Deliverance from Witchcraft & Familiar Spirits

Part I:

Witchcraft Practices

Chapter 1

Acquisition of Witchcraft:

How one becomes a Witch or Wizard

What is witchcraft?

Witchcraft is sometimes also called witchery or spell-craft. Witchcraft is defined as the use of magical powers, especially magical powers obtained from the devil to benefit oneself or to harm others. It is believed that people who practice witchcraft or witchery can abandon their bodies at night and travel in the spirit form to cause harm to others.

The term ‘witch’ comes from the Old English word ‘Wicca’, which is derived from the Germanic root ‘wic’, meaning to bend or to turn. By using magic a witch bends or turns events. Today, the term ‘witch’ can be applied to both males and females. In the past, male witches were referred to as ‘warlocks’ or ‘wizards’.

As the term ‘witch’ refers to the art of changing events and things, witches therefore have the capacity to destroy humanity. They are diabolical and subtle. But it is strange to notice that modern society regard witchcraft as normal and even more civilized to be part of a coven. Witchcraft practices in the Western conception are harmless. They have rights, including the right to be protected. To this I say that of course they have rights, but they do not have the right to destroy people’s destinies and lives.

In this time, we must see witchcraft as something evil and potentially harmful to people. This is why the Bible states clearly that we should suffer not a witch to live. Therefore, anyone suspected of practising witchcraft within the church must be delivered in the name of Jesus Christ. Witchcraft is ‘a satanic spiritual power practised by thousands of people, knowingly or otherwise, in order to advance the kingdom of Satan’. "It includes verbal abuse and magical spells of which the result is always the same: devastation, poverty, divorce, mental derangement and mental slavery. Witchcraft is the supposed power of a person to harm others by occult or supernatural means.

How is witchcraft acquired?

A person who has acquired witchcraft is believed to have the capability of flying in the night to commit heinous deeds. These people are also believed to have the power of conjuring the dead and talking with them, or making them do certain evil things. Practitioners of witchcraft are also believed to be able to cast spells on people in order to make them do certain things against their will or in order to destroy their lives.

The belief in witchcraft has existed since time immemorial. But how is witchcraft acquired?

There are several ways in which someone is believed to acquire witchcraft or witchery. The following are some of them:

a. It could be inherited

Witchcraft can be inherited, just as a property can be inherited from a relative who is about to depart this life. Here, a relative who is a witch or wizard can leave behind the witchcraft for someone else in the family to inherit.

There are several traditional beliefs as to how one becomes a witch or wizard. A witch spirit can be inherited with a witch mother or father passing down the witchcraft to her daughter or his son through an item of clothing or other object passed on from generation to generation. During deliverance, the majority of them revealed how they became witches and wizards. A twenty-five –year old woman confessed that she became a witch through her father’s elder brother.

Witchcraft is also believed to be mostly inherited from a dying witch within a family. Thus, for the Akan, witchcraft is mainly acquired within one‘s family. It is held that an inherited witchcraft cannot be given to a person in another clan, unless in an exceptional case where it can be given to a true friend. It is believed that witchcraft that has been transferred by a dying witch to a beloved without one‘s knowledge, begins to manifest in the recipient after the death of the transferor.

Whenever a witch is on the verge of dying, he or she bestows witchcraft through transference to any family member physically very close to him or her in the event of death. No one dies and leaves this world with witchcraft. It is often left as a family legacy. It is only transferable within a particular family.

b. Through Food

Witchcraft can be acquired through the food that we eat and water that we drink. It is believed that a practitioner of witchcraft who wants to initiate another person into the practice can easily put ‘witch substance’ into food or drink for the person to consume. And the moment the person consumes the food or water, the person acquires the witchcraft. A person can also, supposedly, acquire witchcraft through eating certain foods, such as mash plantain mixed with palm oil (εto), prepared by a witch and infested with his/her power, palm soup and fufu, or any edible substance. It is believed that witchcraft can be acquired through various means: One such means is hereditary.

One may intentionally acquire or buy witchcraft. Witchcraft may be given by the devil. It can also be inherited from a dying witch within a family or be given to a person in the mother’s womb. The Akan believe that they feed on human flesh and human blood.

One of the witches said she received her witchcraft by the uncle through food and later she saw herself flying at night.

A twenty-seven year old woman also confessed that an old woman gave it to her when she was very young through water. A fifty-eight year old also said her mother gave it to her. About 60 percent of the witches who were delivered through prayers had obtained the witch spirit from family members.

c. By Birth

One of the most common ways to acquire witchcraft is through birth. According to the ‘experts of the supernatural’, many practicing people have no other option because they are born with witchcraft. According to this belief, when one’s parents are engaged in this practice, there is a very high likelihood that the person would be born with witchcraft. This means that some people are believed to be born with the witchcraft spirits. One of the agents told me that they can possess a child in the womb. For instance, there are a lot of movies depicting this fact. Some children, right from day one, are noted as mature witches and wizards.

According to Timmons, Ashtoreth is a demonic angel known as the Queen of Heaven ( Jeremiah 7:18; 44:17-19). People worship her as a goddess with Baal as the male counterpart. When Ashtoreth possesses people, she is able to transfer the spirit of witchcraft from the fingers of those possessed to new converts. These spirits can even be transferred into the womb to possess the body of an unborn child.

The saddest aspect of this acquisition of witchcraft is that some claim that a person whose witchcraft is by birth might have received it from almighty God; such witches are held to be very powerful. Or, it might have been given to a person in the mother’s womb.

d. Some acquire it intentionally

Others also acquire witchcraft intentionally. Some even buy it. A young boy of about twelve years said he acquired witchcraft power through ‘waakye’ (locally prepared rice with black-eyed beans and hot pepper).

Another means of acquiring witchcraft is believed to be through the purchasing of it, by anyone who wants it.

It is argued that the type which can be bought is not considered witchcraft. It is usually called Nzema Bayie or Sika Duro (juju money). It is believed that such charms can produce money for those who acquire them. Usually acquisition of such power is supposed to be effected after the death of a beloved wife, child, nephew, or after a person becomes impotent if a man, or barren if a woman.

People will fall sick, especially when the witchcraft spirit does not agree with their spirit.

e. Through Fashion

Some people think that fashion is limited to external behaviour, namely the people we associate ourselves with, the places we go, certain activities we enjoy and the clothes we wear. Fashion is more than we think. It is internal because fashion begins in the heart. Since it begins in the heart, the devil captures many people’s hearts through fashion. Fashion is about gratifying physical desires, worshipping the god of materialism and being obsessed with power, status, importance, and fame. Many women are likely to acquire witchcraft through fashion, especially through their hairstyle. For instance, a fifty-six year old woman confessed that she got her witchcraft powers in a salon. According to her as soon as she entered the salon to plait her hair something mysteriously entered her and this resulted in her being a witch. She confessed that she started seeing things and flying at night.

f. Through Sex

Through pre-marital sex or normal sexual intercourse with a witch or wizard, one can become a witch. A woman of about thirty-six years confessed that she became a witch through her boyfriend, who was a wizard.

g. Through learning or reading occult books

‘Many also of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. And a number of those who practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all; and they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of God grew and prevailed mightily.’ (Acts 19:18-20 RSV)

Witchcraft can also be acquired through learning. It is not uncommon for someone to possess witchcraft through studying it.

Many of us are caught up in the deception of the devil through witchcraft. The materialistic part of our society has made the acquisition of the practices so easy and indeed appealing to the young generation.

Hymers notes that in the late 1970s youth culture in the USA turned to orgies, incantations, and blood sacrifice. Witchcraft acquisition was on the increase. ‘On sale in every Seven- Eleven grocery store is a little book called The Witch’s Bible. Any child can buy it. On the jacket are these words, The Witch’s Bible. The first complete and authoritative inside looks at witches and witchcraft. Here is everything you need to know about becoming a witch…The Witch’s Bible is a powerful tool. Use it wisely and use it well.’ This is how widespread witchcraft acquisition could be. Many people become witches every day. The below listed are some more of the means by which witchcraft is acquired.

h. Through Initiation of Water Spirit

The serpent is the symbol of water spirit worship. People have allegiance to their spirit master over their natural family. This gives legal rights to the demons over that person and their family. Initiation into water spirit cults comes through idolatry and ancestral worship, sexual sin and spiritual fornication. Examples include cutting the body, drinking blood, palm reading, having a spiritual husband or wife (demon marriage), and strong faith in reincarnation, witchcraft and sorcery. Bathing in a river after witches have bathed can lead to a mother giving birth to a witch.

i. Through Gifts

Another means of obtaining witchcraft is said to be the receiving of gifts. Witchcraft can be acquired through things such as necklaces, talismans, amulets, lockets, etc. that contain ‘witch substances’, which are given by practitioners of witchcraft to non-practitioners. The moment the non-practitioner puts on these items, the person acquires the witchcraft.

A practising witch, it is believed, can infest articles such as necklaces, beads and pieces of clothes with their power and give them to a person without the recipient‘s knowledge that the articles contain witchcraft.

A person practicing witchcraft can initiate somebody into the practice by giving them a gift containing ‘witch substance’. When the person receives such a gift and goes ahead to use it, then he or she instantly gets possessed by the spirit of the witchcraft.

In the final analysis, it should be kept in mind that some people receive witchcraft against their will and that these normally suffer a lot from abnormal diseases such as epilepsy, insanity and cancer, and may even die, because of the rejection of witchcraft.

These days, witchcraft practices are more sophisticated than before, because now many people are becoming witches through so many means. For instance, a lot of our youths are becoming witches and wizards through the internet. The current ‘sakawa’ phenomenon has introduced many of them into witchcraft activities and manipulations. All categories of people, young and old, male and female, literate and illiterate are believed to contain possible witches.

In summary, there are various means for a person to become a witch or wizard. It is either by choice or done against one’s will, but is often to a large extent done secretly and often nocturnally in Africa, because many self-confessed witches base the evidence of their being witches