“As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” – Joshua 24:15
”Jesus replied, ‘Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.’” – John 14:23
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person and they with me.”- Revelation 3:20
What is the state of your spiritual home? Is it large or small? Cluttered or cleared? Light or dark?
Maybe you’ve never thought of your spirit as having an inner home and this is a new concept for you. But what I find throughout the Bible is the visualization of our spirit as having a home.
As people, we are wired to want safety and stability that having a home brings. It is a human psychological need. Our spirits need that, too.
My Home
I want to tell you a little about my spiritual home and what happens there.
My home is a small cottage on rolling grassy hills. It kind of reminds me of the children’s book “The Little House” but just at the beginning when it’s the only building, and the city hasn’t grown to overcome it yet. There’s tall grass and a small dirt path leading to my door. There are no neighboring homes. There are no other people. There is just me and who I let into my home.
I have a kitchen table and a couch, though I have no kitchen to prepare food or television to point my couch toward. There is a hallway with bedrooms and closets that go very deep. (I know I said it was small, but spiritual realms don’t have the same spacial restraints as physical ones.) This is where I keep the innermost parts of myself. My deepest longings and my precious treasured memories are there. But, if I’m not careful, I start to hoard and hide anxiety and unaired hurts in those depths, so I regularly have to air out those closets and clear away what doesn’t add value.
I keep my house clean and try to be intentional about who I allow in.
Jesus is my guest who dwells with me and I invite Him into all areas. He has been the preciousness of some memories that could be remembered as disasters. He is my comforter and my soul-decluttering companion: He helped me pull out anxiety from my deep closets and sort through it until it was all gone through and gotten rid of.
Talking with Jesus in my home feels like having a meal and a good conversation with my best friend. He is who I can tell anything and everything to. We sit at my kitchen table, in the only two chairs, when it’s an encouraging checkin. Or we sit side by side on the couch when I’m going through something hard and need His rest and comfort. Regardless of which, there is always refreshment and nourishment. It happens daily when I pursue Him and open the door to him.
My home goes through seasons of new life and change, growth and lightness, humility, introspection, and quiet self-care. Jesus is there with me through them all.
Spiritual (Uninvited) Guests
“When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.”
Luke 11:24-26 NKJV
I am commonly cleaning my home. If I become complacent, it gets dirty and guests that I don’t invite tend to congregate. Anger, who looks like a big, red, hulk-balloon-about-to-burst, is the most frequent uninvited guest. If I allow him to settle in, it’s not long before selfishness, bitterness, envy, resentment, and anxiety come and mess up my house and crowd me out of who I intend to be.
One way I know of getting rid of uninvited guests is to invite good guests in before the uninvited ones get there. Who I intentionally invite is the Holy Spirit. And instead of there being negative feelings filling my house and crowding out my intentions, He brings fruit. He brings love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
As my security system, I don’t have a Ring doorbell, watch dogs, or cameras. God armors me with truth, righteousness, peace, salvation, faith, and His Word. These keep those uninvited guests away and keep my dwelling safe from invasion.
Cleaning out the negative thoughts and chucking anxiety out the door, instead of hoarding it deep inside, keep my house from becoming a scary place that I don’t want to be.
Conclusion
I can’t just invite guests once and expect them to stay forever. I have to continually invite the Holy Spirit to be in me and fill my home, or those uninvited guests will barge in and take over.
My spirit has habits and practices in order to be well taken care of. I expect my physical house to take effort to clean and maintain. I also expect my inner home to need that same effort, in a spiritual way: with prayer and surrender. With purposeful invitation to the Creator of the universe. With open hands and a bowed head to invite Jesus in my home to daily dwell within me.