Some parents believe the day is a harmless celebration intended only for fun. But beware, the enemy will use any opportunity to deceive and assault your children.

Do demons really want to harm my child? The answer is yes. Demons really do want to harm our children and they may use ghosts and goblins to gain access. The greatest danger to children comes from an unseen force. It is Satan and his army of darkness. This evil spiritual army is obsessed with and completely focused on keeping as many men, women and children eternally separated from the love of God and the saving grace of Jesus. We must not assume that our children are not a threat to darkness. The enemy’s purpose is to grip and blind every generation, establishing strongholds in the lives of our children from a very young age.

God created mankind because He has a Father’s heart and He wanted children to love. Just as earthly fathers and mothers long to have children born out of loving relationship, our heavenly Father also yearns for relationship with us, His children. Therefore, from the time we are conceived, through birth and throughout our lives, the enemy will set up traps, snares, and schemes in order to keep us bound to lies of darkness and paralyzed from reaching our fullest kingdom potential.

He is a predator looking to kill, steal, and destroy all that God wants to release in our lives.

We would all agree that at our time in history darkness is alive and well. I do not say this to generate fear. Nor do I believe that Satan is as powerful as our Lord—absolutely not. But we live in a dark time in history, and the following statistics from the Teen Mania website prove that this is the case. This generation is in great need of the truth.

• Ninety-one percent say there is no absolute truth.

• Seventy-five percent of teens in America believe the central message of the Bible is, “God helps those who help themselves.”

• Fifty-three percent believe Jesus committed sin (40 percent of born-again teens believe Jesus committed sin).

This younger generation is seeking. They are going to see, experience, and be a part of the most strategic and intense times in the history of the Christian church. They are going to witness firsthand amazing events unfold in our world and miraculous signs and wonders that even the prophets of the Bible wrote about. But there is a battle of darkness raging to keep them out of the light and in deception.

I love what Paul wrote to his spiritual son Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:11–14, 20, as he obviously knew the dangers that his spiritual son would face and instructed him on how to rise above the traps of the world and the enemy.

Paul exhorts Timothy to flee evil, including all the temptations of money and all the evils associated with it, to pursue righteousness and fight the good fight of faith. Reading these verses causes me to ponder.

Our children, or those raised in the church, are normally taught to flee evil and to follow after righteousness. But I question how well we have done fighting on behalf of our youth and teaching them how to fight the good fight of faith.

The Greek word for fight in this scripture is agonizimai. It means “to enter a contest, to contend with adversaries, struggles and dangers.”

Contend means “to struggle in opposition”; “to wrestle, grapple, battle, fight, compete, argue, wrangle, hold and claim.” Isn’t this what we do in battles with our adversary? We wrestle in battle to fight the competition and struggle against all the arguments of darkness, disputing their hold and taking hold and claiming our freedom and inheritance in the kingdom of God.

Paul understood this. He told Timothy to keep the deposit entrusted to him. Friends, it is our responsibility to guard and keep what God has entrusted to us. We have to step into the knowledge of how to guard and keep not only for our personal lives but also for the lives of our children.

Sept. 11, 2001—the day that changed the face of America forever.

Who among us will ever forget the image of those blazing, then crumbling towers? Who could forget the gruesome sight of those who jumped to their deaths from the 110-story towers or the images of ash-covered New Yorkers in the streets? Or the days and weeks of sorrow that followed as the death toll climbed during search and rescue efforts?9

But did America really change? Or did we too quickly forget and go back to business as usual?

This article was originally published in the October 1999 issue of Charisma.

In a sermon preached six months ago and circulated widely on cassette tapes, New York pastor David Wilkerson blasts prosperity doctrines, “holy laughter” and the flamboyance of evangelist Benny Hinn.

In Wilkerson’s April 11 sermon, titled “Reproach of the Solemn Assembly,” Wilkerson warned his 7,000-member Times Square Church to burn books written by any propagators of these doctrines. He also told his parishioners to stay away from evangelist Rodney Howard-Browne’s Good News New York (GNNY) crusade that ran from July 7 to Aug. 14. The GNNY campaign reported more than 48,000 decisions for Christ, the majority of them first-time salvations.

This article was orginially published in the February 1998 issue of Charisma.

It was Feb. 28, 1958, when the 26-year-old Pentecostal preacher from rural Pennsylvania disrupted a highly publicized murder trial in New York City. David Wilkerson had made the eight-hour drive from his quiet mountain village to downtown Manhattan for a simple reason: to speak to the seven accused gang members about their salvation.

In a grave attempt to share the love of God, Wilkerson had rushed to the front of the courtroom at the close of trial proceedings and pleaded publicly with the judge for permission to meet the teen-age defendants. News media were everywhere, and Wilkerson unwittingly made himself the source of headline news throughout New York City.

The judge had been receiving death threats during the trial, and Wilkerson was almost arrested as a presumed assailant. The judge later refused Wilkerson’s request to see the boys and ordered him never to return to his courtroom.

This article was orginally published in the May 1996 issue of Charisma.

In Manhattan, David Wilkerson has given the term ‘Broadway revival’ a whole new meaning.

Perhaps God had a better idea when the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar opened 25 years ago in Manhattan at the Mark Hellinger Theatre. Today the ornate Broadway landmark houses a flourishing Pentecostal ministry called Times Square Church (TSC), founded by David Wilkerson in 1987.

“We originally came here to find a holy remnant who would welcome repentance and set an example that people could live a righteous life in the midst of Babylon or Sodom,” Wilkerson says.

David Wilkerson first offered this timely message in the July 1991 issue of Charisma. In light of his tragic death, we're reposting it as a testament to his remarkably prophetic voice.

The great need of this hour is for Christians to learn to sing the song of deliverance on the testing side of trouble.

The children of Israel were in a hopeless predicament. The Red Sea was before them; the moutains were to the left and right; Pharaoh and his iron chariots were closing in from the rear. God's people seemed helplessly trapped, just waiting to be cut down. Yet God purposely had led them into this precarious spot.

It was panic time in the camp of Israel. Men shook with fear, and women and children wept as they huddled around relatives. Moses was mobbed by irate family leaders who cried: "Surely this is the end. Weren't there enough graves in Egypt to bury us there? You had to drag us out here to die. We told you in Egypt to let us alone. It was better to be slaves there than to die in this miserable wilderness" (see Ex. 14:11).

Charisma spoke with David Wilkerson in 2008 during Teen Challenge's 50^th anniversary. Here are some never before published quotes that he shared with us.

Education regrets

“I carried with me all this time over the years a bit of self-condemnation if I only had more education. I only had one year of Bible school. My parents were poor and could not afford college. I had an inner nagging if only I had been more educated I would be much better in my exegesis of scripture. But my father taught me to pray. He said ‘God will always make a way for a praying man.’

"I was so busy in my 30s and did not have time to read enough. I was hungry for a deeper insight into scripture. I studied the Puritans and tried to improve my knowledge of scripture.