A question that comes up from time to time: What’s the deal with ghosts? This is a mystery only because western mythology is so bad in general and just awful on this question.
Context: The created natural world is alive, sentient and willful. We keep saying that. Jesus commanded the storm to be still because weather conditions are subject to His authority; creation obeys Him. Creation is God’s agent in one sense, but the main thing is that it is an active participant in the Thesis of the Unseen Realm. It has its own role to play in the broader scheme of things we face in this world.
The natural world remembers some people. Whether that person dies or is simply very far away, various locations on this earth will tend to remember certain people who left a strong moral imprint. Some are particularly bad and serve as a warning in that memory. Some are uniquely special in less harmful ways. But for good or ill, certain people are remembered in particular locations for reasons we cannot fathom.
As a simple practical matter, you can think of it as the resonance of a soul that had a strong moral presence. There’s nothing to fear from them. They cannot harm you by themselves. Creation may tend to respond to those memories in concrete and specific ways, but the only real danger is what you carry with you in the first place.
Ghosts don’t harm covenant people. If you belong to the Devil — and it’s both a sliding scale and a patchwork of specific moral weaknesses — he has authority over your existence. He can invoke his power over you to amplify the fear and danger that a ghost might awaken.
So apparitions and odd behavior from physical objects are just a part of this world as God made it. The Nephilim, the Devil, and sometimes the Watchers in Heaven will leverage these things to hurt people who have gaps in their spiritual covering. Your spiritual maturity within the covenant is your shield. Some of you can discern these ghosts and what lessons they may offer; it’s one of the spiritual gifts.
Another issue: One of the saddest things I’ve ever seen is a church that comes apart because of some pastoral scandal. One of the very biggest failures of church shepherds has been weakening the faith and resolve of the flock by making them dependent on the pastor’s presence and control. Even without spiritual understanding, a good psychologist can figure that out. One of the greatest harms humans do to each other is to foster inappropriate dependence. By the same token, the greatest ministries you’ll ever encounter are the ones that strive to make the people independent, self-reliant, capable of standing alone.
But beyond mere human psychology, the big issue here is that any congregation should be capable of moving forward without the pastor’s presence. He’s not the king; he’s the head of household. A real dad raises his children to not need him, but to love him and want him around.
I cannot count how many pastors I’ve met, or even worked with on staff, who did their best to foster dependence in the flock. I had several warn me not to teach anything that would encourage people to discover their own gifts and talents in the Lord. I’ve been kicked out of two churches for seeking to develop a stronger laity.
God hammered me about this very early. Even during my time in uniform, I strove to develop and promote my subordinates. It makes me downright angry when I see someone abusing their authority to hold down someone else.
