Step 1 of 3: Read the Intro Below and Listen to the Audio if You Were Not Present During This Teaching

Witchcraft in Worship: The Spell is Broken

Date Preached: 4-6-2025 Sunday Evening
Pastor Gary Caudill | Washington Heights Baptist

What if some of the strongest spiritual battles we face don’t come from outside the church—but from within it? In this eye-opening message, Pastor Gary Caudill dives into Galatians 3 to expose how manipulation, tradition, and misplaced authority can quietly creep into our worship and leadership culture. The good news? The spell can be broken.

🔎 Discern the Deception
Paul asked the Galatians, “Who hath bewitched you?”—a warning not about sorcery with potions, but spiritual manipulation hiding in plain sight. This message unpacks how even well-meaning people can operate under a controlling spirit that draws others away from grace and into bondage.

💡 Break the Spell
Learn how religious legalism, emotional manipulation, and passive-aggressive control can bind churches in confusion and conflict. Pastor Gary explains how to identify the spiritual voices behind influence—and how truth and discernment can restore freedom.

✝️ Return to the Cross
True liberty comes when we abandon man-made control and re-center on Christ. This sermon calls every believer to walk in the Spirit, align with Scripture, and resist the urge to obey personalities over the voice of God.

Visit the following chapter to read in full context...

<< Galatians 3

Step 2 of 3: Dig Deeper with the Following Self-Guided Study

Dig Deeper: A Self-Guided Study

Witchcraft: Not Defined by Fanfare, But by Fruit

A Self-Study on Spiritual Manipulation, Rebellion, and the Clash of Kingdoms

By Pastor Gary

INTRODUCTION

Witchcraft, as taught in Scripture, is not just about magic spells or occult rituals. It is a spiritual rebellion against God’s authority, often cloaked in religious language, emotional influence, or charismatic leadership. While the world may paint witchcraft with robes and broomsticks, God sees it as a spiritual crime—treason against His throne.

This study will equip you to discern:

How witchcraft manifests in spiritual environments,
What Scripture says about rebellion, manipulation, and counterfeit authority,
And how to guard your heart against influences that subtly pull you away from Christ.

SECTION ONE: What Is a Witch Biblically?

A. Not a Costume—A Spirit

The Hebrew word for witch (kashaph) refers to someone who uses spiritual power illegitimately, often through demonic influence or familiar spirits.

In the New Testament, the Greek word pharmakeia (translated as “witchcraft” or “sorcery”) is tied to spiritual manipulation, drug use, and mind control.

Consider:
Exodus 22:18 – “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”
Leviticus 20:6 Also teaches that God turns His face against any soul that turns to familiar spirits.

This harsh language is not about vengeance, but preservation of spiritual order. Witchcraft represents a counterfeit priesthood, if you will—a deliberate attempt to channel supernatural power without submission to God.

SECTION TWO: What Does Witchcraft Do?

A. It Accesses Illegitimate Power

1 Samuel 28: Saul consults the witch of Endor to summon Samuel. He’s desperate, disobedient, and deceived.
Numbers 22–24: Balaam tries to curse Israel for profit—another example of using “spiritual gifts” for control and profit.

B. It Manipulates People for Gain

Acts 8: Simon the Sorcerer amazes the people with signs and then tries to buy apostolic power. Peter rebukes him harshly because his heart is in bondage to iniquity—even though he believed and was baptized.
Acts 16:16–18: Paul casts out a spirit of divination from a girl being used for profit. The power behind her “gift” was demonic.

C. It Often Poses as Godly While Usurping Authority

Revelation 2:20: Jesus rebukes the church for tolerating Jezebel, a woman who “calleth herself a prophetess.” She teaches and seduces His servants, leading them into compromise. The issue isn’t just her influence—it’s that she claimed spiritual authority God didn’t give her.

SECTION THREE: Rebellion is as Witchcraft in God’s Eyes

1 Samuel 15:23 – “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.”

When Saul disobeyed God by offering an unauthorized sacrifice, Samuel declared his rebellion equivalent to witchcraft. Why? Because rebellion and witchcraft share the same spiritual root: self-will, independence, and unauthorized action in spiritual things.

More than a minor offense, Saul crossed into spiritual territory he was not called to handle, and that opened the door to deception.

SECTION FOUR: The Clash of Kingdoms

Witchcraft is more than a sin—it’s a warfare strategy. The enemy uses counterfeit spiritual power to divert trust, worship, and authority away from Christ.

Exodus 7:11–12: Pharaoh’s magicians mimic Moses with their rods—but God’s rod swallows theirs.

2 Timothy 3:8: Paul names Jannes and Jambres—the magicians—who withstood Moses as examples of men who “resist the truth.”

Galatians 3:1: “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you…?” Paul wasn't talking about literal spells. He was confronting the spiritual seduction of legalism. These believers had started in the Spirit but were deceived into returning to religious systems of control. He used the word “bewitched” (baskaino) to highlight that this was spiritual deception, designed to divert them from Christ.

SECTION FIVE: How to Recognize Modern Witchcraft

It’s not always wrapped in occult symbols. Often, it looks like:

A leader or person who refuses spiritual accountability, but expects influence.
Someone who uses Scripture to manipulate, control, or build loyalty to themselves.
Doctrines or “deep revelations” that isolate you from the rest of the Body.
Emotional or spiritual manipulation that bypasses biblical order.

You don’t recognize witchcraft by robes, rituals, or religion—but by rebellion, manipulation, and counterfeit authority.

You will more likely come across a witch in a church than around a cauldron.

Step 3 of 3: Complete the Following 20 Question Quiz to Self-Test Your Knowledge of This Important Teaching

Tip: To get more out of it, select each possible answer, right or wrong, to see additional content on why the answer is either right or wrong.

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