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Bob,
Per your email, you have asked me to explain what this verse means. This is a very fascinating verse in that quite a bit of knowledge is given to us by God on what goes on behind the scenes with demons after they are successfully cast out of a person.
In order to really understand this verse, you also have to look at the two verses that are above it - verses 43 and 44. I will go ahead and type out all 3 verses below, and then give you the appropriate explanation.
"When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order.
Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation." (Matthew 12: 43-45)
In just three verses, God is giving us quite a bit of information as to what is going on behind the scenes in the spiritual realm once a demon is cast out of someone. I'll break down what God is trying to tell us in this verse under the following caption.
Interpretation
1. The very first sentence tells you right off the bat that you are dealing with a demonic spirit who has been cast out of someone. The verse says - "When an unclean spirit goes out of a man."
An unclean spirit is a demonic spirit. The fact that it is going out of the man means the demon was on the inside of the man. And if the demon is going out of the man, then he had to be cast out of him by either another Christian or direct by God Himself. Otherwise, the demon would have never left the man on his own. Once a demon is able to get inside of someone, they will not leave unless they are cast out by either God or a Christian acting under God's leading and authority to cast the demon out.
The next sentence says that the demon then wants to return to the "house" from which he came out of earlier. The house he is referring to was the person's body that he was cast out earlier. After a demon is cast out, this verse tells us that the same demon will periodically return to see if the person has slipped up in any way in order to give him the legal right to be able to enter back into him.
2. Bob, demons cannot enter into a person's body just because they want to. The person has to usually have either done something to open a hole in their hedge - which is God's protection around them, or have been the subject of some type of trauma or severe abuse like rape, incest, severe physical abuse, etc.
In some of these cases, the person has engaged or delved into some type of sin that has given the demon the legal right to be able to enter into him. Common door openers that will allow demons to come in on you are drugs, especially the heavier ones, abusing alcohol, and engaging in any type of occultic practice such as witchcraft, Satan worship, ouija boards and fortunetelling of any kind.
Not every person who does all of the above will draw a demon into them. A hundred people may play the Ouija board and nothing will happen. Then the next person will play it, and he will be the one that will draw the demons into him. Why it happens this way, no one really knows for sure.
In the same way, not everyone who does drugs draw the demons to them - but some do. This is why a person is literally playing Russian roulette everytime he engages in any of the above activities. He is taking a chance of drawing demons to him, and if he stays in that activity long enough, then the demons will have the full legal right to be able to actually enter into this person's body!
And once that happens, this person is in big trouble! Then the demons have to be cast out of him either direct by God Himself or by God through another Christian. The demons will not voluntarily give up their position once inside this person's body. Apparently it is much warmer for them inside of our bodies as compared to roaming in the air seeking their next victim.
Also notice in this verse that once the demon is cast out, he is seeking rest and finds none. The dimension he is roaming about is dry compared to the human body that he was just inhabiting. This verse tells you right there that demons prefer to be living on the inside of a person's body rather than roaming through the air.
In some of the exorcisms and deliverances I have read and studied, demons will state that it is cold on the outside and that they would prefer to stay on the inside a person's body - where it is obviously more warmer and more comfortable for them to live in. This is why most of them will put up some kind of fight once an actual deliverance starts.
3. The next sentence is the key. Once the demon returns back to the same person he had originally lived in, he will check him out to see if he has any legal right to be able to enter back into him. If the demon finds it "empty," he then apparently has the legal right to be able to enter back into this person. I believe God is using the word "empty" to let us know that people who have demons cast out of them have to become Spirit-filled! They have to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
I also believe the word "empty" is possibly referring to the fact that the person may not have grown in God after the demons were originally cast out of him. After God makes a dramatic move on you to save you from this type of dire situation, He will expect you to start walking and growing in Him. God wants that empty space to be filled up with His knowledge, presence and grace - and the only way that can happen is if you start growing and maturing in the Lord.
Once the demon enters into the person's body, they will then enter into the person's soul. If this person is a Christian, the demon cannot enter into the person's spirit because the Holy Spirit is already residing there. But if the person's soul has not baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit, the demon can then enter into the person's soul. This is why it is so important that the person become Spirit-filled to prevent this from ever happening again.
When you receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will then move up into your soul area. Once the Holy Spirit is living and dwelling up in your soul area, the demon can no longer enter your soul and you are thus safeguarded from ever having a demon enter you again.
A Christian can thus have the Holy Spirit dwelling in his spirit, but at the same time have a demon living up in their soul and body area. Once a demon is up in the soul area - this is how they can temporarily take control of a person's vocal cords and literally speak right out of that person's mouth at times.
4. Now watch what happens next. The verse then says that if the demon finds the house empty and in "order," not only will he enter back in, but he is going to bring back with him 7 more demonic spirits that are even more wicked than he is!
This one verse is telling you that there are levels of wickedness or levels of evil even among demons themselves. In other words, some demons are meaner and more evil than other ones are!
In the exorcisms I have studied, I have seen this phenomena occur over and over again. You can tell when the deliverance minister starts casting the demons out one by one, that some of them are more wicked and more evil than some of the other ones are. The weaker demons will even speak out saying they would easily go without putting up much of a fight, but they can't because the higher ranking and more powerful demons will punish them if they do not try to stay in and fight as long as they possibly can.
Satan obviously has to be the most evil of all the demons and probably the most evil of all created beings - including humans. I believe he has disintegrated down to the lowest levels of the dark side and that he has successfully become 100 percent pure evil. I seriously doubt if there is one ounce of goodness left in him due to the long time that he has been cast out of heaven. I believe there is no saving grace for Satan and the rest of the fallen angels who rebelled long before we humans were ever created.
Also notice in this verse that the original demon now has the legal right to bring back with him 7 more demons. Bob, usually when someone has a demon in them, they usually have more than one. Most of the time, demons will travel in groups or "clusters." There is one chief demon who runs the show and the rest of the demons are under the chief demon's control and authority. When casting them out, you can either take one of two approaches:
Bind all the lesser demons under the chief demon, and then cast out the chief demon with all of the lesser demons bound to him.
Or cast out each one of the demons one by one.
The first way would obviously be the quickest and easiest, but you have to let God decide which of the two strategies He wants to go with on a particular deliverance. Sometimes God may want to cast out each one of them one by one. The reason being is that He may want the person to know what demons were inside of him and exactly why they were inside of him in the first place.
Each demon has his own name like "murder," "hate," "lust," etc. Their names will tell you what their functions were inside of that person's body and soul. As they come out one by one by their actual names, the possessed person will then understand where all of those negative emotions were coming from in the first place. This is why the Bible says that the truth will set you free.
5. Now the last part of this verse says that if the original demon manages to get back in and brings with him more demons that are even more evil and wicked than he is, then that person's state is going to end up becoming much worse than what his previous state was. Why?
Because now the person will have at least 7 more evil and wicked demons than what he had in him the first time around. These meaner and more evil and wicked demons will thus be causing much more torment, havoc and destruction on this person and his life than what the original demons did since they are much more evil and wicked in their actual natures and personalities.
The more evil a human is, the more horrible of a crime he is capable of committing. It's the same way with demons. The more evil the demon, the more torment, torture, chaos and destruction he is capable of inflicting upon that person just because he is a more evil and wicked demon.
Deliverance ministers have found out that some of the more evil and wicked demons are those demons who are linked to the occult. This is why engaging in any form of occult activity is so highly dangerous!
Bob, one last thing on the last part of this verse. I also believe that God is telling us that if the delivered person goes back to the same former sin he was involved in that drew the demons to him in the first place - then that will be the door opener that will allow the original demon not only to be able to come back into him, but to also bring back with him seven more demonic spirits who are going to be much more wicked and evil than he is.
If a person gets delivered from engaging in witchcraft, and then goes back into it 3 years later, God is going to pull back any protection that may have been on this person and the above scenario is thus going to be allowed to take place. And if it does, this person is going to be in serious trouble. God may not be so willing to cast the demons out the second time around, and the demons will then be allowed to tear this person apart.
Jesus says in the New Testament that you are better off not knowing that you are in sin as versus someone who knows they are in sin, gets delivered from that sin, and then goes back into that same sin once again.
Demons just hover and wait for people, especially Christians, to mess up and commit any door-opening sin so they can either move in and start tormenting that person from the outside, or literally enter into that person's physical body if they can get away with it.
Conclusion
I have always found the above verse very fascinating. God, in just three powerful verses, gives us quite a bit of knowledge and information as to what really goes on behind the scenes with demons, how they operate and what they are looking for.
It's simply amazing how much knowledge and wisdom is actually contained in the Bible. The key is being able to cut into the verses and read what God is trying to tell you in many of the Bible verses.
God likes to make you seek and search after knowledge, and many of the Scripture verses have to be worked and cut into to really see what God is trying to tell you. For me, the Bible is a real challenge because many of the Bible verses have to be cut into to see exactly what the actual knowledge is that is lying underneath the verse.
It's like hunting for buried treasure. God says in another verse that the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. And in order to find that treasure, you have to seek and search after it, just like you would seek and search for buried treasure underneath the ground. Same principle applies.
Bob, I hope the above clarifies for you what God is trying to tell us in these three verses. If you have any more questions, let me know. |
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