Witchcraft, Propaganda, and Counterfeit Preachers

Join me as I discuss some important and eye-opening topics. Is witchcraft more common than you think? What is propaganda, and how is it used to cast spells on people? And what would classify someone as a fake preacher? It's a wild world we live in, and having these conversations will help us navigate this rough terrain we call life! Thanks for listening. 

Transcript

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Welcome back to the Dissatisfied Podcast. Here we are again. Don't ask me how we got here again so fast. I keep trying to get myself to a place where I'm recording several podcasts, so I have kind of a lineup. But no, I'm still doing it week to week because time is going by so crazy fast. Does anybody else feel the same way? I know it's not just me. But anyway, here we are again. Thanks for listening. So I'm gonna start by asking you a question. And here's the question. What's the first thing that comes to your mind when I say the word witchcraft? What's the first thing that pops into your mind? Is it, you know, the typical scary green witch with a wart on her nose, pointy black hat, the wizard of oz? Do you think of Halloween? What's the first thing that comes to mind? I'm sure we all have a picture that pops in. Well, there are about 1.5 million practicing witches in the United States. Now I think the number's probably bigger than that because how do they even come up with that number? Are there people going door to door, knocking, asking if there's witches that live there? I don't know how they come up with it. But anyway, witches have been around a really long time. We see it in the Old Testament. In 1 Samuel, it tells us that King Saul consulted the witch of Endor. And he did this even though he knew what God said about it. And God says this, that it is forbidden to use divination, sorcery, casting spells, to consult mediums, which is another word for psychics, or to try to talk to the dead. All of that is witchcraft. And then guess what happened to Saul and his sons the following day after he visited the witch? Well, Saul and his sons died in battle. Actually, Saul was wounded in battle and he killed himself by falling on his own sword, but nonetheless they died. And it's interesting because in one Chronicles chapter ten, verse thirteen and fourteen, it says Saul died because he was unfaithful to the Lord. He did not keep the word of the Lord and even consulted a medium for guidance and did not inquire of the Lord. So the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David. So, you know, I know that's Old Testament stuff. God doesn't go around striking people dead because they get their palm read or visit a psychic or a witch, but the reality is there's still consequences when we open demonic doors. And witchcraft is one of those doors. But we have a problem because witchcraft doesn't always look like an old hag standing over her black pot mixing her magic potion. It doesn't look like that. I mean, we're living in a time where witchcraft is literally being practiced all around us, but it's labeled as women's health care or gender-affirming surgery, or it looks like the media lying and deceiving and manipulating people into believing something that's not true. And in my opinion, so much of the mainstream media is literally witchcraft, casting spells over people. Because it's propaganda. Have you heard that word, propaganda? So let me tell you the definition of propaganda. Propaganda is a systematic dissemination of biased, misleading, or emotionally charged information designed to influence public opinion, attitudes, and behaviors toward a specific cause, agenda, or product. It uses techniques like fear, half truths, bandwagon appeals, you'll have to look that up, and scapegoating to trigger emotional rather than rational responses. Propaganda functions to mobilize populations and shape social or political events. So it's basically using deception to manipulate people to believe a certain way. And yes, propaganda is legal in the United States. Now it used to be prohibited. There was a law against it. But under Obama in 2013, he changed the law to make it legal again. So the government can participate in propaganda, and it does. Hollywood can participate in propaganda. In fact, did you know that there is a there's a like a Hollywood department at the Pentagon? There's a department that is for, I don't know if it funds Hollywood or what it does. I didn't do my research before now, so off the top of my head, it's a department that either funds or helps to make Hollywood propaganda movies. Look it up. It's the truth. You can also find CIA documents about media propaganda, how they use the media to basically cast a spell on people. It's insane. And like I said, the media participates in propaganda. It's well known that they do that. And I've not watched mainstream media since 2020. Because the absolute insanity of the COVID propaganda, that's what made me realize how much we're being lied to, how much we're being manipulated. I mean, they really told us that six feet apart was the thing to do. That flimsy masks had to be worn everywhere we went to help stop the spread, even though the actual virus was smaller than the holes in the mask. It had no problem penetrating through those masks. We were told by the media and people like Fauci and Bill Gates that those who didn't get vaccinated needed to plan their funerals. Literally, that's what they said. And then come to find out the vaccinated are sicker than the unvaccinated. But I digress. Let's get back, let's get back to topic here, Michelle, because that's a discussion for another day. But it sucks because I remember a day when you could mostly trust actual journalism. But I don't think that there's journalism anymore unless you follow independent journalists on social media, because you're not going to get the truth from mainstream news. You're just not. It's changed. It's changed to a propaganda machine. So anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that we live in a time where we are surrounded by witchcraft. And sometimes it doesn't look like witchcraft. Most of the time it doesn't look like witchcraft. Now, sometimes it does. For instance, there are online witch schools. Look it up. There's lots of witch schools that you can take classes online to learn about paganism, you can learn about the earth goddess, you can learn magic, how to cast spells, all that kind of stuff. There's places you can still go get psychic readings, you can get your palm red, you can go get a tarot card reading, and all of those things are the obvious things that God says to stay away from. Why does he tell us to stay away from them? Because when you participate in those things, you're seeking wisdom, connection, and answers outside of God. So it's demonic. And then I found a CIA.gov PDF. So remember, you can go online to the CIA government website and you can look up the approved for public papers that they release. There's certain things that they've approved for the public to be able to see. Now, can you imagine what hasn't been approved? But anyway, I found this document online and it was about witchcraft. And it was specifically about something they were involved in in Brazil. So I want to read you this because it's bananas, literally bananas. Okay, so it says the witchcraft, when effective, may be properly explained according to the author by fundamental constructs in parapsychology. Parapsychology is the study of psychic phenomena, if you didn't know. I didn't know till this. And it goes on to say, for example, a victim's subconscious picks up the ill intentions of the witch telepathically and is received as a negative suggestion. The victim's misfortune is then a consequence of his or her own negative auto suggestions. Such cases require a certain predisposing predisposing psychological instability. The author concludes that one's own faith in one's stability is the best defense against evil eye and other witchcraft. Okay, there's a lot going on in that paragraph. If you want to rewind a little bit and listen to it again, you can, but I'm going to break it down. So this is saying that witches can telepathically plant thoughts or ideas in your brain. And if there is a negative result in your life because of that, it's because you received that thought as your own. That's what the auto suggestion means. So the witchcraft needs your agreement. And then it says the best way to protect yourself from this evil eye, they call it, and other witchcraft, is your own faith in your stability. So maybe this is why Scripture tells us to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. Maybe it's not just about our own fleshly thoughts, but there's times when there are outside forces that come against our minds. But when our stability is Christ, when our faith is secure in Him, when we have built our house on the solid rock, who is Christ, we're protected. It doesn't mean that witchcraft won't come against us. It just means that it won't prosper. So my suggestion is when we wake up in the morning, the first thing that we should be doing as Christians is pray. And we need to be saying, I am covered by the blood of Jesus Christ, no weapon formed against me will prosper, and whatever else you want to pray. But every day before your feet hit the floor, we need to be praying those things. Because the Bible says that the devil is crafty and he's cunning. And cunning actually means having or showing skill in achieving one's ends by deceit or evasion. He is a crafty, cunning son of a gun, that old devil. And he's always setting traps that we walk right into. I mean, who would think that we would need to protect ourselves from the news? But these are the days we live in. We have to be careful of even listening to the news. It's crazy. And you'd think that we would be safe from witchcraft inside the church. But as I've shared in the past couple of episodes, the enemy loves to infiltrate the church and cause division and cause chaos and confusion. So it's no different with witchcraft. So yes, there are Christians who participate in witchcraft, they just usually don't know it. But anytime you deceive, manipulate, control, slander, gossip, that is like practicing witchcraft. So if you've been listening to this podcast, you've probably heard a lot about Jezebel the past two weeks. But there's one more verse that I think gives us a more complete picture of who she was, and it's in two Kings nine verse twenty two. So King Joram, who was Jezebel's son, King Joram, demanded, Do you come in peace, Jehu? Jehu replied, How can there be peace as long as the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel are all around us? So Jehu was the newly anointed king of Israel appointed by God to wipe out Ahab and Jezebel's lineage. So he was there to kill them all. And it's so significant that he used the word witchcraft because again, we can determine that where we find a Jezebel spirit at work in the church, you're going to find witchcraft. And for me, having personal experience in that type of atmosphere where there's control and manipulation, and that's how they operate, I can honestly say that it is very much like a spell is cast over you. What do I mean by that? Well, here are a few things. This is what you would feel in an atmosphere like that where there's witchcraft. You'll find that you agree when you don't agree. You will say yes when you want to say no. That happens a lot. You'll participate in gossip when it's something you normally would not do. You'll feel like you can't be yourself. You'll actually start to feel like you're losing yourself. You'll feel like you have to strive to win the approval of others. You start to take on the offenses of the leaders and feel pressure to defend them without even knowing why. You start to believe that your church is more special than other churches. There are unexplained illnesses. And side note, not all unexplained illnesses are because of a Jezebel spirit. I know that. But oftentimes in those atmospheres, you will find a lot of unexplained illnesses. Many times you will feel emotional and spiritual turmoil. Some people call it a swirl. There will be self-doubt and feelings of giving up or feeling isolated. You will experience fear, exhaustion, sometimes depression, which then can lead to suicidal thoughts. Now, can you feel those things outside of a Jezebel spirit influencing it? I would say yes, absolutely, because there's other things at play in this life that contribute to all of those things. But I'm saying that sometimes there is a source for where those things are coming from. And I think it would do us well if we didn't just throw aside the spiritual component of things. I think that it would it would do us well to look into the spiritual side of things that we're experiencing. And if you're experiencing several of those things that I just mentioned in a church environment, if you can connect it to church, I would strongly suggest that you begin to pray and ask God to show you what's at work and to show you if you should leave. I actually prayed and I told the Lord, I said, God, if you are showing us that we need to leave, you will have to show us through our kids. Because honestly, we did not even know how to begin to talk to our kids about it because we had been there for so long. They loved it, all of their friends were there. But just a few days after I'd prayed that prayer, my oldest son came into my bedroom one night and it was late. You know, true teenager fashion wants to have the conversations late at night. And he said, he just said, things feel different at church. Something doesn't feel right anymore. Something along those lines, I can't remember exactly. But that just opened the door for more conversations. And when we started to talk to our kids about it, come to find out, they were feeling and sensing a lot of the same things that we were. So it just confirmed what God was showing us. And you know, I know there's people that will say, well, Rochelle, you're you're gonna have issues in any church you go to. And yes, that's true, because nothing and nobody is perfect. I totally get that. But a church should be safe for people. It should be a place where people don't have to worry about being gossiped about, manipulated, slandered. You shouldn't fear leaving a church. That shows control issues. So we need to have our guards up, even inside the church. We need to have our armor on, even inside the church. The belt of truth is really important to armor ourselves with nowadays. Because if you're not equipped with the truth of God's word, you're more susceptible to falling for deception from people you think you can trust, because they're leaders in the church. I think we just quickly forget how often Jesus, Paul, Peter, and others in the New Testament warned us against false prophets, false teachers, wolves in sheep clothing. They warned us about being deceived. And we still need to be warned about those things and those types of people. And you know, we go into places that we think are churches, but some of them are covens. And that might sound like a strong statement, but when you're dealing with people who deceive, slander, curse other people, that is witchcraft. And I don't think we need to be taking these things lightly. I don't think we need to brush it under the rug. I think it's a serious problem. And if you don't know the word of God, if you're not reading it and if you're not studying it, if you're not in prayer, it's gonna be difficult to know when you're being lied to or when something is off. And here's an example. This is maybe switching gears a little bit, but I think it still is in the same category. So you've probably heard of Joel Osteen at some point. So he has the largest megachurch in America, something like 50,000 people attend there weekly. It's crazy. And I understand why people go there. Go listen to some of his sermons. He's like a motivational speaker. He knows how to pump you up, he knows how to use words and throw scripture in there to make you feel like you can just conquer the world. And you know what? That feels good. So people are drawn to that place week after week after week. And I'm not even saying that there's not a place for that stuff sometimes. We all need to be encouraged, we all need to be pumped up sometimes. But here's the problem: he rarely even mentions the name of Jesus Christ. You really don't ever hear him preach about Christ, you don't hear him talk about the destructiveness of sin. He doesn't preach on repentance, and you definitely won't hear him preach about how suffering is part of following Christ. The New Testament is clear on that. There is suffering in this life. We've all experienced it or we will experience it at some level, at some time, but you won't hear somebody like Joel Osteen talk about that part of life and how sometimes things just suck and sometimes things are really hard. And he's not gonna teach you how to navigate those things. He's just gonna, he's just gonna quote the verse, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. That's what he will tell you. And that's a great verse, but how do we do that? How do we do the things that God gives us strength for? Especially when you're talking about horrible things that happen in this life. So it's kind of all rainbows and cookies with Joel Olstein. You also won't hear him or other preachers that are like him talk about things like abortion or transgenderism or anything that would be considered a polarizing topic or something that would be a political topic. Why? Because he's actually not a preacher of God's word. He's a self-help teacher. Like so many other mega church pastors are. That's just the reality. That's just the truth. And I want to mention this too when it comes to political things, that separation of church and state is not in the Constitution. What's in the Constitution is within the First Amendment where it says the government is prohibited from creating a state religion or interfering in religious freedom. So nowhere does it imply that Christians or churches should. Stay out of politics. We've been deceived into believing that. And people who think that Jesus was not political are not reading their Bibles, or at least they're not reading them correctly. That's also for another discussion sometime, but back to Joel Osteen. So I have to tell you that I used to listen to Joel Osteen in 2002, probably 2002 to 2005 timeframe. So 2002 is when I had my encounter with the Lord, and I started to listen to all sorts of preachers, read all sorts of books. And, you know, these were people that I had never heard of before because I was Catholic and I didn't really know that anything like that existed outside of the Catholic Church. So I just was filling myself with all of these new people and new things. But anyway, I would listen to him, and like I said, it always felt encouraging. And one thing I did notice is that his delivery was exactly the same every single time. And he had a permanent smile the entire time. And if you go and watch him, you'll see what I mean. But nonetheless, I did not mind listening to him. But here's what made me stop listening to Joel Osteen. So he was on Larry King Live in 2005. And Larry King Live was the most watched, highest rated program on television. Like millions of people watched Larry King Live. So Larry King asked Joel Osteen if a good person who was not a Christian would go to heaven. And Joel Osteen replied, he said, I don't know. To me, it's not my business to say, you know, this one is or this one isn't. Okay, so he's right that it's not his business to say who's going to heaven and who's not, but it is his business to answer the question with what he knows to be true by the word of God. And the answer is that according to Scripture, a person who is not a Christ follower, a Christian, will not go to heaven. That's why they need to know the truth about Jesus. Larry King also asked him, he said, if he asked if those who don't accept Christ would go to heaven. So it's kind of the same question except worded a little bit differently. And Joel Osteen said this. He said that he believes only God can judge a person's heart. And he he didn't directly affirm that Jesus is the only way. He basically said, I don't know. And that God is the only one that can judge a person's heart. Okay, John 14, 6, Jesus himself said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Those were Jesus' words. He is the way. Nobody could goes to the Father. Nobody can make it except through Christ. So you have the biggest church in the United States, you have millions of people listening to your sermons and watching you, and you were given one of the biggest platforms in America at the time to share the truth of the gospel, and you chose the fear of man over the fear of God. And you'll notice that in his response, in Joel Osteen's response, he twisted words around, which we talked about in the past two episodes, how the Leviathan demonic spirit twists words to cause confusion. So he was asked if those who don't accept Christ would go to heaven. Well, that's a pretty simple question to answer because the Bible tells us that they won't. If you if you don't accept Christ, you don't go to heaven. But he answered in a way that made it sound like he was asked a completely different question. He said, Well, only God can judge a person's heart. Well, Larry King didn't ask him to judge those people. Larry King asked him a very simple question that is literally at the core of Christianity. Jesus is the only way. And he wouldn't say it. And he twisted words so he could avoid answering the question. And in my opinion, that's demonic. Other scriptures that make it very clear, just to run down a few. John three sixteen, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Romans one sixteen. And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? So there's so many more verses to support the fact as followers of Christ that we are to point people to Christ as the way of salvation, as the way to heaven. And Joel Osteen, being a mega pastor, mega church, sitting on one of the biggest platforms at the time in America, would not say it. And you know what? Maybe Joel Osteen is a great guy. I don't know him personally, but I have some thoughts. He lost all credibility as a preacher. He lost all my trust when he showed his loyalty was not to God. His loyalty was to himself. He he needed to protect himself and his empire. Matthew 9, 37 and 38. Then Jesus said to his his disciples, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. So the laborers are few. There's only a few. I mean, it doesn't seem that way. It seems like there's a church on every corner. It seems like there's lots of laborers. There's 400,000 Christian churches in America. There's Christian preachers and teachers and prophets plastered all over television, YouTube, social media. But the laborers are few. Why? Because most of what we consider the laborers won't even preach the truth of the gospel. And this isn't just about Joel Osteen. I'm just picking on him because I've never been able to forget about how he denied that Jesus is the only way on national television. But there's a lot of big name preachers who play it safe and would never touch a subject that might be offensive to people. And that's a problem. A true preacher of the Word of God should not worry about offending other people with the truth. But it's because many of these people have built their own empires. So they have a whole lot of money that is generated from that empire and they don't want to rock the boat. They don't want to upset the wrong people and lose their status or lose their donations. Because when you get to that point, unfortunately, it is a business. It runs like a business. And I used to hate it when my husband used to say that, but it's the truth. But God is rocking some boats. And I believe He's going to continue to do that until more and more of these false preachers, these false prophets are exposed for the lying, the manipulation, the control, the abuse. And honestly, I wouldn't be shocked if at some point we learn that there's a type of Christian mafia. Christian in name only, but a Christian mafia, like the power players, you know, way at the top that operate like a mop a mafia. They're the ones who can control everybody. I'm just saying that's what I think. But you know what? I don't have all the answers to this stuff. I know that it's much deeper than I could ever possibly imagine, but we can't keep playing this game where we listen and follow people with these giant platforms who are not willing to lay it all on the line for Christ, who aren't willing to confront demonic things like abortion from the pulpit, who aren't willing to repeat the very words of Christ that He is the only way. These are not the ones to be giving our time to. These are not the ones to keep propping up. Because as we can see, the church has been infiltrated by lots of false voices, by what we would call Christian witchcraft. And that's why it's so important to anchor yourself in Christ and the Word of God, because the swirl is real. The swirl, the confusion, the chaos is very real right now in the church realm. But the good news is that God is greater. So thanks for listening again. I hope you join me next week. If you ever have any questions or wanted to contact me, you can always email me at dissatisfiedpodcast at gmail.com.