Honest talk here.
This is the first post in a series I am writing; unburdening my heart before you in honest homily of the many things God is whispering to me. For those who care to read on, I’ve entitled this first post: Return, a summoning back to the ancient paths, and will cover a basic introduction to the message the Prophets still herald today and why Samhain/All Saints Day/Halloween is not for the Christ follower to engage in.
There’s been quite a showdown in my own soul, attempting to thwart these words to you today, but I’ve determined to get gritty here in the trenches of this spiritual warfare, to lay hold of my calling in earnest, and to refuse to be cowed by the fear of man one day longer. We are living in unprecedented times, are we not? These times require of us an unprecedented courage to match, do they not? Bear with me, then, as I step out to obey these sometimes soft, sometimes violent nudges of the Holy Spirit. He always makes my obedience more worth it than I ever could have imagined, so here I go.
Throughout Biblical history it has been the office of the Prophets, wailing their tear-laden words from the Creator, Yahweh, that has both warned a nation of coming judgment, and called for their repentance and turning back to God’s ways. They were largely ignored, mocked, despised, beaten, imprisoned, and sometimes killed for delivering the very messages God gave them to deliver. Their words stand as an eternal testament to us today of three very clear and specific revelations concerning our God that we cannot afford to ignore again in our time. In my study, I have found the writings of the Prophets to reveal the greatest love story of all time, detailing the multitude of things God has done and will do for His chosen, set apart people: Israel. These writings also reveal God’s heart toward His people as an adoring Husband, longing for her single-hearted affection. And these writings clearly lay out to their hearers and readers exactly what God requires of His chosen Beloved, and what happens when she is unfaithful to Him. They are some of the most gut wrenching, poignant pieces of poetry and prophetic literature you will ever read. And read them my generation must.
While I do not claim in any way to be a prophet, I do know that God has called me to operate in the prophetic ministry according to Ephesians 4:11-16, and that He called me into this ministry during a life-changing encounter I had with him at 13 years old. I have not yet fully understood all that He said to me that day, but I can tell you that He marked me in a way I will never forget. Even when I denied Him, beat my hands against His protection, and seemingly destroyed my life one demoralizing choice at a time, He was with me, holding me in His love and mercy, and waiting like a gentleman for me to return home to Him. When I did, He healed me, restored me, redeemed my life from that black pit of emptiness and made me able again to fulfill my calling as a watchman on the wall. The words of Paul now sit heavy in my throat, “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” Ephesians 5:15
A few years ago God started radically pruning my life of the things He said don’t please Him or benefit my spirit in any way. To be real, it was painful, uncomfortable, and at times alienating, as many of the things He cut away were cultural norms I’ve grown up doing. But the sacrifices love demands are always worth it in the end, are they not? The gain of love is immeasurably greater than the sacrifice. I’m getting ready to have our fourth child, I know something of pain and sacrifice giving way to the reward of love. Paul described it by saying that the things he accomplished in his former life were utterly meaningless compared to “the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.” (Philippians 3:8) He considered all of his achievements to be as worthless garbage when compared to the joys of knowing Yeshua. I consider it the same.
One area that God pruned back heavily was my careless approach to the Bible. God revealed to me that I had become a hearer of the word only, and not a doer. That I approached His word from my own perspective and not His. That I held in too high esteem the traditions and teachings of man without properly weighing them against the Word of God. When I confessed this and repented, He restored spiritual sight to me, and like a blind woman seeing a sunset she had only heard described before, I began to see everything I had missed in Scripture. It was an incredibly special and transformative time for me, as I went through a season of devouring the Word and experiencing personal revival in my heart like never before.
He took me back to the beginning of it all. To a man named Abraham, his son Isaac and the deceiver Jacob who was restored to favor and renamed Israel. He took me back to a people called out of polytheism, the norm of the pagan world, into monotheism, a covenant relationship with the One Supreme God over all, the great I AM, YHWH. He reminded me of where I came from, who the Fathers and Mothers of my faith really are, and where my hope is truly found. I was able to see for the first time just how much my traditions and worldview were a product of my culture and upbringing and not Scripturally based in the Word of God. Waking up to this fact was like emerging from a time capsule and realizing with shock and sadness that I truly am surrounded, as Israel was, by the same idolatry, the same pagan festivals, traditions, practices and worldview that permeated the ancient world through mystery Babylon.
Though the year is 2020, the worship of the old gods has simply been amalgamated into Western Christianity, the evidence of which we are now thousands of years removed from. As I began to really study biblical history and compare it to ancient history and church history, I realized that our Greco-Roman / Westernized traditions and worldview are a mirror image of the Babylon of the Old Testament. This is a big deal considering the amount of escatalogical references (pertaining to the end of days) there are in the Word of the prophesied, future whore of Babylon described in Daniel and Revelation. John in his visions of the end even heard God urging His people to come out of her, and to have nothing to do with her ways.
“And I heard another voice from heaven saying, ‘Come out of her, my people. Lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.’” Revelation 18:4.
It appears the desperate pleas of the Prophets, unheaded so long ago, ring clear and true to a people once again. Are we listening?
Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 10:11 that the account of Israel in the wilderness - the miracles, the complaining, the law given, the unbelief - is all recorded as an example for us - for our instruction. “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” Are we looking to Israel’s lessons to discern which path is right? Will we return, as Jeremiah pleaded, to the ancient paths Israel walked in with our God?
“Thus says Yahweh: ‘Stand in the way and see, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls.” Jeremiah 6:16
When Paul wrote his letter to Timothy, stating that “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work,” (2 Timothy 3:16-17) did it ever occur to you that he was talking about the Old Testament? At the time this letter was penned, it would still be several hundred years before the New Testament would be canonized! Paul was pointing the believer to the Torah of Moses (Genesis through Deuteronomy), the Prophets, and the books of Wisdom (Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon…) These are the places we are instructed to hold as a plum line in our lives.
Again, Yahweh pleaded to Israel through Jeremiah, “Do not learn the way of the Gentiles” (Jeremiah 10:2) And so I’m pleading similarly with you today, not to learn, practice or participate in the feast days of pagan nations. Because you, dear believer, are a son of God; a people called out of Egypt. You have been set apart from the nations of this world, to be his own special possession, His Beloved. He commands us to live in the world yet be not of it. He implores us to remember that friendship with the world is enmity with God. When He says not to learn the way of the gentiles, He is commanding us not to engage in pagan practices, however discernibly innocent they seem.
Halloween is unequivocally a pagan practise. It is a witches’ brew of traditions ranging from 4th century Druidism and the feast of Samhain to the ancient mystery religions that predate the Roman Catholic Church’s All Saints Day. None of this is Biblical or pleasing to God. In reality, October 31-November 1 is a 24 hour period of time in which witches and warlocks all around the world practise satanic ceremonies, releasing the spirit of fear into our communities and amassing cult power through animal and sometimes human sacrifice. This is not something the Christ follower should have anything to do with, right?
Paul wrote in his letter to the Messianic community in Corinth, a community largely composed of newly converted pagans living in a cornucopia of ancient idol worship, “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons.” 1 Corinthians 10:21
When it comes to this particular pagan feast, I didn’t personally grow up celebrating Halloween. My parents made it clear to us as kids that it was a satanic holiday. It seemed quite obviously demonic to my child eyes, seeing the outpouring of images of ghosts and witches and scary stories - so it wasn’t hard for me to agree with my parents' decision and willingly not participate. But when my own kids were little, I lost that discerning edge, and instead was saddened at the thought of them missing out on the annual fun of dressing up in a cool costume, and walking around the neighborhood collecting candy. And so for four years we participated in Halloween, getting quite into it actually, and thinking nothing of it.
When God began the heavy pruning in my life a few years ago, cutting off the branches not producing any fruit, Halloween was among the first things to go. He took me through His Word and showed me all the places that demonstrably communicate the things which please Him and the things which He abhors. In Deuteronomy, Moses delivers line upon line instruction from the mouth of God on how to walk uprightly before Him. He tells Israel that on the one hand there is life (abundant life!) when God’s ways are honored and obeyed and on the other hand there is death, when His ways are ignored and disobeyed. (Deuteronomy 30:19) Moses urged Israel to choose life and reject idolatry in all of its many, alluring forms.
So when I urge you to examine this for yourself, and to also choose life, please know that it is not from a place of pride or emotional disconnection, but in all humility, having been there myself, knowing intimately how easy it is to be enticed away from the ways of God. Keep yourself from practicing the way of the gentiles. Do not participate in the pagan practices of our day. We are a people set apart unto God as a royal priesthood. Your body is the temple of the Living God.
Nothing corrects, convicts or connects the dots like the Word of God itself, so I encourage you to read Ephesians 5:1-21 for further reading. The Amplified Bible does a beautiful job of going in depth into what Paul is saying. Here’s verse 11 & 12.
“Do not participate in the worthless and unproductive deeds of darkness, but instead expose them [by exemplifying personal integrity, moral courage, and godly character]; for it is disgraceful even to mention the things that such people practice in secret.”
These words require no follow up from me. They stand alone in their conviction and power. So I end this virtual letter of honest heart-bearing by spreading my arms open-hungry to you, in genuine invitation to begin having these loving conversations God so desires to have with you. He longs for us to return to His ways. To see with fresh eyes the joy infused, life-abundant way of Love, otherwise known as Biblical Christianity.
In closing, I want to leave us with the awesome exhortation Paul left us at the end of Ephesians 5 - the Bride! (Seriously though, go read Ephesians 5)
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.” Ephesians 5:25-27
There’s something massively significant to the reading and washing and restoring of the Word of God to the Bride & Body of Christ that without which, we can never be ready for His coming.
Here’s a happy signup sheet to a lifetime of washing & ironing!
Peace, love, and hugs,
Natalie
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