LAURA JANE KENNY | staff writer

Don't forget the Lord is always fighting a battle for us.

I was in ninth grade when I first saw “The Ring.” I don’t even like watching scary movies. I probably wouldn’t have gone to see the movie had it not been for Garrett, the cute boy who asked me to go. And, like most girls, I went because everyone knows that scary movies are the best date movie. When else can you grab someone’s hand so abruptly?

While I watched the movie, I wasn’t really that scared. I was much more focused on the cute boy to my right. It wasn’t until later, when I was alone in my room, that I was terrified.

I loved my room. I had used the privacy and secrecy of my room as a place to meet with God. This same solitude and privacy that I had enjoyed now frightened me. I didn’t even want to walk down the open hall to use the bathroom and if you have ever seen “The Ring,” you know that I did NOT want to look into a TV.

So, this place that God had given me, the house my parents had prayed over, a place where God’s presence had been, was now a place where I cowered in fear.

With Halloween just around the corner, there is always discussion of proper celebration. It is not so much the idea of walking around in scary costumes that gets me. It is this fascination with scaring ourselves that comes with it. The theme parks, the haunted houses and even the scary movies. I believe, as Christians, we unintentionally invite Satan into our homes, our schools, our minds and our lives.

The scary movie I watched opened new doors for fear to appear in my life. In Hebrews 2:15, fear is called an instrument of enslavement to Christians. We are free in the Lord, yet we invite ourselves to again be captive to fear. In fact, God desires to rescue us from fear, yet we give Satan a free invitation to scare us senseless.

In Job 1:7, God asks Satan where he comes from. Satan answers “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”

Satan is walking all over the place. In the Bible, Jesus and the disciples cast out demons throughout the New Testament and the word demon shows up 46 times throughout the Bible. If it is evident that spiritual warfare exists, why are we not living like it does? We continue to leave the door cracked open for Satan to sneak in by our ignorance.

Second Corinthians 10:3-4 reads, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.”

As Christians, we are given the power through the Holy Spirit to demolish strongholds. Praise the Lord if someone’s broken leg is healed but heaven forbid if someone is casting out demons.

Many Christians don’t like to talk about spiritual warfare. It is seen as something spooky and is considered one of those “touchy” subjects. We are only hurting ourselves by being intentionally ignorant.

Ephesians 6:12 says, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

The recognition of spiritual warfare is a call for a change of tactics. Instead of opening doors for Satan to waltz through, the Word tells us to defend ourselves from such dark powers with truth, righteousness, gospel of peace, faith, salvation and the Word of God.

God is leading a battle we don’t even know he’s fighting while we are here on earth, afraid of what is in our closet.

The idea that people are afraid to talk about spiritual warfare is ironic in itself. That is letting fear overcome us so we can not overcome fear. Most people refer to it as warfare because God uses this language in the Bible. It is a war that is raging on two sides and to pretend it does not exist will not help the fight.

Do not let the idea of demons scare you, but let the knowledge of God encourage you. Be aware that you are a part of the battle. Don’t make it easier for the other side by giving Satan a V.I.P. pass into your life.

And hey, if you want to hold a guy’s hand, think of something better than scary movies.