Christians and enchantments

If you asked a Christian to describe five features of a witch, there is a high likelihood the response will resemble the version of witchcraft popularized in movies. Drinking blood or requiring blood sacrifices, working at night, operating in covens, dark or evil appearance, mystical behavior, etc.

Many Christians are ignorant of the actual workings of witchcraft. And although many believe this is a good thing (since witchcraft is something to be shunned), it's actually a problem. If we don't even know what witchcraft really is, how do we know we are not actively practicing the thing we are trying to shun?

The bible says "My (God's) people perish for lack of knowledge". It is very possible for practicing Christians to entrap themselves and suffer needlessly for engaging (even innocently) in practices antithetical to their faith. And the devil thrives in the art of deception: he will rather Christians remain ignorant of his devices and keep entangling themselves in them so he can gain access to keep stealing, killing, and destroying.

The practice of enchantment is becoming commonplace and Christians are unwittingly participating in a practice abhorrent to their faith regularly. Let me try to explain this with the most popular bible passage on the act of enchantment: Numbers 22-25.

Numbers 22-25 is about the attempt of Barak, the king of Moab, to get a diviner, Balaam, to place a curse or enchantment on the children of Israel to stop their progress. But as many of us know in the story, God turned that opportunity around into a blessing for Israel.

But we see the sequence of actions Barak tried to instigate to stir up an enchantment against Israel:

1. come to the people (Number 22:4-6)

2. stand at a point that allows you to observe them, likely where they are sinning (Numbers 23:13,27)

3. open your mouth and use your words to speak an evil word over them (Number 24:10)

(Step 3 is usually an outlet for the strong emotions arising from the shock coming from Step 2)

Look closely at those three steps, and reflect on them. Don't they eerily resemble a sequence of events that happens all day every day on social media?

- we are not asked to come to people, but people are brought close to us by video recordings

- the video recordings are capturing them at a point of compromise or failing

- the comments section is thrown wide open for us to "weigh-in" and give our "two cents" on what we are seeing.

Now, there's nothing inherently wrong with this. But it is not hard to see how this situation can be exploited to stir up an enchantment against a person or group of people.

There are events that Christians need to be on guard about, particularly because they are on the rise and there is a big risk of these events being exploited to conjure up energy for enchantments:

- posts about private happenings in other's lives

- posts about social injustice

- posts about tragedies

The outrage energy is the most problematic type of energy. Be wary about feeding into posts that are stirred up to trigger outrage. You do not have to comment on every topic you see on social media. And when you comment, mind the words you are using. Don't fall into the pressure to place a curse on your friends or family, your future, your finances, your country, or even others.