Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – 1 Peter 1-3
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Luke 11:24-26
Jesus: When a demonic spirit is expelled from someone, he wanders through waterless wastelands seeking rest. But there is no rest for him anywhere, so he says, “I’m going back to my old house.” He returns and finds the old house has been swept clean and fixed up again. So he goes and finds seven other spirits even worse than he is, and they make themselves at home in the man’s life so that he’s worse off now than he was before.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
There’s no such thing as demons, …is there? Satan’s minions can’t invade our minds and bodies and control what we think and do, …can they? All this demonic spirit stuff is just to make people act better and listen to preachers so they get their salaries paid, …right? Jesus doesn’t really mean what He says here about spirits coming back and bring their friends, …does He?
Well, He said it. So far, everything He said would happen has happened at the right time. So far, every time someone has tried to prove the Bible wrong, they prove it right. So far the number one seller in every book store around the world keeps proving itself accurate in what it tells us. So I expect this tidbit must be true, too.
What do we learn from these three verses that Luke records for us? First, there are demonic spirits in the world. Satan has the ability to infill us with His demonic spirits if we let him. But those demonic spirits will not be looking out for our good but to strengthen their master’s power. Those demons want Satan in control of this world. Even though he has no legitimacy here, they try to give it too him by enticing and tempting us through our selfishness.
Second, Satan’s demons can be removed from our lives. Note Jesus starts out His words with when a demon is expelled. You don’t have to keep a demon around. They can be kicked out of your life. They might be stronger than you, but they are not stronger than God and just the name of Jesus causes them to tremble in fear.
Third, Jesus’ words tell us that we need to replace those evil spirits with God’s Spirit in us. We can leave that spiritual hole in our lives empty. It will be filled with either God or Satan, one or the other. We are all created with this spiritual hunger that wants to be satisfied. But God will not enter our lives unless we invite Him. Satan, like any bully, will crowd his way into any space he can. So when he finds an empty spiritual hole in our lives, he will do his best to fill it with evil. He will tempt us and use whatever enticements he can to keep us from turning to God to fill that God shaped hole in us.
God created us with a desire for worship. The question is who or what will we worship. Paul tells us the predicament the human race got itself into starting with Adam and Eve. We began to think we were better than God so we began worshiping two-legged beings instead of God. Then it was the image of two-legged beings. Then we continued our downhill degradation and began worshiping four-legged creatures and their images, then insects and serpents and trees and rocks and anything else. Our problem as humans, we forgot that the desire for worship can only be satisfied when we worship the only One worthy of worship and He is the God of creation.
Fourth, Jesus tells us that if we don’t fill our lives with His spirit, we are in danger of falling further from Him than we were before He drove out the sin and evil the first time. It’s easy to see that in the behavior of a drug addict, but it’s the same with any sin. The first time you take a drug it doesn’t take much to feel the effects. But every subsequent time you take the drug, it takes a tiny bit more to create the same effect as the first time. Your body become adjusted to the foreign substance and you tolerate it until finally it takes almost a lethal dose to get the same result.
The same is true with sin in your life. You might feel some pleasure in that momentary sin that thrills or satisfies some base desire in your life, but it’s momentary, artificial, not the kind of satisfaction that only God’s spirit in your life can create. And every subsequent attempt to gain that same level of pleasure takes a little more or a little stronger dose of the behavior to obtain the same pleasure until the perversion is incomprehensible to a sensible person. But sin has taken over. Satan has done his work well. The addiction is complete and your brain tells you to get more of the temporary pleasure at any expense.
These words from Jesus give us ample warning about the way Satan works in our lives. We need to be careful to fill our lives with God or risk the dangerous consequences Jesus describes. Don’t take the chance. Let God fill that hole in your life.
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