I was a spiritually sensitive child, and I am today a spiritually sensitive adult.
My mother used to tell me a story about when I was a small child. My parents had rented a home that was once home to another family. There was a history of abuse in the family, and the story I remember my mother telling me was that the husband had gone to prison for hurting his wife and child. My bedroom door had locks (as in, more than one) on it, and my mother tells me I refused to sleep in it. Instead, I slept in the living room floor or in their bed, or anywhere but my room. My dad would come and pray for me every night before bed so that I didn't have nightmares, and my mom said one night he came to pray for me and when he ended his prayer, I said "Daddy? Who's the pretty lady in that chair?" He looked around, looking for a woman, and saw nothing. "I don't see any lady, where is she?" he said.
"She's over there, in the chair. She's there all the time, but she never told me her name. She's so pretty." I yawned and went to sleep.
We didn't stay in that house very long, but my spiritual sensitivity stayed with me. I would go into places where I definitely felt a negative energy. I avoided those places. I could not read horror books, or anything supernatural, I could not watch scary movies. I refused to join my friends in partaking in cheap thrills because, for me, they were not cheap. For me they were opening doors to a darkness and an ambiguity that I intuitively knew I should not allow into my spirit - everything from ghost stories to true stories of hauntings, to Stephen King were not going to happen for me - I knew my limits, and I ignored the supernatural as much as possible.
After reading books by Frank Peretti regarding spiritual warfare and demons and angels, it was cemented in my mind that good and evil forces did indeed exist and the power of such should be respected.
So what does Christianity say about this? Well, its a quiet topic in Christianity - unless you're charismatic - which I was. Most denominations don't mention all the hocus pocus of the "spirit world" except in vague references. But in the charismatic or pentecostal movement, there is quite a lot of talk about demons, devils, spirits, angels, and dark/light forces. What starts out as a healthy respect can, with the help of people like Bob Larson and Henry Malone, quickly turn sour into fear quicksand.
I'm interested to hear what other Christians have experienced in this arena... give me your thoughts!
My mother used to tell me a story about when I was a small child. My parents had rented a home that was once home to another family. There was a history of abuse in the family, and the story I remember my mother telling me was that the husband had gone to prison for hurting his wife and child. My bedroom door had locks (as in, more than one) on it, and my mother tells me I refused to sleep in it. Instead, I slept in the living room floor or in their bed, or anywhere but my room. My dad would come and pray for me every night before bed so that I didn't have nightmares, and my mom said one night he came to pray for me and when he ended his prayer, I said "Daddy? Who's the pretty lady in that chair?" He looked around, looking for a woman, and saw nothing. "I don't see any lady, where is she?" he said.
"She's over there, in the chair. She's there all the time, but she never told me her name. She's so pretty." I yawned and went to sleep.
We didn't stay in that house very long, but my spiritual sensitivity stayed with me. I would go into places where I definitely felt a negative energy. I avoided those places. I could not read horror books, or anything supernatural, I could not watch scary movies. I refused to join my friends in partaking in cheap thrills because, for me, they were not cheap. For me they were opening doors to a darkness and an ambiguity that I intuitively knew I should not allow into my spirit - everything from ghost stories to true stories of hauntings, to Stephen King were not going to happen for me - I knew my limits, and I ignored the supernatural as much as possible.
After reading books by Frank Peretti regarding spiritual warfare and demons and angels, it was cemented in my mind that good and evil forces did indeed exist and the power of such should be respected.
So what does Christianity say about this? Well, its a quiet topic in Christianity - unless you're charismatic - which I was. Most denominations don't mention all the hocus pocus of the "spirit world" except in vague references. But in the charismatic or pentecostal movement, there is quite a lot of talk about demons, devils, spirits, angels, and dark/light forces. What starts out as a healthy respect can, with the help of people like Bob Larson and Henry Malone, quickly turn sour into fear quicksand.
I'm interested to hear what other Christians have experienced in this arena... give me your thoughts!
Hey! I just wanted to post a quick note since no one has responded! Have you ever read the Joseph Smith History? He definitely felt seized upon by an evil power when he prayed about which church to join (http://lds.org/scriptures/pgp/js-h/1?lang=eng):
ReplyDeleteAfter I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.
But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction—not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being—just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.
It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!
I don't think Latter-day Saints dwell on the supernatural, but we are aware of good and evil forces/spirits, definitely.
You've read C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters haven't you? So interesting!