What lessons or truths do you hope people take away from The Deception?
The enemy knows how to “play nice,” but he never plays fair. We never ignore God’s biblical standards and get away with it. Even more specifically, communicating with deceased loved ones and supposed “enlightened departed spirits” is a huge open door to invite demonic activity and oppression into our lives.
Don’t buy into the reality shows and seance party trends that encourage us to contact departed relatives. Our loved ones are in their eternal home away from earth; it is demons who play the part of deceased spirits.
As an author, what did you particularly enjoy about writing this story? What did you find challenging?
I enjoyed developing and writing descriptions of spirit-world beings and environments. The biggest challenge was the spiritual warfare I had to face while writing the book.
Can you tell us about your inspiration for the main character in this book, Owen Edmonds?
Our society tends to be open to the paranormal, yet highly skeptical of biblical truth. The same is true of Owen. I wanted my protagonist to ask hard questions, challenge the status quo, and provoke us all to go beyond trite answers to our faith-related questions and get to the concrete truth of life’s most important matters. This is Owen’s journey.
This story is about the very real spiritual battle that takes place in and around teenagers. How do you hope understanding this battle will help teenagers?
You can’t fight an enemy you don’t know you have, especially one who disguises himself as our own thoughts and inner voice. When young people begin to recognize they have an enemy and understand the strategies he uses against them, they can then become empowered to overcome in the name of Christ. This paves the way for victory over demonic traps such as suicide, depression, anxiety, and self-loathing.
The topics in this series and this book have the potential to be dark and unsettling. How does this story offer hope to readers?
Evil is not going to go away just because we steer clear of the subject matter and insist on only happy-go-lucky topics. In fact, such denial empowers evil! Christ has overcome all power of the enemy and given us authority to walk in victory, so we need not be afraid. The story certainly testifies to this.
Click thru to find out the author’s encouragement for struggling teens…