Am I a witch – or was it God?!

By Helen Jesze, 23rd September 2016

“Yet when the Spirit of Truth comes, he'll guide you into all truth. He won't speak on his own accord, but he'll speak whatever he hears and will declare to you the things that are to come, “

John 16, 13 NIV

In these times of confusion and turmoil, when it seems many of us are facing challenges, and sometimes upheavals as never before, how important it is to ask the Holy Spirit to guide and direct us. He does this through the written Word of God – the Bible, by the inward witness in our spirits, by the anointed preached Word of God, and by the Gifts of the Spirit.

Whether it is about our family, our own personal life, work or ministry, Jesus wants to speak to us by His Spirit, and recently George and I have been asking the Lord to teach us this in a new way.

When Jesus was on the earth, most people did not realise who he was. Even religious people like the Pharisees, because of the hardness of their hearts, could not – or would not – see in him the promised Messiah. They sometimes attributed his miracles to the power of Satan, instead of the power of God. We might think we would never do that, but yet the Bible tells us that even born-again Christians can be deceived, lay-people and preachers.

We heard a preacher tell how he was invited to preach at a church. After the service a lady invited him and some others to her home for dinner. He was looking forward to the fried chicken, corn-bread and other good things he could smell being prepared in the kitchen, but before they started eating, she said to this preacher: “Brother, do you think I am a witch? My pastor says I am one!” He was shocked and did not know what to say.

Pointing to a wooden rocking-chair, she went on, “Please go and sit in that chair, and I’ll tell you why.” The man went and sat down, and the lady continued, ”One morning I was sitting in that chair reading my Bible and praying, when the Lord spoke clearly to me. He said: ‘Your son and his wife and the two children are going to the lake today. They are taking their boat and going fishing.’ I then saw in a vision, all the family getting the things ready and putting them in the car and the boat. My son hooked the trailer and the boat onto the car, and they all drove off.

“I saw every road they went down and the names of the roads, then they arrived at the lake. My son parked the car. They all got out and pushed the boat onto the water, then they climbed in. After they had gone just a short distance, one of the children leaned over and the boat capsized. They all fell into the water and I saw their bodies, floating – they were drowned. I screamed: No! No!

“I ran to the telephone and tried to ring them, but no-one answered. I called the police to go and look, but they said I was crazy. I called the Fire Brigade but they would not believe me either. So I called my pastor, thinking he would surely believe me and help me, but he said I must be a witch, for God would not show me anything like that! I was desperate and angry so I called the Fire Brigade again and threatened them that I would go to the newspapers and go on every TV and radio station, if they would not at least go and see.

“So very grudgingly they went to the lake; there they saw my son’s car and the overturned boat and found the bodies of my son, his wife and the two children. Brother, please tell me, did God warn me, did he show me what was going to happen, or am I a witch?” The preacher, who had very often seen the power of the Holy Spirit working in his life, said,”Dear Sister, of course you are not a witch! It was God who spoke to you! It is just a tragedy that your pastor could not tell the difference!”

This was the Gifts of the Spirit – a Word of Knowledge and a Word of Wisdom – some of God’s knowledge of what was happening at that moment, and also what would happen in the near future – working in that lady’s life. On this occasion, she was not able to save her family, but there are other times where God will show what could happen, or what Satan has planned to happen, and we can pray against this.

A young Christian couple had been married for several years but had no children. They were very sad about this, but overjoyed when a little girl was born to them. When she was just a few days old, the father dreamed that the child would be killed on her 6th birthday. He told his wife and they were devastated. How could this be? God had promised them a child and would he allow her to be killed, and even tell them about it so long in advance?!

It was at this time that they heard some Christian teaching which was new to them, about the authority we have in the Name of Jesus. They realised that God was not showing them what was going to happen to their daughter, but what Satan wanted to do, but that they could pray against that, and break its power in the Name of Jesus. So this is what they did. After that, every day, they thanked God for their daughter and spoke Life over her, proclaiming that the spirit of death had been broken.

At lunchtime on the little girl’s 6th birthday, her mother went to pick her up from school. The child saw her mother and ran across the road to meet her, not seeing the car which was coming straight at her. She was thrown high up into the air and came down again, but then it seemed the speed of her fall was checked, for she came down slower and landed quite gently in the road. The mother ran over; the little girl opened her eyes, laughed and said, “Mummy, did you see the angels? They came and held me and brought me down safely!”

What a difference to our first example! Yet if this man and his wife had not been open to God speaking to them, if they had not broken Satan’s power in this situation, their child would probably have been killed on that day. But GOD had turned it around!

Years ago there used to be a song: “Que sera, sera, whatever will be will be, The future’s not ours to see, Que sera, sera.”

The person who wrote the song believed that whatever Fate sent our way, we just have to accept it. But that it is not true! We, who have put our lives into the hand of Jesus, know that he has a good plan for us, and wants us to work together with him to bring this to pass. Many times we have seen that prayer and the working of the Holy Spirit have changed difficult or hopeless situations, helping us and bringing glory to his name!

So let’s believe for our families, surrounding them with prayer and the Word of God, listening and obeying the voice of the Holy Spirit, speaking God’s plans and purposes over them! It might look at the moment as though Satan is winning, but our God is greater, and will give us the victory!

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for your love and care for us and our loved ones. Give us new insight by your Spirit, that we might learn to pray correctly, that we might be ahead of Satan and his plans, for Jesus has broken his power. Make us people of the Spirit in this End-time we pray, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

“Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered,”

Romans 8, 26 KJV

“Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints…”

Ephesians 6:18 KJV