Jul | 13 | Paraskevidekatriaphobiai

Dream Word – CARE

Isaiah 2:6 You have abandoned your people, the house of Jacob. They are full of superstitions from the East; they practice divination like the Philistines and clasp hands with pagans. NIV

Paraskevidekatriaphobiai

Apparently it was Dr. Donald Dossey, a psychotherapist specializing in the treatment of phobias, who coined the term ‘Paraskevidekatriphobiai,’ to describe the morbid fear that some people have regarding Friday the 13th. Undoubtedly, some of you in the future are reading this, maybe late on a Friday night somewhere. What kind of a day have you had? After all, some people say that belief in the special existence of bad luck on Friday 13th is ‘the widest held superstition in the Western world.’

‘About.com’ commenting on what it calls this ‘urban legend’ of bad luck on Friday 13th says that it looked at a study published in the British Medical Journal in 1993 entitled ‘Is Friday the 13th Bad for Your Health?’. 'About.com' goes on to say that “Its authors compared the ratio of traffic volume to the number of automobile accidents on two different days, Friday the 6th and Friday the 13th, over a period of years." Incredibly, they found that in the region sampled, while consistently fewer people chose to drive their cars on Friday the 13th the number of hospital admissions due to vehicular accidents was STILL significantly higher than on ‘normal’ Fridays. Their conclusion, says 'About.com', is that “Friday 13th is unlucky for some. The risk of hospital admission as a result of a transport accident may be increased by as much as 52 percent. Staying at home is recommended.” Ha!
Interestingly, Dr. Donald Dossey says that 8% of Americans are in the grip of this particular phobic condition and that friends, at the time of my writing in 2008, means some 21 million folk. Imagine that!

These 'Paraskevidekatriaphobics', and you may be one of them, are simply victims of superstition. Victims, picked on, victims pecked on by black crows, caw’ing fear in the ears of your soul and clawing out your former sensible eyes before black cats, spilt salt, cracked mirrors and other not so magnificent means of self-cursing.

Admittedly now, the roots of some superstitions, like walking under ladders for example, are rooted in common sense. After all, if you walk under a ladder something heavy might just fall on your head! Look for the sensible answer in some of your superstitions for it is amazing how the light of reason can dispel the most unwarranted, but deeply held superstition.


However, what about my friend’s father, I mean what on earth was that all about? For he was a strong man who never the less held a morbid fear of Friday the 13th, who in turn died of a heart attack on the Friday 13th, on the 13th hole of a golf course at 13:00 hrs? Well frankly, I have no answer, except that certainly there are some things on this earth that we do not understand, yes, most certainly. The one thing I do understand and that most thoroughly, is that focused fear can be a gateway for all kinds of crippling and debilitating diseases, disorders, disasters and even demons! Superstition can lead us to be so emotionally full of dread, so intellectually anticipating of disaster that it puts us on the wrong foot, it leaves us imbalanced and consequently, it leaves us open to a successful attack from the enemy. I am aware of this in my own life.

The Scripture clearly teaches us that when the blessing of God rests upon His people, He makes THEM a fear and a dread to their enemies, yes, He makes THEM a fear and a dread to both the seen and unseen beast stalking the land of their sojourn. You see, you do see don’t you? We have it the wrong way around! The presence and the blessing of God with us and upon us, should both trump and squash any cursing that might have been placed upon us! That magnificent blessing, seen especially in His abiding presence, releases us from fear, it releases us from dread and all the other seeming consequence of violated superstitions. You need to see that and therefore give no place whatsoever to the superstitious doctrine of demons.


Tonight my friend, my simple encouragement to you, is that you deny the dread and then go to bed! Yes, treat superstition with the disdain it deserves and in your dreams, bathe in the blessings of God the great and God the good, for He is in your neighbourhood tonight.

Listen:- The LORD of hosts, Him you shall hallow; Let Him be your fear , And let Him be your dread. Isa 8:13 NKJV

Pray:- Father God, I am sorry for my sins and the sins of my family, both those now present and those gone well before. Father God, I am sorry for the sins of my community and of my nation, both those now present and those gone well before. Father God, I am sorry for all curses and lies I have placed upon myself and placed upon my family, my community and on my nation. Lord Jesus Christ, according to the economy of Your Kingdom, as a royal priest before Your throne, I bless those who curse me, I bless my family, I bless my community, I bless my nation. I believe Your word O Lord and so I count myself also blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus both this night dear Lord and forever more. My mighty God, in Your great name I now slip the shackles of superstition and make You my fear and make You my dread, upon the alter of this my peaceful bed, amen!