A visitor to this web site wrote:

At my work place I've noticed a lot of co-workers getting into witchcraft...Right now I just say a silent prayer for them...Am I and my family protected from witchcraft by praying?...This really makes me nervous. Yours Arlene.

You are not alone in your concerns about this. Many Christians are encountering demonic practices or seeing evidence of demonic activity in their workplaces and are getting very concerned about it.

It is right for us to be concerned. People who are participating in witchcraft or the occult at any level are endangering themselves and their families. We ought to yearn for their release and be moved with compassion for them to want to do something about it.

However, you have no need to be nervous or concerned for yourself. Jesus prayed for us,

"I do not ask that You should take them (Jesus' followers) out of the world, but that You should guard them safely from the reach of the Pernicious (Evil) One."

John 17:15 - Wuest's Expanded Translation.

After we were saved and became Christians we were left in the world but we were not left unsafely within reach of the devil's tyrannical overlordship and havoc making. Four wonderful things happened to us when we received Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. Paul writes of them to the Colossians,

"Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins."

Colossians 1:12-14 - NKJV

Let me go over this for you point by point.

Firstly, we have been qualified or made fit to share in the inheritance of the saints. This "being made fit" refers to our rebirth. You and I were born again when we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. We were spiritually regenerated so that on the inside we took on the likeness of the Father. We were spiritually recreated to become His children. (See 1 Peter 1:23; Titus 3:4-6; 1 John 3:2.)

We are new creations, children of God and therefore heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ. We have a completely different sonship and a completely different inheritance to those around us who have not yet received Christ and are therefore still children of wrath, heirs of indignation! (See Romans 8:15-17; Ephesians 2:1-6)

Secondly, we have been delivered from the power of darkness. Wuest's translation says, "He has delivered us out of the tyrannical rule of the darkness." A mighty deliverance of our lives has taken place. It was as if we were held hostage by terrorists but the legitimate government sent an Elite Soldier to deal with them and set us free. Jesus was that Elite Soldier for us!

In His resurrection Jesus liberated us by decimating Satan and his forces, disarming them and leading them away captive. We have been set free. The devil and his forces of darkness have lost their hold over us and their ability to cause us to partake of their inheritance of misery. (See Ephesians 4:8; Colossians 2:15; Hebrews 2:14.)

Thirdly, we have been conveyed into and set up in the kingdom of God's Son! Jesus released us from Satan's realm and became the door for us into His realm. We walked through Jesus into the Kingdom of Heaven. We took up residence in a new place with a new citizenship.

You are still on Earth and, in this way, physically you are occupying the same space as the wicked. However, spiritually you reside in a completely different kingdom and have a completely different citizenship! (See John 10:9; Ephesians 2:19.)

Fourthly, we have redemption through Jesus' blood! We sold ourselves under sin but God paid a full ransom for us with the blood of Jesus. Sin has been paid off. This price has brought us back to God. Sin has no claim over us. Christ redeemed us from all iniquity. This redemption from sin means redemption from all of sin's awful consequences too. (See Romans 3:24-25; Titus 2:14; Galatians 3:13-14.)

Around us in the world we will see the awful consequences of sin coming on those who are living outside of Christ's redemptive work but these consequences have no claim on us. They cannot come on us who walk under the cover of the blood that redeemed us.

Your question was, "Am I and my family protected from witchcraft by praying?" We now have the answer - we are protected from witchcraft by our new birth, our deliverance from darkness, our conveyance into the Kingdom of Heaven and by our redemption. By all these things God has safely put us out of the devil's reach! So you can stop being nervous!

This doesn't mean though that prayer isn't needed. Nor does it mean that since we have the new birth, deliverance, citizenship of Heaven and redemption we can live any way we want and still enjoy blessing and no curse. You cannot just live anyway you want, with anyone you want and wherever you want.

If you start living like the wicked, fellowshipping with them and walking in their ways your natural existence will get out of phase with your spiritual existence. As a result, you'll start experiencing the same miseries that the wicked around you are experiencing. It is only as much as your natural existence is in phase with your spiritual existence that the two inhabit the same realm of glory.

So while you're living in the world you'll have to follow Paul's exhortation to the Romans. He wrote to them,

"Stop assuming an outward expression that does not come from within you and is not representative of what you are in your inner being but is patterned after this age; but change your outward expression to one that comes from within and is representative of your inner being, by the renewing of your mind."

Romans 12:2 - Wuest's Expanded Translation

What have you got to do then? You have got to stay in the word of God hearing it and doing it. It is then that you'll stay in the blessings. (James 1:25.)

What mustn't you do? You must not take up friendship with the world (James 4:4) or you'll partake of the world's miseries. (1 Peter 5:9.)

The danger with working with the wicked is that you can start walking with the wicked - not necessarily in all that they do but by joining them in certain attitudes, things they do and words they speak.

In Proverbs we are instructed,

"He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed."

Proverbs 13:12 - NKJV

Your friends need to be wise men - people who reverence the Lord. Your companions moment by moment each day need to be scriptures that speak to you exhorting, instructing, correcting and building you up in the Lord.

For this reason you are also going to need to pray. Praying in the Holy Spirit will keep you in the love of God. (Jude 20-21.) Praying the prayer the Lord taught His disciples will have God keep you. He told them to pray like this,

"Our Heavenly Father...keep us clear of temptation, and save us from evil."

Matthew 6:9,13 - J.B.Phillips' translation

I suggest you also pray for a change of personnel in your workplace or, better still, for a complete change in the present personnel themselves.

You have a responsibility to pray for your co-workers - for their salvation and their coming to the knowledge of the Truth. (1 Timothy 2:1-4.) One way to do this is to pray for their spiritual eyes to be opened because the devil's got them blind! (2 Corinthians 4:3-4.)

You are also given the keys and the authority to determine what activity goes on around you. You can shut down the devil's operation in your workplace! I strongly suggest you do this because where the devil is given room to operate there will be stealing, killing and destruction. This will damage your company and, ultimately, your prospects in employment there.

Jesus said,

"I will build My church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

Matthew 16:18-19 - NKJV

He also said,

"Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you."

Luke 10:19 - NKJV

Remember these words the next time you are praying and pray after their leading and authority - not silently but aloud!

There is one further area of prayer you ought to know about.

Life, as you know, is never plain sailing even for a born again, Spirit-filled, covenant conscious Christian. There will come times when the devil finds opportunity to form a weapon against you. There will come times when people use their tongues against you. However, for these times you have a precious promise from God that you can call on in prayer. It is a promise that such weapons will not accomplish what they were formed to do and such voices will have no effect. Isaiah by the Holy Spirit wrote,

"No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgement you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from Me, says the Lord."

Isaiah 54:17 - NKJV

It was a turning point in my life when this scripture's promise became real and clear to me. I took hold of it's promise and began to present it in prayer to my Heavenly Father. A new confidence in the face of adversity came into my life and I started to see "weapons formed against me" and "tongues raised against me" come to nothing almost overnight.

The same can happen for you. Let the marvellous promise of this scripture enter into your heart. It is for you because you are a servant of the Lord whose righteousness is from God. Take it to yourself. Apply it to things coming against you. Declare this promise aloud and present it to the Father as His promise to you.

I believe you will find a great deal in this answer to comfort and guide you. Meditate on these things and, with the help of the Holy Spirit, apply them to yourself and your life. You will soon see how this counsel will bless your life.