If Madonna sang it right about a ‘material world’, and that’s all there is, then dealing with our material things wouldn’t be so darn complicated. Have you ever wondered why you feel guilty or scared for wanting to re-gift a gift, afraid to donate those smaller sized jeans or pants because of what it ‘means’, or shed tears over the baby clothes you hold on to? You may have felt (or been told) you’re being ridiculous or just irrational, emotional, or overly sentimental (and you may surely be all those those things!) but as believers, we have got to be awake to the reality that there is more to this material world than meets the eye.
accepting the mission
The truth is, it’s not only a material world, but a spiritual world, and I am a spiritual girl (so are you, whether you know it or not). This spiritual realm is vast and real, impacting every moment of our lives; but because we can’t touch, taste, smell or observe it (most of the time), we just live unaware of it.
If we claim Jesus as our King, our greatest companion and helper, Holy Spirit, is part of this spiritual world and resides within each believer. This realm also hosts our only true enemy, the Satan (which means adversary). To accept Jesus, we fully accept His mission which includes tearing down the strongholds of this enemy by the power of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. Challenges arise in our homes and relationships when we are interacting with enemy strongholds, but unaware. So how do we become aware?
Dealing with what can only be perceived by our senses is as affective and fool-proof as a doctor diagnosing a clean bill of health without ordering testing or labs; appearances can be very deceiving. While I love a good appearance, I’ve come to realize how exhausting and stressful it is to live life primarily by the way things look.
“Everything looks great!”
finding the clues
Next time you look in the mirror or around your home diagnosing perfection or disaster, take a quick self-test of your feelings. What is going on inside of you while you look at yourself or hold that object? These thoughts and feelings–whether happy or sad, proud or ashamed, fulfilled or unsatisfied–are the clues you need to start solving the case, or for our purposes, finding and destroying the strongholds of the enemy.
Theses emotion-clues are your symptoms and the good news is, whenever you have symptoms, you have a few choices:
- Deny they exist and ignore them completely.
- Acknowledge then try to control them by coping with or medicating them.
- Acknowledge then surrender to treat and heal them.
solving the mystery
When it comes to our material lives, too many times we play around with options 1 and 2, and perhaps it’s because our world doesn’t offer much for treatment or healing pertaining to issues of the heart, but our God does! When we live surrendered fully to Jesus, He offers freedom from guilt and shame. He offers treatment and healing that lasts. He gives freely to us out of His un-ending resources and we can receive freely…without the weird co-dependent attachment stuff that feels more like spider-webs than love. Addressing the spiritual world right alongside the material world frees us up to be life-givers to our families and communities and experience peace in our home whether or not we have that scented candle burning or those new seasonal throw-pillows on our bed.
what does it look like?
I’ll use Betty as an example… she’s fictional, but her story may be helpful.
Betty gets dressed and has thoughts.
Every morning, Betty steps into her closet to dress for work. Her tummy aches a little every time she's in there, but it subsides as the day's tasks accumulate. Pulling on Spanks, she jokes in the mirror that it's like trying to stuff an inflatable life-raft back into the bag after pulling the chord. She loudly berates her pandemic weight-gain and depression, and fears she's lost all future love-prospects (and will likely end up like her spinster Aunt, Birtha, the cat-lady), then sarcastically affirms (to comfort herself) that the pandemic grew her sense of humor along with her waistline. She pets her three cats and leaves for work, head hung.
You may think, “wow, that spiraled fast!”, but as God’s daughters we needlessly suffer harassment–just like this–because we don’t recognize the enemy exposing himself through negative words, thoughts and feelings. Just because we may be ‘saved’ doesn’t mean we are saved from the responsibility of using our gift of free will. We choose the voices we believe.
Scenario 1) Betty is unaware of her enemy and remains his victim.
Over time, as Betty believes the lies and accusations of the enemy, the door of self-depreciation widens, inviting more enemies (demons). Even though she lost the weight and gained a new wardrobe, after hiring a personal trainer and stylist, she still struggles to feel pretty. She sees fat, ugly and frumpy. Hoping to combat anxiety, she now practices mindfulness and meditates twice a day, but subconsciously adds two more items to her growing list, 'things I suck at'. She holds her stomach all throughout the day, pops pain pills and added to the anti-depressant prescriptions she started on during the lock-down. Obsessive thoughts about her ugliness and how others perceive her, swirl through her day-time mind. Working mostly from the couch now, four cats wander around while she zooms. Home is her 'judgement free zone', and she reminds herself she's happiest when she feels safe.
Scenario 2) Betty becomes aware of her enemy and uses her authority over him.
Over time, Betty found out that as a child of God (meaning she has surrendered her life to Jesus), she has freedom to choose belief of these critical accusations and negative predictions or believe the truth and use her authority to put a stop to the voices and thoughts and command the enemy to, "shut-up and get out!" (rebuke him).
Frequent opportunities arise to practice using her voice and authority, now that she's been equipped. Where her God-relationship had previously been little more than a 'higher thought' or a 'pleasant-intellectual-ascent', it's now her everyday-interactive-reality. Gratefulness and joy fill her thoughts and the pharmacist has been wondering where she is. She hears the words 'treasured, beloved, and irreplaceable' from her Heavenly Father as she sits and read's His love letter and listens for His voice when she prays. Her clothing, weight, personality or relational status no longer define her identity and she can dress, and look in the mirror without believing the accusations. She's found that she judges herself and others less and less.
On a trip with a couple new work friends, Betty ignites with a passion for new cultures, and makes future travel plans. One day, while reading the Bible in the break-room, a few co-workers commented on the brightness of her face and asked what new skin-care she had been using, to which she replied with her testimony. There is now one less stomach ache in the office after Betty prayed for her co-worker. The ripples go on and on. Betty still has three cats.
This is what it means to clean your house from the inside out.
Disclaimer: I am not a licensed medical professional diagnosing or treating medical conditions.
The next time you hear thoughts or voices that shame, condemn or accuse, you can be sure it’s your enemy speaking, sometimes in our heads and sometimes through others…this is your opportunity to CLEAN HOUSE.
