How Demons Enter Your Soul Through Entertainment
As the common saying goes, “The eyes are the windows to the soul.” If this is true, then spiritual warfare exists in not only what we hear but also in what we see. With the explosive popularity of smartphones and tablets as well as online streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+, the war for our souls has turned digital.
In actress Candace Cameron’s case, who has openly stated that she is a Christian to Hollywood and the media, a past role as a witch in Boy Meets World made her feel conflicted. When portraying roles that are controversial to her faith, her rule of thumb is to turn them down unless there is a redemptive ending for that character. Even so, Millie the Witch in Boy Meets the World has no such restorative ending. What can we learn from her morally-gray response to this choice? Well, we can certainly see how Hollywood can strain one’s faith and cause confusion where the boundary line exists.
Likewise, in Isaiah Saldivar’s reaction video to an interview with the writer of the popular TV series, The Originals. In that interview, the writer verbally confirms that real witch spells served as the inspiration for the spells used in the show. The actors and actresses, most likely unknowingly, were told to recite real spells! The series has millions of viewers, meaning that millions of people were exposed to demonic influences.
How to Cast Out Demons by Isaiah Saldivar details the destructive influences that entertainment can have on our souls: “One of the devil’s favorite vehicles to access someone’s life is entertainment. I mean, the first five letters are enter! That is something to think about. Some polls suggest that Americans spend an average of four to six hours a day being entertained on their smartphones. We are the most entertained generation in existence! The devil has capitalized on that fact. I am often asked if I can get demons from watching specific shows or movies, and the answer is emphatically yes.
Matthew 6:22 says, ‘The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!’ This shows the importance of being careful what you look at. I sang a song as a kid about little eyes being careful what they see. I did not realize until I got into deliverance ministry how powerful that children’s song actually is.
Years ago, I was preaching in Ohio, and a woman on the church’s prayer team began to manifest a demon during the altar call. This lady was on staff at the church and was supposed to help pray for people, but instead, she ended up needing prayer. As the demon manifested and spoke out of her, it said, ‘There is no place like home; there is no place like home.’ Then. it began to talk like characters from the old movie, The Wizard of Oz. I was baffled by this, as the demon started quoting lines from The Tin Man and Cowardly Lion; I didn’t know what to make of this. Was this lady really manifesting some weird Wizard of Oz demon? I didn’t stop to ask it questions. We just continued to cast it out.
Once the demon had fully left, some of the staff from the church, including the pastor who brought me out to speak, told us, ‘Wow! That lady is obsessed with The Wizard of Oz. Her house has an entire room decorated with things from the movie.’ She then told us that as a kid, her dad would sexually assault her, and she would rock back and forth and say, ‘There’s no place like home; there’s no place like home.’ That movie somehow became a part of her trauma and opened her up to some bizarre demons I had never encountered before. To this day, I don’t fully understand this situation, but I can confidently tell you it was real.
I would also like to emphasize that not only do movies and television shows give demons access, but so does music. Music is far more powerful than people are willing to admit. Many people believe Satan was in charge of the music in heaven, although this is not specifically made clear in Scripture. What is clear is that Satan uses music today to further his agenda. This is a common belief because the second part of Ezekiel 28:13 (NKJV) says this about Satan: ‘The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created.’ Speaking through the prophet Ezekiel, God said that Satan has musical instruments in his body. Today, some of his most powerful servants are musicians on the Billboard charts. Everyone knows hearing a song can take you back. There is spiritual power in music. All music glorifies something. If it’s not glorifying God, who is it glorifying?
Many Christian leaders say it’s fine to listen to worldly music. I don’t see gray areas; there is a kingdom of light and a kingdom of darkness and no middle kingdom. One of the first things I did when I got saved was delete the forty thousand songs I had on my iTunes. I knew the power of music.
There is a reason that ten thousand young people will go to a rave and dance to the same beat for six hours, and the genre is called trance. I’m sorry if you don’t think there is power in it. You are sadly mistaken.”
For more information on Isaiah Saldivar’s new book, How to Cast Out Demons, visit MyCharismaShop.com