Are You 'Haunted by the Ghost?' Jentezen Franklin Asks Believers Ahead of Halloween
At a time when countless American parents and their children are brainstorming for the perfect Halloween costume and businesses are marketing on fear in the form of haunted houses, minister Jentezen Franklin is reminding Christians that long after the holiday passes there will one thing that remains - the presence of "the Ghost," who never leaves believers.
Franklin, senior pastor of Free Chapel in Gainesville, Ga., told congregants in a recent Halloween-themed sermon called "Haunted by the Ghost" that believers are "haunted by the Ghost" and cannot escape his presence. Franklin noted that he was not talking about "an evil ghost."
"The Bible calls the Spirit of God 'the Holy Spirit,' but it equally in just as many places calls him 'the Holy Ghost," Franklin said. "And we're haunted by the Ghost."
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The minister and evangelist reminded worshipers of 1 Corinthians 6:19, which reads in the King James Bible: "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?"
Explaining his topical theme, Franklin added, "Your body is a house. And the Holy Ghost said your body is the house he's going to haunt, or inhabit. That's what haunt means - to inhabit, to frequently visit."
The crux of Franklin's message about the "haunting of the Ghost" was to remind Christians of both the "positive" and "negative" aspects of the Holy Spirit's presence with believers.
"He's always continually watching over us, this precious Holy Ghost. He's watching us. He's listening to us, He's comforting us. he's leading us. He's guiding us. He's protecting us," Franklin noted of the "positive" aspects of the Holy Spirit's presence with believers.
As Franklin turned to the "negative" aspects o "being haunted by the Ghost," the Free Chapel pastor said:
"He won't leave you alone. He'll go to a party with you. I know you think the Ghost just shows up when you're in service when they're singing the 23rd Psalm, but he goes to parties. He gets in bed with adulterers. He's watching, he's listening. He knows what's going on in your life. You're haunted by the Ghost. And you can get away from the church, and you can get away from the preacher and you can get away from righteous people. But you can't get away from the Ghost, [because] he goes with you."
A video of Franklin's "Haunted by the Ghost" sermon was made available on his Kingdom Connection ministry's Vimeo page, and is also available for viewing below.
The Georgia minister also preached a similar message in 2008, titled "The Haunted House," which dealt with evangelical Christian views of the occult and the devil.
