Faith Over Fear Week 3

With Halloween just around the corner, I thought it very fitting to talk about it this week. As stated last week, we as parents are called by God to guard our children’s hearts as well as ours. It’s a blessed responsibility and one that we should not take lightly.

As a child, I NEVER went Trick or Treating!!! I know, I know, I know…..I’ve heard it all….the gasp, the “WHAT?”, the “are you for reals?” , but I am so very serious. My parents did not want to expose my heart to evil things that would fill my heart with fear. They had our best interest at heart, so they took us to the Hallelujah nights on Halloween at our church and they were TOP NOTCH FUN!!! Hallelujah nights are the churches way of glorifying Jesus on a night that is so dark. There was yummy food, games, candy, fun, and a safe place for us kids to enjoy the night. I didn’t feel like anything was being taken away from me because these were treasured memories with my family and church family and my parents, as well as children’s pastors, were teaching us why we don’t participate in Halloween.

This was one way that my parents felt they needed to guard my heart, and now that I am a parent….I am not going to lie….every single year Halloween comes around, its a struggle for me. It is major spiritual warfare in my heart. We mainly do the church Fall Fest and Trunk or Treats, but we have gone around the neighborhoods before. The thing about that is there is always going to be someone dressed in a costume or a house decorated to the max with scary Halloween decor that terrifies the children. Not to mention, I feel very convicted by the sweet Holy Spirit about it. That is exactly why from this year on we have made the decision to just stick to the church events. We honestly should have been doing that anyway, but again its easy to get caught up and be persuaded by mans opinion of it. I want to set the boundaries now while they are young so that they are clearly defined lines as they continue to grow, learn, and discern.

Kids, teens, and adults alike are fascinated by witches, ghost, vampires, power, and it’s heartbreaking to me that parents don’t know the depth of the spiritual darkness that is influencing our society so it’s downplayed as if its all just fun and games not realizing that doors are being opened to the demonic when allowing children to watch witchcraft and things that are of the like. There are those that just think everything is pretending when it’s not. This is exactly the lies that Satan desires that we fall for so that we continue opening the doors and allowing him access into our homes and families.

My mom was telling me that when we were preteens, we all went to youth convention together at the Opryland hotel and she was shocked to find out that in another ballroom they were having a witch and warlock convention. I’m not talking about a costume party, I’m saying a real deal witch conference. People crack up at you when they find out that you believe that witches are real, but if you read the Bible, its clear as day in there. God’s word does not lie. Yes, they have powers, but Jesus holds even greater powers ……power to save…even those who are in the deep dark trenches of Satanic witchery. As one of my Facebook friends stated, “if Christian parents knew the testimonials of ex-witches who were delivered and set free by God and also what these witches used to do on Halloween night…they would not allow their children to participate at all.” We have counseled and prayed for teens that have messed with the demonic and know that it is very real, but Praise the Lord, God delivered them and set them free from it all. Our God truly is greater!!!

It’s awful because even outside of Halloween, Fear and spiritual darkness infiltrate everything. It’s in children’s movies, schools, and sometimes sadly even in the churches. Hollywood slips it into lighthearted movies to make it seem like its just for fun, but it goes so much deeper than that. God’s word tells us that we perish for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6) so its time that we as parents dig deep into God’s word and ask Him the truth about all of this.

To every true power that God has, there is a counterfeit power that Satan puts out there…..Jesus has prophets and Satan has fortune tellers/ psychics. The difference between them is the source in which they are getting their information from. The Holy Spirit or as many call Him the Holy Ghost takes residence at the point of Salvation in a Christians life and Satan has Familiar Spirits that people believe to be ghost (Read 1 Samuel 28) The Holy Spirit is the real deal truth leader whereas familiar spirits are veiled and deceive individuals into believing that they are encountering a loved one that has past on from this life.

We must be careful and prayerful with what we allow into our home and children’s hearts through eye and ear gates. There is no fear in perfect love and perfect love cast out ALL FEAR!! (1 John 4:18) Why would He want us to fill our hearts with fear? Fear is the opposite of His Love! Parents, let's pray for God to give us discernment regarding all of this. Pray that as our children grow and learn that they to would gain discernment that will keep their hearts recognizing the truth of God’s word from the False tactics of Satan.

Some would say that parents with this stance are dogmatic, but we are just trying to follow what God tells us in His word to do. It’s truly not an easy road….this is so controversial, but we must pray and ask God what His heart and word says on the matter because our opinions are not going to amount to anything in the end. It will truly be the question of how did His word stand up to the ideology that we taught our children? What did the scriptures tell us to be the truth? It’s His truth that sets us free (John 8:32) not our opinions. Our opinions are usually what holds us captive to our selfish desires and in rebellion. 1 Samuel 15:23 tells us that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. That is a scary place to be….in rebellion to God. When we have an opinion that is dead set against God’s word…..that’s rebellion. I don’t have any desire to be in that state, but sadly I’ve been there. We would all be lying to ourselves if we said that we haven’t. We’ve all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God! (Romans 3:23) Thank God for Jesus who is MIGHTY TO SAVE and who loves us all desiring that we would worship and serve only Him!!!

Teaching our children about all this early will help build their faith up in Jesus as they will know that no matter what tries to influence or scare ….Our God is greater than any of it. We don’t have to teach them to run toward the fear, but we can lead them to stand boldly in the face of it with His Great and Perfect Love!!! It is my prayer that you don’t hear my opinion but that you seek out God’s heart in this through His scriptures. I know that I have a very long way to go, and don’t always get it right. He’s still working on me that is for certain so I pray that I have covered this with much grace as well as truth from His word. Let’s pray!!!

Dear Heavenly Father,
Open my heart to Yours and help me to search Your word for the answers and truth that we need to serve, teach, and lead our family. Build up our faith and help us to stand boldly in the face of fear knowing that You are indeed by our side. In Jesus Name we pray, Amen!!!

Here are a few resources as well by Becky Fisher:
Kids In Ministry
Monsters In My Closet
Challenge: Search this out for yourself and ask God to open Your heart to the truth that sets us all free.