The Garland You Should Have Refused
"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God." — 1 John 4:1
A Night That Fell Apart
A Bible teacher arrived on a group of islands for a speaking engagement. The local tradition is to place a garland of flowers around the neck of every arriving visitor — a warm and beautiful custom, and everyone wears them.
At the church the first evening, two small girls, daughters of the pastor, proudly brought garlands each of them had made and placed them around the visiting teacher's neck as a welcome.
She received them gladly. She loved flowers. It seemed a lovely custom.
That night was one of the worst she had experienced in ministry. Her mind went blank. She became confused and could not put two sentences together coherently. Finally, in complete humiliation, she had to stop speaking altogether.
She knew she was under heavy attack. What she could not understand was why she was unable to rebuke it effectively.
What the Library Revealed
Pacing her room that night, weeping and seeking the Lord, she sensed a specific instruction: spend the next morning in the public library researching the customs of the islands, their gods, and specifically that garland.
What she found appalled her.
The custom came directly out of the worship of the local gods. The original inhabitants made garlands and placed them around the statues of their gods to appease them and to avert demands for human sacrifice. They also wore them as a symbol of honor and reverence toward those gods — to maintain a favorable relationship, to secure good fortune.
Garlands were placed around the necks of arriving visitors for the same purpose.
She had unwittingly received honor given to the gods of that place. That brought her under a curse and gave the associated spirits a legal right to attack her — which is precisely why she had been unable to repel them.
Only after she repented for the sin and broke the curse it had brought was she able to teach without interference.
The Reaction When She Taught It
When she began to teach what she had learned, some of the believers there became angry and accused her of trying to take away their heritage.
That reaction is worth noting, because it will come. It comes everywhere.
The honest truth is that most earthly heritage contains some element of the worship of other powers. When we come to Christ, we surrender that heritage in exchange for citizenship in another kingdom and joint inheritance with Christ.
Why is it so hard for us to let go? Often precisely because of the bondage that heritage has established in our lives. What holds us is not merely affection. It is attachment.
Point to Ponder
Some customs are affection. Some are appeasement. The difference matters, and only research or revelation will tell you which is which.
Verse to Remember
"Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil." — 1 Thessalonians 5:21–22
Question to Consider
What custom have I participated in warmly, without ever once asking where it came from?
Today's Practice
Choose one custom you participate in — a family tradition, a cultural practice, a seasonal ritual, a gesture of hospitality, a wedding or funeral rite.
Research its origin honestly. Not what it means to you; what it originally was.
You may find it entirely innocent, and many customs are. You may find something else.
If you find something else, repent for having participated, break any curse that came through it, and command any associated spirits to leave in the name of Jesus. Then decide what you will do the next time it is expected of you.
Prayer
Father, I have participated in customs my whole life without asking a single question about them. I assumed that if a thing was warm and familiar it must be harmless.
Show me the origin of what I practice. Where I have unknowingly given honor to another power through a tradition, expose it — even if it costs me something in my family, my culture, or my community.
I confess every such participation as sin. Cleanse me by the blood of Jesus Christ. I break every curse that came upon me through it and command every associated spirit to leave now.
And Lord, where I must give up something my people hold dear, give me grace to do it kindly, and give me a heart that treasures my citizenship in Your kingdom more than any heritage on earth. In Jesus' name. Amen.
She could not rebuke the attack because she had accepted the invitation without knowing what it was.