O Lord, God of Heaven, The great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you. I confess we are a people who have strayed far from your ways. We have invited iniquity and false teaching into our hearts.

        Father forgive us of these transgressions, and I ask you father, to begin to reveal your word to your people. Let our ears be attentive to your teaching. Help us to bind up the broken-hearted, and help us to cast-out oppression and depression that keeps us ineffective for your Kingdom. Help us to renew our mind and transform us to the likeness of you son. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen

        Our search for inner healing denotes a recognition that somewhere in our past we have encountered some form of Trauma, and that trauma has left scars or wounds. In that trauma, we have made decisions and choices that have led us down ungodly paths. Our past converges on our present. Those thoughts and attitudes of yesterday are directly effecting what we are thinking and doing today. I would like to present to you some of the reasons we are all in need of inner healing.

        I am very sure that we are all in agreement that the world we live in today is vastly darker than the one of our own youth. Seeing my 10,16, and 19-year-olds sons growing up, I have become deeply distressed over what seems benign and innocent to the world, but in reality is extremely dangerous.

        Although there are many of the same issues today that we have dealt with in the past 20-30 years, the magnitude and the frequency of abuse, moral decline, drugs, suicide, promiscuity, etc is more intense in this generation.

        Just how did all this happen so fast? In the 60’s our nation, and much of the world, experienced a philosophy of freethinking. If it felt good, we were given the freedom to do it. If it was drugs, sex or whatever, there were no guidelines or rules, just as long as no one got harmed. This way of thinking, or worldview, created a ripe soil for the influences of witchcraft to be more openly accepted, and to put off the notion that only old women with bad hats were practitioners of the craft. Societal moiré's have taught us that "truth" was only what you believed, and what ever your experience was. Our western society wanted a world free from rules, and the power to overcome the madness. Our mindset turned away from Godly rules and behavior to life without rules and open expression of whatever "felt good". The church was seen as impotent and without a powerful God to direct people. The supernatural realm became of growing interest and a place where real power was manifested in ever-increasing frequency of occurrences. Looking at these two spiritual paths, it is no wonder so many chose the one that promised more power. We are reaping what we have sown.

        In the 1960's, we were introduced to a glamorous occult lifestyle through the hit TV series Bewitched. So many of us used to watch Bewitched and were charmed by Samantha and her mother Endora’s antics. The witch, Samantha, was viewed as the positive character, while her husband Darin was always shown to be the inept do-gooder, who always failed to keep his wife from using her inherited powers to overcome the day-to-day life of mortals. How many of us were beguiled by the craftiness of witchcraft? Did we scrutinize the message? Were we so caught up in the new special effects, that we forgot that witchcraft, in any form, is an abomination to the Lord? Over the period from the 60’s to today, the message of Samantha has changed very little. What has changed, is the blatancy of witchcraft now seen as an acceptable form of belief, especially among the youth of today. Witchcraft has exploded as "the" fashionable religion and the one true power to pursue to fill in the spiritual gaps left by the church. In witchcraft, one can actually see a manifestation of power that seduces our thinking and behavior to tolerate and accept the validity of Witchcraft.

        Make no mistake, witchcraft and sorcery is not the slight of hand, pulling a rabbit out of a hat parlor-type magic. It is a MAGICK that is defined as the "science of causing change to occur in conformity with will". The person engaged in these activities are deliberately bending, twisting or warping of God’s established laws of nature and spiritual principals, through the use of spells, incantations, and magick. A blatant disregard to God’s order and rules of natural law, and, a blatant willful response to change it to the benefit of the sorcerer. A dictionary definition of Magick is "the supposed art of influencing the course of events by the occult control of nature or the spirits." This definition is key to understanding the problem with the path that the entertainment media at large is seducing our culture. The true source of true magickal power is making pacts with and controlling evil spirits.

        You may have heard of the religion of Wicca, Black Magic or Satanism. Those who practice witchcraft may or may not claim to be Satanists. Many who are Wiccan (white witches) purport to use the powers of nature for good or "white magic." One young man who was born again out of the Wicca pagan religion says, "There is no such thing as white and black magic. White magic is simply sugar-coated witchcraft but it is all from the power of Satan." Anything that draws its power from anything other than The One True God is demonic in nature. This includes Ouija boards, astrology, horoscopes, tarot cards, water dowsers, "psychic healers, and the list is endless.

        There is a difference between wizards, magick and witchcraft but, the line between the them is often blurred. What is being offered to our children is a venturing forth out of witchcraft and into a further seductive realm of magick where wizards worship nothing and control the spirit world. The true goal of every wizard is to become his own god. There is no room in the world-view of a sorcerer for a sovereign God.

        I have heard the comments from parents, especially Christian parents saying that, "My children view this as nothing more than fantasy (meaning witchcraft), and since they do not believe in it... there is no real harm after all." One parent even went so far as to say that the popular card game of Pokemon was likened to a game of marbles where you catch and use your opponent's pieces.

        A major concern of mine is that children are immersing themselves in the magic world-view that does not fit with the Bible. You cannot be your own god and also worship the one, true God. This is why popular books like Harry Potter, games like Pokemon and media that depicts controlling the spirit world is more dangerous that they appear. You are what you eat, intellectually and spiritually. If you consume these avenues of entertainment, that promote a magical view of the universe, you will come to believe in those things- gradually. This change is very subtle, and it will seep into your mindset before you know it.

That This Is True?

        Research has proven that children between the ages of 3 and 5 learn by role -playing. Having a Bachalor of Science degree in Early Childhood Development, my studies have seen that children will soak up and learn the knowledge about the world they live in through their senses. This is especially achieved through what they see. They will then act out, or role-play, what they have seen and heard for reinforcement of this newly learned behavior. That is why the marketing companies for the Potter books and Pokemon are very lucrative. Children need to act-out with something material to reinforce concepts they have seen. Sadly, children are not just reading books like Harry Potter and watching Pokemon one time. They are re-reading, and watching these shows on a daily basis, and their entertainment hours are spent fantasying over these concepts.

        Currently our older youth are awash in a culture that promotes evil, occultism, lust and power for its own sake. The magick world-view is all around them. It is promoted in Television, movies and music and increasingly on the internet. Witchcraft on the internet is often coupled with pornography. Ask any teenager to open the latest anime’ site such as the Japanese version of Dragon Ball Z and one can find EVERY kind of pornographic material. Teens are readily playing the older game of Dungeons and Dragons and Magic the Gathering. Think about it. We now have several major TV shows where the heroes are witches, vampires, and movies where the good guys do supernatural feats. In our insecure family structure of today, much trauma has been handed to our children. Witchcraft and practices of the occult promise them the ability to control their lives, when their lives are spinning out of control. People always seek to ease the trauma they are in, and fairy godmothers are not at all what they seem to be!

        Our culture is so desensitized to the truths about the occult that we pass it off as the fashion of the day.

        Some of the Christian parents who defend the media attempts to promote the occult lifestyle, claim that one could never really learn enough about the occult to truly be interested or actually practice the magick or sorcery. Someone who was comparatively ignorant of the occult realm could only make this sort of statement. After viewing and reading books readily available to our children, not to mention the growing internet use, I say that any intelligent child can learn a great deal about authentic magickal and Occult material with ease.

        The mass media’s promotion of contrary values has promoted even Christians to replace or distort the pursuit of God with the pursuit of pleasure. Our popular beliefs are a license to do almost anything that feels good. Christians who refuse to compromise are often demeaned as old-fashioned killjoys who bring embarrassment to those who raise the banner of tolerance and who fear offending the world with God’s truths. This is why Jesus warned us in John 15:18-21 "if the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as it’s own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you…Remember the words I spoke to you… If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also…for they do not know the One who sent me"

            If you agree with all that was just said, then, how can one person defend themselves from the onslaught of the "in-thing" from peers and cultural factors that promote it, such as schools and neighborhood friends.

        My youngest son was developing a growing interest in the Pokemon cards. After hearing a few episodes of the cartoon, one Saturday morning, I was alerted to the direct uses of Occult messages (having come from such a background myself).

        I began to do much research and share that knowledge with my son over a two to three week period. During this time we would sit and talk about what was written on his cards and how, by God’s word, they were conflicting with what God says. At the end of the research period, I asked him what he thought. My son, experiencing real peer pressure was still mesmerized by them. That is when I began praying with much fervency.

        At the end of a week, my son came to me with conviction in his heart that he was not only ready to stop anything about Pokemon, but that he wanted to burn his cards. We made a ceremony of burning them in the fireplace.

        During the rest of his year in the elementary school, he then became the light in the school as he began to tell his friends about the dangers of Pokemon. The fruit of our labor is still being harvested.

        Father, I know that what I have just read is very hard. My heart sometimes still wrestles with what is Your Truth versus what the world portrays as truth.

        Please Father, give me the courage, confidence, boldness and power to take back Your Truths as my standard for living. Give me wisdom and the desire to learn all the things I need to know to live a holy lifestyle, pleasing to You.