Christian Living
A New Spin on Something Old: The Enemy’s Deceptive Ploys
There is a new craze in the world called Poke-mon Go! I am here to say point blank: this game is not of God. The body of Christ has to take more care and seek God about things of the world. God admonishes us to test things/spirits to see if they are of God. If the world flocks to something new and shiny; it raises red flags in my spirit. In a time span of two weeks Poke-mon Go! has amassed billions of dollars. (Proving my theory that there is no lack of money in the world, merely a lack of distribution powered by a small percentage of the elite; but I digress). The second time I heard of it was in church by a Pastor that asked the congregation to suspend their excitement and turn off the game sermon time. After which he stated that the people of God could turn their devices back on and resume playing! I was astonished. I couldn’t wait to get home to write about this!
I am familiar with Poke-mon because when my son was younger he used to watch the cartoons. I made a point of watching every cartoon that my son viewed to make sure it was safe, as well as videos games he played and the music he listened to.
When I first watched Poke-mon, the cartoon, something in my spirit just didn’t seem right. I didn’t want to be overly restrictive unless I had good reason to do so. I prayed about it and did some research on the internet and was still left with an uneasy feeling.
I won’t purport to know intricacies of the game, but I knew that the general theme was that spirits would be called out to do battle in the atmosphere. If this were just good versus evil, I think I would have just left it there. The next thing that morphed out of this rage that came of out Japan were Poke-mon cards. Children would exchange cards with others, trying to obtain the more powerful figures.
Again I watched the cartoons and games with my son. I sat down and spoke with him to explain that everything that seems innocent, was not. I explained to him that it was my responsibility to bring him up to know who God is, and to protect him from harm; danger comes in many forms.
My son was no stranger to hearing me speak of things that acceptable and those activities that I did not approve of. He would questions and ask ‘Well, how do you know what God thinks about something, Mom’. Again. Not his first time asking me these types of questions. I would tell him that God lets me know by the Holy Spirit that lives inside me. I told him, as we went through the sinners’ prayer together, and he accepted Christ Jesus into his heart at an early age. I told him this is something he would come to know as he grew in Christ and the Lord would communicate with him as well.
Unbeknownst to me, my son continue to trade cards with friends when he was out playing and hid them from me when at home. One evening my son came to me in the middle of the night, crying. He said he had started to have nightmares about the spirits battling in the Poke-mon games. I forgave him for hiding the cards for me. Together we through the cards away. We got onto our knees and asked God for forgiveness and I asked the Father to give my son peace. He slept in the bed with me that night. There was not one other night my child had any more nightmares.
Such supposedly innocent games may have opened a door by which the enemy could access my child. I’m glad that he came to me and confessed what was happening with him. That night we cast the devil out! I was fighting mad at the devil and prayed blessing over my child as he slept.
I do not expect things like Poke-mon Go! to give people in the world pause. But we are not of the world. The Lord expects those who are seasoned Christians to teach the younger parents what to look for and how to pray about these matters. These days, the younger generations make a mockery of older and elders instead of listening and harkening to their wisdom. You don’t have to go through things yourself to learn life lessons. Often you can listen to what others have experienced and try to avoid similar mistakes. But I suppose making foolish mistakes is a rite of passage into adulthood and maturity. (I have made more than a few) But that doesn’t mean that we that know better should be silent! God will hold us accountable.
We also have to mindful of the manner in which we speak with our youth. Not talking at them, but with them, welcoming their feedback, allowing them to feel our unconditional love. We should love on them as much as possible and tell tidbits of wisdom in a non-preachy way, certainly not in anger or distrust. It plants a seed that, nurtured, will grow and give life to others. Otherwise they will reject what we have to say and the streets have their own ways of educating our children.
The enemy wants our children and the younger generation because they are the future of the Church. If he can weaken their power and cause them to doubt who they belong to, it carries over to other generations. God forbid! We are the watchmen over the younger saints among us.
Psalms 127:3-5
Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from Him. Like arrows
in the hands of the warrior are children born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them. They shall not be ashamed when they contend with
their opponents in court.
The enemy send his secret followers into youth departments in churches across the nation to lure our children away from the Lord. It happens every day, right under our noses. How can this be? Because we aren’t paying attention. Some of us are not sitting down with our children and letting them know how deeply God loves them. Loves them so much that He sent Jesus. The authority of Jesus far outweighs and mystical power or influence of the enemy. Let us remember he was murder and a liar from the beginning!
Since my son was a toddler, I spoke life over him. Calling him ‘strong man of God’, or ‘God’s little boy’. When he got older I started praying for his wife, that she would be a strong woman of God. Also, I prayed for my grandchildren who are not even here yet! (I’m not ready for that yet!).
Now, I am no perfect parents, and I could tell you many mistakes I have made over the years. But I am still learning. We are parents as long as we are here on this earth. That’s why grandparents are so wonderful! They have already learned from the mistakes they made with their own children; they can lovingly lavish onto the grandchildren what they simply didn’t know when they were younger.
They were once young people too, trying to navigate life with both successes and failures. We will never get everything right. Thank God for the gift of righteousness and the abundance of grace we are freely when we receive Christ Jesus (Romans 5:17).
My prayer to the Father is this: to open the spiritual eyes of parents and cause them to be vigilant in watching over what God has blessed them with. Not to be so quick to give into something just because their children want the newest craze. We are not supposed to conform, but be transformed by the renewal of our minds through Christ Jesus (Romans 12:2).
Next I will be sharing my feeling about why yoga is not of God…..
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