Beautifully Restored

I called my mom last week to ask her why on earth she ever allowed me to do some of the things I did as a teenager… She laughed and reminded me that she didn’t let me do anything! She would tell me that I shouldn’t do something, to which I’m sure I thought “Thank you for your advice – I’m going to go do what I want anyway.” She reminded me that I had a quiet rebellion about me during those years. I would assure her that I had things under control and that I could handle whatever it was that I was doing at the time.

I remember one specific instance in high school where I was required to do a research paper in my English class. The teacher did not care what the topic was, just that it had to be a certain number of pages, with so many references, and all organized neatly in a binder. When I decided on my topic, my mom explicitly told me that it was not a good idea and that I would be opening doors in my life. I didn’t understand what she meant by that, but I assured her that I could handle it.

I don’t fully understand the mechanics about how doors are opened and closed in our spiritual lives, but I have certainly learned a few things about it. When a door is opened in our lives, it can be for good or for evil. When I accepted Christ into my life, it opened a door for the Holy Spirit to enter and start working in every aspect of my life. When a door is opened for evil, it allows evil spirits to start working in and influencing our lives as well. Those evil spirits will start working immediately to deceive and lead us away from Christ with the ultimate goal of destruction in our lives. (Maybe reference the verse in John 8 where Jesus calls Satan a deceiver/murderer?)

The topic of my research paper was witchcraft.

WARNING! WARNING! Already red flags are going up all over the place, right?!

I decided on this topic because I was curious. I didn’t want to be a witch. I didn’t want to do witchcraft. I just wanted to learn about it. I was intrigued by how it worked. I was intrigued that there was such a crusade against people who practiced witchcraft during the witch hunts that took place hundreds of years ago. As a kid you hear about evil witches, but I had recently heard about a “good” kind of witchcraft – it was supposed to have only positive outcomes, no negative or harmful ones. There was even a religion for people who practiced it. I had no clue! Needless to say, I was curious and simply wanted to know more about it.

I had no idea the things that would start to happen after I did this research paper. I had no idea that I had in fact opened a door for spirits to start to lead me astray and turn my world upside down.

Not to long after I did this paper, I went on a Christian retreat for teenage girls and met a girl who lived in a town about 45 minutes away from where I lived. We hit it off immediately and were inseparable during this weekend retreat. After that weekend, we talked on the phone and hung out whenever we had the chance to. Her mom would come to our town to meet with a group she was involved in at the local planetarium and she would drop my new friend off at my house or I would pick her up when I finally had my own car.

After a short while, I started to notice this lurking feeling of uneasiness when I was around her and her mother – especially her mother. I spent the night at her house one weekend and I finally figured it out. There was evil around this family. They were very involved in astrology. There were posters up in the house and trinkets hanging all around the house. I can’t remember if I called my mom to come pick me up or if I waited until morning, but I know that I didn’t sleep that night.

The last time I saw this friend of mine, she gave me a candle. I loved candles, so I couldn’t wait to burn it. I remember sitting in my bedroom floor lighting this candle. The flame was instantly super high – probably about a foot tall – and it flickered and moved around quite a bit. I had never seen a candle do this before and it freaked me out so bad that I blew it out and ran it straight to the dumpster. I tossed that thing in and never spoke to this girl again.

I knew that there was evil around that family and the candle proved it to me. I had opened a door in my life to allow these things in. What I didn’t realize is that it didn’t start with the research paper.

When I was in junior high school, I remember lots of sleepovers where we would dabble into things that I now know as occultist. We would take turns trying to hypnotize each other. We would play games that will remain nameless that unknowingly invited spirits to join in. The one thing I stayed away from was the Ouija board because I feared that was a direct connection to the spirit world. Talk about opening doors!

Even the books I read during these years invited this activity into my life. (I was and still am an avid reader.) During my early teenage years, I read a series called Fear Street by R.L. Stine. This was a horror series targeted towards teenagers. I read every single book that came out and couldn’t wait to get my hands on the next one. I’m not sure where all those books ended up, but I pray that they have been destroyed so they don’t open any of the same doors for another youth like they did for me.

Looking back, it is so scary to think of everything that I opened myself up to – and at such a young age. Thank God that my parents constantly covered me in prayer. I didn’t recognize at the time what I was allowing into my life, but my parents did. Thank you, Jesus, for them!

As a kid, I never in my wildest dreams would have imagined that these things that I surrounded myself with would allow evil into my life. I would have never thought they could lead me so far astray – after all, I could handle anything. Reflecting back, these things were only the beginning of just how far away I would get from God. All of this led up to the first HUGE mistake that I made as a teenager. I made plenty of mistakes, but believe me, this one takes the prize. I’ll share that one with you next time.

What I’ve learned:

• The physical world is directly connected to the spiritual world – good and evil.
• Even if my intentions are good, I can open myself up to harm with the decisions I make.
• The smallest open door will pave the way for a greater evil in my life.
• When I recognize evil in my life, I must immediately pray for the door to be closed and the evil to be removed in Jesus’ name.

Refining Time:

• Have you opened any doors in your life that need to be closed?
• Are you noticing a pattern of going just a little bit further in an area in your life than you want? A little bit further away from God?
• Do you need to spend time in prayer to identify open doors in your life?
• Has The Father closed any doors that you previously opened to protect you from harm? Praise God!

If you would like to learn more about opening spiritual doors, here are a few good resources:

Opening Demonic Doors – Even with Your Thoughts!

Hypnosis and Yoga Open Hidden Spiritual Doors

We Lock our Doors to Physical Dangers, But Leave our Minds Open to Spiritual Enemies

Knowledge of Spiritual Gates/Doors in our Lives: Their Effects and How to Deal with Them

If there is an area of your life that you need prayer for, please allow me to pray for you. You can send me a private message by clicking here.