What or Who Are You Celebrating?

As you know, today, Halloween is celebrated. What is considered by most as an innocent day for children to dress up as their favorite character. For others, it’s the pinnacle night of offering worship to Satan.

I grew up trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. I followed my parents’ beliefs that it was just for fun. The worst thing that happened was rumors of people placing needles or razorblades in fruit and candy bars. I checked every candy bar I got and found no blades. I left the fruit for my sister to test.

Also, while growing up, my father and I watched horror movies on late Saturday nights. There is a kind of fun being scared. That is why haunted houses are so popular. We even watched movies that portrayed demonic activity. My dad was reassuring by telling me, “This stuff is not real.” I believed him until I was a young adult and heard firsthand a couple in my church describe a night when fire came out of their fireplace and then went back in without burning anything in their living room.

I fell off of the ottoman I was sitting on. Everyone turned to me and asked, “Are you okay?” As I climbed back on, I asked, “You mean this stuff is real?” It’s not that my father lied; he didn’t know. That day, I vowed to stop watching anything that had satanic overtones. It’s not fun. It’s not entertainment. The devil wants us to think he is not real.

Just last week, April and I were watching a popular miniseries on Netflix. We stopped after the second episode. I told April I sensed an underlying evilness, and we then prayed over ourselves and our house that nothing would attach to us or try to take residence. Yes, this stuff is real. There are evil spirits in this world.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Eph. 6:12 (NIV)

After all, we don’t want to unwittingly give Satan an opening for yet more mischief—we’re not oblivious to his sly ways! 2 Corinthians 2:11 (MSG)

When I was a youth minister many years ago, I had a counseling session with someone who told me that thirteen people went into the woods the previous Halloween, but only 12 came out. One person volunteered to be sacrificed to Satan on an altar. I later asked a local police officer about it. He confirmed they found a rock altar and a dead body upon it. Because of confidentiality rules, he knew he could not ask me who I spoke with.

Please, do not be ignorant of the devil or his ways. What he means to be an open door into your life may be something you consider innocent, fun, or cute. He is real and wants to use you to get back at God. He mocks God. He takes what God has created and twists it or perverts it. You should pray and ask God to show you the truth. Ask him to reveal to you any ways that the devil may be using to have power over your life.

Copyright © 2023 Mark Brady.