Stephanie Ike - -Modernization of Witchcraft

Hey everyone, I'm Stephanie Ikeo Kawfor and a few weeks ago, the Lord really placed on my heart to do this teaching series about the modernization of witchcraft. And I remember when he just gave me this word and it was such a like a breakdown of the different things that he wanted me to cover. And so here we are. I believe that this is so critical because you know, wherever there's ignorance, deception follows. Right. Wherever there's ignorance, destruction follows. And there's a scripture on the Bible that talks about in the last days, which we're in right, that even the very. Elect will be deceived. And when you think about the very elect, you're thinking you're talking about people who are so confident in their walk with God, right, they're confident in their relationship with the Lord, and it says and even them will be deceived. And this really boils down to ignorant. And so when we talk about this whole concept of the modernization of witchcraft, the idea of witchcraft often has this you know, Gothic look to it, you know, people coming together to places spell or something. But the whole point of witchcraft and really everything that is under the operation of the enemy is rebellion against God. That's the whole point of it. And so it's really looking at it at in ways that how Satan has modernized rebellion against God. He has modernized, you know, how we rebel in ways that almost seem undetected to the average believer, undetected to the average person because it has been so infused in culture and become a norm in society that these are areas where for many we've lost our conviction. And I believe that these are This is one of the key reasons why the Lord really brought this topic to heart. You know, I think about when the prophet Samuel in the Bible says that the sin of rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. Right, because at the end of. The day, if the way you're living your life, it's not about you, you know, intentionally wanted to be a witch or anything like that, but if the way you're living your life is in rebellion against the things of God, and it's literally seen before God as the scene of the sin of witchcraft, Now why are we talking about this, right Because the reality is that many of us don't recognize that this life that we are living, we are either intentionally or unintentionally building a kingdom. There is no in between. Right, You're either building the kingdom of God or you're building the kingdom of darkness. And we've always had this concept of like we have free will, we have free will, recognizing that free will in itself is a means to an end, that free will is not just this thing where at any point in your life you get to decide what you want to do because you have free will. And I want you to really think about this, because when you think about Christianity, for example, right to be a true believer of Christ, to be a true follower of Christ, has to do it laying down your. Will, right. You know, Jesus when he walked the earth, he will say things like not my will, but yours be done, you know, referring to the Father. And if you've ever heard the testimony from anyone who's ever been in Satanism, like intentionally, they will tell you that they don't have a will. They literally move according to instruction. And so this concept of free will is the it's really a means to an end. It is to give you direction on what path in life. Do you want to choose, you know, to share with your this scripture in Deuteronomy thirty verse nineteen, you know, and it says I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life. That there's only two. Paths you can walk in this life, right and on this earth. The path of life is the path of following Jesus. Right. The Bible says that he is the way, the truth and the life. And the path of death is the path that the enemy leads us into. Right, that is the way of destruction. And it says I've set this before you. You know, when you think. About, like let's go all the way back to the book of Genesis, and you think about when Adam and Eve sinned. Right before they sinned, they were under the government of God. They were under the government of the Kingdom of God. They were moving, you know, they had this beautiful relationship with God. They were in the garden of Eden. And you know, many people believe that Eden was maybe the name of Earth in that time. I don't know, you know, I wasn't there, but you know, there's Eden, and there's the Garden of Eden, and that is a place of intimacy and oneness where they get to walk with God in such a beautiful way. The moment they sinned, there was no in between. There was no moment where Adam and Eve, you know, felt like, Okay, let's decide how we want to live our lives type of thing. Immediately the sin was actually the fruit of switching over to another kingdom. That the moment they ate of that fruit, immediately they were under the oppression of the enemy. And so that's why even Adam's reasoning was not even his own. Even the reasoning to hide himself for them to you know, cover themselves and hide away from God, it was not even his own thoughts. And that's why literally when God is looking for him and he's like, Adam, where are you? And Adam is talking about how he was afraid so they wanted to hide, and God did not even say where are you hide? You know, anything like that. He literally said to Adam, who told you? Right? That was the first That was his first response, who told you? And what God recognized is that you are already submitted to a different kingdom because check this out. Right, before any of that happened, there was a moment in the scripture that it tells us when Adam, when God brought the animals before Adam, and then God was watching to see what Adam would name the animals, and whatever Adam called it, that's what it says, that was its name. And so Adams he sees the lion, and he, you know, in his mind, instinctively he calls it a lion, not recognizing that because he was submitted to the Kingdom of God, he was flowing in the mind of God. Now, what is so critical about this is that you have to recognize that as humans, we are carriers of spirits. We are designed to be a vessel of a spirit. When God formed man out of the dust of the ground, man was just empty. He was not living until God breathed into him the breath of life. And that breath of life was the spirit of the man. And when that happened and outset and man became a living being. This flesh is just a shell, right, And that's why this goes back, you know, dust to dust, it goes back to the grave, it goes back to the ground, and your spirit continues. And so we are designed to be carriers of a spirit. And if you're not a carrier of the spirit of God, then you're a carrier of something else. There is no emptiness, right, whatever seems empty is occupied. And so whether the Lord occupies that space or it's an open invitation for the enemy to have one of his minions occupy that space. And so sometimes in culture we just think that what we're doing, you know, we have these random desires or whatever because it's culturally acceptable. You know, it's for the culture, right, that's a thing that we say it's for the culture, not realizing that what we see in culture is shaped by spirit. Beans. You know, when you think about just like I said, when you think about witchcraft, for example, you have this you know, olden day mentality about it. And it's almost like what we do when we think about whether it's witchcraft, or we think about the ways of God, we confine it or define it by a time. Right, if you're reading your Bible, you think that this is the only way that God moves, or these are the only things that he does, or or this is what witchcraft looks like. H this is how Satan operates, not recognizing these are ancient spirits you're talking about. These are spirits of intelligence that existed before time, and they're actually ahead of the times because they're not confined to time. And so what you see in a time is really them partnering with the intelligence and capacity of man based on where we are in that place, right, And what I mean by they partner with the intelligence of man. God is so ahead of the curve, right, The spiritual realm is so ahead of the curve. You know, there's a scripture in Ezekiel that many people believe that the vision that Ezekiel had was a vision of a spaceship because what he was defining had no connection to the times they were in. Right. This is where we talk about UFOs and aliens and all this stuff, because there are these you know, they're these things that people have had the ability to see maybe in this and in the time that they're in, there is no technology for what they're seeing, not recognizing that the spiritual realm is so ahead of the game. And so what shapes culture, it's not just someone woke up and said, let's make this a trend. No, there are spirits behind what trends. There are spirits that that influence what is shape in culture right now. So what you think is for the culture is for a kingdom, and now the question is whose kingdom is it building. Is it building the kingdom of God or is it building the kingdom of Satan? Right, I want to share with you just some scriptures as it relates to just understanding that your body is a vessel. Your body is a vessel for spirit, and that spirit should be the spirit of the Lord. There's a difference between your human spirit and the spirit of the Lord. You have your human and spirit. That's what's keeping your alife right now, right, and that's what you know happened when the Lord breathed into Adam and. He received his spirit. And this is why the Lord says things like before I formed you, I knew you. And that knowing is such an intimate knowing, like you have known you intimately, right have known you before you even knew yourself. And that is why even when we see creation gives us this mirror to understand the ways of God. And so even when you look at a woman, for example, a pregnant woman, there's a reason why God in his wisdom, designed it that she would carry her child. The child is within her. Right because there is this intimacy we have with God that we came from him. And it's almost like the natural realm tries to give language for how God functions. And so we see that the spirit of Man was within him. And so when he. Breathed into this you know shell, and then man received Adam received himself, and you know he became a living being. But now you have the spirit of the Lord. Right. So First Corinthians six point nineteen says this, don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God. You don't belong to yourself that the Holy Spirit, in the wisdom of God, it was not just for his spirit to be upon you, but it was for his spirit to live in you, because this is how we were designed. Right. But then guess who also looks at you as a house demonic spirits? Right? Let's look at. Matthew twelve, verse forty three to forty four, and it says when an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places seeking rest and finds none. Then he says, I will return to my house from which I came. Isn't that crazy? An unclean demonic spirit is calling a human being his house because we were designed again to carry a spirit and in some cases, unfortunately spirits that people carry when it's unclean or it's demonic and things like that. And so why would a demonic a demonic spirit call your body their house? Right? This is what this is gonna be something that we really cover in part two of this teaching. And this is gonna be I believe it should be an eight part teaching. But in part two of this teaching we're going to cover just the understanding and the activity of demonic spirits. But one thing you have to recognize about demonic spirits is that they are this embodied spirits. Right, they don't have a body, and they need a body to fulfill their desires. It's so pivotal to them. Imagine, I mean everybody has been in this place where you know and now know this is just the best example that comes to mind. Have you ever needed to pee so bad? Just it is the only thing you can think about is just using that restaurant. Okay, you don't care who you saw, who you ran into. You are running to the restaurant. Now, that feeling of just wanting to release yourself is how unclean spirits feel they have these desires and the only way they can release themselves is through a body. And so they're constantly looking for a body that can occupy to show off who they really are. Lust, anger, you know, hatred, suicide, all these things. Death. They want to express their nature. But in order for them to express their nature, they need a human body. Now, the same thing with the Lord. In order for the Lord to manifest his plans, well, not the same thing, but in other for the Lord to manifest his plans on Earth, he needs partnership with the human vessel. Because the Bible talks about the earth he has given to the sons of men, right, And it's not about gender. It just has to do with inheritance, right, So the earth he has given to you, and because he has given the earth to humans, then he has to partner with us in order to bring forth his agenda. Now, I'm just trying to lay the foundation of this conversation to get you curious rather right about what are you building? Whose kingdom are you building? To get you to the awareness that not everything is random, right, Things are not just what they look like. Everything in life is strategic towards something and if you're ignorant about life, then say already has the upper hand. You know, the Bible says this, that my people perish because of lack of knowledge, not that they don't have relationship with me, not that they don't have intimacy. But first of all, he says my people, right, he's not talking to strangers. He says, my people perish because of lack of knowledge. Because again, where there's ignorance, deception follows, and where there's ignorance, destruction follows. And if you're ignorant of the times, if you're ignorant about how life actually operates and functions, then you're already by default giving yourself over to the enemy. Because sometimes you can even be asking God to give you grace to walk into bondage. You can be praying to God to give you grace to do something because you feel like you don't have any other option. That this is just the way of the culture, this is the way of the business I'm in, this is the way of the fieldom and not recognizing that everything is strategic towards building a kingdom. And so I'm really excited for next week because we're gonna cover the activity of demons. And why this is so critical is because many times the thoughts that you're thinking you have to you will realize that they're not your own. Whenever you have you know you're constantly having negative thoughts. You thrive in chaos, not peace right. When things are too peaceful, it's almost like you need to find something wrong right. And these are people that get easily offended. The most random thing just offends them because the nature of the spirit will always manifest. You don't know how to thrive. What is there is peace. You have to argue about something, You have to make a point about something that leads to an argument. You see, these are the behaviors of demonic spirits. You know, when you have. These destructive self sabotaging you know patterns in your behavior. It's not because who wants to be self sabotage their life? Who wants to make decisions that are not working for them? And you just can't seem to shake it off. These are activities of demons. And that's what I love about the Book of Genesis because in that Garden of Eden you get a good glimpse of what life is really about. Adam's thoughts revealed the influence that God had in him, and when he shifted, it revealed the influence that Saytan had over him. And when you begin to recognize that even your thought patterns speaks to what kingdom you're a part of, then you're not just going to agree with things and call it your personality or call it your desire or your habit or your lifestyle. You will begin to wonder what am I really a part of? You? See, this is not to you know, cause anxiety or fear or anything like that, but it's to give you the reality that we came from God. You see everything again when you look at the creation right, when God wanted to create the sea creatures, he spoke to the waters. Right when he wanted to create animals. He spoke to the earth when he wanted to create you know, the trees and all of that. He spoke to the earth when he wanted to create you. When he wanted to create man, he spoke to himself, right, he says, let us create man in our own image. He spoke to himself. What happens if you take a fish out of water, It's gonna die because that is its source. Literally, study Genesis. When he wanted to create the sea creatures. He spoke to the water and spoke to it what it should bring forth. And so if you take a fish right now out of water, the fish is going to die. So when God created you, he spoke to himself. Your life outside of God is death. Your life outside of Christ is death. So it's not like this fear thing or God is insecure. No, you came from him. You came from him, and that is why he says, I'm setting a path before you. There's life, there is death. Choose life. Be aware of where you came from. I'm not asking you. Jesus is not asking you to follow him for him, but he's revealing to you the source of your life. That's why the Bible says that your life is hidden in Christ. You came from him, and so you can't just be passive about what you give yourself to you in the pretense or in the deception that is for the culture. No, it's for a kingdom. But what kingdom is it? So next week we're. Gonna dive deeper into the activity of demons. And I'm so excited. If this spoke to you, I want you to share this with a friend. You can subscribe to the channel just to make sure you get notified. And if you have any questions, just drop it in the comments and I'll do my best to try to get them answered. But it's gonna be great, and I believe that God is just gonna awaken you, awaken your understanding in really powerful ways.