Last year, we began a Halloween tradition in the Benes household. Instead of turning Halloween into harvest celebration (which my husband has done all his life) or just abstaining from all celebrations (which I have done for a long time), and instead of dressing up like ghouls, goblins, and ghosts (which neither of us have done for more than a decade or ever), we began dressing up as the other team: God’s angels. “After all, we are still dressing up like spiritual beings,” I said to my husband. “People seem to be more open to spiritual things around Halloween, so what better time to remind them that God, angels, and Heaven are real, too?”
We both invested in gigantic angel wings, lighted halos, a Heavenly backdrop for our garage door, and a fog machine (for what else—clouds!) One of us worship danced to Yeshua music blasting on our drive way while the other took charge of our kid, who was also dressed like an angel. I called it, “The Heavenly House” and I hoped it would open the doorway to God touching a few of our neighbors with God’s love and power.
We found that it was the perfect excuse to praise God in the midst of—well—an ungodly celebration AND it allowed us to offer prayer to strangers whenever the Holy Spirit led us.
Small Beginnings
Last year, a teenager from my neighborhood came up to me and semi-jokingly asked me to bless her. But then she bowed her head and assumed “the prayer position”—LOL, she was definitely “churched”! I prayed a blessing over her and she walked away, thanking me in that half-smart-aleck-half-serious way that teens sometimes do. Otherwise, the evening was pretty uneventful.
This year, she came back with a friend and immediately asked to be blessed again (I guess whatever God did after last year’s prayer was positive enough to come back for a second round.) I gathered up prayer requests from her and her friend—which were pretty generic—and prayed a blessing over them. They thanked me and went on their way.
Until 30 minutes later—when they returned with a third teen, who also wanted to be blessed. Now, I could see they were drawn to me; God was up to something! When I asked the third teen how I should pray, she asked for prayer for her father in jail. “He’s locked up and he’s never coming out,” she said. I began to pray and the Holy Spirit fell on her powerfully. She said she felt the tingles of the Holy Spirit and that her aunt, who was a pastor, also made her feel this way when she prayed. “She has someone who can follow up with her on this prayer—that’s good news,” I thought to myself. As I was praying for her, the second teen began crying (a sure sign that the Holy Spirit was also touching her). I asked how I could pray for her more, but her cell phone went off and the teens walked away.
Until 30 minutes later—when they all returned. This time, the second teen said, “I’m sorry we keep coming back for more blessings but I have a specific request. My mother died last April.” I prayed for God to take vengeance on the enemy of her soul, who took her mother away from her way too soon. God touched her deeply over the five or so minutes when I prayed for her, and she was thanking me profusely as she walked away. I could tell she was not churched. God began her journey to knowing God’s love personally that night.
I turned to the first teen, the one who started all this one year ago, and I said, “You already know your calling. Great job.” She gave me that I-don’t-know-what-you’re-talking-about-but-actually-I-do look that teens sometimes give, and walked away with a smile on her face.
Little Prayers
I had started out this day with a little prayer:
God answered my prayer.
2 responses to “Holy Spirit Halloween | God Story”
This is amazing!!
It was lovely. All of that effort for those three girls! God is so good.
Related Posts