no vacancy

Lately, the Lord has been sharing with me some truths about ways to live in freedom from sin while sojourning here on earth. The most recent message addressed sin in regard to it dwelling in our flesh or body as Paul spoke about in Romans 7:20. He showed me how we could have our flesh and body transformed into the very flesh and body of Christ. By allowing the Spirit of Christ to dwell in us, we could have His life force transform our flesh into a body that would not be able to have sin abiding it any longer. By partaking in His communion, we are able to eat the flesh of Christ and restore our bodies and flesh into the likeness and image of God. The word touched upon the importance of having the Spirit of Christ dwell in us, and the past few days, He has been showing me why we must understand this as an urgency when we are ministering deliverance to others. Being delivered from demonic oppression is a must if we are going to live victoriously in Christ from sin, but that is only half of the story.

Have you noticed an increase in the numbers of squatters in neighborhoods across the nations of the world? It seems to be happening everywhere. Some homeowners blame it on Covid because when they were on lock down, they could not go out to check their properties and the homeless and illegal immigrant population took up residency in their empty homes especially those homes that were rentable like Airbnb’s. For whatever reason, there are more and more cases of squatters popping up all over the place. The Lord shared with me how the spiritual and physical realms are closely related when it comes to this subject. You see…evil spirits and demons are also looking for places to squat. They are looking for bodies where they can take up residency, and once they find a way in, they are almost impossible to get out with “almost” being the keyword.

Evil spirits and demons need permission to enter into a human body. Permission can be granted in more ways than giving verbal consent. Think of a physical squatter. If the home is not being lived in by anybody and if the doors are not locked, a squatter can enter into the home and begin residing in it. After a period of time, it will require a court order to have them removed. This message is not going to address the difference between spiritual oppression and possession because they are similar enough to make my point, but the short of it is like having squatters living in your home rather than your front yard. Either way, you will have trouble having them removed. All those squatters, evil spirits, or demons need is an open door or gate. James 1:14-15 says, “But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it has run its course, brings forth death.” God gave us a free will because He wants us to want to love Him, but He also gave us a free will so we could stand against the squatting demons in our life. We can tell them “No” when they bring their filth to our front door. If we allow them to drop off their baggage and we hold onto that lustful thought, it will become sin and the enemy will have a foot in our door. Being able to quote scripture would be helpful as it is like having a restraining order against those nasty squatters. But, there is an even better way to prevent them from even getting onto our property to begin with.

Do any of you have a muscular older brother or a tougher than leather dad? Especially in my old life, there are many who would identify me as an old crazy Navy SEAL father. What would happen if some squatters came to my daughter’s home, and she called me to come over and take care of it? Well, we can leave that up to the imagination, but I can promise you, I would at the very least make sure my daughter and my grandkids were protected. No one is going to break into their house if I am there. How many of you have the most powerful Father and Brother in all of heaven and creation living in your home? How many of you have the Spirit of Christ living in your body? If you are a believer of Jesus Christ and you belong to Him then you do.

Romans 8:9 says, “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.” Jesus puts up a NO VACANCY sign when He takes up residency in us. How do we know if He is actually living in us? There are a few scriptures that can help us see the evidence of His spirit. In John 14, Jesus says, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, so that He may be with you forever; the Helper is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him; but you know Him because He remains with you and will be in you…If anyone loves Me, he will follow My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him. The one who does not love Me does not follow My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.” If we love Jesus, we will obey His words and He, the Father, and the Spirit will live in us preventing any squatters from moving into our body. We will be able to see evidence that the Spirit of Christ lives in us by the fruits that become visible in our lives. Galatians 5:22 describes those fruits as being “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” If we see those fruits working in our lives, we can be confident Jesus is there. If we don’t see them, but instead, we see the fruits of flesh according to Galatians 5:19-21 which are “sexual immorality, impurity, indecent behavior, idolatry, witchcraft, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these,” we might have squatters in our flesh or body. Fortunately, we don’t have to struggle to have them evicted because Judge Jesus is our brother. We just have to renounce the squatters, have Jesus evict them, and then ask the Spirit of Jesus to take up residency in our body and to rebuild our flesh with His own.

If you read my last message “We Are His Flesh,” you would have seen how Jesus even rebuilds our body with His own flesh, so the enemy has no way to even place a package at the front door. If you go back and read it, you will also see how we are adopted into the family of God and how we are more than human beings now that we are sons and daughters of God. Jesus told us in Matthew 12:50, “For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother, and sister, and mother.” If we love God, obey His word, do the will of the Father, and ask the Spirit of Christ to live in us, we can live free of sin and live victoriously as a son or daughter of God; siblings to Jesus Christ our King. That makes us royalty, and I have never heard of any squatters living in Buckingham Palace.

I will leave you with a word of warning. If we go through the process of having our evil spirits and demon squatters removed from our life but we do not ask the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to dwell within us, we run the high risk of having even more evil squatters take up residency in us. Matthew 12:43-45 says, “Now when the unclean spirit comes out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they come in and live there; and the last condition of that person becomes worse than the first.” If we do not see the fruits of the Spirit in our lives or if we refuse to follow the words of Jesus, and we continue to live our lives as slaves to sin then we will find ourselves with a big VACANCY sign posted on our heart. The original squatters will bring with them even more filthy squatters making our lives even more desperate and hopeless than they were before.

You do not need anyone to pray over you for you to be delivered. You can be delivered from your squatters as I was. Jesus brought eviction letters to my demonic squatters while I was alone with Him in my office. I was totally delivered in one day from many addictions that I struggled with for years. Even if you think you have already said a prayer like this, it will benefit you to do it again if you do not show evidence of having the Spirit of Christ living in you. He is the only One who can help you, and all He needs is your permission to evict. He wants your will to be given to the Father, so the Father’s will can be lived out in your life. Pray this prayer if you need to have any evil spirit or demonic squatters evicted from your life…don’t wait any longer because the longer you wait, the deeper your squatters will dig in.

Jesus,

I believe you are the Son of God, and that you came to this earth to offer yourself up as a sacrifice for my sins. I believe you died for me and rose again. I receive and thank you for the forgiveness of my sins as a gift of salvation and eternal life, and I want to now be adopted as a child of God. I renounce any evil spirits, demons, or sin that I have allowed to dwell in me, and I ask the Spirit of Christ to come and reside in my flesh and body. I choose to follow and obey Your words, so that The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit might dwell within me empowering me to live free of sin victoriously in the Body of Christ.

Amen

You can read more about this and other truths by obtaining a copy of “Prodigal to Prince” by Beau Walsh at BarnesandNoble.com or Amazon.com.