SCARING AWAY EVIL SPIRITS – NO MORE!!

Last night marked the official end of the annual New Year’s celebration in our country. For several weeks the night sky has been filled with brightly colored fireworks and loud explosions. We had purchased a small arsenal of our own explosive devices (legal fireworks here) to set off on the final night of the celebration with our Deaf national partners. These were the kind of fireworks that my brother and I only talked about as kids but could never buy in the USA since possession of these types would carry a hefty fine and possible jail time!

As we began lighting fuses, enjoying the loud, air-rattling “booms,” and gazing at the “sky flowers,” one of our Deaf national believers prepared to light the fuse on a 12-foot string of firecrackers, M-80’s (this is what we called the ¼ stick of dynamite we heard about as kids), and sparkling fountains. He hesitated as he stooped to light fuse and then stood to his feet.

“You know? All of this was originally done to ward off evil spirits so our people could begin the new year without any negative influences!” Sonny signed.

He added, “ We’d light off these exploding devices to scare away demons and bad spirits!”

Then he said, “I’d like to pray now and thank the Father because of what His Son has done in our lives! We no longer need to scare away evil spirits! We have the power of the Son in our lives. That power is all we need to defend against evil spirits.”

His prayer (and I watched it in the dark so it was a bit difficult to see it all) then followed:

“Thank you Father for the beauty of what we see in these colors and bright flashes of light!”

“Thank you that we can enjoy it and celebrate the new year that You control totally!”

“Thank you that we don’t fear evil spirits in this new year, or in the years to come, because you are the power in our lives!”

“We are so grateful to you for what Your Son did to give us new life, all year, and deliver us from the evil one!”

“We praise You for giving us the stories from Your book and for the reminders we see in them that You are in us and greater than the evil that strives to bring us down!”

It was a little more than a year ago that Sonny was still living a life without hope. He participated in the annual New Year’s practices of shooting off fireworks in order to ward off the evil beings. We know you rejoice with us that, “Greater is He that is in [him-Sonny] than he that is in the world!” There is no need to use artificial means, no matter how loud and bright, to fight those battles. His Savior does that for him now!