The enemy of your soul comes to steal, kill, and destroy. He's very good at it. He does not have the power of creation, nor is he omniscient like your Holy Father - but he can manipulate matter (almost at will), and does his very best to corrupt every good thing that Abba would (and does) create for His little ones here on Earth.
The devil didn't create anything. You name it - the devil had no hand in its creation. But he has so thoroughly corrupted so many things that one can easily imagine them sprouting out of the very bowels of hell. Movies spring to mind, do they not? The devil had no hand in inventing movies - that was from God like all other good things... But he has spent a century doing everything in his power to make that medium so thoroughly corrupt that one can hardly imagine a Holy God having any hand in it at all.
God will redeem that mountain of influence with all the others, one day - but that's another story.
The point that I wish to make here is a much larger one (and far more important). Just because the devil may have made use of something that Abba created at some point down the line - that does NOT make the object in question the enemy's permanent property going forward. If this were true, we Christians would literally have nothing left with which to honor our Holy Father.
Take Christianity itself... Would anyone in The Body of Christ be so bold as to state anything close to the following? That the practice of worshiping God as a "church" was no longer valid because it was so thoroughly corrupted by the enemy (inside the ranks) from the days of Constantine until Martin Luther nailed that parchment to the door?
Heaven's NO!
God doesn't "throw the baby out with the bath-water" - and the reformation was a holy act because it helped His little ones reclaim His Holy church from the clutches of the Nicolaitans after a thousand years of torture, slaughter, and subjugation. A religious-minded person might insist that any church formed after the reformation MUST look totally different (and in no way resemble) the corrupted version from which it happily emerged.
But God is in the redemption business, and not just for His little ones. Jesus says, "come to me as you are - and let My Holy Spirit direct you has He wills."
And now to the point:
There are many well-meaning theologian types in the world who make this fatalistic mistake on a daily basis. They consider a date or thing that God made unholy because the enemy (at one time or another) made use of that date or thing.
Christmas is an example.
There are those who claim that December 25th could not possibly be a Holy Day unto The Lord because the enemy used that day for his own nefarious purposes within the Babylonian system of (demon) worship. To those who might agree with this mindset, a quick question: Have you stopped to think what that suggests? Does ANY DAY belong to the devil??? If it does, where does that stop? Can he just keep corrupting days until we have no day to dedicate (or re-dedicate) to our Holy Father? Do we stop acknowledging Resurrection Sunday because of the abominations that the devil perpetrated on that day?
Or could it be that the enemy of our soul was clever enough to KNOW that those very days had been selected before the dawn of time to be Holy among His children? And (by extension) would he not be clever enough to use those very days to entice his little ones into unspeakable acts of wickedness and sin? Am I suggesting that Jesus was looking forward (in time) to a day when His children would dedicate the 25th of December as a day on which to commemorate His Holy Birth among the nations? Did He then patiently endure the enemy doing his absolute best to forever corrupt that very day in the minds of any who would listen?
That's exactly what I'm saying.
I don't even care if The Lord was actually born in September, as many suggest - in fact, I acknowledge that there's a better-than-average chance He probably was. What is bound on Earth is bound in Heaven, and His children have chosen to celebrate His birth on December 25th. I've been assured (in ways that you would never believe) that Christmas is celebrated in Heaven, and in just the same way that we do (from Thanksgiving through New Years). One might also pause to consider the math for a moment. If Yeshua was born in September (perhaps on the Feasts of Trumpets), count back nine months and tell me when His immaculate conception may have occurred - then Selah.
Believe it or not, this isn't a writing about Christmas or any other Holiday. I'm using Christmas an example of a much larger point. Name the day of the year - and then name for me all the abominations that have been done upon those days until you are hoarse - and you will never change my mind on this one salient point:
THIS is the day that The Lord has Made! We will rejoice, and be glad in it! The devil cannot rob us when we take authority in the Holy Name of Jesus and reclaim for Him (and for His Kingdom) ANYTHING that the enemy may have stolen over the years.
October 31? That day belongs to GOD just like every other day. As the enemy has taken great pains to so thoroughly corrupt that day (in recent memory), perhaps we should start asking The Lord what He had originally chosen that day to commemorate - so that it too can be reclaimed from the enemy and be used for its proper purpose.
What about supernatural manifestations among men? Did you know that black magic is real? That witchcraft is very real, and that the devil does indeed give stupid self-aggrandizing parlor tricks to foolish people in exchange for their eternal souls? This is hardly a departure from the topic at hand - but (rather) to point out yet another area in which the enemy had robbed God's children. Too many Christians believe that the miraculous is restricted to healing - all the while the devil's crowd is shaming The Body of Christ with supernatural manifestations.
The deepest cut of all, and the devil's most clever ploy. Blind God's children to their supernatural birthright in Him - by causing His children to disbelieve in supernatural manifestations. A thing of the past - nuggets in history never to be seen again.
Most churches completely ignore (and even impugn) the acknowledgement of a supernatural walk with our God. And at the same time, a recently published national headline claimed that the satanic church is seeing an historic rise in membership. Chill our blood as this might, can we not see how this is possible, if we study the matter dispassionately? The world is looking on and they are not stupid. They see power in one arena being boldly displayed (or at least claimed) - all the while The Body of Christ (in most quarters) completely disbelieves that Jesus would wish to manifest like that among His children.
But if witchcraft falls under the designation of stealing (and it does) - then have you stopped to consider what God's actual plan for his children might have been? Have you read how one man killed a thousand with a donkey's jawbone, or how that same man lifted a gate (of many tons) and carried it off? I could walk through dozens of supernatural manifestations from Genesis through Revelation, and it would still not make a dent to those who believe that things are as they should be in the current incarnation of the Body of Christ.
Having a form of Godliness, but denying its power...
One final question to the discerning: If magic and witchcraft was never real - then why would a just God make its practice a death-penalty offense when laying down His laws? If it was anything other than the deepest form of spiritual adultery that one can indulge (and it is), then indulging it would never have been punished so severely.
Conversely, we need to revisit the need for supernatural manifestations among The Body. Prophets are real - and still relevant. Apostles are real. Miracles are real.
We need to stop allowing the devil to rob us of our birthright! We need (as a Body) to reclaim that which was lost in the age that followed the fall from the Garden of Eden. The deluge swept away far more than most would imagine.
This is a foundation for a much bigger subject. If you hung with me to this point, we'll continue from here next time.
God bless you all. In Yeshua's Holy and Wonderful Name,
Mark Scott Grimmett GoldenLight Ministries