I am writing this on this blog, primarily because it is 'Hallowe'en' today and many have a natural curiosity for the supernatural, especially the occult, as I once did.
My experiences with the occult may have gone as far back as when I was a toddler. I remember the terrifying show, 'The Invisible Man' coming on television and I couldn't watch it. Another time I was playing with a tape measure (I was in my crib). It was an apple designed tape measure where you pull the tape measure out. I don't know what I did, but the tape measure did something on its own that wasn't natural, and I became terrified of it. A couple of years later, people that we knew began to die. I often wondered if their spirits were walking around the earth and if they could see us. I really was afraid to go to bed at night for fear of some spiritual being ending up in my room. Maybe that's the reason I have insomnia today?
Everyone goes through those kinds of fears, but they became more prominent for me when I was a little older. When I was 10 years old, I wondered what a Ouija board was. My mom said that it would talk to you, like a friend. That sounded appealing to me, because I didn't really have any friends at the time. I ended up getting a Ouija board when I was in sixth grade.
To be honest, I thought it was cool at first. A friend down the street came over and he seemed to be an expert on how to use it, so I just watched him use it. I would ask questions and the board would answer them. I let my friend do all the controlling of it though.
It wasn't too long after this, I became afraid of it. Not sure why, but I didn't want to use it by myself, so I only used it when my friend came over.
At night, I started hearing voices. They sounded like a man's voice, and the words were inaudible. They sounded kind of muffled. This went on for a long time, then we moved to a new house. Of course, the Ouija board came with us. That was the first mistake we made, but we had no idea there were really spiritual beings that came with the Ouija board. (I had no idea at the time that the Ouija board was connected to the voices I was hearing.)
The voices continued. They were always men's voices and always sounded gurgly. But now there were more than one voice and these voices were having conversations with each other. There was laughing as well. I was terrified of all this.
By this time in my life, I was almost 15 years old. The voices were still there and whatever activity was going on, it became more prominent. No one believed me when I tried to tell them about this situation. But no one can convince me that there is no such thing as a supernatural world!
Early one morning, I lay awake on my bed. It was right after my dad left for work and it was still kind of dark out. I heard a crystal clear male voice calling out my name. Probably 10 seconds later, I heard it again. No question in my mind that these beings, whatever they were, knew my name.
I was not a Christian at the time, but somehow I now knew that there was a connection between the voices and the Ouija board, so I got rid of the Ouija board. After that happened, I did not hear the voices again.
I remember a story about Jamie Buckingham's son, who must have liked some demonic music. (Wish I could find this story somewhere again). The son refused to part with some type of music, and he knew better. One day, the young man could not move. He could not get out of bed because a demonic presence was holding him down. Obviously something happened to release him from the demonic force and he knew it was because the connection of the record jacket that he held onto that was in his room. I'm sure he got rid of that one without any problem, after that incident!
In the book of Acts, we read about an incident where a man named Sceva, who had seven sons who were trying to cast out a demon. These sons had watch Paul as he was ministering to people and demons were leaving, while others got healed. The demon that these sons tried to cast out, came out, but they leaped upon these sons and hurt them. Right after that, people began to fear the Lord. Many were bringing their occultic items to a central place and burning them up. That was a wise thing to do, because they were familiar with whatever happens in the realm of the occult.
Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. Acts 19:18-20 ESV
Basically, I would urge all of my readers to not get involved with Ouija boards or anything related to the occult. Sure, you can sneak those things in the house and mom and dad might not ever find it or know it is there, but you are the one who will end up suffering. God knows what is going on. No one pulls the wool over God's eyes.
There is a supernatural realm out there, and for those who have been involved in it, no one will ever convince them that everything has a natural explanation. There are two sides to this realm: Good and evil. (Isn't it interesting that God is so much like the word 'good' and the Devil has the word 'evil' inside of it?) The Kingdoms are known by 'light and darkness' or 'truth and error', 'good and evil' and 'right and wrong'? The kingdom of the devil is very active. But we must keep in mind that there is no comparison between God and the devil because God is uncreated and all-powerful, and the devil is a created being that does have power, but it is limited.
Let's turn the tables on evil and make this 'holiday' (If you could even call it that) into a real holiday by using what the devil wants to glorify his name, and taking this opportunity to do evangelism. There are people in every neighborhood who have never heard the Gospel message. We don't have to dress up like witches or demons to reach them. They will come to the door asking for a 'trick or treat' (a phrase that I never heard until I got older). The devil will trick us by giving us plausible reasons why we cannot trust God. The only thing the devil knows is how to play tricks. Let's treat people by giving them the Gospel! Let's make this day an opportunity for God to be glorified, and take advantage of people coming to our houses to receive candy, but they can receive a whole lot more. In fact, it could be the difference in where they spend eternity.
I know I have a blog on this story somewhere, but after a couple of years of giving out tracts and toys with Gospel messages on them at Hallowe'en, I overheard some girls talking who were walking on the sidewalk. One of them said, 'I love this house!'. I believe it might have been the two girls who were here a couple of years ago having a discussion about receiving a money tract with Justin Bieber's picture on it. My first thought was that I don't have anything with Justin Bieber's picture on it so she must be confusing me with someone else. Then I remembered that I had used some celebrity million dollar bill tracts and I imagine that Justin Bieber's picture was on it and the girl remember that. These girls were having a discussion trying to decide if this was the house they were remembering, when one of the girls suddenly exclaimed 'This is the God house'. Hmmm. That's a pretty good reputation for only being out here a couple of times a year with tracts and things. Another time, I was talking with a woman who lived way down the street. I was trying to tell her where my house was because she wanted to know which one was mine. When I told her, she said something like, "Oh, you are the one that gives out all the Christian material at Halloween." Life for the people in our neighborhood is very good. They have no needs and they can do life without God, so they think. But the day will come, as it does for all of us, when trouble strikes. When the hard times in life come for these people, I want them to be free to want to come to my house and talk. I want my house to be known as a house of prayer. I want my neighborhood to know that I will be glad to talk with them and pray with them, should they be concerned about spiritual things.
Tonight is a good night to make this known again. We might only have 4 or 5 people knock at the door, or we could have 70 or more. So, I will get all my goodies ready and I will be prepared to talk with people about the Gospel message and communicate the words of life to them.
