KICK OUT THE SQUATTERS
                                                                                                   Paulette Reed

 
Squatters

The Lord is bringing tremendous freedom to the body of Christ. He recently showed me many believers who have squatters who are secretly taking up residence in their souls but who are about to be kicked out.

What is squatting? Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building that the squatter does not own, rent, or otherwise have lawful permission to use. Spiritually speaking, when a squatter (an evil spirit) takes up residence in a person’s soul, it has gained lawful permission by the owner, even if the owner is not aware of it. If there are areas in our souls that have not been attended to or perhaps even abandoned—say if a painful experience was too difficult to deal with—then there is room for squatters to sneak in and take up residence.

The Greatest Commandment

The greatest commandment in all the earth is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). It’s impossible to love the Lord with all our soul if any area of our soul has two masters, both good and evil. Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other” (Matthew 6:24).

What things do you love more than the Lord? Perhaps it is food, work, drugs, pornography (the new narcotic), gossip, micromanaging, or alcohol. What is it that haunts you and lies to you, trying to convince you that you just cannot live without it?

Friends, people cannot excel in God’s kingdom business while keeping dark secrets hidden in the recesses of their souls. Christ is in believers, and we are in Him. But where there is spiritual darkness, there the devil abides. In fact, Jesus warned in Luke 11:35, “Take heed that the light which is in thee be not darkness.” The Passion Translation says it like this: “Open your heart and consider my words. Watch out that you do not mistake your opinions for revelation-light.”

How’s your light today—can it be seen? Remember, if we harbor sin, the “light which is in thee” is truly “darkness.” If we have squatters taking up residence in our souls, then somewhere, somehow, darkness entered in and the devil has legal access because he dwells in darkness. It is time to kick him out! Even though darkness covers the earth, the Lord has called us to walk in light. Jesus says in John 8:12, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life."

Revealing the Heart

People want miracles and manifestations of God but often do not realize that the power of God that produces miracles flows from a pure heart, as it did with Jesus. As God reveals hidden areas to heal them and cleanses the hearts of thousands of people, the power of God will return to His church. And, keep in mind that revealing the heart (soul) might include wilderness seasons, as even Jesus was led into the wilderness and tempted by the devil. And, although those seasons can be humbling, we can thank God for them because arrogance leads to satanic assault. Times of testing are crucial, for we will never become Christlike if everything in life is perfect.

The days of mixture are over; no more mishmash of living water and sewer water. The voice of the enemy lies and says, “Just a little sin is okay. Just a little lie is okay.” Well, here’s a telegram from heaven: “It’s not okay. Kick out the squatters!” It’s time to press into God’s presence and know Him like never before. Knowing the Lord—truly knowing Him and His supremacy—is what fills the soul and makes all lusts lose their power.

Never underestimate the power your heart can have. It dictates your emotions, your desires, your intellect and your will. This is one of the reasons the word tells us, "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it" (Proverbs 4:23). Allow Christ to uproot the lies in your soul today, heal the open wounds that gave the enemy access and slam the door to squatters. Jesus wants to flow through you like a conduit with His holy love and power. It’s our responsibility to clear the rust from the conduit with supernatural help from God, so that His Spirit flows freely and purely from our bellies.

Secret Inner Voice

Most people are most comfortable if they think of a seared conscience belonging to someone on death row. But the truth is that the apostle Paul is talking about us in 2 Timothy 4:2, when he says, “seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron.” The Greek word for conscience here is suneidesis, meaning to possess co-knowledge of something that results in a “sense of guiltiness before God.” In other words, we are all created with an intrinsic capacity that gives us a God-perspective of right or wrong.

A. W. Tozer says the foundation of the human conscience is “the secret presence of Christ in the world.” He backs this up with John 1:9, “There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.” This inward moral awareness is the “secret inner voice” of the Lord telling us what to do; it is not a Pharisaical voice telling us what others should do.

We can liken the conscience to our nervous system. If we are cut, we feel pain. This is our body’s way of warning us that something is wrong. With our conscience, when we sin, our soul gives us a warning that our sinful actions wound us spiritually. We feel uncomfortable, uneasy, and restless. This is the point where many people turn to drugs, alcohol, or some other vice to try and ease the pain. If we pay attention to the warning, however, it encourages us to repent and change because we know there will be painful consequences for our poor choices.

Someone with a soft-hearted conscience recognizes each infraction against the Lord. They call sin what it really is—sin. They acknowledge that God hates sin and that it is ugly, not fun. They are also open to Holy Spirit’s conviction and do not “push the envelope” to see just what they can get away with. Rather, they try to avoid sin, knowing that all things are permissible but are not beneficial (1 Corinthians 10:23).

A Pure Heart

Matthew 5:8 clearly states, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” The heart here is the soul or mind, the fountain and seat of our thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, affections, purposes, and endeavors.

Jesus is concerned about our hearts. He teaches us that we shouldn’t clean up just our outside appearance, but also the inside, with the supernatural help and power of Holy Spirit. In fact, great sorrows await some, as we see in Matthew 13:25–26(TPT): “Great sorrow awaits you, religious scholars and Pharisees—frauds and imposters! You are like one who will only wipe clean the outside of a cup or bowl, leaving the inside filthy. You are foolish to ignore the greed and self-indulgence that live like germs within you. You are blind and deaf to your evil. Shouldn’t the one who cleans the outside also be concerned with cleaning the inside? You need to have more than clean dishes; you need clean hearts!”

The more we grow in Christ, the more we hate what evil Pharisaical spirits did and still do to Jesus. They steal, kill, and destroy. They twist the Holy Scriptures and abuse them to try and justify their own hidden darkness. Jesus said, “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees—their hypocrisy. The time is coming when everything that is covered up will be revealed, and all that is secret will be made known to all. Whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be shouted from the housetops for all to hear!” (Luke 12:1–3). And A. W. Tozer said it like this: “A Pharisee is hard on others and easy on himself, but a spiritual man is easy on others and hard on himself.” One easy was to discern if a Pharisaical spirit is messing with someone is to note a strong refusal to apologize for wrongdoings or a lack of self-awareness.

Get excited! Ask the Lord for more purity so you can become more powerful and bless the lives of many, many people! Let’s cry out in this hour as the psalmist did in Psalm 139:23–24 (TPT): “God, I invite your searching gaze into my heart. Examine me through and through; find out everything that may be hidden within me. Put me to the test and sift through all my anxious cares. See if there is any path of pain I’m walking on, and lead me back to your glorious, everlasting ways—the path that brings me back to you.”

In these end times, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by tragedies and atrocities in the earth, serving and praying but forgetting that the greatest tragedy of all would be not seeing God. The Word is clear about the goal: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” If we lose sight of this objective, then we will see the destruction of humanity. Kick out the squatters today.