Why Halloween is Not on My To-Do List

One of the gifts given by the Holy Spirit is the gift of discerning spirits. As someone given that gift for the protection of the Church (my bros and sisters in the faith), I have had more 'experiences' with spirits than many other Christians without this gift. I can perceive the operation and presence of certain spirits on various occasions when this gift in in operation, similar to using the natual senses - except it's not through natural sensory organs. On several occasions I've been able to, 'hear' and 'see' spirits (yes in their spirit-body form) operate and even have wrestled with them. At those moments, knowing the Word of God, calling on the name of Jesus and declaring the prevailing power of the Blood of Jesus were the only things that caused me to overcome these struggles successfully and be sustained during what are terribly frightful experiences, full of an indescribably ugly, blackest-black, weight of wickedness that is almost tangible.

Having this gift means that many things that seem harmless to others are more plainly dangerous to me. Many things that we do are open doors to the demonic realm and render us weaker and weaker and we hardly can tell if we are only relying on our intellectual judgment of a matter.

For years and years, my favourite type of movie was horror films, not just sci-fi but flat out, grotesque horror. When Jesus really laid hold of me and I give my whole life over to Him, my christianity went to another level. It was like the real christian life had begun and one of the things that happened was that the gifts of the Spirit started to operate in my life in a noticeable and amazing way. As for the gift of discerning spirits and cute topical things such as 'spiritual warfare', well...quite frankly, I learnt about spiritual warfare by doing it. And many nights while others were sleeping, I would awaken to see demons and hear them speaking and wrestle with them. This also has happened during the daytime on occasion. It became very difficult for me not to recognize the darkness in those movies, because I had experienced it. I learnt quickly that I needed to renounce and turn from my disturbing fascination with psychological thrillers and other grotesque movies. And it is increasingly revolting to someone who is growing in love for the Holy. It is no longer 'just a movie', nor 'good action', nor 'interesting', nor a 'must-see'. Before that time, I would think anyone who warned me about such things to be paranoid or religious and even plainly legalistic. I often tell persons that, as far as the spiritual world of demons go and weird happenings brought about by their wicked activity, I would probably have remained blind and unbelieving of any of it had I not had the experiences I could now recount.

So, no, I did not forget I was about to tell "Why Halloween is Not on My To-Do List" but I hope that this is a good indication. I found this link which seems to give a good synopsis of the ugliness of this day. If I could find it right now I would also include a video of an ex-satanist's testimony I've seen, including what he recounts of the use of this day for heinous blood sacrifices and rituals etc.

I hope that some of my well-meaning brothers and sisters out there are able to believe what they are being warned about and have their kids dress up and have candy in a different way and different day, for different reasons. It has nothing to do with whether the kid wears a pretty pink tutu or a grotesque goblin, the occasion is not a holy one and much wicked spiritual activity occurs specifically on that day. The intention to have clean fun in such a specific background of activity, reminds me of my latter days of going to the nightclub (near the end/ approaching my rescue from a sinful lifestyle by Jesus) when I would tell myself: my outfit wasn't bare, and I'd calculate that I wouldn't dance like 'that' anymore, and then, that I wouldn't have the alcoholic drinks anymore and that I would just have a good, clean, time despite what anyone else was doing at the nightclub. It didn't really work. In the end, I was just a part of it. Because of people like me, nightclubs remained in business to corrupt many other lives and set many people on a downward moral spiral of alcoholism, drug use, promiscuity, adultery...and many other manifestations of darkness.

Let me end with Third Day's wonderful song lyrics which can speak for me right now:

Saved

I was blinded by the devil,

born already ruined

Stone-cold as I stepped out of the womb

By His grace I have been touched

By His word I have been healed

By His hand I've been delivered

By His spirit I've been sealed

Now I've been saved by the blood of the Lamb

I'm saved by the blood of the Lamb

And I'm so glad

Yes, I'm so glad

Now I'm so glad (So glad)

I want to thank you, Lord

I just want to thank you, Lord

Thank You, Lord (Thank You, Lord)

By His truth I can be upright

By His strength I can endure

By His power I've been lifted

By His love I am secure

He bought me with a price

Freed me from the pit

Full of emptiness and wrath

And the fire that burns in it

Nobody to rescue me

Nobody would dare

I was going down for the last time

But by His mercy I've been spared

Not by works

But by faith in Him who called

For so long I've been hindered

For so long I've been stalled

Now I've been saved by the blood of the Lamb
I'm saved by the blood of the Lamb
And I'm so glad
Yes, I'm so glad
Now I'm so glad (So glad)
I want to thank you, Lord
I just want to thank you, Lord
Thank You, Lord (Thank You, Lord)

Who or What Am I?

The only way to know who you are, is to know who Christ is in you.
That seems simple enough, and seems like a message almost everyone has heard at some point before, about 'identity' and 'believers' authority' and a host of other relevant things. Nevertheless applying and walking daily in this truth escapes most of us. And I am not referring to what I call an "intellectual knowledge" which most of us have of who we are in Christ, but of a deep spiritual understanding. This is the level at which our spirit is infused with a revelation of the full truth by God's own Spirit. It is at this depth that we become truly formidable to the enemy because this comprehension touches our deep spirit and is not moved by outward attempts of the enemy to confuse, discredit, or discourage us. It is a level of knowing, primarily, God's love as more absolute and more enduring than anything else.

For a long time I could, like most of us, say things like, 'God loves me' and 'God watches over me', God has a plan for my life' and so on. As far as I knew I believed and knew these statements to be true, but for the longest time I hadn't known that I was yet without an actual revelation and absolute conviction of that truth to my spirit.

What I'm attempting to describe is not the same as issues of apparent lack of self-esteem, feelings of unworthiness, nor immature wavering between 'He loves me-He loves me not'. In fact, it's so insidious, so deep-rooted, and so subtle that I did not even realize that I had a problem. After a long time it occurred to me that there must be some motive underlying the way I found myself making decisions, the way I prayed, the things I prayed, the way and the degree to which I doubted, the situations I found myself in time and time again, the things I would attain to, the things I would be afraid of, the intensity with which I wanted certain things...and on and on.

Certainly there had been patterns constructed in my early history that facilitated that relative impermeability of my spirit to these spiritual realities. But despite the way in which each thing may have started I found that the main thing was that I had walked in a path of deep underlying and wrong motives for a long time. These were motives not direct and not apparent, but perhaps like cousins, I could say they were the kind 'once' or 'twice removed'.

I believe God's process of dealing with such things does not necessarily include walking us back into the past to 'deal' or 'make sense of' any of why we are the way we are or any such thing. I believe that all God needs to do is reveal the problem and perhaps where it started, and then He will fix the problem if we surrender to Him 100% because in fact He is the only One who can. For me that involved a collaboration whereby He revealed and I confessed in at least two stages:

First, He revealed and I confessed the motives. Second, He revealed and I confessed His truth.
Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed in Him,
"If you ABIDE IN MY WORD, you are my disciples indeed.
And you shall KNOW THE TRUTH,
And the truth shall make you free."
(John 8:31,32 - emphasis added)

The Greek word for 'know' as used here is "Ginosko" [pronounced 'ghin-oce-koe'] which means, "to perceive", "to understand", "to recognize", "to gain knowledge", "to realize", "to come to know". This type of knowledge has a starting point and refers to a process of realization. It refers to attainment and understanding of the truth by personal experience. 'Knowing the truth', also implies absolute faith that the truth is 'the truth' which indeed can and will make us free.

And what is the truth?
God's word.

Over a period of time the Lord had engineered quite a few events to bring me to the place I needed to be to see very clearly that I had a big problem and what it was. And then He spoke in quite a few ways to assure me that He wanted to give me a "new vision" of who I am in Him. And then, He showed me how.

God led me to the book of Ephesians and the Holy Spirit seemed to 'work overtime' just teaching me, illuminating, to a depth I had never before grasped, the truth that was written there. The words themselves became as real as flesh, though they were in fact Spirit and life and made their entry to a place in my spirit that had before been impermeable. Every night for a period of weeks I would read the chapters out loud often. If I didn't read all six I would at least cover chapters one to three. Then I copied and read verses out loud, substituting every we/us/our with personal pronouns, I/me/my.

I really believed, now understood, and so confessed continually - what God said/thought/felt about me, what He destined/intended/called/purposed me for, how He had provided/prepared/equipped me, and above all that He had loved me with an unfathomable love and had Himself made me accepted in His Beloved Son. I realized I lacked absolutely nothing I needed. I was destined for more than I could ever deserve. The Spirit of the Living God dwelt in me. I was absolutely called, chosen, justified, and loved.

It is a necessary and freeing thing to know without any limitation, bias, or lack, who we are in Christ and who He is in us. It frees us up to experience "holy abandon" in every sense of the word. It empowers our prayer; it changes our reactions and expectations towards circumstances and people. It empowers us with a level of knowledge that scares the enemy because we can effectively make null and void a host of plans formed against others and ourselves when we realize the authority we have in Him who lives within us. It forms the spirit of a warrior within us, whereby we go about wielding the word of God with skill and 100% precision as we are led by the Spirit of God, not only in the reach of our personal lives, but also in the bigger picture for God's purposes over all the earth.

The revelation I had received to my spirit still continues to renew my mind. It is an endless process, which by that phrase does not signify a struggle, rather, a continuous advancement, from glory to glory.