Many relatives and neighbors believed that the house I grew up in at Scout de Guia Street in Diliman, Quezon City was a haunted house. It was said that before the residential area was developed, it was a battleground during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, and many had died in the area. Suffice it say that Filipinos are very superstitious and the culture is riddled with beliefs in enchanted beings, especially the multo (spirit of the dead.) Almost everyone will have a story to share about a loved one’s ghost.

Our mom called our “ghost” Casper, because it was friendly to our nuclear family and only seemed to show scary phenomena to overnight guests, undesirable persons, and neighbors. Casper is often seen wearing a black raincoat crouched beside our kamias (bilimbi) tree.

I had first-hand experience with this “ghost” in my childhood years, three of which come to mind:

• The unaided sliding of a three-legged stool while my sister and I were saying our bedtime prayers, causing us to rush out of our bedroom;
• The unaided rolling of a card table in the library while our dad was watching TV, where the ghost had followed us from the bedroom that same night;
• The loud pounding on the second floor when my cousins, siblings and I were so rowdy playing together on the first floor, and no one else was home.

But in my young adult years, after our parents had immigrated to California and I started sleeping in their bedroom, I experienced the evil side of it. It woke me up in a vision where the evil spirits were pulling at my crossed arms while lying on the bed. I shouted the name of Jesus and the spirits left me alone. One night, as soon as I entered my parents’ bedroom, the hair on my arms stood on end. I sensed evil spirits all around — against the walls and windows — which stopped only after I backed out of the room. I tried to go back in, but the same thing happened again. I slept in my sister’s room that night.

By then, I no longer believed in ghosts. I believed in the presence of good spirits (angels) and evil spirits (demons) which are invisible to us. I believe these demons were trying to scare me out of my new-found faith for I had become an active participant in the professional life ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ.

Ephesians 6:12 states, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

I understand that these ghostly experiences are a very literal application of this verse. Yet, the spirits can manifest themselves on the physical realm even though they are invisible. The devil will use whatever it can to remove our focus on Jesus, and in the case of very superstitious Filipinos, it can be through animism. For a self-proclaimed “Christian” nation, animism is still deeply-rooted in the Philippines, especially in rural areas. Just recently, while we were visiting a neighbor’s property, the owner begged for permission to pass by a specific tree (“tabi-tabi po”) from the spirit whom he believed resided in it.

A few days before my sisters and I left our house to relocate to the US, “Casper” manifested itself one last time. A loud thumping on our bedroom’s wooden floor woke us up that morning, like someone was jogging. So yes, I believe that evil spirits surround us, but I believe even more that God is more powerful and sovereign over them all. The Bible says that evil spirits, powers, and principalities exist, but our protection comes from the Lord through the armor of God.

In these last days, evil has and will become more blatant. Evil is manifesting itself more obviously in the physical realm. It may not come in the form of ghosts and mystical creatures (maybe it will, who knows?), but in humans who overturn the meaning of good and and call it evil, and the meaning of evil and calling it good. And we should be on our guard always. Our God is mightier! Our God equips us to be warriors! Our God reigns supreme!

Ephesians 6:13-17 states, “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God…”