February 3, 2009 Luke 11:24-26

The Empty Person
"When an evil spirit comes out of a person, it travels through dry places, looking for a place to rest. But when it finds no place, it says, 'I will go back to the house I left.' And when it comes back, it finds that house swept clean and made neat. Then the evil spirit goes out and brings seven other spirits more evil than it is, and they go in and live there. So the person has even more trouble than before." ~Luke 11:24-26~

This passage is another short and simple parable of Jesus. It talks about the empty heart! When an evil spirit approaches a person with a dry heart, it is able to go into that person's heart, causing that person to be evil, sinning against God, not being the christian he/she should be. Then the evil spirit is called to leave, and when it does, it goes out, looking for another person to make evil, but when it finds nothing, it returns to that original person, finding a cleansed heart...a heart that's pure as snow. This causes the evil spirit to go out and bring seven more spirits with it, in order to cause more disruption. As a result, that person has an even harder time getting rid of those evil spirits, and trying to go back to the pure, christian he/she used to be.

Once we let go of our guard, those evil spirits will be out, looking for us. Looking for an easy heart to get into, a dry heart...this is through falling for temptation, sinning, weakness, lack of faith, and etc. Once that evil spirit gets a hold of our heart, it's hard to execute it, then to ban it from coming back into our hearts. And even if we do, although confess our sins, are washed clean, if our heart is empty, the evil spirit (the devil) will attack again, this time with more power..."seven other spirits more evil than it is," that means that it's complete...the final stages of evil. Being empty means that we forget to recognize the salvation, the power of the spirit because we are caught up in ourselves to depend on ourselves...that causes emptiness. We should never leave behind the spirit of God! We need it 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year! "I am the vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in me, and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me, you can do nothing." John 15:5