Witchcraft - Public Enemy #1 - Part 2 — Derek Prince

And the man walked out of Paul's presence, looking for somebody to lead him by the hand. And it says, the deputy, the consul, believed, being astonished at the teaching. And I would have believed too, if I'd seen that.

Believe me. And I tell you, we need more teaching like that. All right, Acts 16 verses 16 to 18. In Philippi, Paul and Silas have been there. They've contacted the ladies prayer group in the city. They're going every day to the prayer group.

The Spirit of Divination and Satanic Counterfeits

And then Satan gets on their tail. Don has got a beautiful message on this. I wish I could give it to you, but it takes too long. And it came to pass, as we went to prayer. Luke was included in this. A certain damsel, a slave girl, possessed with a spirit of divination.

Now that's not a good translation. What the Greek says is this. Having a spirit, a python. That's the word used in Greek. In fact, the word python comes from Greek. Now the python is the snake that does not kill its victims by biting and poisoning.

But by calling itself around their body and crushing them to death. This slave girl had a spirit, a python. Says in English, divination, fortune telling demon. She brought her master much gain. When people lost things, they went to her.

She told them where to find them. And I tell you, it did work. Satan has supernatural knowledge and he makes it available. Things that a fortune teller will tell you, do sometimes come true. Let me tell you this story, while I'm about it.

I'm trying to get through and God helping me, I'll be through by midnight. But this is an example. You see when you go to a fortune teller, you may not realize it. But you are going to a servant of Satan for help, which you should seek only from God.

And in doing that, you are really making Satan your God, in the person of the fortune teller. And if you go and hear what the fortune teller says, and believe it, you are really submitting to Satan's decree for your life.

And that's when Satan gets power over you. Now I was in a service in Chicago. And a woman came forward and asked me to pray for her for deliverance. And I looked at her and said, no I won't pray for you, because I believe you're a medium.

And I won't pray for you. So she went away. And about six weeks later she came back and said, I've repented, pray for me. Well I was far from convinced that she had repented. But I thought I can't refuse on that basis.

I began to pray for her. And I prayed and several spirits apparently left her. And I was getting somewhat tired. So I just leaned against the altar. The woman standing by me. And while I was leaning there, she looked at me and she said, I see you in a car and it's wrecked against a tree.

And praise God I was on the alert. That was Satan's decree for me. I said you divining spirit, I reject that. I do not receive it. I don't intend to be in any car that's wrecked against any tree, in the name of Jesus.

But had I said, oh I'm going to be in a car that's going to be wrecked against a tree. I would have submitted to Satan's decree for my life. I know of another case of a woman who's a dentist's wife. She came for deliverance in meetings that I was in, also in Chicago.

And she's one of these people who would look at me and say, am I completely free? And I always say it's not my business to tell you. Am I completely free? Well I said you could be. But then on the other hand I'm not sure that you are.

And she came to me the third time. When I said if you want to be frank I'll stick my neck out. I don't believe you are free. She said why not? I said all I can sense is that somewhere you crossed the line into forbidden territory.

You got involved with a representative of Satan. She was rather indignant. So the couple that brought her, who were friends of ours. She was going away complaining, brother Prince didn't help me. So they said well why don't you pray to God and ask God to show you if what he said might have been true.

So next morning alone in an apartment, she got down on her knees and said God if that was true. And if there was a time when I crossed into forbidden territory, show it to me. And immediately she remembered that before she was converted as a nominal church member in a Methodist church, the most spiritual, I would have to say quote, spiritual lady in the church, came to her once and said let me read your palm.

Let me tell your fortune. And she submitted to this lady. And the lady said you're going to give birth to a baby and it's going to be born dead. And she believed it. And she gave birth to a baby and it was born dead.

And it had the umbilical cord wrapped twice around its throat, which choked it. The doctor who delivered the baby said I have never seen another case like this in all my experience. And praying there in that room, all this came back to her.

And she realized that she'd crossed forbidden territory, by going to that woman in the Methodist church and letting her tell her fortune. And that woman had decreed Satan's decree over her life. And she had submitted to the decree and permitted Satan to do it.

She then renounced and rejected that spirit of divination, released herself from it, all by herself in the apartment. And she said I had a most violent physical reaction, all by myself. But I was delivered.

Deliverance from the Spirit of Divination

All right here's this girl with a spirit of divination, a fortune-telling demon. Followed and cried saying these men are the servants of the Most High God, who show unto us the way of salvation. Notice two things.

Number one, every word she said was true. Number two, she was the first person in Philippi to recognize the preachers of the gospel. And yet she was saying it by the influence of an evil spirit. So people say so naively well what she told me was true.

It must be of God. Friend I want to tell you this, Satan mixes truth and lies. If he only told lies, no one would ever believe him. So he tells you enough of the truth to get you believing him. And then he injects his lies.

So for many days Paul and Thomas were tormented by this girl following them. Now some people believe she was a believer, some say she wasn't. I don't think you can prove it either way. Then the Holy Spirit showed Paul what to do.

He turned, he did not speak to the girl. He spoke to the spirit of divination in the girl. And in the name of Jesus Christ he commanded that spirit to come out. And it says he came out of her the same hour.

And she lost the ability to tell fortune. And her owners got mad because they couldn't make any more money out of her. They had Paul and Silas beaten and thrown in jail. And then Don Basham's message goes like this.

Sitting there in the jail round about midnight, Silas said to Paul, there you are Paul if you hadn't got into the deliverance ministry everything would have been all right. Mind you there's a lot of truth in that.

See it's fantastic when you think of the reaction. Because one slave girl lost the ability to tell fortunes. The whole city was turned into an uproar. Then there was more in that than was natural. Behind that slave girl was the whole kingdom of darkness.

And Paul challenged it. And the whole kingdom of darkness reacted against it. Very deep truth in that. Acts 19 verses 11 following. God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul. We talked about special miracles this morning.

Thank God for even ordinary miracles. But praise the Lord for special miracles. And I really believe we saw one or two special miracles here this morning. That lady that had the power of God even going through her teeth.

I would call that a special miracle myself. So that from Paul's body were taken unto the sick, anxious or aprons. And the diseases departed from them and the evil spirits went out of them. Notice evil spirits and physical disease are very closely connected.

And in many cases healing could only be accomplished through deliverance from the spirits of disease that caused the condition. Now then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists. Exorcists are people who go around claiming to be able to get rid of evil spirits.

They're a well-known breed in many parts of the world. The Jews have practiced exorcism for more than 2 ,000 years. The Muslims practice exorcism. One of the ways the Muslims use to get evil spirits out of a person, is to put hot irons on the area of the body affected by the evil spirit.

And I've seen people, their body burnt all over, by the exorcist plying this hot iron to get rid of the demons. But I don't think in most cases it works. But that just shows you. All pagan nations know that evil spirits are real.

The only thing they don't know is how to deal with them. And that comes through the gospel. Well anyhow, these exorcist Jews took upon themselves to call over those who had evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus saying, we adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.

And there were seven sons of one Sceva Jew, chief of the priests, which did so. The evil spirit in the man answered and said, Jesus I know and Paul I know. But who are ye? Now in the English the word know is the same.

But in Greek it's different. He said, Jesus I acknowledge and Paul I know about. But who are you? And the man whom the evil spirit was, leaped on them and overcame them and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

You understand a person who has an evil spirit, often has totally supernatural strength. So that one man could beat up and drive out seven men. I remember a woman that we dealt with, my wife will vividly remember her, who had amongst other things the spirit of Antichrist.

And in a certain Pentecostal assembly, when I was not present. But she told me this herself. She went forward to the altar, you know the kind of wooden bench they have at the front for prayer. And they began to pray for her deliverance.

And she said the pastor was sitting on one end of the bench. And his wife was sitting under the other end of the bench. And she said when this spirit manifested itself, I lifted that bench with both of them sitting on it.

And she was a weak diabetic woman. What the Bible says is up-to-date, it's real. All right this was known, verse 17, to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus. And fear fell on them all. The name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.

Occult Books, Spiritual Conflict, and Home Cleansing

Now listen. And many that believed, came and confessed and showed their deeds. Notice they were believers. They were Christians, not unbelievers. Many of them also used glorious arts. That's magic and the whole realm of the occult.

Brought their books together and burned them before all men. And they counted the price of them and found it 50 ,000 pieces of silver. 50 ,000 dollars worth of books publicly burned. Because those people had suddenly seen a real demonstration of the conflict between the power of God and the power of Satan.

And no longer were they going to fool around and keep these Christ dishonoring occult books in their homes. And I tell you, the Church of Jesus Christ needs a literal home cleaning. There are thousands of Christians who need to go through their libraries, their basements and other places.

And get out and burn masses of Christ dishonoring, satanically inspired material. The Bible says in Deuteronomy, I think it's the 7th chapter, God warned Israel if you take an accursed thing into your house, you become accursed like the thing.

Again I have many examples, but time does not permit me to go into them. But what I'm pointing out to you, is these people were believers. That they had one foot in both camps. One in the Lord's camp, one in the devil's camp.

They thought they could get away with a little intermixture of the occult. Until they saw the real power of Satan demonstrated. Then they said, away with it. A woman came to me for help sometime back from New England, which is the center of witchcraft.

And I had the most pathetic letters from her. My wife will probably remember. She said every time I take a letter to the mail, to mail it to you, the devil tries to kill me on the way to the mailbox. And she said I don't know whether I'll get back home alive.

She said I am a doctor of theosophy and I have spent years in studying the occult and I need help. Are you willing to help me? So I said meet me in a certain camp I was going to and I'll do my best. And my wife and I spent several hours ministering to her.

She got a measure of deliverance. But at the end I said to her God will not finish this deliverance off, until you get rid of all your books. He'll keep you on the hook in his faithfulness and mercy, till you've got rid of the books.

She said my books cost, are worth about eight or nine thousand dollars. I said what's your soul worth? But as far as I know that woman never got rid of those books. And she'll probably end a lost soul, because of eight thousand dollars worth of occult literature.

False Gospels and Bewitching Believers

All these things in the Bible are true and up to date. I must keep going. Galatians 1 6 through 9. Paul is really upset with the Galatian Christians. He says I marvel that ye are so still removed from him that told you into the grace of Christ, unto another gospel.

And we don't need to read the next two verses. But the problem with the Galatians was, a false gospel had been brought to them, after they had become Christians, been saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit.

A false gospel had been brought to them and they began to accept it. And Paul is tremendously disturbed about their condition. And he writes these words to them. Then in Galatians 3 1 he says, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you?

Notice through receiving a false gospel, they had come under the power of witchcraft. They were spirit baptized believers. The very next verse says that they had received the Holy Spirit. But because they had turned away from the truth of the gospel and embraced a false gospel, a deceptive teaching, they had become bewitched.

They had come under the power of witchcraft. And the evidence is found in Galatians chapter 4 verses 9 and 10. But now after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggary elements?

When unto ye desire again to be in bondage? The modern translations say elemental spirits. They've gone back to the worship of elemental spirits. Ye observe days and months and times and years. There's the outward mark of it.

Horoscopes and astrology. How many charismatics are in that category today? Millions. Going on to 2nd Timothy chapter 3. 2nd Timothy chapter 3 verses 6 and following. For of this sort are they which creep into houses and leave captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

There are some teachers who get into homes and prey on silly women. All then goes back to the history of Israel and the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. And reminds the Christians of the conflict that Moses had before Israel could be delivered from Egypt, with the magicians of Egypt, whose names were Jannes and Jambres.

That's why they're named then. All right. Now as Jannes and Jambres, the Egyptian magicians, withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith. So just as magicians resisted Moses when God's people were to be delivered from Egypt.

So in this age practitioners of the occult will resist the messengers of the gospel. But I love the next verse. Oh you should underline that verse. But they shall proceed no further, for their folly shall be made manifest unto all men as was the folly of the Egyptian magicians.

Now friends we're coming to the place of an open conflict between the forces of Satan and the forces of Christ. And it's going to be fought out in the supernatural realm. But praise God the Bible declares that the folly of Satan's administrators and ministers will be openly manifested.

And I believe it will happen in the next ten years. I believe there'll be a showdown between occult power and the power of the Holy Spirit in the true Church of Jesus Christ. And thank God I'm on the winning side.

Now the same chapter verse 13. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. This is a picture of the approach of the close of the age. Where the King James says seducers, the Greek says magicians.

It's the same word that's used in Acts 8, Acts 13 and elsewhere. So as we come near the end of the age there will be more and more of evil men and the practitioners of the occult, deceiving but themselves deceived.

That's exactly the way it is. And I suppose there's no place in the world where it is more manifest today than Southern California. These words are being exactly fulfilled in Southern California today.

Evil men and magicians, practitioners of the occult, are getting worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. You could really put a line against that and say happening now. I really believe it is. All right now we're going back to the Old Testament for some other examples.

Occult Opposition to Moses, Balaam, and Elijah

And God has shown me that every time he's going to do something tremendous for his people. The last opposition of Satan to what God is going to do, comes through occult, supernatural, satanic power. That's Satan's last attempt to frustrate the purposes of God.

Go back and we won't turn there tonight, because I don't have time to read it. But to Exodus chapter 7 and 8. And you'll find that when Moses was sent back by God to deliver Israel out of the bondage of Egypt.

He was given certain miraculous signs that he was to perform. And one of those signs was that he would cast his rod on the ground and when it was cast on the ground it would become a snake. So at a certain point God told Moses go in before Pharaoh and do your sign.

As evidence that I've commissioned you and this is my seal of authority. So Moses went in before Pharaoh. Now this is remarkable when you think about it. Took his rod and threw it down on the ground and it became a snake.

And you know what Pharaoh did? He said send for my magicians. And he said to the magicians now this is what Moses can do, what can you do? And they said we can do the same. And they threw their rods on the ground and they became snakes.

But there's one happy detail. Moses snake ate up the snakes of the Egyptians. I often think about that when I'm in a spiritual conflict, confronted by the forces of the enemy. Well let's throw our rods down.

But God's rod will eat up the snakes of the enemy. However notice the point that the magicians could do the supernatural by the power of Satan. They could do what Moses did. Well then God said to Moses do the next sign.

Take the water out of the river and turn it into blood. And Aaron I think it was, stretched out his rod over the rivers and waters and ponds of Egypt. They all became blood. What did Pharaoh do? He sent for the magicians.

He said this is what Moses and Aaron could do. What can you do? They said we can do the same. They did. The third sign God told Moses. Now he said call for the frogs. Call them up out of the rivers and ponds of Egypt.

And the frogs came up out of all the rivers and ponds and filled the houses of Pharaoh and his servants, so that they just couldn't go to bed for frogs. They couldn't use their cooking utensils for frogs.

There were just frogs everywhere. But Pharaoh was not unduly impressed. He may have been inconvenienced. But he wasn't impressed. He sent for his magicians and said this is what Moses did. What can you do?

They said we can do the same. And they called the frogs up out of the river. You should read that carefully. It's in Exodus chapter 7 and 8. Satan's practitioners can do the supernatural by the power of Satan.

And in many cases they can mimic what the supernatural power of God does. Then God said to Moses, stretch out your rod over Egypt and the dust will become life on man and beast. Moses did it. Pharaoh sent for the Egyptian magicians.

And they tried to do the same and couldn't do it. So Moses had gone beyond the ability of the magicians. And then the magicians said to Pharaoh, this is the finger of God. This is something we can't do.

But notice that was the last attempt to frustrate the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt. Satan resorted to occult supernatural power. And my conviction is every time God is going to deliver his people, the last opposition will be in the occult supernatural realm.

The battle will not be fought on the natural plane. All right we come to a point about 40 years later when Israel was just about to go into the promised land. And Balaam the king of Moab feared them and wanted to hinder them but could not defeat them in battle.

So what did Balaam do? He called for a magician, Balaam. And Balaam who was a well known, he was probably I would say the, let's say the Edgar Cayce of his day. Came out, well first of all he didn't come.

He was in touch with the true God. This is an amazing story, time doesn't take, it doesn't permit to go into detail. But Balaam said to God, shall I go? God said no. Because these people aren't cursed, they're blessed, they're my people.

So Balaam sent a message back to Balaam, he said can't come. Well Balaam said we'll increase the honorarium. We'll give you twice as much, if you come. Balaam said I tell you I can't come. But he was pretty interested in the money.

So he prayed to God a second time, which he had no right to do really. And God said you can find this in the 22nd chapter of Numbers. God said if they come and call you again, go with them. They didn't come and call him again.

But he still went with them. And then there's the famous scene of the angel standing in the way. And God opening the ashes mouth and showing Balaam that he was rebellious and disobedient. But he arrived and Balaam said curse me the people.

And Balaam said I'm warning you in advance Balaam, I can't say one word more than God gives me. So when Balaam asked him to curse them, he opened his mouth and blessed them. And every time he opened his mouth, he blessed them more than the time before.

So the purposes of Balaam against Israel were frustrated. But notice that he resorted to the supernatural. The last weapon of Satan is in the occult realm. We go to 1st Kings chapter 18, the great conflict between Elijah and the prophets of Baal.

There were 400 prophets in one group, false prophets and 450 in another group. 850 prophets, evil prophets, satanically empowered prophets. And Elijah said now come on, we'll see which God will answer by fire.

He said you take a bullet, we'll take, I'll take a bullet. And you're many, you start. Now what impresses me about that story is that they really believed they could get fire down out of heaven. Otherwise they wouldn't have accepted the challenge.

And it says they leaped on the altar, they cut themselves with lancets till the blood gushed out. They behaved exactly like the dervishes of the Middle East and the Orient. Seeking to get supernatural satanic power to kindle that sacrifice on the altar.

But it didn't work. And you know why it didn't work? My opinion, because of the presence of Elijah. His power restrained the supernatural power of Satan. Now in Revelation 13, 13 it says at the end of this age the false prophet will be able to call fire down from heaven.

And work many other miracles. The ability to work miracles is not necessarily an attestation that a man is a representative of the true God. So then Elijah called down the fire and it fell. And the people fell upon their faces and said the Lord he is the God.

So all through Old Testament and New Testament we see that at every critical point in God's dealings with his people. The ultimate in Satan's opposition is in the realm of the occult and the supernatural.

And he has to be defeated in that realm. Now let me give you two cities which are pictures in the Old Testament of the power of witchcraft. The one is Nineveh, the other is Babylon. Now I'll only briefly read these scriptures.

Nineveh, Babylon, and the False Church

Nahum, the prophet Nahum is the prophet that describes God's judgment on Nineveh. And in Nahum chapter 3 and verse 4, speaking to Nineveh, in the word of the Lord, Nahum says, because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the well-favored harlot, the mistress of witchcraft, that selleth nations through her whoredoms and families through her witchcrafts.

Now that's what witchcraft does. It sells nations and families into the hand of Satan. And Nineveh was a center of witchcraft. It was a center of the deliberate cultivation of satanic power. Now turn to Babylon in Isaiah 47 and again we just read quickly a few verses.

Isaiah 47 verse 1 and a couple of other verses. Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon. This is spoken to Babylon. It's God's predicted judgment on Babylon. Verse 9, these two things shall come upon thee in a moment, in one day.

The loss of children and widowhood, they shall come upon thee in their perfection, for the multitude of thy sorceries and for the great abundance of thine enchantments. Babylon also was a city totally given over to the cultivation of Satan's supernatural power.

And in verses 12 and 13 of the same chapter, God again challenges Babylon. He says, stand now with thine enchantments and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast labored from thy youth.

If so thou shalt be able to profit, if so thou mayst prevail. Enchantments and sorceries. And then the next verse says, thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.

That is essentially astrology and horoscopes. Monthly prognosticators are horoscope readers in modern English. Babylon was a center of all that. Now it is significant that in the New Testament, Babylon is the name given to the final abominable religious group that become the harlot at the end of the book of Revelation.

The false church. And I want to point out this to you in reading from Revelation chapter 18. The ultimate enemy of the true church is always the false church. The greatest, the most cruel persecutors of true religion are the representatives of false religion.

It has been that way from the beginning of human history till the end of human history. It does not change. The first scene, the first picture of human religion are the two sacrifices of Abel and Cain.

Abel representing faith in God, the need for a redemptive sacrifice, shed blood, the supernatural testimony of God's power. Cain representing human religion of good works without shed blood or substitutionary sacrifice.

Simply offering the fruit of an earth that was already cursed of God. And the net result, listen friends, Abel's religion produced a martyr, Cain's religion produced a murderer. And that's been so ever since, all through human history.

The great persecutors of the saints of God are the representatives of false religion. Now looking at that, look in Revelation 18 which is the picture of God's judgment upon this evil end time religious system.

Call Babylon and see what God says. Revelation 18 verse 2. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen. And has become a habitation of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit.

That's the Prince version, just a little brought up today. Babylon became the center of all demons and unclean spirits. Now look what it says about Babylon at the end of that chapter. The last two verses, verses 23 and 24.

The light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee, and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee. For thy merchants were the great men of the earth, for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.

Babylon at the end time is the center of satanic deception for all nations. And now look at the next verse. And in her, Babylon was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all that was slain upon the earth.

All murder originates in false religion. You better give heed to this because it hasn't finished. The last great conflict is just ahead. You want to know the real enemy of the true church. It isn't the communists, it's the false church.

And the true church, true to Jesus Christ, is going to be more and more filled with the Spirit of God. Conversely the false church, disloyal to Jesus Christ, is going to be more and more filled with psychic and archaic power.

And the conflict and the contrast will be open for all to see. God intends to demonstrate it. Now it's only just about 8 .30 and I have a little more to say. And I think this is good. Now I'm going to take one final character.

Jezebel as the Biblical Picture of Witchcraft

The epitome of witchcraft. One woman who is the Bible picture of witchcraft. And I suppose most of you know her name. Jezebel, that's right. Jezebel is mentioned precisely seven times in the Old Testament and once in the New.

And I'll take it. We start in 1st Kings 16 and we read through into 2nd Kings. Just picking out a few verses. 1st Kings chapter 16 verses 30 and 31. 1st Kings chapter 16 verses 30 and 31. Ahab, the son of Omri, did evil in the sight of the Lord, above all that were before him.

Ahab was the king of God's people, the northern kingdom Israel. And it came to pass as it had been a right thing for him to walk in the sons of Jeroboam, who made the two golden calves. That he took Jezebel, the daughter of Ephbaal, king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal and worshipped him.

Under the influence of his wife Jezebel. And Satan made a master move in Jezebel, because he put Jezebel beside the political head of Israel. And Ahab, a weak man, came under the total domination of his wife Jezebel.

This is the typical picture. It's not very much different in Washington DC, from time to time in these days. Satan will try to capture a nation, by witchcraft, working through the political leader. Here's the whole pattern unfolded in Scripture.

All right, now Jezebel was the bitter, cruel, relentless enemy of every true servant of the true God. 1st Kings 18 verse 4, it was Jezebel who cut off the prophets of the Lord. 1st Kings 19 verses 2 3, after the great conflict on Mount Carmel.

When Elijah had demonstrated the superior power of the true God in the supernatural realm. Jezebel sent a message. And I'd like to read it, 1st Kings 19 verses 2 3. Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, so let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of those prophets that were killed on Mount Carmel, by tomorrow about this time.

And when he, Elijah, saw that, he arose and went for his life. You know what God showed me? You can measure the power of witchcraft in a woman, when you consider the fact that even the prophet Elijah fled from Jezebel.

And when I saw that, I realized the enormity of the evil power that confronts us. I mean although there was a man of God, a man of strength and a man of courage, it was Elijah. But even he fled from the witch Jezebel.

See I'm coming back to this. Unless the eyes of men, and I mean males, are opened to recognize what they're dealing with. Men are no match for witches. They cannot fight that power. And you'll find that where witchcraft prevails, the man is a spiritual dropout.

He may be a church member, but as for having any gumption or doing anything for God, he'll never do it. And that's the reason why, I would say, eighty percent of American males are spiritual dropouts.

Can you say amen to that? I think that's an underestimate. The American male can succeed in any other area of activity, remarkably, except the two areas of the home and spiritual leadership. All right we're going on.

1st Kings 21 verses 5 to 16, Jezebel procured the death of Naboth. An upright servant of God, by false witnesses. And 1st Kings 21 verses 25 to 26, this is summing up the influence of Jezebel over Ahab.

But there was none like unto Ahab, who did send himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. And he did very abominably in following idols. The real power in that situation was not Ahab, it was Jezebel.

Ahab did what Jezebel told him to. And that is always wrong. I'll come to the basic scriptural reason for that in a few moments. A situation where a husband is dictated to by his wife, is always evil.