8 Witchcraft Attack Symptoms: How To Know You’re Under Attack
The attacks of witchcraft usually come in a series of stings.
The successive stings are meant to hit the very places where we have been weakened by previous stings. In this way they build upon each other until the cumulative effect overwhelms the target. The stings of witchcraft usually come in the following order:
Discouragement
Confusion
Depression
Loss of Vision
Disorientation
Withdrawal
Despair
Defeat
This process can happen quickly, as it did with Elijah, but it usually works more slowly, which makes it even more difficult to discern. However, if we know the enemy’s schemes, we will not continue to be subject to them. When these symptoms begin to make inroads into our lives, we must identify them and resist the enemy until he flees. If we do not resist him, we will be the ones fleeing like Elijah.
The source of witchcraft used against us may not always be through the obvious satanic cults or New Age operatives. It can come through well-meaning, though deceived, Christians. These are the ones who start praying against leaders instead of for them. These misguided prayers have power because whatever is released on earth is released in Heaven, and whatever is bound on earth is bound in Heaven. If intercession is motivated by a spirit of control or manipulation, it is witchcraft and can have the same devastating power as black magic.
Other sources of charismatic witchcraft can be things such as gossip, political maneuvering, and jealousy; and they can have an effect on us whether we allow ourselves to be manipulated by them or not. For example, consider the result if we refuse to be manipulated by someone who has a control spirit, but allow ourselves to become resentful or bitter toward that person. In such a case, the enemy has still caused us to fall, and discouragement, disorientation, and depression will come upon us as surely as if we had submitted to the control spirit.
We are defeated by the enemy when he can get us to respond in any spirit other than the Holy Spirit, whose fruit is love, joy, peace, (see Galatians 5:22-23). The enemy’s strategy is to cause us to depart from the fruit of the Holy Spirit and try to combat him in our own strength. Remember, satan cannot cast out satan, and resentment will never cast out Jezebel—it will only increase her power.
Therefore, the basic strategy we must use to begin freeing ourselves from the power of witchcraft is to bless those who curse us. This does not mean we bless their works, but that we pray for them and not against them. If the enemy can get us to retaliate, he will have succeeded in causing us to use the same spirit, and we will have multiplied the very evil we were trying to cast out.
We are not warring against flesh and blood, and the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but spiritual. When we begin to pray blessings upon the people who are attacking us, the evil power of control and manipulation is broken over both them and us. We must not return evil for evil, but we must overcome evil with good.
Discerning the Stings of Witchcraft
Sting 1—Discouragement
Everyone gets discouraged at times, and it can be for many different reasons. Discouragement is not always the result of witchcraft being used against us. However, if we become subject to increasing discouragement for no apparent reason, witchcraft should be considered as a possible source. When your difficulties seem insurmountable and you want to give up, even though matters are really not any worse than usual, you are probably coming under spiritual attack. The enemy’s attempt to afflict you with discouragement is meant to weaken you for the next level of attack, which is:
Sting 2—Confusion
Again, we must look for a general and increasing “spirit of confusion” for which there is no apparent reason. Here we begin to lose our clarity about what we have been called to do, which of course will weaken our resolve. This confusion is meant to compound our discouragement, making us even weaker and more vulnerable to further attack, which will usually come in the form of:
Sting 3—Depression
This is a deeper problem than simple discouragement. It is the unshakable dread that comes from the combined effect of discouragement and confusion, along with a general negligence in spiritual disciplines that has usually slipped in by this time. Depression will become an increasingly prevalent problem in the last days, and we must gain victory over it. If we do not, it will quickly lead to the next sting:
Sting 4—Loss of Vision
This is the goal of the previous stings and it works to increase their effect. Here we begin to doubt that God has called us to the task in the first place. The only way we can sail through the storm of confusion is to hold our course, but we cannot hold our course if we do not know where we are going. We will not try to hold our course if we think it was wrong for us to pursue our vision in the first place. Such a loss of vision will lead to our drifting in circles at the time when we most need to “make straight paths for your feet…” (Hebrews 12:13). This sets us up for the next level of assault:
Sting 5—Disorientation
The combined result of depression, confusion, and loss of vision is usually disorientation. By this time, not only have we forgotten the course we are supposed to be holding, but we have also lost our ability to read the compass. The Scriptures will no longer speak to us, and it becomes difficult to trust the Lord’s voice or receive much encouragement from even the most anointed teaching or preaching. This is the point of spiritual incapacitation, the inability to function, which results in:
Sting 6—Withdrawal
When disorientation sets in, it is tempting to withdraw or retreat from our purpose in ministry, our fellowship with the rest of the Church, and often from our families and others we are close to. Withdrawal will result in:
Sting 7—Despair
Withdrawal from the battle leads quickly to hopelessness and despair. Without hope we can easily be taken out by the enemy, either through temptation, sickness, or death. Science has proven that when hope is removed, even the most healthy person will quickly deteriorate and die. But with hope, men and women have lived long past the point when a normal body would have quit. Despair will always lead to:
Sting 8—Defeat
The enemy’s purpose is to weaken us so we begin to fall farther and farther behind; then we can be more easily picked off. In Scripture the Amalekites typified satan and his hordes. It was the practice of the Amalekites to attack the weak and defenseless. As the camp of Israel crossed the wilderness, the Amalekites picked off the loners or stragglers who fell behind the rest of the camp.
Through witchcraft the enemy seeks to weaken believers so they will fall behind the rest of the camp and become easy prey. Israel was warned there would be perpetual war with the Amalekites. When Israel’s kings were commanded to fight them, they were also commanded to utterly destroy them and not take any spoil. We have a perpetual war against satan, and we cannot take any prisoners. Neither can we use that which is his in the service of God.
King Saul disobeyed this command, keeping Agag, king of the Amalekites, alive and also keeping some of the spoil “to sacrifice to the Lord…” (1 Samuel 15:15). This was a failure of the most foolish kind for one called to lead God’s people. In those days, keeping a rival king alive after a battle was done for one of two reasons: to make him an ally or to make him a slave. Saul foolishly thought he could make the one who personified satan himself into an ally or a slave.
It was no accident that it was an Amalekite who killed Saul and carried the news of Saul’s death to David. This Amalekite thought the news would be pleasing to David, but David was discerning and had him killed (see 2 Samuel 1:1-16). If we do not obey the Lord and utterly destroy the enemy we battle, he will eventually finish us off. There can be no alliance with the enemy; he and his hordes must be utterly destroyed. Neither let us be foolish enough to think we can use the enemy as our slave; in his guile he will quickly turn the tables.
Witchcraft is being used against the Church. Many who have failed to recognize it have been defeated, losing their vision, their ministry, their families, and even their lives. This is not sensationalism; it is fact. Paul said we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers (see Ephesians 6:12). Wrestling is the closest form of combat. The enemy is going to fight, and he will wrestle with us. If we decide we are just not going to fight, we will get pinned!
As Christians, we have no option whether or not to do spiritual warfare—if we want to survive, we must fight. But how do we combat this witchcraft? I explore the first principle of spiritual warfare required for every victory in my book, Overcoming Evil in the Last Days, not just witchcraft. This is how to claim victory over satan.
