When They Try to Come Back
"Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first." — Matthew 12:45
The Six Good Months
A woman in her thirties had been deeply involved in occult practice for years — psychic healing, astral projection, fortune telling, meditation, and more.
She came to Christ, renounced all of it, and was completely delivered.
For about six months everything went smoothly. She joined a church, studied her Bible daily, and experienced genuine joy.
Then chaos broke loose. A series of severe illnesses. Financial losses. And hardest of all, almost continual torment that kept her from sleeping.
She had not let anything back in. But she was exhausted, and she was discouraged, because she assumed she must be doing something wrong.
Why the Pause Comes First
Her case is typical of nearly everyone who comes out of that kind of involvement, and the pattern is worth knowing in advance.
Usually the Lord holds the attacks back for a brief period, giving the new believer a chance to get grounded in His word.
Then it begins — the fury of an enemy at losing a servant, plus the ordinary harvest of what was sown.
If nobody tells a new believer this, the sudden onset feels like evidence that their conversion was not real or that God has withdrawn. Neither is true. It is the expected sequence, and knowing it in advance changes everything about how it is endured.
What Jesus Said Would Happen
"When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first." (Matthew 12:43–45)
Clearly, when spirits are cast out they will attempt to return — and if unsuccessful, they will bring seven others stronger than themselves and try again.
Most Christians believe that once the house is cleaned the battle is over.
It is only just beginning. The battle to keep them out will be seven times harder than the battle to get them out.
But Note What Jesus Also Said
Read the earlier verse in the same passage, because it contains the answer:
"How can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house." (Matthew 12:29)
The house in the parable was empty, swept, and garnished. That is the vulnerability. Cleaned and unoccupied.
We have the strongest man of all to keep our house — the Holy Spirit. A house that is not merely swept but genuinely inhabited is not available for reoccupation.
That is why the work after deliverance matters more than the deliverance itself: filling what was emptied.
Point to Ponder
The battle to keep them out is seven times harder than the battle to get them out. Nobody warns new believers of this.
Verse to Remember
"Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" — Luke 18:8
"The things which are impossible with men are possible with God." — Luke 18:27
Question to Consider
Did my hardest season come six months to a year after a genuine spiritual breakthrough?
Today's Practice
If you have come out of something serious — the occult, addiction, deep sin of any kind — look honestly at your timeline. When did the trouble intensify relative to your deliverance?
If it came after a quiet period, understand it for what it is: the expected sequence, not a sign of failure.
Then do the thing most people skip. Fill the house.
Write down what has replaced what was removed. Not what you stopped — what you started.
- What are you reading daily, in place of what you used to consume?
- Who are you now with, in place of who you left?
- What occupies the hours that habit used to occupy?
- What is your mind actually full of?
A swept and empty house is an invitation. Answer each of those questions concretely this week, and put something in every empty room.
Prayer
Father, I thought that once the house was clean the work was finished. I did not know the harder part was keeping it.
Thank You that You gave me the strongest Man of all to keep my house. The Holy Spirit lives in me, and a house that is genuinely occupied is not available to anyone else.
Show me the empty rooms — the hours, the appetites, the relationships, the silences that used to be filled with something else and are now filled with nothing.
Fill them Yourself. Give me a hunger for Your word to replace what I used to feed on. Give me people. Give me work to do.
And where the pressure has returned and I have taken it as evidence of failure, correct me. This is the expected sequence. Hold me through it.
In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
The house in the parable was swept and empty. That was the vulnerability — not the sweeping, the emptiness.