Halloween is only a day away. Many of you remember celebrating Halloween as children and have fond memories of dressing up and going door to door asking for candy. But what is Halloween really about? Should Christians be celebrating this pagan holiday?
Prophetic deliverance minister Kathy DeGraw recently offered some compelling insights on this very topic on my “Strang Report” podcast. DeGraw just released a fascinating e-book called Why Christians Shouldn’t Celebrate Halloween. It contains nine complete teachings about the truth behind Halloween—and it’s not all fun and games as some would think.
It’s interesting that few know the history of Halloween. The word “Halloween” actually comes from the phrase “all-hallowed evening” because it occurs the night before All Saints’ Day in the Roman Catholic Church, which takes place on Nov. 1.
Before it was associated with All Saints’ Day, though, Halloween came from a Celtic holiday called Samhain. During this time, people would light bonfires to ward off spirits and dress up in costumes. People believed that the veil dividing the natural world from the spiritual world was at its thinnest on that night and, as a result, participated in pagan practices.
Of course, the holiday has shifted culturally so that now it’s seen primarily as a fun time to dress up and go trick-or-treating. But not everyone who celebrates Halloween does it in a benign way. DeGraw says many witches, warlocks and neo-Pagans view Halloween as a high holy day:
“What they want to accomplish is they want to wreak havoc on our lives. In John 10:10, it says the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. So they are co-laboring to come and steal, kill and destroy. What we have to look at is they are being dedicated for 30 days, for the entire month of October, to prayer, fasting, curses and to cause Christians havoc and to wreak evil on us.
“I believe one of the things that Christians need to do is we need to be just as adamant, just as diligent. We need to be praying and fasting, and praying on the offense, covering ourselves, protesting ourselves, praising and worshipping God.”
Some Christians take advantage of the popular holiday as an opportunity to evangelize or form friendships with unbelieving friends and neighbors. But DeGraw says when Christians celebrate Halloween, they are unwittingly giving the enemy a legal right to create a stronghold in the spiritual realm. For this reason, believers must shift their mindset from defensive spiritual warfare to offensive intercession. (Click here to listen to my podcast about the spiritual warfare raging in America.)
“It’s not just on Halloween; we know we have spiritual warfare all year long,” she says. “But we can close the doors when we’re really focused on these attacks and counteracting them with prayer and we’re educated through the Bible and through the Holy Spirit revealing to us how to pray strategically and what to do to counteract these attacks.”
As someone who has helped numerous people experience deliverance from demons and witchcraft, DeGraw has powerful insight into how Christians can wage effective spiritual warfare. In fact, she shares deep, practical lessons on her new “Prophetic Spiritual Warfare” podcast, which you can listen to at cpnshows.com.
If you want to learn more about what DeGraw has to say about Halloween and how to guard your family from demonic attacks, listen to my full interview with her.
You can also purchase her e-book Why Christians Shouldn’t Celebrate Halloween at shop.charismamag.com. Several of the chapters caught my attention, including: “There Is Nothing Holy About Halloween,” “How to Pray Offensively Against Witchcraft Curses at Halloween,” “Fearful and Scared Spirits Have Detrimental Effects Years Later” and “Do You Need Deliverance From Past Halloween Activities?”
If you know people who need to open their eyes to the spiritual dangers of Halloween, be sure to share this article and podcast with them!
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