and honor swayed him.
The next day they climbed the high places of Baal, and Balaam observed the nation of Israel. He instructed the king to erect seven altars and prepare a sacrifice for each. Then Balaam opened his mouth to curse Israel, but instead he pronounced a blessing over them.
Needless to say, the king was upset! “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and look, you have blessed them bountifully!” (Num 23:11)
So Balaam suggested they move to a higher level, hoping to give Balak what he wanted. Maybe there would be more energy to curse from a higher site. Again, seven altars were erected and additional sacrifices offered. But as Balaam opened his mouth again to bring a witchcraft curse, again he blessed Israel instead.
The process continued. Each time Balaam attempted to curse, he was compelled to bless. In Balaam’s second oracle we find this profound statement: “For there is no sorcery against Jacob, nor any divination against Israel” (Num 23:23).
Balaam declared there was no sorcery or divination effective against the people of God! What an exciting and powerful statement! To bring this truth forward into today’s time frame, we would say, “There is no witchcraft that works against God’s people, nor any divination against His church” (Num 23:23, author’s paraphrase).
This promise should encourage us. The witches and warlocks can rant, rave, and burn their candles. They can recite their hexes, spells, and curses, but they cannot harm a child of God. They will not prevail against the church of the living God. Proverbs 26:2 reinforces this truth: “Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow, an undeserved curse does not come to rest” (NIV).
Again, back to my youth pastor days. A girl who was one of the lead witches in her high school came to Jesus. Her mother dedicated her to Satan when she was yet in her mother’s womb. After her conversion, she discussed with my assistant her former life. She made a statement that caught his attention. She said, “We cannot put witchcraft curses on Christians.”
My assistant questioned, “Why not?”
She said, “Because if we placed a curse on them, it would come back on us.” He was thrilled.
As you can see, her words line up with what Balaam spoke. In his first oracle he posed this question: “How shall I curse whom God has not cursed?” (Num 23:8). Even if Balaam had pronounced a curse over the children of Israel, it would have returned upon his head. David said it this way:
Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked,
From the rebellion of the workers of iniquity,
Who sharpened their tongue like a sword,
And bend their bows to shoot their arrows – bitter words,
That they may shoot in secret at the blameless. (Ps 64:2-4)
Curses will be released by the rebellious (those involved in witchcraft), but they will not rest upon the righteous. Watch what happens to those who release curses:
But God shall shoot at them with an arrow;
Suddenly they shall be wounded.
So He will make them stumble over their own tongue. (Ps 64:7-8)
They will stumble over their own tongues. The very words they release to hurt others will circle back to them. David used this vivid word picture to describe it: “They have dug a pit before me; into the midst of it they themselves have fallen.” (Ps 57:6)
Balaam knew it was impossible to curse the Israelites the way they were. There was no way he could make a curse stick, even though he wanted to. Moses recounted the situation: “They hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. Nevertheless the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam, but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you” (Deut. 23:4-5). This is true for us as well.
The furious King Balak shouted, “I called you to curse my enemies! Instead, you have blessed them three times. Now get out of here! Go back home! I had planned to reward you richly, but the Lord has kept you from your reward” (Num 24:10-11 NLT).
The king had planned to give Balaam a large monetary reward and social honor for successfully cursing his fatal enemy. But in essence the king said, “You can forget your reward. It is obvious your God doesn’t want you to have it. Get out of my sight!”
Balaam had a problem: he really wanted that reward. It was the whole reason he was there, and he was about to lose it all. To avoid the loss, he shared another plan of attack with King Balak. Though he knew he couldn’t curse the Israelites, he did understand how to get them to bring themselves under a curse.
With his understanding of the spiritual relationship between rebellion and witchcraft, Balaam advised the king to send Moabite women to infiltrate Israel’s camp. He had them take their idols along and lure the men of Israel into sexual sin and rebellion against God’s statutes. He knew the rebellion would bring them under a witchcraft curse.
We know this transpired because both Moses and Jesus referenced his counsel to the king. Moses confirmed it: “Look, these women caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to trespass against the Lord in the incident of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord” (Num 31:16). Years later Jesus said Balaam had “taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality” (Rev 2:14).
This is laid out in Scripture. Immediately following Balaam’s prophecies, we read, “Now Israel remained in Acacia Grove, and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab [and Midian]. They invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel was joined to Baal of Peor, and the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel” (Num 25:1-3). As a result, a severe plague broke out and ravaged the people of Israel.
Disobedience caused this nation, which could not be cursed, to come under a curse of the plague: “And those who died in the plague were twenty-four thousand” (Num 25:9). Twenty-four thousand! Do you realize the tragedy of this statement? Today if there is an airplane crash or a hurricane that takes hundreds of lives, it makes world news. We are not talking about hundreds, but twenty-four thousand people! That was the greatest single loss of life Israel experienced in the wilderness, and it all resulted from the people’s rebellion.
Radical disobedience opened the door to a radical plague. Their rebellion was flagrant. In fact, one shameless Israelite man openly flaunted his midianite woman in the sight of Moses and the entire congregation of Israel as they cried to God (Num 25:6).
What stopped the plague? You probably guessed it – radical obedience!
Now when Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it [the man showing off his Midianite girlfriend], he rose from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand; and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stopped among the children of Israel. (Num 25:7-8)
Again allow me to point this out: God is not the Author of plagues and diseases. The children of Israel blatantly rebelled and violated His authority. Therefore, the Lord’s covering of protection was lifted, and the enemy had legal access by the permission of God. Once again this affirms rebellion as witchcraft and grants legal entrance to demonic powers of control. Israel escaped the curse of a soothsayer, only to be decimated by disobedience.
We’ve seen an Old Testament example that rebellion is witchcraft, and there are plenty more. Now let’s examine the New Testament. The apostle Paul wrote a stern letter to the churches in Galatia. It was not a letter to the general populace of Galacia, but specifically directed to the churches. Carefully read Paul’s statement: “O foolish Galations! Who has bewitched you?” (Gal 3:1).
Wait a minute! Paul was telling the churches they were under a witchcraft curse! You may question, “I thought there was no divination or witchcraft against God’s people?” That is correct. No curse can be released against the obedient. But remember, rebellion or disobedience places a person under witchcraft.
Recall my assistant’s meeting with the former witch, delivered from sorcery. When she saw his excitement upon learning that curses couldn’t be placed on Christians, she quickly added, “But, Pastor, we could affect lukewarm people in the church [the disobedient]. In confirmation, hear what Paul said, “Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth?” (Gal 3:1)
The bewitchment involved disobeying God’s word, not any curses that sorcerers had conjured up. Why? Because rebellion is witchcraft! In essence the church in Galatia came under a witchcraft curse because of disobedience.
Before going any further I must clarify this point. We come under bewitchment when we disobey what God has made clear to us, not when we disobey what has not been revealed to us. This becomes clear as Paul continued, “Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?” (Gal 3:1)
This specific incident yields a universal truth. God had revealed His salvation by grace to those churches through Paul’s preaching. But it wasn’t long before they embraced the reasoning and traditions of another and disobeyed what was once made so very clear to them by the Holy Spirit. They began to teach and live under the belief that salvation came by keeping the works of the law. However, the universal premise we want to focus on is this: whenever we disobey what God has clearly revealed to us, we bring ourselves under the influence of a witchcraft curse. Why? Because rebellion is witchcraft.
I have seen this with entire congregations, families, and individuals. I have met many churchgoers who for some reason or another live in an almost constant state of disobedience. Most are unaware of its severity because they have been numbered by a lopsided teaching of grace that downplays the importance of obedience. One crisis follows another in their lives. There is always some problem or sin over which they just can’t seem to gain victory. They escape one snare to find themselves entrapped in another. Each scenario seems progressively worse. These problems consume their time, energy, and livelihood. Somewhere an access has been legally given to demonic oppression or influence. Their disobedience has made them vulnerable.
I have watched their marriages suffer or, even worse, end in the broken state of divorce. Others are passed over for promotions or, worse, lose their jobs. Some fall prey to theft, financial crisis, and tragedy. Frustrated, they frantically look for someone to blame. Many times they blame the treatment they received from parents, pastor, boss, spouse, children, government, or anyone else available who doesn’t agree with their reasoning.
Two culprits at work actually feed off each other. The first is deception. Darkness has clouded their hearts because they failed to obey God’s Word. The second culprit is a tangled snare of controlling spirits who attack at will because of disobedience. Paul instructed those dealing with professing believers in rebellion, “The Lord’s servant must gently teach those who disagree. Then maybe God will let them change their minds so they can accept the truth. And they may wake up and escape from the trap of the devil, who catches them to do what he wants” (2 Tim 2:25-26 NCV). The problem: deceived captives blame others in order to hide from their own disobedience, and doing this blinds them to exactly what they need to be free.
Thank God for His Word. Its light exposes deception and discerns the thoughts and intentions of the hearts of men. Unfortunately when afflicted due to disobedience, most people refuse to learn. They continue in the wilderness of disobedience, blaming everyone else rather then learning from the error of their ways.
I recall an incident where someone did learn. I had the honor of ministering regularly at an international ministry that consisted of a church and Bible school. I loved and respected this ministry, that had impacted my life. One day a leader of the ministry called and told me, “John, I am calling all the close friends of this ministry to tell them what is about to happen so they don’t hear it from some other source. I need to tell you I am divorcing my spouse. We’ve been married for eighteen years and seem to be going separate directions in our thinking and outlook in life. We don’t do things together as a couple, and what we like is just so different. We have tried for years to improve, and it has only gotten worse.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I kept thinking, No, please don’t do this. I loved this couple and their ministry. I was so shocked, I was speechless.
In my silence this person continued, “Now, John, you know I love Jesus very much, and if I’m doing the wrong thing, He will show me.” This minister talked with me about the situation a few more minutes, then ended the phone call. I had said very little because I was still taking it all in.
All day long I couldn’t shake what I’d heard. I rehearsed the words again and again. I thought, This seems like a bad dream. In the midst of my troubled thoughts I sensed the Holy Spirit telling me to call this person back and speak the truth.
The next morning I made the call. I had slept on it, so it wouldn’t appear reactionary, but as a Spirit-led response. Upon recognizing my voice, the minister asked, “Hi, John, what’s up?”
I began, “I want to talk with you some more about the divorce. Has there been any immorality on the part of your spouse?”
The response was, “Absolutely not!”
I then said, “What you are doing is wrong. Jesus makes it clear that the only reason to consider a divorce is sexual unfaithfulness (Matt 5:32), and the book of Malachi tells us that God hates divorce because it covers our garment with violence (2:16). You said to me yesterday that you loved Jesus, and if you were doing the wrong thing, He would show you. But why should He show you when He has already made it clear though His Word what His will is? How can you willfully go against what God has declared? If you do this, how can you stand before your congregation or Bible school and tell them to walk in holiness by resisting sin or devils? You are opening yourself and ministry to trouble and deception.”
The minister interrupted me and said sternly, “John Bevere, you’ve not walked in my steps, and you have no compassion!”
The next thing I heard was the receiver of the phone slammed down. The minister had hung up on me. Thirty minutes later I received word from my office that I’d been canceled. (I was scheduled to go there in three months.) I told my wife, “I knew they’d do this, but not so soon.” All communication was completely cut off, and later another minister who had passed through there told me my name was “mud.” I kept thinking, All I was trying to do was to be a true friend.
To my surprise, seven months later I received a call from this minister: “John, I need to have a heart to heart with you. Do you know what happened after I hung up the phone and canceled you? Well, one month later my kidneys failed, and I was given a 50 percent chance of survival. After the second dialysis, I awoke and said to myself, ‘What am I doing getting a divorce?’ I realized I was very wrong. My kidney failure was a wake-up call. I called my spouse and repented. I went before our church and Bible school and repented. I told the Bible school, ‘I canceled John Bevere because he told me I was wrong to divorce. I am going to call him and see if he’ll come back.’ So, John, would you please come back?”
“Of course,” I responded. I was so excited for this person, and my respect for this minister grew immensely. In addition to all this, the recovery was much faster than expected, and a perfect kidney match was found and donated a year later. This minister didn’t miss one service. This person’s progress astounded the doctors. Also, with this repentance a greater spiritual authority and strength came on this minister’s life. Now, years later, this person leads more effectively than ever before and is a sought-after speaker with a very happy family. Every time I am with the couple, it is easy to see their love for each other. You would never know a few years previously they were a few steps away from divorce.
It was easy for me not to judge this minister, for I had gone through a similar experience a few years earlier. It wasn’t with my marriage, but with an area of disobedience in the ministry. When we first founded John Bevere Ministries, the Lord gave us a clear directive not to accept an opportunity for the ministry just because it looked good until we first knew His will.
Well, a few years passed, and what appeared to be a great opportunity arose for our ministry to expand. Yet in prayer, God was clearly saying “no” to my wife and me separately; we were not to accept the offer. However, the offer was made persistently, and I was flattered, so I listened. It wasn’t long before I began to reason away the word that God had impressed in my heart. I became confused, and my mind became clouded with all the words. My wife tried to counsel me against it, but quickly realized I would not be convinced otherwise. I ended up accepting the proposal.
Since I’ve been saved, I’ve been blessed with virtually no sickness or health problems (to God be the glory). I rarely catch anything, and if I do, it’s gone in twenty-four to thirty-six hours. I believe Jesus provided divine health as well as forgiveness of sins when He died on the cross (Isa. 53:4-5 amplified; Ps 103: 2-3). But on the day I moved forward with this opportunity, I became sick and couldn’t shake it.
It started out as the flu. I threw up for the second time since I was nineteen. After several days of battling the flu, I caught a virus. My wife and I had gone out of town to celebrate our anniversary, and for days my temperature hovered over 100 degrees and ruined our vacation. At the close of the week I preached while suffering from a fever and chills. The fever dragged on into the next week during meetings in Canada. I preached with a high fever, only to return to my room and shiver in bed until the next service. I had very little strength.
The fever continued to hold for the third week. We couldn’t understand what was happening. I’d never fought sickness like that. I prayed and fought, using the Word of God, but I couldn’t shake it. I went to the doctor. He prescribed a strong antibiotic, and soon I was back to normal.
But a week after finishing the antibiotic, I had caught a severe head cold, the kind that drains all your strength. I was miserable. Sore throat, stuffed head, and all the other annoying conditions. It dragged on for weeks as I continued to minister.
After recovering from my head cold, I injured my knee climbing a wall overseas. It was so severe I was in a wheelchair in my travels and limped with a brace for several weeks after that. At the tail end of this, I was hit with another virus. My temperature rose to 101 to 102 degrees, and again I couldn’t shake it. Again I had to get a prescription to get over it. It seemed I couldn’t go more than a week without some kind of infirmity. The cycle lasted three and a half months.
Through all my ills, my wife did not become sick, not even one day. Besides the physical problems, numerous other problems arose. I was in a struggle with an opponent who seemed not to budge because he was more powerful than I was. My willful disobedience brought me under a curse!
Four months passed, and I admitted my sin. However, I still had to deal with my commitment, and if there wasn’t a miraculous intervention, I saw no way out. Lisa and I joined hands; I repented and asked for God’s mercy. He got us out of the long-term commitment I’d ensnared us in.
A few months later, my wife and I discussed all that had transpired, and we linked all my sickness to my disobedience. We realized as soon as I repented, my previous good health was restored. The other problems that loomed over us were resolved and disappeared.
In that time period the words of James became clear to me. I had frequently quoted his words, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). In the past if I sensed an attack, I passionately resisted the darkness with the Word of God and always saw results. Yet that time I got nowhere. When I came through it, I realized I was quoting only half of what James was saying: “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (4:7).
We resist the devil by obediently submitting to God’s authority. We can quote scriptures until we are blue in the face, but if we are in disobedience, we will not see results.
Please understand this point: every time a person faces difficulty, sickness, problems, or hardships, disobedience is not necessarily the cause. Many suffer while living obedient lives. David was such a man. He was not in any sort of rebellion. He did nothing wrong to bring upon himself his leader’s wrath. Yet he was driven out to live in caves, deserts, and wildernesses. He was a man without a home or country. For years he lived as a vagabond in a state of hardship. Some judged him and felt he suffered because of disobedience, but the discerning could perceive God’s hand forging a new type of king and could sense God’s favor on his life. It was evident by his wisdom.
There are numerous examples of obedient people who suffered: Jesus, Joseph, Hannah, Daniel, Jeremiah, and Job, among others. The difference between the hardship of the obedient and those under witchcraft is that there is spiritual progress for the obedient. They are not banging their heads against the wall; they are not circling the mountain getting nowhere.
Cain was a different story. His disobedience caused great suffering. Offended, he refused to repent, which resulted in a curse on his life. He lived his years as a fugitive and a vagabond. His aimless and hopeless wanderings are an example and warning to future generations.
I will conclude with this statement: Don’t take the truths found in “The Consequences of Disobedience” and “Bewitched” and use them to judge others. Their hardships may be trials from which God will receive glory. The purpose of this lesson is to help you realize the severity of disobedience to the authority of God. If you are in disobedience, may you use these truths to judge yourself and get back on the path of life.
In the bible studies leading up to tonight, we have covered the Introduction to Under Cover and an understanding of what that means. And tonight we have finished up the section learning about what God’s direct covering. Next set of lessons will deal with God’s appointed covering. Beginning with the lesson called “Does God Know Who Is in Charge?”