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What does a person do when inexplicable noises, movements, or atmosphere changes happen in their home? How does one spiritually clean their residence? Furthermore, can a home even be occupied by a spirit? Spiritual house cleaning is sometimes needed, but we don’t want to fall under pagan practices like burning herbs or summoning demons to clear our spirits! We want to lean into Holy Spirit while exercising our authority over our land.
Scriptural References
Are you going to find a scripture that says a house can contain a demon? No, not really. You will find that land can be defiled. Ezekiel 36:18 Defilement is definitely demonic territory. In the Old Testament, we read that the pagans sacrificed objects to their deities and the Bible says they were sacrificing to demons. Psalm 106:36-38.
In Joshua 7:13, the Bible tells us “Get up! Set apart the people and say, ‘Make yourselves holy for tomorrow. For the Lord, the God of Israel has said, “There are things among you which should be destroyed, O Israel. You cannot stand in front of those who fight against you until you take away the things among you which should be destroyed.” What does this tell us? If we want to be on the frontline of fulfilling the great commission, then let’s destroy the things in our own camp that have defiled our land, our homes, our families, or us!
Nor shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you be doomed to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, for it is an accursed thing. - Deutermony 7:26
Lisa’s Story
“From the age of about six years old, I began to be harassed by fear. The adults did not believe me when I told them about doors flying open or about how inexplicable things would happen to me. Really, I understand why they didn’t believe it, but it caused me to not trust adults too much and I felt pretty helpless. It would be 20 years before I would be set free from the fear and torment of the night.
As an adult, I learned that the house we moved into had been inhabited by a man who did some vile things. He and his ex-wife had been the occupants of the room which had caused me so much turmoil. As it turned out, he was from one of the most perverse and abusive families I have ever known. When we moved out of the house, all of the supernatural activity stopped, but it had left its mark on me.”
In my experience, it is not uncommon for the following to happen in a defiled home:
- Perverted acts and dreams in rooms that have been defiled.
- Objects tossed around or moved around
- Unrest in the home. No peace.
- Foul, unexplainable odors
- Children crying out with fear and seeing creatures
- Thoughts of death, abuse, shame, frenzy, and more taking over the environment
- A feeling of heaviness, loneliness, grief, etc.
- Things breaking in what seems like unusual sequences of coincidence
- Divorce, adultery, fornication, sexual deviance
- Continual bad dreams & nightmares
- Insomnia
- Fighting & Arguing in the family
- Restless
- Disturbed children with behavioral problems
- Ongoing or unexplained illnesses
- Continual headaches or nausea
Amber’s Story
“There was a half wall between the entryway of my house and the kitchen. I despised it. In the evening, as I sat at my kitchen table, I felt as if the wall was mocking me. I would tell people that the thing needed to come down, but I was always met with the practical statement, “It’s a perfectly good wall!” Still, I would try to figure out how to get the wall down and what I would do with my refrigerator in front of the it.
One night while reading the book of Deuteronomy at the kitchen table, I could not take the mocking coming from the wall any longer. Even though I have no experience with construction, I grabbed a hammer and went to town knocking out the wall myself!
Did I have any business knocking out a wall? Absolutely not! Did I know that there was a drainpipe in it? Nope! Did I think about the aftermath of repairs that would follow? I certainly did not! However, what I did find was more shocking than I would have imagined. A knowledge of God’s faithfulness and His ability to expose what is hidden enveloped me as the contents of the wall spilled out. Piled up from the floor to the ceiling were vodka and pill bottles. I knew there was a funk in my home and that no amount of cleaning was making a difference to the atmosphere. But, when God wants to clean the house, He does it! After being led to take out the wall by Holy Spirit, the strange odors left, and peace came into my house…and has not left.”
Will Spiritual House Cleaning Harm a Dead Person
No. What people call ghosts are not dead people. If there is a spiritual entity in a home that is not Holy Spirit, it is an unclean spirit. People flirt with them, make friends with them, and entertain them, but what they are entertaining is evil. Spirits that pose as dead loved ones are demonic clones. Jesus gave His believers authority over every spirit. Luke 10:19
Burning herbs, candles, and ringing bells do not do anything to give a person authority over a spirit. These kinds of activities likely do more to pay homage to the critters. Notice in the following scripture, in Kings, that one of the things the pagan priests did to defile the place was burn incense! 2 Kings 23:8
How Can I tell if my Home Needs Spiritual Cleaning?
If you look in the Old Testament at what defiled land and people, you’ll see a good indicator of what attracts demons. We are not saying a place has a demon if these things have happened, we’re just thinking the scripture for defilements may be keys to what entices a spirit to a place.
- Seeking after a Medium or Familiar Spirit (Leviticus 19:31)
- Idol Worship Leviticus 18:20-26)
- Innocent Blood Spilled Leviticus 18:20-26)
- Rape (Gen 34:5)
- Adultery/Incest (Gen 49:4; ;Leviticus 18:20-26))
- Beastiality, Homosexuality Leviticus 18:20-26)
- Harboring Objects of Rebellion (Joshua 22:20)
Welcoming a spirit through a seance, playing with an ouija board, and harboring pagan objects seem to be as attractive to spirits as rotten bananas are to gnats. A person doesn’t have to be intentional to welcome one of these creatures of darkness any more than one has to put out a sign for a buzzard to visit roadkill.
What are Common Trespassers in Our Homes?
A familiar spirit is a spirit who is familiar with a family. It can present as if it is a family member or a deceased person. There are also other trespassers that get invited in through open invitations, objects of interest, or other open doors such as sin and ungodly behaviors.
Trespassers can sometimes come in unnoticed and before you know it, they are causing havoc in the home. Other times, we may innocently bring objects into our dwelling. Additionally, there may be forgotten objects from our past that we have forgotten are in our possession.
There is a woman who was going through one of the Set Yourself Free classes who could not sleep. She felt a heaviness in her home, so she began asking Holy Spirit to reveal anything she may have missed when she did a first round of spiritual cleaning years before. Holy Spirit led her to her bathroom cabinet. In the back of the cabinet, behind all of the products she used was a 20-year-old box she had used to store old concert tickets. The tickets linked her to her past when she was in sin using drugs and committing adultery. One of the tickets was to Woodstock!
The enemy comes to kill, steal, and destroy. In her case, he was stealing peace and sleep. We have found that other objects that can cause heaviness in the home can remove peace are:
- Objects depicting false gods
- Tokens used in pagan worship or occult practices
- Objects exalting or promoting evil
- Objects linked to past sins
All idols and unclean objects could be the link to evil trespassers coming into our lives and they need to be evicted immediately.
How Do You Expel a Spirit from Property?
Spiritually cleaning the home is not as difficult as one would think. The hardest thing about it may be the attachments one has with the things or activities that have attracted and given legal right for the unclean to take up residence.
We get calls from people to come to pray over their homes to eradicate the presence of unusual movement, foul odors, weird atmospheres, weird sounds, and all the things that come with nasty foul spirits. This is not something we typically do. We believe in casting spirits out of people, but people have the authority over their own belongings and have the responsibility to remove vile things from their homes.
Here is a sample outline of what you might do to spiritually cleanse your home and remove any “squatters.”
- Commit everything to Jesus Christ
- Ask Holy Spirit to give you wisdom and discernment over your household and objects.
- Get rid of all known pagan objects, occult books, signs, gifts, jewelry, etc.
- Pray and ask the Lord if there is anything in your possession that He would like you to remove.
- Pray and ask the Lord if there’s any covenant or situation with the home/property that you need to submit to Him.
- Obey whatever He says (willingly).
- Anoint your home/land with oil and dedicate it to God.
- Command out loud every unclean spirit to go in the name of Jesus Christ. Stand your ground and pray until peace floods in.
- Keep the spiritual funk out! That means you will need to keep an eye on what you allow into your home. Keep an eye on movies, toys, apps on phones, and even people!
"Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7)
If peace does not come in, go back through the steps again. There may be points of occult contact that you did not consider. Don’t give up. Keep going. Reap the benefits of Spiritual House Cleaning!
