SPIRITUAL WARFARE - Part 4: Silent Residents

Imagine if you will, that you reside in a mansion located in the mountains, the grounds not being far from the city limits. Walking through the lobby of this mansion you notice that it seems to be filled with sculptures, paintings, icons, and various works of art. Extravagant light fixtures hang above foyers with marble floors in some areas, while others appear dark or dimly lit and neglected. The east and west wing hold several rooms, but at the heart of this manor lies a throne reserved for its owner.

Eventually it becomes apparent that you are not alone. There appears to be quite a few people in this mansion with you. However, none of them seem to be butlers, maids, or grounds keepers. In fact, some appear to be familiar faces... even friends and relatives. At times there is an obvious party going on, while in other instances everyone seems to vanish. As time goes on, you find yourself wandering

back through the lobby where you see the face of a young man cautiously peeking around a corner. Upon being discovered, this man darts back down an empty hallway. You give chase, determined to find out what's going on in this place. However, your questions are answered by the sound of a door being quickly shut at the far end of a dimly lit corridor, before you even have a chance to ask them. As you approach this door you can make out raised voices, music, and laughter... It sounds as if there's a party going on in this room. You try to open the door but it's locked. Further more, at the noise made by your efforts to open the door the voices and music immediately stop. Evidently, who ever is behind this door wishes to keep their presence and activities inconspicuous. With this room being inaccessible, you are drawn to the same type of commotion coming from a door directly across from the one you're at. This time the door isn't locked.

Once the door is opened all activity stops and every head turns in your direction. The room is filled to capacity, and you have no idea who any of these people are. Without question there is a wild gathering of some kind happening here. You just interrupted what appears to be a bunch of college aged kids, in the midst of committing every lewd, vulgar, and depraved act that you can think of! Moreover, it would seem that these individuals didn't enter the mansion through the front door... but through an open window at the back of the room!

You glare at this group in anger and disbelief... "Get Out!"

The response is muffled laughter, angry scowls, threatening looks, and smirks of arrogance... no one speaks or shows any signs of leaving the room. Frustrated beyond belief, you walk out of the room. Passing through the doorway, you catch one of these people in your peripheral vision mockingly throw a feint at you! Heading back through the corridor you're not even halfway before you hear a door slam shut and music start up again. Back at the lobby it isn't long before you here someone knocking at the door to the front entrance.

Friends, in case you've not realized by now, this mansion is an illustration of you and I. This concept is a biblical one. A house or temple has often been used in the Scriptures as a basis for description of a person's body and spiritual state.


Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body.(John 2:19-21)


What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?(1 Corinthians 6:19)


Just as we serve a triune God, we are created in His image as tri-part beings having a physical body, soul, and spirit. In this illustration the exterior of this mansion represents the physical body. The interior with all of its rooms and hallways represent the soul. However, the center of this mansion where the throne is located represents the spirit. The one knocking at the door is the Spirit of Jesus.  

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.(Revelation 3:20)


The partying guests in this mansion (both known and unknown) are unclean spirits...demons. All of the statues, icons, paintings, and various things on display in the lobby are idols.

Now people of God, you must understand... When Jesus Christ enters your life, all unclean spirits do not immediately vacate the premises. Some will leave but others will stay unless driven out. These are the ones that are there because they were actually invited... some are invited knowingly and some through ignorance, but they all come in through sin. Many of them came in through the idols in the lobby. As long as the idols remain, so do the unclean spirits connected with them. Those idols consist of anything that takes from God the time, worship, adoration, fascination, and affections that belong solely to Him. Filthy magazines and books (even Christian fiction), movies, video games, pornography in all of its various forms, the latest ipod, careers, television, our own opinions and desires, internet, long held traditions, even a ministry can become nothing more than a horrid idol in the eyes of our Lord. And in time, all of it must go. But you see, the Lord will not come in and pry from you all of the idols and pleasures that you enjoy, only to replace them with the things of God that you really have no desire for. This is part of the change that takes place when He enters in and makes His abode with you. When He sits on the throne at the center of the mansion as your King, and you desire Him enough to ask of Him... That is when He will begin to take you on a tour of the place. He will show all of the things that He actually hates, as well as the things that He loves. He will show you what lies behind the locked doors when you are able to bear it. The purpose of the revelation is to move us into repentance. Thus cleansing us of the idols, closing the doors and windows of this mansion turned temple, and driving out the unwanted guests that have built up strongholds of defense. Many of these "guests" have come in through windows. Those would be the gates of the eye. The things that we watch and read. The various doors to the outside are the gates of the ears and the mouth. The things that we listen to and the things that we say.  The various rooms on the inside behind opened and locked doors represent various areas of the soul. The locked doors in particular represent strongholds. And just as we have invited many of these demons in through our sin, the Lord desires us to drive them out in His name, and through our repentance.

This is why it is so important to continually seek the Lord having our hearts examined before Him. Seeing if there be anything that must be repented of. We must be ever vigilant in guarding the windows and doors to the mansion. Always seeking the Lord that He may lead us in further, and into deeper understanding of what lies behind locked doors.


TO BE CONTINUED...