If Someone Said Their House Was Haunted, How Would You Respond?
- Go and pray boldly, not because we have any particular authority over demonic spirits, but the Lord does.
- We can just pray with authority and say, “This place belongs to Jesus Christ, and it’s by His authority that we say there’s no place for any demonic presence here.”
- If you haven’t already, it’s a good idea to check if there’s anything in the home that could give the devil a place, like occult items, things tied to immorality, idols, or anything else the Holy Spirit might show you.
A group of young adults came in saying that their home was haunted. I shared the gospel with them and prayed for the Holy Spirit’s protection. What would you have done?
I probably would have done the same thing. There are some people who think that a place can be haunted. Maybe it’s just fear or superstition. I believe that there can be places where demonic spirits hang out. I would have done exactly what you did. I would have gone and prayed boldly, not because I have any particular authority over demonic spirits, but the Lord does. And He commissions us to be His representatives. I would have prayed boldly. Some people may take oil along and anoint a doorpost with the oil. The Bible doesn’t speak so much about doing that to places, but there’s nothing wrong with it, as long as it’s not done in any superstitious way.
We can just pray with authority and say, “This place belongs to Jesus Christ, and it’s by His authority that we say there’s no place for any demonic presence here.” I think that’s okay. There is a whole continuum in the Christian life about this. On one end of the spectrum, people may be overly prone to see a demon behind every problem. On the other side, there are people who tend to be blind to any demonic activity. I think that the Christian world today is too blind in general. Obviously, there are some individuals who see a demon behind every problem. But in general, I think that most Christians today are too slow to see that it’s the devil and his angels stirring up problems. Maybe we need to be a bit more proactive in standing strong, in a spiritual warfare sense, against these wiles of the devil.
Would you encourage people to go through their homes to see if there are items that would be connected to the occult?
If you haven’t done so, it can be wise to ask if there are any objects in the home that would give any kind of foothold to the devil, such as occult objects, objects associated with overt immorality, things that may be an idol, or something else that the Holy Spirit might bring to mind. We see this pattern in Acts 19:19, where they renounced these things during a time of revival in Ephesus. That’s an appropriate thing for a believer to do. If need be, contact them again and say, “Hey, is there anything you need to renounce? Is there anything you need to get rid of?” And walk them through that process. And if they say, “I don’t really know,” you could remove any potential things and beyond that, just pray, “Lord, if there is something I need to get rid of, show me.”