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“A wounded spirit who can bear?” (Proverbs 18:14)
Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.
— from the hymn “Come Ye Disconsolate”
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REJECTION
This article is from a six-part series that ran in our free online publication, A Healing Moment. You might want to begin with the first part of the series.
REJECTION: Witchcraft
As mentioned in the last issue, rejection begins an insidious process that leads to two different lines of reaction. Neither of these is an absolute law, according to Derek Prince, but he has seen these situations occur consistently, with people he’s counseled with, to indicate a definite pattern.. In this issue we’ll explore the second of these lines of reaction.
The first step in this progression is hardness: “Well, if they don’t love me, so what! Who needs them anyway! I can do wihout anybody!”
Hardness leads to indifference. After you’ve told yourself that you don’t need anybody, you no longer allow anybody to get close to you. You are thinking: “I’ve been wounded enough. I’m never going to get hurt like that again. I will put up a barrier so nobody will ever get inside me again.”
This one really has a twist to it, because on the outside you can be friendly and talkative and joke all the time, but there’s something inside of you – a wall – that people can never get beyond.
After indifference there is rebellion. Your heart says: “They’re against me, so I’ll be against them! I hate them! I hate their religion – their God – their church!”
Rebellion often leads to something seemingly unconnected, but closely associated with rebellion. Witchcraft! I Samuel 15:23 says, “Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.” This is the whole occult realm from Ouija boards to fantasy games, to fortune telling and horoscopes, and an interest in the deep dark sinister things of magic potions and spells.
Many fail to realize that this is turning from the one True God to false gods. It’s breaking the first commandment: “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” If we look at Saul, who consulted the darker side (I Samuel 28), as an example, witchcraft ultimately leads to spiritual and physical death, as it did for Saul (I Chronicles 10:13-14).
The consequences of rejection’s presence in a person’s spirit can be devastating. But! For such big problems, the Bible offers big solutions. We have to go to the root of the problem. Radical comes from the Latin word ‘radi’ which means root, so there is a radical solution. The Bible says in Matthew 3:10, “And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.”
We need to get at those roots and bring those traits in our family trees down! Chopping off a few branches will not do it. Dealing with each problem that stems from a root of rejection will not make the issues go away. Even cutting down the tree at the trunk won’t do it. There will soon be fresh green shoots sprouting out to grow back into a tall tree.
Derek Prince see these three parts of the tree [roots, trunk, branches] as an analogy to the three parts of people’s problems.
We’ll cover that in the next issue.
References:
1. “Rejection to Acceptance” an article published in the September 1977 edition of “New Wine, The International Magazine Dedicated to Christian Growth.” Derek’s book, “God’s Remedy for Rejection” can be purchased at Barnes and Noble.
2. “ A More Excellent Way” by Henry Wright. More information on this book can be found on our website because this book has changed my life tremendously:
| Christian Articles to Encourage and Edify
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