"There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord". (Deuteronomy 18: 10-13)
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The
last Harry Potter book has finally arrived, prefaced by weeks of
speculation as to the fate of the young wizard, with last minute shots
of anxious young kids and adults dressed as characters from the series
waiting near midnight at Barnes and Nobles to satisfy this particular
fantasy addiction. Part of the devoted newsprint was an article by a
local minister who applauds the positive messages of friendship,
devotion and sacrifice which enable good to triumph over evil. She freely
admits to mining this potter's field for sermon illustrations. It seems
somewhat ironic to me that in doing so she ignores the warnings that the
Holy Spirit gives us through Holy Scripture about being deceived by
anything connected with the occult.
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God
hates those things, and the reason He hates them is because association
with them always leads people away from God and toward bondage, fear,
sickness, and sometimes even death. They are connected to the world of
the evil one and are accompanied by evil spirits, yet are never
advertised as such. There is a spiritual war going on that involves and
impacts every living person. The main weapon for the enemy in this war
is deception. He has established strongholds and maintains certain
territorial rights. When we venture without protection into his
strongholds or territory it gives him what I like to call a legal right
to oppress us. I am a mature Christian and put on the armor of
Ephesians 6:12 daily, yet the Holy Spirit tells me to avoid those
strongholds and territories. And if they are dangerous for me, why
would I want my children or grandchildren exposed to them?
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After
becoming a believing Christian and being filled with the Holy Spirit I
began to gradually grow in spiritual maturity as led by the Spirit.
Along the way God would show me things and I would have to make
decisions as to how I would respond to those revelations. One day the
Spirit put it in my mind to examine the music I listened to. So I
decided it would be a good idea to toss out everything that sang about
sex, drugs, Eastern religion or the occult, thinking that a few albums
might have to go. As I began to look over the song titles it occurred to
me that maybe the only thing to remain of my collection would be the
Christmas albums. Ninety percent of the rest did end up in the trash. My
bohemian brother-in-law almost cried when he found out. "You could have given them
to me!" Of course that wasn't the idea. Now much of that music is
coming back, considered by today's standards classic but tame.
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Another
time the Spirit had me examine my past and I prayed that He would
bring to mind anytime that I had participated in where the evil
one could have gained a foothold in my life. Some were obvious such as
playing with a Ouija board or a time when I was a child and a neighbor
invited me over for a seance where they did some table lifting, or the
time I went to see the movie Rosemary's Baby. But I recalled other
involvements as well where God wanted me to seek forgiveness and
cleansing. My cousins and I would get together almost every Sunday afternoon from the time we were little until we started college. We made up a make believe world which we called "the ghost club". Although I cannot recall much about what we did in our ghost club, we were smart and creative kids and I'm sure we invented some great characters who had amazing adventures. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with kids using their imaginations, or with fictional stories, or with having fun by being silly. It is very possible that we never crossed the line where imagination leads to actions that cross over to the spiritual. But if we did then I sure want to have the Father's forgiveness and cleansing from any residual effects that would cause lifelong afflictions. As parents we need to seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit so that we will be able to teach our children principles that will protect them from the attractive deceptions of the evil one.
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We
tried to teach our children the principles of the spiritual war that we
are involved in so as they grew they would know not just "the what not",
but also "the why for". We also put a fence of protection around
them as well. That fence included our prayers, our examples and our
guidance. It also involved decisions on what they could read, or watch,
or listen to, and where they could go and with whom. Anything that portrayed witches, magic and such in a positive way were out of bounds. We would also not let our children go to slasher movies because those
types of experiences of intense fear can also be entry points for demonic spirits. We
did not withdraw from the world but we always had to work to discern
what was in the will of God and what was not. Acceptance by the
culture was not a gauge we used.
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It
is very difficult to raise children in our secular world and not have
them be involved in certain cultural things that most of their friends
are. We can lay down a law as a fence to protect them, but we must also
lead them to the helmet of salvation, and show them how to put on the
coverings of truth and righteousness, and teach them how to use the
shield of faith. And as they grow in being guided by the Spirit they
will be less inclined to sneak over that fence. Instead, they will learn
to wield the sword of the Spirit. That sword will be for protection,
but it will also be used by those young boys and girls, chosen by the
Lord God Almighty in this special day and age, to tear down the
strongholds and destroy the territory of the enemy. Truth is more
exciting than fiction, and the stories of the adventures that God has
for our young will fill much more than seven volumes.
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"For
the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful
for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and
every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are
taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are
ready to punish all disobedience, whenever our obedience is complete". (2 Corinthians 10: 3-6)
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