Daily Devotional: Clearing the Way for Christ

​The Bible teaches us to repent, or turn away from, our evil. We are to sweep clean our spiritual house. However, what comes after we empty our houses of sin?

Luke 11:24-26

“When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.”

What happens once you cast aside all of our plans, dreams, and desires? What happens once you chose to lose your life? The above passage makes a clear warning: if we do not fill our house with the correct things, our last state will be worse than our first.
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As we walk through life, our physical choices have spiritual consequences. We see, hear, smell, and touch the world around us, but what about the spiritual world? We do not see spirits the way we see a tree. We do not hear angels and demons the way we hear someone on the phone. So, how do we know how our tangible lives correspond to our spiritual lives?

Before we are saved, we are like a house filled with a demon. Our flesh, our sin, whatever you want to imagine, this evil thing lived inside our spirit. Then, one day, we repented. We chose to kick out the demon and sweep the house clean. Great! We have a clean house. But then the demon returns. The sin becomes even more intense. Our anger is only stronger than it was before. We are now worse than before we repented.

Do you recognize what is left out of the above tale? After repentance, what must we do? We ask Jesus into our heart. The house is not empty; Jesus fills the house. Can the demon return? Not on Jesus’ watch! Jesus is a guard keeping our house safe day and night. This is the power of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Returning to the physical, casting aside our plans and desires is our act of sweeping the house. This process is necessary. We must move out all the old furniture and decorations or we would not have room for anything new. So, once the house is empty, it’s time to fill it back up. This is where the essential decision occur. How will you fill it? Will you go to all the designer stores and pick out what suits your fancy? Will you go to Goodwill to find what you can afford?

We must watch our subconscious values, for they will limit us into thinking that we can only have certain things. Yet if we so limit ourselves, we may miss what should go in the house.

If we furnish our house according to our desires, then the demon returns finding the house swept clean. However, if we re-fill our house with God’s plans and desires, then Satan, the flesh, and demons have no entry point. Evil no longer fits the decor. It is immediately recognizable, being so out of place that it does not stand a chance of creeping back inside.
Sweeping our houses clean is not enough. We must refurnish with the correct goods, allowing the Holy Spirit to be our interior decorator, and then we do not have to fear being repossessed by our worldly sins.

• Reflection: Have you ever considered with what you are furnishing your spiritual house? Leave a comment below to share how God is transforming your life.