Halloween 經歷神

文／Amy

Hi, I'm Amy. I wanted to share what I believe is God's story that I got to witness firsthand. This happened around the time of Harvest Fest last October. (Harvest Fest is when our church has a time of worship + a Gospel message before carnival games for kids, including our neighbors + friends who don't usually come to our church.) I'd been feeling God's prompting to do some kind of a fast (or abstaining) from news & social media because there were some big things I was wanting to pray for personally. I tried ignoring this prompting for a while because I didn't want to give those things up, and I was comfortable where I was. But it was during a prayer meeting with a few friends in the week before Harvest Fest that I finally was convicted to fast. Along with some miracles + breakthrough I was praying for personally, I also felt I really needed to pray & fast for the two friends my elementary-school-aged son invited to Harvest Fest. One was already coming, but the other was uncertain, depending on the outcome of an out-of-town youth sports event. So I was wanting God to move in some big ways & started fasting with this mentality that doesn't happen all the time for me:“God, I'm all Yours. I'm all in. I want to obey You & not have distractions.”

A couple days later, I was watching a webinar online by Dr. Marcus Warner of Deeper Walk, a former Bible professor & pastor, who was giving sound, practical instruction on how to approach Halloween as a Christian. He talked a lot about praying for our neighbors to come to know God, including prayer-walking our neighborhood in pairs, praying that people would be drawn to Him instead of horror movies, etc., and he was also giving tips on how to pray because there is an intense, real spiritual battle that goes on around Halloween. It's a fact that it's a significant day for Wiccans & Satan-worshippers, and they have specific rituals around Oct. 31. So this webinar was really about being aware & proactive & loving our community during Halloween, even praying for those who've been victims of those rituals I just mentioned, & how to protect ourselves as well. One distinct prayer he suggested was to ask God to assign the exact number of angels needed to protect your property (during Halloween), and so I prayed that. I'd never heard that particular prayer before, though sometimes I pray a hedge of protection around my family & our home. But Dr. Warner said he's heard some crazy things happening as a result of this prayer. One story he shared was of a believer who prayed it, and on Halloween, someone rang his doorbell asking what kind of power this believer had & that he wanted it for himself. The visitor explained that he had a demon with him & that demon was throwing a fit because he wasn't allowed on this believer's property, like not even the lawn.

Fast forward a couple days to Sat night, the night before Harvest Fest. I was just about to fall asleep when I heard some distant popping, then a loud bang that sounded like something had hit our house, and then more distant popping after that. My husband & I both kind of jumped up & looked at each other, like “What was that?!” We thought maybe something hit our roof, but hopefully it wasn't too bad. It shook me up, but we thought there wasn't much we could do, so we went back to sleep. Thankfully, our son, in his room, slept through it all.

The next morning, before church, I heard there had been a party the night before two streets away & that someone was shot & killed outside in the yard of the party house. This was shocking for our quiet, “safe” community. But we went on our way to church, taking one of Adam's friends (the other friend ended up not being able to make it—he was out of town still) to Harvest Fest (10/29/2017 Sun) and all went well. Afterwards, I found out this party had been heavily promoted on social media as a pay-and-you'll-get the address party for out-of-towners from other cities & even from out of state. It was not your typical parents-are-out-of-town high school party. There were some gangs involved, which we found out much later.

The next morning, Monday, after dropping our son off at school, I was walking by a guest bedroom & noticed something on the wall. As I got closer, I was stunned to find a hole & then a bullet on the floor, along with bits of drywall debris everywhere. And then I saw a small crater the shape of a bullet on the wall opposite of the hole. It all started to make sense with the loud bang we heard Saturday night & the party going on then. So this bullet had traveled over 800 feet, through 2 rows of houses between us & many trees, and went into our guest bedroom, across that room, to the other wall & fell down. Amazingly, it hit a narrow 1-2” beam between 2 closets (one of those closet’s doors was open) & made a 0.5”-deep (or more) crater & fell on the floor. If it had been an inch or two over, it could've gone through the wall into our bedroom on the other side. Our heads were exactly on the other side of that wall (our bed doesn't have a headboard). I was thanking God immediately & kept saying, “God, You are so real.” enthusiastically. I thought I was decently aware of how real He is, even when I'm not feeling His presence, but this was so in-my-face I just had to marvel at the evidence of His hand. I'm so thankful the bullet hit that narrow beam & fell on the floor & was rendered harmless before it could hurt us. Of course, I called the police & they came & brought in our county's Major Crimes Task Force to take pictures & collect the evidence.

I remember feeling then how real, active & close God is, how powerful He is, and of course how real the spiritual battle is, too. I felt really grateful that when this happened, I was fully surrendered to God, as far I knew. If it had happened another time, I might wonder if God was trying to get our attention or disciplining us or if there was any sin in our lives that made it easier for this to happen to us. But because it happened when I had a heart posture of “I'm Yours, God,” I felt not just peace but amazement at how real He is & how active He is in our lives & how He had specifically answered that prayer about sending the exact number of angels needed to protect us. I also knew the enemy was not happy with my prayers, like for our neighbors to come to love God, and that he was probably trying to send a message to us. But ultimately, God sent a message to the enemy & to us.

In the days after, I got to share this story with many people—friends, neighbors, parents of my son's classmates, people I might otherwise feel weird bringing God up to. I told them I didn't feel we were victims of random chance, that I'd been praying for our neighbors to come to know & love God right before it happened and that there is a powerful God who's looking out for us & a real spiritual battle going on that we cannot see.

So even when our senses & feelings tell us otherwise, God is not just real, He is near. He is powerful and actively working in our lives, esp. as we invite Him to take more & more control. May God give us hearts to love & seek Him wholeheartedly, hearts that are fully His. As we know Him more (especially through His Word, the Bible), may we surrender ourselves completely to Him who's trustworthy even if He's hard to understand & we can't box Him. I've found that more often than not, He wants me to pray specific prayers, even prayers about trivial things, and that it's important to confess our sins regularly because He will forgive us immediately (1 John 1:9) and also because we don't want any unconfessed sin hindering our prayers or closeness to God. So may we be drawn to Him who is lovely & find Him worth surrendering to & that He's trustworthy, even if it's a wrestling process.