Parables Of Jesus Christ

The parable of return of unclean spirit.

Both mathew and luke recorded this i have copied both which are identical in the esv so decided to post lukes in the nlt version.
Matthew 12:43-45 (esv)
Return of an Unclean Spirit
"When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation."
Luke 11:24-26(NLT)
"When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, searching for rest. But when it finds none, it says, 'I will return to the person I came from.' So it returns and finds that its former home is all swept and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before."
I found this parable very challenging. Pretty sure people reading it will find it a "bitter pill" to swallow. It may also be some disagreement in my interputation. But it is mine and i have researched it. I read a book a wee while ago about spirtual warfare and i did need to look back at it to understand this parable completely. In Matthew, this parable is part of a long discourse in response to the Pharisees, who had accused Jesus of being able to cast out demons only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons(satan). In other words they accused jesus of being a demon, possessed by one or more or even being satan himself. Mathew 12:24 "But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, "It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons."
So this parable is told in a setting of conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees. Throughout the Gospels, the evangelists make references to evil spirits, or demons. It seems that the idea of evil spirits was widely accepted in Jesus time. So even though it seems a bit "far out" and possibly frightening today, in jesus's time it was in everyday life. In this short parable jesus gives a fair amount of information to what happens in the spiritual realm once a demon is cast out of a person. The first sentence tells you straight away that we are dealing with a demonic spirit who has been cast out. I will use mathew esv version. As we know it is the same meaning just different words used. So we are told"When the unclean spirit goes out of a person."
An unclean spirit is a demonic spirit. The fact that it is going out of a person means the demon was on the inside of the person. The only way the demon can be cast out is by another christian or directly by god, a demon would never chose to leave on his own accord. Then we have the demon wanting to return return to the "house". The house is the person's body. After the demon is cast out this parable confirms that the same demon will periodically return to see if the person has "slipped up" in any form and give it the legal right to enter back in.
My book explained how demons cannot enter into a person's body just because they want to. There are spiritual laws that are in operation in the spirit realm and demons have to abide by these laws set up by God. In order for a demon to be able to enter in a person's body, they have to have some kind of legal right and legal, permission to do so. An example of this is the person engaging in a sin which gives the legal right it needs.
The book explains about the common door openers that allow demons in. Abuse of drugs, alcohol, any type of occult activity like witchcraft, Satan worship, ouija boards, and engaging in any part of the New Age movement. Of course not everyone will encourage a demon to enter them. But a person is taking a gamble to the allow the demons the legal rights to enter. I actually think some people recognise this is happening. How many times have you heard people saying the "demons" within me.
Apparently it is much warmer for them on the inside of our bodies as compared to roaming in the air seeking who their next victim is going to be. In this parable the demon is dry roaming around compared the the body he was in. To the people including the pharisee's and the jewish leaders this wouldnt be unknown. They were aware of the wording "waterless" This tells us that demons prefer a human body rather than roaming through the air. This is why many of the demons will put up some kind of fight once an actual deliverance starts up.
Once the demon returns back to the same person it had originally lived in, it will check him out to see if it has any legal right to be able to enter back into him.
If the demon finds it "empty," then he apparently has the legal right to be able to enter back into this person. I believe jesus is using the word "empty" to let us know that people who have demons cast out of them have to become holy Spirit-filled.They have to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, grow in the grace and knowledge. I think jesus is possibly referring to the fact that the person isnt mature enough in their faith as expected. I believe is saying that he want the empty space to be filled with his presence, love and grace by the person growing and maturing in the lord. Once the demon enters into the person's body, they will then enter into the person's soul. If this person is a Christian, the demon cannot enter into the person's spirit because the Holy Spirit is already residing there. If not the demon can then enter into the person's soul and body. This is why it is so important that the person become Spirit-filled after a deliverance so as to prevent this from ever happening again. In this book it explained how is the demon is in the soul area they can temporarily take control of a person's vocal cords and literally speak right out through that person's mouth at times.This is all very heavy stuff but you cant pick and chose what part of gods word you are going to look at and try to explain and understand. The parable continues to say if the demon finds the house empty and in "order," not only will he enter back in, but he is going to be bringing back with him seven more demonic spirits that are going to be even more wicked than he is.This tells us there us different levels of evil even among demons themselves.
So this parable was to the pharisee warning them they had to turn to jesus open their hearts souls and bodies.
In jesus's days there was interest in purifying one's soul, getting rid of evil, and achieving harmony with one's inner self. They were interested in jesus's teaching but even though they heard they chose not to enter the kingdom of god. The sad part of this parable indicates their final condition will be worse than the first, even sadder it is still true today.
Finally we must hear the message of the parable as it applied to the jewish nation, god's people. Our rituals are not enough. We cannot legislate holiness. We cannot simply look pure or righteous from the outside. We must allow the new tenant, the Spirit of God, to move in and reign as Lord of our lives, personally and corporately. We must allow Him to fill our houses awaiting His arrival after they have been swept clean. We must not allow a cleaning and then refuse the new tenant, with His new life and new reign, or we will find ourselves much worse off than ever before.