I was ministering in a meeting on one of the Channel Islands and the Spirit of the Lord was present in power. A couple of ladies brought a woman to me who, according to them,was a witch. A group the two ladies related to had been praying that God would set the woman free.
I laid a hand on her head and she fell to the floor, apparently under the power of God. I discerned that the woman in question was acting to please them, so I said, “Lift her up.” As they did, I said to her: “Baloney is still baloney, no matter how thin you slice it.” The saying refers to a kind of sausage, but I used it to let her know that I did not believe that she was a witch.
The Lord showed me that she was simply a very lonely woman and so desperate for acceptance that she was prepared to allow the ladies to think of her as a witch if that would help her to get the attention and the acceptance she so desperately desired.
After telling her this, quietly, so she would not be embarrassed, I laid my hand on her again and this time the power of God touched her deeply and she sank to the floor — this time under the power of the Holy Spirit!
I returned to the island a year later and after enquiring about the lady was informed that she had become a valued member of that same group of ladies and was growing well in the Christian Faith.
I believe that the group’s many prayers for the “witch” began to be answered when the Lord brought her into fellowship with them, but especially so after the Lord caused them to see her not as a witch but as a needy woman. I like to think that the group found other ladies in need of their zealous but perhaps better directed prayers.
John 2:17 applies the prophecy in Psalm 69:9 to the zeal — holy jealousy — of Jesus in overthrowing the tables of the moneychangers in the temple court: “A zeal for your house has consumed me!” Zeal is good but when not based on knowledge can be misdirected and despite good intent, can do more harm than good.
In Romans 10:2 the Apostle Paul writes of some over-eager zealots in the church as having “a zeal [that is] not according to knowledge”. Many of us can recall being over-zealous at times in our first years as Christians; however, time and maturity directed our zeal toward better outcomes.
Bottom Line: Direct your holy jealousy so that you will not misread the needs of others in your desire to please God.