Golgotha 'The Place of the Skull' is the haunted place. In human nature places become personifications of men's fears. It is place of aversion to the natural man. A place that signifies death.
As a child maybe you had a 'Boo Radley' type of house nearby... from To kill a Mockingbird. I did. A place that children tell stories about and those stories get passed from the older children to the younger and change over the years to form a local horror mythology. It is very common and most societies large and small have something like this going on.
Golgotha is a picture of this place in the scriptures. In Mark 5 verses 1 through 5 another place like this is described in the country of the Gadarenes across the Sea. Jesus and the disciples met a possessed man there who was cutting himself with stones and crying out in the tombs. Jesus strolled into that place and made short work of the situation. Demons did not have power over Him nor did fear.
Jesus also willfully went to Golgotha, a place of torment, of horror, of shame and judgment. He went right into the heart of the fears of all mankind on purpose. He was brought there but He also chose to go. He was the most liberated man on Earth and these are the places He chose to go.
It is healthy for any person to face fear. It demystifies it and removes it's power in that area. It is an exercise of the will that shows immediate benefits because of the release that comes afterwards. People turn it into a lifestyle actually and because of that they realize personally that man is capable of much more than it seems. It is one thing to know that on paper... it is another to know it experientially. Then there are others that hide in the shadows and are mastered by what lies just below the surface into lives of safety.
Oh, We could talk about demons here but I'm not going to. They are real but fear is fear no matter if it is true danger or imagined. Fear clouds the mind, energizes the emotions and makes options that would normally be dismissed out of hand seem plausible. A person who faces fear and lives to tell about it now has something real to say. Jesus faced fear and has demystified it by conquering it. Fear, shame, guilt, death, danger and demons are all notches on Christ's belt. Jesus spoke to His Father right in the heart of that place. Golgotha became the place of God's manifested victory.
That victory is ours now. It is a victory given to everyone who believes in Christ. Timid or brave, quiet or loud, reserved or bold... it is on your account if you are hidden in the Son of God and yours to walk in when you walk with the Son of God. It is good to exercise our will in a cross-ward direction. When free in the Spirit we have liberty to do it. It's not like we won't have "What have I gotten myself into?" moments. But, so what! We can stroll through those also.
Are you afraid of something? Maybe it is something that has been reinforced by past pain so it really causes you to wince. Christ has passed through to the other side of it already and he has shrugged off any demon associated with it. Now He passes His hand through that thing and offers it to you saying, "Take my hand and follow me. I have the keys to death and Hell." When we take His hand and go with Him, listening to His words then liberty is our companion and joy is what we end up with.
There are no haunted houses in Christ's kingdom.
"And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death." Rev 12:10-11
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