Spiritual housecleaning is something that my husband and I feel very strongly about. When we first got together, he even convinced me that it was necessary to get rid of all my music CDs – as they were full of angst and sadness – and pray for forgiveness afterward. It was not just him being crazy or controlling. As the spiritual leader of our newly-formed family, he was exactly right. Replacing this music with praise music was an enormous blessing to our family, our marriage, and to my letting go of the past that I so desperately needed.For a long time, while the children were very young, we did not allow many things to be present in our home. No skulls – no pirates – nothing related to witchcraft. ONLY music and items that were pleasing to the Lord. Then Halloween rolled around after we were married around 11 months… He did not want to do Halloween at all and I thought it was harmless as long as we focused on the fun side of it, so he relented on that one. But still – no Harry Potter, no Charmed TV Show… and the list could go on.
Now, you might be thinking, “Alicia, I hate to tell you this, but I think your husband is a little over the top with that stuff.” AND there are days I thought that myself, but there is a very good reason he was that way at that time in his life. He was a marine in his 20’s and has seen things in combat that he still will not talk about to this day – and we have been married almost 10 years. After getting out of the marine corps and finding a home church, he found his way to getting involved with a deliverance ministry. Yep, the old fashioned “demon be gone in the name of Jesus” deliverance ministry. He said he saw more disturbing, possibly causing bodily injury, things while in one year of deliverance ministry than he saw in 6 years as a combat marine. It was disturbing enough to make him leave the deliverance ministry because he did not think his faith was strong enough to be able to protect him from the evil that he saw. He is a smart, level-headed man, a brave one at that – and for him to be scared enough to walk away… well, that shook me to the core and made me want to learn more about protecting our home and children.
Now, I know there are some Christians out there that don’t want to think about the evil that we cannot see – there are even some pastors and ministers that never preach about the existence of demons for fear that they will scare their congregation members away. We have met some of those – and we left their churches never to return. We feel that demons are real, they can enter and take root in your home and you might not ever realize it – and having teenagers with their crazy hormones and confusion and angst can open up a foothold quicker than you will ever comprehend. Even scarier is that fact that we also believe that these demons can enter a person and make themselves at home. So why do we feel this way? Well, that answer is easy: It is biblical. Remember the story of the pigs (See Matthew 8:28-32)?
SO, when Donna Partow mentioned spiritual housecleaning and the screaming room – I was with her and did not think she was crazy for bringing this topic up. I was in full agreement that it was probably time for us to do another spiritual housecleaning. We already have the oil and Kevin and I know the way to pray to force the evil out. BUT, there was NO WAY on earth I was going to attempt to do this while I was home alone. I made a mistake of trying to pray out something evil going on at a neighbor’s house once and I was literally choked out of her house – something definitely had me by the throat that day and it scared me, but let me know that evil that we cannot see are indeed real.
Do we really need to do a spiritual housecleaning? I think for us it is a yes. Over the past ten years, Kevin has gotten less strict with the things he allowed us to bring into our house and I have gone along with it. As the kids got older, he felt that we should consider introducing certain things to the children rather than protecting them from everything. He was worried that they would grow up so sheltered that they would not be able to function in the real world in the future. BUT, as these things were brought into the home, they were blessed with anointing oil and we taught the children why these things are considered evil, pointed out God’s Biblical stance on these things, and prayed.
Did we make a mistake in allowing these things in our home? That I cannot answer, but if the Holy Spirit leads me to cast certain things out, they will certainly go. Plus, we have a teenager who is struggling with Daddy issues since her father moved to Florida, we have a tweener who never entirely got over the fact that his real mother walked away from him never to return 8 years ago, and we have 3 formerly-homeschooled children who are in public school and are dealing with the pressures and stressors that go along with that. We have bickering, rolling eyes, sassiness, stomping, occasional yelling (sometimes by me), curse words learned at school tossed around, and arguing between the children… and it has gotten to a point where it is stressful to Kevin and myself as well. A good spiritual cleansing of our home, praying room by room, and blessing each room cannot hurt. We might not have an evil presence here to cast out, but blessing and praying are never going to hurt anything or anyone or anything in our home.
This is the weekend to do it – go room by room with the Bible and anointing oil in hand – and pray for the safety and protection of our home and all of us who are inside of it. It might help with the nastiness that the children are dishing out and it might not, but it surely won’t hurt.