A demonic house party.

We recently watched a movie where a young man wishes his friend would fall in love with him, and then she does.

And then he (and the entire audience) witnesses the bone-chilling effects of what happens when you’re not careful about what you wish for.

Fortunately, as believers, we pray, not wish. And God is the one who determines the best course of action for us, one that, if we’re wise, we’ll always obey.

We are not always the best judges of our own lives...if ever.

The female friend in the movie is taken over by obsession, and it got me thinking about Jesus’s message:

“When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order.Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”

Jesus is talking about the Israelites, more specifically, the Pharisees who have kept their “houses” all clean and tidy but did not replace the impurities within themselves with the truth of God’s Word.

Because they ultimately denied that Jesus was the Christ.

But like with every piece of Scripture, this part doesn’t just apply to “back then.”

It applies to right now.

How many of us go to therapy, go to the gym, eat a clean diet, even go to church, only for the demons to return right back to where they came from?

It’s vital we don’t just go through the motions but actually live out the Word of God.

As someone who used to host her own demonic house party, I can only emphasize that complete submission to God and reliance on His hand in our lives is the only way forward to a forever with Him.

Like Jesus said, it’s easier for a camel to walk through the eye of a needle than a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.

I used to think this verse meant that God kept heaven just out of our reach, but then I realized differently.

God doesn’t.

We do.

So, the remedy?

Let’s lay it all down.

Let’s keep sweeping out the dust and the cobwebs but remember to replace this empty space with the truth of His Word and His beautiful Spirit, allowing it to lead us away from our own foolish desires and into His loving arms.