Soul Kitchen

It's the time of year once again for Halloween and once again I struggle with where we as Christians fit into the whole picture and what do we as a family do. Being at a new school this is the first time ever that my children will be allowed to dress up for Halloween and participate in a Halloween parade. We're used to a school that only allowed children to dress up in orange and/or black, not costumes. Should be an easy solution.... we don't dress up. There's the peer pressure to participate and each day my one daughter comes home worried about what she's going to be and what others are going to be. She's quite consumed with this whole Halloween dress up idea that it doesn't leave her mind. Wanting my children to fit in and not be left out we ventured out to the costume section to see what innocent ideas they had there. I was actually mortified to see the amount of awful costumes out there! Witches, demons, etc. For her age there was nothing to choose from that would allow the fun of dressing up to remain innocent. We ended up choosing a 60's wig and will put an outfit together from her closet at home. For our family we have chosen that dressing up in itself is not wrong... it's the Satanic things that people make Halloween into that we take a stand against.

A couple nights ago she woke up in the middle of the night scared and came to me. I had never felt her so stiff and rigid. I had never experienced anything like this. She told me that she had scary faces coming towards her over and over again and that she was so scared that her body was frozen. She couldn't call out my name or she couldn't move. At 3:00 am I must say I wasn't too thrilled to be having a spiritual warfare talk but God gave me the strength to do it. I laid my hands on her and prayed over her. As I prayed I felt her body ease and relax. It was quite amazing! We prayed in her room to speak against the enemy there and asked in Jesus Name that she have a hedge of protection over her and for Satan to leave her alone. It was quite an amazing Jesus time that I will never forget.

Satan does that....he finds those weakest to attach himself to and in this case he used my daughter and this consuming idea of Halloween to make her fearful.

Satan is a defeated enemy, but he is still an enemy. His attacks are usually unannounced, usually disguised. “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness” (2 Corinthians 11:14-15).

Paul describes the devil as a lion on the prowl. “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). So what do we do? “Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast." (1 Peter 5:9 & 10)

Jesus defeated Satan not through aggression, but by resisting him with the Word of God and then by dying on a cross. Satan's greatest battlefield is the mind. If God lives in our heart, Satan cannot control our heart, but he does put thoughts and evil in our minds. Satan must have someone to work in and through.

What did Jesus say when tempted by Satan? "It is written..." He quoted scripture.

Spiritual warfare is real. What my daughter experienced is real. Fear gripped her so badly she couldn't move. I've experienced that to in my lifetime. The best weapon is God's Word. Let's walk and respond as Jesus did... quoting scripture to Satan.