Matthew 12:43-45 “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting place, but it finds none. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ When it comes, it finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there; and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So will it be also with this evil generation.” Today's episode talks about what this verse means. It talks about how we can't just stop doing things that are bad for us, we need to also replace them with things that are good for us. We don't want to leave any room to be come vulnerable to the enemy. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Let’s Replace the Bad With The Good
Matthew 12:43-45 “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting place, but it finds none. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ When it comes, it finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there; and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So will it be also with this evil generation.”
I heard this verse again last night and I thought it would be a good one to talk about today as it can be a confusing one. I know I didn’t really understand this verse when I first heard it and so I thought I would explain what I have learned about it. When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting place, but it finds none. This is referring to when a demon is cast out of a person. It leaves the body, but it does not leave the world. Once a demon is kicked out of one person, it searches for another person to inhabit. If it is does not find one, it tries to return home again.
When the demon gets back to the person whom he used to inhabit, if he finds them empty, swept, and put in order, then he will go and get some friends and move right back in. I didn’t understand this when I first heard it. I didn’t understand what the person was supposed to do. The verse says they swept it out and put it in order. What else did they need to do. I thought it was a good thing that it was empty and didn’t understand why the demons could come back and bring even more with them. Then I heard it explained and it made more sense.
When we have evil spirits occupying space in our minds and bodies we need to not just kick them out, we need to replace them with the Holy Spirit. What this verse is saying is that even though the evil spirits were kicked out of this person’s body, they person did not turn to the Lord. The person did not fill those places with the Holy Spirit. Basically the took the miracle of the being set free and yet did not change their lives. They continued to live their lives in the same manner that they did before they were set free. Living lives filled with sin is not living a life of freedom. Paul clearly states in Romans 8:9, “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.” If you do not invite the Spirit of Christ into you then you are left empty and evil spirits can come take up residence.
The reason we talked about his verse last night in class is because this quarter is on inner healing and the teacher was explaining that someone needs to be ready for inner healing before they can go through a session. They were explaining that if they are not ready and they do not have a faith community to support them afterwards than we might have a situation like the one in this verse. We may take someone through inner healing and yet if they weren’t ready for it and they aren’t ready to walk in that freedom, then it might get worse for them. I know it seems hard to believe that someone wouldn’t want to walk in the freedom that comes with inner healing. Sometimes people want relief from the demons inside and yet they have had these demons so long they aren't ready to trust God yet. They aren’t sure who to trust. They may also find that they identify with their pain and so they don’t want to give that identity up. We live in a broken world and we are used to pain. We are not used to being loved. We aren’t used to being forgiven. We aren’t used to being loved for us, exactly as we are.
Now that we know we need to replace the bad things in our lives with good things, what does this look like practically? It is one thing to hear something and understand it and it is another thing to be able to take that knowledge and apply it to your life. You can have all the knowledge in the world, but if you don’t apply any of it to your life, it won’t make any difference. So, how do we apply this knowledge to our lives? We might not think this applies to our lives because we don’t have evil spirits inside us. Hopefully this is true and you are full of the Holy Spirit and you are leaving no room for evil spirits. Even if this is true, this verse still applies to you. No matter who you are, there is sin in your life. None of us are perfect. The concept in this verse doesn’t have to just apply to evil spirits. It can be applied to any sin and also to any bad habit. For instance, imagine if you are trying to quit smoking. What happens if you decide to quit smoking and yet you don’t replace that habit with anything else? You are likely to start smoking again, and maybe even start smoking more than before because you were without for awhile. What if you decide to stop eating junk food but instead of replacing the junk food with healthy food you just stop eating the junk? How long you do think it will be before you start eating that junk again?
We need to not just stop doing the things that aren’t good for us, we need to replace them with things that are good for us. For instance, instead of eating ice cream, maybe make your own frozen treat with fruit. Instead of eating chips, maybe replace it with veggies and dip or roasted chick peas? What is your bad habit, or the sin you keep falling into and how can you replace it with something that is good for you? One thing I struggle with is watching too much TV and the shows I am watching aren’t great for me. I could spend that time reading scripture, or even watching shows that bless me. At one point a few years ago I decided I wouldn’t watch regular TV shows anymore. If I was going to be watching TV it was going to be something that would help me grow closer to God. I watched movies about saints, I listened to audio teachings on formed.com, I used that time to grow in my faith while I was also unwinding from the day. If you find yourself scrolling on social media a lot you can replace that with scrolling on YouTube for videos on things that will help you grow closer to God. You could also spend that time reading a book.
There is not just one way to grow closer to God. The awesome news is that there are so many different ways to grow closer. Find something that works for you. Find something good to replace the bad habits and repetitive sins in your life. Don’t just stop doing the bad thing and forget to replace it. You don’t want to leave yourself vulnerable to attacks from the enemy. Fill your time with good things, holy things. Also, if you are like me, you have a lot of bad habits. Don’t set out to change them all at one time because you will get discouraged and just give up. Pick one thing today and think about what you could do instead or what you can replace that thing with and then start changing just that one thing. You will get to all of them eventually, just start one at a time. We can do this. We can put things in order and yet not leave room for the enemy to come in. You’ve got this!
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we want to fill our lives with you and all things of you. We don’t want to quit the bad without replacing it with good things. We don’t want to leave any room for the enemy. Lord we want every encounter with you to leave us changed forever. We don’t want to encounter you and have it not change our lives. Help us to be transformed every time we interact with you. You are amazing Lord. You do so much for us and we are so grateful. We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to brining you another witness tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!