Let me start off by saying that I am in no way opposed to Christians and Churches offering an alternative to Halloween such as Harvest Festivals, Trunk Or Treat, etc. In fact, I think we should be out on Halloween providing a safe alternative to this cultural celebration. However, I think we are missing the bigger picture in the process. Instead of attempting to counter the negative part of Halloween one day of the year, I believe we have a mandate from God to be actively working everyday of the year to present not just an alternative to the message of this holiday, but to show the world the life-giving manifestation of God's Supernatural power. The sad reality is that instead of being a testament to the power of the Living God, our churches have become a testament to ourselves, void of any of God's power. We have become a spiritual haunted house of sorts. Jesus describes it like this in Matthew 23:27 -

It is obvious that our culture is obsessed with the supernatural. Halloween is a multi-billion dollar holiday and Hollywood knows that there is serious money in making movies about the supernatural. The reason is because man is created with a divine connection to the supernatural. Genesis 1:27 tells us that we are created in the image of God. Since God, by nature, is supernatural, we are, by nature, connected to the supernatural. It is part of our created DNA. Thus, we have a natural hunger for a dimension that is beyond our own and a curiosity for its other-worldly display of power. This is where the Church is failing. Our services have been reduced to music concerts and TED Talks where men are desperately trying to show the world what they can do instead of allowing God to demonstrate what he can do.

Without an understanding of God, people are left to satisfy this natural hunger and curiosity in other places and Satan takes full advantage of the opportunity to display his counterfeit to God's power. This is where the Church comes in. It is our job to allow God to display his supernatural power through us so that they may see with their own eyes who he is. Acts 1:8 tells us that we will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon us and we will become witnesses of him to the world. Sadly, the Church today is hard at work displaying everything except the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. Instead of showing them the real thing, we can only offer alternatives. Rather than showing them the original, we offer a safe counterfeit to the real thing.

The world is desperately seeking for a power that will help them transcend the hopelessness of this world. What would happen if the Church began operating in the fullness of her mandate from God and in the power of his Holy Spirit as they did in the book of Acts? What if we actually allowed God's power to flow through us to empower us to heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead and show his signs and wonders here on earth? Instead of presenting alternatives we can give the real thing, but we must realize that this can't be something we offer one day a year as an alternative to Halloween. It must begin to become a lifestyle and a part of our identity. Instead of getting angry at the world and preaching against the counterfeit that they are celebrating we should, in love, simply show them the authentic power of the resurrected Christ. Halloween celebrates the power of death and preaches the living will become dead. The Gospel celebrates the power of life and preaches the dead will live again. It is time the Church starts demonstrating the latter.