When choosing topics for my blogs, I always follow the Lord’s lead. By doing this, I hope to write a blog post that has the potential to be a much-needed message to others. He had originally put on my heart to write about something different, but after recent events, I can tell the Holy Spirit really wants me to share my experience. It was a very unpleasant experience and by sharing this, my hope is to warn someone else before it also happens to them.
I’ve been told many times during my journey in faith that the things we watch and/or listen to have the potential to welcome Satan into our lives. Jesus tells us in John 10:10 that “the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy..” The thief He is referring to is Satan and he makes it his goal to separate us from God. Satan is also the master of deception. In fact, 2 Corinthians 11:14 says Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. This can make him appear harmless, but his motives are far from it. The things we listen to/watch can definitely seem harmless, but with the right undertones, they can let Satan invade our lives. We must be careful with what we watch/listen to for this exact reason. I speak from recent experience. This brings me to the topic of secular music. For those who have never heard this term before, simply put secular music is worldly music. Most of the time, this kind of music talks about sinful acts, selfish desires, lust, or darker themes such as murder.
When I first became born again at the end of last year, the beginning of this year, the Lord never convicted me of the music I listened to. Instead, He changed my heart and made it so I desired secular music less. I haven’t listened to secular music (or much at least) in almost a year. Anyway, I had seen an advertisement for a rock music festival with a lot of my old favorite bands performing. Against better judgment, my husband and I decided to go. As the day drew closer, I began to not want to go after all, but I chopped it up as me being attached to my pets. Looking back, I know why I felt this way and it was much deeper than my attachment to my pets. It was the Holy Spirit telling me not to go. I ignored it and went anyway. The festival itself was a cesspool for Satan. The merchandise being sold had satanic symbols and pictures of other gods, drugs and alcohol were everywhere, & women were not dressed modestly. I didn’t notice these things at first. What opened my eyes was when one band literally sang about how going to hell was a good thing. On the first night of the festival, we got back to the hotel and went to lie down to go to sleep. Now, before this moment, I hadn’t had a nightmare since becoming born again. That night, and the nights that followed, I had nightmare after nightmare. In a few dreams, I even had to defend myself spiritually using scripture to get peace. When I got home, I looked on Google for anything that might give me clues as to what happened, but I found nothing. However, I found a prayer to help me get rid of the demonic spirits that had invaded my dreams. As I reflected on my experience, it taught me something
The music that was being played was inspired by Satan, not God. If this is the case, when we sing along to secular music, we are not singing songs of praise. This would certainly not please God, but provoke him to anger. In my opinion, it would be the equivalent of the Israelites building a golden calf to worship. In a sense, we are singing songs to the enemy, not God.
The big question is now, should Christians listen to secular music? By far the most popular bible verse used to “test” secular music is Phillipians 4:8. This verse states “…whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”. Sure, some secular songs could make the cut using this verse, but we should be cautious as some secular music has dark undertones we don’t always hear right away.
Going back to the definition of secular music, it goes along with part of a letter Paul wrote to the people of Colossae. In Colossians 3:3 Paul tells the people of Colossae to set their minds on things above and not on earthly things. Then, in verse 5, he tells the people of Colossae to “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed…”. Considering this, how could music on these topics be good for us to listen to? Later on in the chapter (verse 16), Paul says ” Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Using this, we can conclude we should not be singing along with songs that promote sinful topics but should focus of singing songs of praise.
The thought of giving up the music we love can seem extreme and like we’re “taking things too seriously”. This may cause some pushback from our earthly desires. We don’t wanna be viewed as “that kind of crazy Jesus freak”, but James 4:4 warns us of this way of thinking. We cannot seek to be a friend of the world, otherwise, we’re an enemy of God. We are also to not love the things of this world. Doing so means the love of God is not in us (1 John 2:15). Like any temptation, giving up our favorite music can seem difficult. As a reminder, remember- when we become born again, we become a “new creation”. Our old ways have passed away, and new ways have come (2 Corinthians 5:17). Our minds are transformed and we are given discernment to decide what is acceptable & what is not.
Now, in no way am I claiming secular music is necessarily a sin. The Bible does not specify it as a sin, but most mainstream music is inspired by Satan. Listening to this kind of music can open up doorways for Satan to attack you. Use your own discernment as you listen to secular music and always remember to put on the full armor of God outlined in Ephesians 6:10-18. By doing so, you protect yourself from potential spiritual attacks. This was the mistake I made. The secular music that filled my ears distracted me from putting on that armor, leaving me vulnerable to his attack, which he successfully did…but not for long. . The Bible tells us to not be conformed to this world, and to shun anything sinful. If that’s the case, shouldn’t we be putting secular music out of our lives? Plus, there is something so therapeutic about listening to gospel music when you are feeling some sort of way. It helps keep our focus on God and can fill our hearts with joy.
If you need the prayer I used, feel free to email me at tiffrey20@yahoo.com. I will provide you the prayer I said to rid myself of whatever had invaded my dreams. The power of prayer is beautiful, and there is nothing our savior can’t do!
Tattooed Faith 