Introduction
We all live on this Earth and see with our physical eyes the things around us, and hear with our physical ears the sounds around us. However, the Lord God Almighty created both the seen and the unseen worlds, but many of us do not consider the existence of the spiritual world or its implications for our journey in this life on Earth. The human soul is a battleground, and we all must understand that the dark seek to claim our souls, and that is the only way they can try to fight God. In our walk on this Earth, all followers of the Lord Jesus will face some sort of spiritual attack, so it is essential for us to understand what a spiritual attack is, how it occurs, and how to overcome it. In this blog article, we bring some Bible passages to help us understand how to walk with the Lord daily and keep our souls safe from drifting away from the faith in the Lord Jesus.
Love the Lord from the Depths of Our Souls
In Matthew 26:17-25, Mark 14:12-21, and Luke 22:7-13, we read about the Last Supper, the last Passover meal the Lord Jesus had with His disciples on earth. Let us bring here Mark 14:12-16:
Mark 14:12 And on the first day of unleavened bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, His disciples say to Him, Where do Thou desire that we go and make ready that Thou may eat the Passover?
13 And He sends two of His disciples, and says to them, Go into the city, and you will meet a man bearing a pitcher of water. Follow him;
14 and wherever he shall enter in, say to the master of the house that the Teacher says, Where is My guest-room, where I shall eat the Passover with My disciples?
15 And he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready: and there make ready for Us.
16 And the disciples went out, and came into the city, and found as He had said to them, and they made ready the Passover.
The Bible doesn’t tell us much about the man with the pitcher, except that he had a guest room prepared, where the Lord Jesus and His disciples held their last Passover together. However, we can see that this man had a guest room prepared and was ready to host someone in need of help. The Lord Jesus needed help at that time to get a place where He could hold the Last Passover with His disciples and fulfill the Father’s plan. The Lord Jesus saw from afar the man’s heart, and He knew ahead of time where He would eat the Passover and who was going to host Him; that is why He commanded His two disciples to go and meet this man.
Thinking about this man with the pitcher, can we say about ourselves the same for our lives on this earth? Are we ready to invite the Lord and host Him in our hearts? Have we prepared a nice furnished room in our hearts where we can invite the Lord Jesus to dine with us? Are we truthful to His calling? After walking for many years with the Lord, how can we remain faithful until the end?
So, the question for us today is what we must do to ensure that the Lord Jesus comes and dines with us each day. We find the answer to this question in John 14:23, where the Lord Jesus Himself tells us, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and will make a home with him.” Below, we comment on the meaning of this vital verse so we can understand what the Lord requires of us to do so that He can dine with us.
“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word.” So, as the verse clearly tells, if you love the beloved Son of God, you will keep His teachings in your heart; but, when you keep His word, you must also read and meditate on the Holy Bible; the Holy Bible has all the teachings, and those teachings will make your heart ready to receive Him as well.
“And My Father will love him.” Give attention to what the verse has said to all true believers. The beloved Son of God has told all that the Father Himself will love you because you love the beloved Son of God. And this is the way the Father shows love to anyone: when that person meditates on the Holy Word, that person will realize the peace in their heart, and during that time, within the heart, they will have great joy because the Father Himself also is happy with that soul. The root of all happiness for the soul is the Holy Word of God.
“And We will come to him.” Give attention to the word “We”; this refers to the Trinity of God, and at the same time, the Spirit of the beloved Son of God will also be there.
“And will make a home with him.” When the heart of a true believer becomes home for the Lord, that heart of the blessed one will receive the greatest joy of life, which will also make the faith grow. The home is the place where God will dwell and also will make that home the proper place for receiving all praising of the soul; the request the soul will ask for the Lord to dwell in will receive the answer, and deep in the heart of true believers, it will acknowledge the answer they have received, which they can feel by the soul, not by the feeling of the head itself; that feeling will be deep down until the person cannot tell where that happiness comes from. Therefore, to decorate the heart to be the home of the Lord, all believers should put the praises in the heart that glorify the Trinity of God; the words used for glorifying the Trinity of God will decorate the heart of the soul itself for the Lord.
However, one might ask how the Lord lives in our hearts. To understand the living of the Lord in our hearts, we must not think in physical terms but in spiritual terms. The heart of the true believer is like a palace, which will have many spiritual rooms in it, and each room will be used for a different purpose as well because that heart has become the home of God, to dwell. We must understand that it is the will of the Father to live in our souls when we open our souls to receive Him. The Father uses the Holy Bible to be the path for humans to get in touch with the Holy Spirit; therefore, through the Holy Bible, the Holy Spirit will work in the heart of the reader, and when that heart has invited the Holy Spirit to be their guide, the Holy Spirit will use that invitation and put Himself to join with the soul itself.
Furthermore, the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of the beloved Son of God are in the Holy Word itself. Also, let all believers remember one thing as well: the Holy Bible is the living word; God has spoken every word in the Holy Bible; the word never dies, always is alive and has life; the word itself has life and gives life to all true believers; if you truly believe you can feel the word is alive; general people will not have that feeling, only the true believers will gain that feeling, which is a gift from the Father Himself when you have meditated on the Holy Word.
We can also say this in another way: the Holy Bible is a path of connection between the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Christ with the true believers when they meditate on the Word; when you meditate, you have connected your soul to the path that the Lord guides you. The Word that the Living God has spoken, that word has life in itself; the Holy Bible is the true living word of God, and every word in the Bible is alive. So, you need to connect first with the path before you can connect with the Lord.
As a result, the Word of God is the furniture that we must keep in our hearts to protect our souls. But then, how can we be spiritually attacked if the Lord dwells inside of us? There are various verses that we can draw on for this topic, but we will focus on Matthew 12:43-45 and Luke 11:23-26 in this blog, where the Lord tells us to be watchful and keep our house (soul) clean. First, we will comment on Matthew 12:43-45.
Matthew 12:43 And when the unclean spirit is gone out from the human, it passes through waterless places, seeking rest, and does not find.
“Waterless places.” Our soul is a living water place for evil to feed on.
“The unclean spirit” refers to the spirit of the antichrist (See 1 John 2:18-19 and 22-25). When this spirit leaves the house, which is the soul, because the person tries to join with the Lord and cleans up their own act, it goes into waterless places. However, if it needs to extend its life, it will attempt to return and reclaim its former position. When it comes back, it will not be alone; it will be more violent, and it will fight to take over again. Don’t leave the house empty. Stay in prayer and read the Word, for only the Word of God can help and fill the house. The Word is the eternal food for our souls.
44 Then it says, I will return to my house from where I came out; and having come, it finds it being unoccupied, and swept, and put in order.
“It finds it being unoccupied, and swept, and put in order.” House here refers to the soul of a person. People believe that the house is the heart, but the heart is just an organ of the body (think of the heart in two dimensions as well: one dimension of the heart is an organ for the body, and another dimension, a spiritual dimension, of the heart is for the soul). An evil spirit does not need the heart, but it needs the soul to feed on. As humans, we try to use a human way to keep ourselves clean. You sweep the soul clean when you try to cut off something useless in life. But if you do not come to the Lord Jesus and read the Word, you leave the soul empty, and it becomes a temptation for an evil spirit to dwell in. Before we become Christians, we try to be clean, to change, and to become a new person. But if we do not fill up the soul with the Word, the change will not last long. The empty house will collapse down. Also, as Christians, if we slack off from the Word, we make empty rooms in our souls to be tempted. Human nature, and especially the tendency towards laziness, makes us vulnerable. If we call ourselves Christians, we need to read the Word. Only the Word of God can be used to fill and shield the soul.
45 Then it goes and takes with itself seven other spirits more evil than itself, and having entered in, they dwell there; and the last of that human becomes worse than the first. Thus, it will be also to this evil generation.
“Then it goes …” As a Christian, the soul is precious living water, and that is why your soul becomes a temptation for evil to latch on. Once you know the Word of God and turn away from the Word, you will be attacked more. You have to cling on to the Word of God because the Word is the shield of protection for your soul.
“And having entered in, they dwell there …” This passage refers to those who have accepted the Lord Jesus as their Savior and then deny Him as their God because of the troubles of this life. And then they blame Him and claim that all troubles are from Him. Accepting the Lord does not mean that there will be no troubles in life. But no suffering on this earth can be compared with the eternal damnation. There is no second chance for those persons who betray the Lord Jesus.
“Thus, it will be also to this evil generation.” This evil or wicked generation refers here to the generation that denied the Lord Jesus when He was on earth.
Lastly, we will comment on the same teaching given by the Lord Jesus in Luke 11:23-26, where we expand on our previous comments.
Luke 11:23 Whoever is not with Me is down on Me; and whoever gathers not with Me wastes.
24 The unclean spirit whenever is gone out away from a person passes through waterless places, seeking rest, and finding not, then it says, I will return to my house from where I went out.
Moreover, we can think this way for these verses. After the evil has left your soul because you have come to the Lord and cleaned yourself well, then after you know the Lord and invite Him into your heart and go and baptize in water, your soul will be as a fresh living water tempting the unclean spirit to return (See John 4:14). As the word has told, the spirit has come back and seen, but they are not alone. The only way to keep your soul safe is to hold on to the living word, meditate, and follow the teachings of the beloved Son of God without wavering, and that will protect your soul.
25 And when it comes, it finds it swept empty and put in order.
The souls of unbelievers are full of food for the dark, but when a person has come to know the Lord, their soul has been cleansed out of all evil food for the dark side. If the person does not garnish the soul with the Word of God and does not meditate on it, that soul is not protected and becomes like freshwater, and because of lacking in meditation on the Word, the door of the soul is opened, and the dark will try to come back and latch on that soul because freshwater in the soul is fresh food for the dark side to gain energy. The dark cannot take the fresh living water, but they can take freshwater. Pay attention to the words: freshwater and fresh living water are not the same. When the person comes to know the Lord, they become “freshwater,” but the person that has come to know the Lord and baptizes in water and meditates on the teaching of the Lord becomes “fresh living water,” and these are different degrees of the freshness of water.
26 Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits more wicked than itself; and having entered they dwell there; and the last of that person becomes worse than the first.
“Other spirits more wicked than itself.” When the spirit comes back this time, as the verse has told, the dark side will be more violent towards the soul because now the dark thinks, if it overcomes this time, they are not winning against humans only, but they are winning against God as well because the person has come to know the Lord but did not meditate on the Word of God. The Lord is still there in the soul of the believers (the Lord never leaves us or forsakes us – Hebrews 13:5, unless the person rejects the Lord), but He will not act because the person has ignored the teachings of the Lord; what the teacher will do if the student does not retain the knowledge? That is why all believers need to meditate on the Word and keep the soul protected at all times.
One might have various questions when it comes to the Holy Spirit dwelling in our souls and the evil spirits attacking. As a believer, the Holy Spirit dwells in our soul; then the verse says, “and having entered they dwell there,” so the question here is if these spirits come back into the soul of a person, does the Holy Spirit still dwell inside the person’s soul? Before it comes to this point that the spirits come back to “dwell there,” the person has committed the sin that grieved the Holy Spirit, and the person themselves has built a wall to block the Holy Spirit; they left an empty space inside the soul without protection, and that is when the dark comes in that portion. The Holy Spirit did not leave but lifted up the protection; He is still close by, but the person needs to ask for help and repent. The Holy Spirit has not departed completely, but He is still around waiting, and when the person asks for help, the Holy Spirit suddenly will act and give strength to the soul to fight back, and that is why we always need to meditate on the Word because that is the invitation for help from the Lord. The Holy Spirit will be high above watching, and He can still see all the actions that happen. Think in this way: the soul is like an object, and the Holy Spirit leans on that soul, waiting, and when that soul asks for help, right away, He will go in and help; that is what we are trying to tell here. We are talking about different spiritual dimensions here; the Holy Spirit leans on the soul waiting, but His dimension will be above the soul’s dimension.
The dark, the lowest dimension level, will try to use the human soul dimension to reach the Holy Spirit dimension. They try to reach but do not mean to fight; they cannot fight against the Holy Spirit. Here, only the person’s soul itself can reject the Holy Spirit and push Him out of their soul; the dark cannot push the Holy Spirit, but our soul itself can push the Holy Spirit away. Think about spiritual dimensions: the Holy Spirit is above, the human soul is under, and the dark is under the human soul; how the dark can go up to be closer to fighting God is only by winning the human souls. Here, we can think easily in this way: the human soul is the bridge from one dimension to the next. The dark needs that bridge, and that is why it wants to dwell in the human soul. However, only the human soul has the ability to push the Holy Spirit out from them; the dark does not have that ability, so the dark fights against God by trying to win souls for themselves.
Another question for a follower of the Lord Jesus living in today’s environment would be: are there spirit behind entertainment, such as sports, news, or science, that capture one’s heart? And what is the difference between these and demon possession? We can understand that, indeed, there is a spirit in every entertainment of this earth, and those spirits use our own feelings to feed on them; that is how the spirit of entertainment is working now. Demon possession is different than this; demon possession eats straight from your soul, and that will make your soul reject the God of living. But it is over: no longer demons can possess any human nowadays; the Holy Spirit covers the earth now, but the people that are calling them can make the dark door in their hearts open and receive the demon in. But as long as the person deep inside wishes to find the truth about God, they still have room to be healed from it because the Holy Spirit still has room in that heart as well.
Conclusions
In conclusion, when we invite the Lord Jesus in our hearts, the spirit of the antichrist leaves our souls and departs. However, we need to love the Lord Jesus continually and read the Word, pray, and meditate on it. If we don’t do this, we leave the house empty, and if our house (soul) is empty, that becomes a temptation for evil to come back.
Nevertheless, we serve the Lord God Almighty, the Creator of all things, so we need not fear. As long as we stay close to Him by reading and meditating in the Word of God and praying to Him in the name of His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, the Lord will never leave us or forsake us, as Hebrews 13:5 tells us.
Meditation Tasks:
- Meditate on John 10:29 and Hebrews 13:5; pray and ask the Lord to give us assurance that He never leaves us and forsakes us.