By the Holy Spirit it was brought to my attention how
I tended to casually read through scriptures where unclean spirits were cast
out by simply assuming they were demons or devils. It’s not a terrible assumption but then the question
of what an unclean spirit looked like arose and kept nagging at me. With the world being what it is today the
first analogy that formulated in my mind was that of the recent police
shootings. I had to think of the net
effect each incident had on my spirit.
Sure enough the latent image of an unclean spirit began to manifest.
With each report of an unarmed victim of a police
shooting I felt just about every emotion mentioned in Ephesians 4:31 Let all
bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away
from you, with all malice. As a result, I especially couldn’t resist evil
speaking or lashan hara which Wikipedia explains: Speech
is considered to be lashon hara if it says something negative about a person or
party, is not previously known to the public, is not seriously intended to
correct or improve a negative situation, and is true. In my case it didn’t matter if it was true or
not; my spirit was unclean.
How else might an unclean spirit appear? Perhaps in the form of a person filled with
hatred or the opposite of Matthew 5:44, one who harbors un-forgiveness (Matthew
6:15, Ephesians 4:32), fear (Matthew 10:28, Luke 12:5, 2 Timothy 1:7). All of the above are indicators of an unclean
spirit. That’s not including a person
filled with worry or the cares of the world (Philippians 4:6), or depression
(Nehemiah 2:2).
1Corinthians 6:9 Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor
idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with
mankind, 10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor
extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
Those scriptures would appear to describe the various ways a person can
filled with unclean spirits.
Using the Hebrew word for unclean found in Strong’s
Concordance, tame (taw-may), we see there are three striking ways on can be
unclean: sexually, religiously (idols), or ceremonially by touching the
dead. Granted we don’t often come into
contact with dead bodies but we do comingle with those who are spiritually dead
or unrighteous. Are we not warned by Paul
not to keep company with such people in 1 Corinthians 5:9-11? For those not continually renewed and
strengthened in Christ those associations can adversely impact their spirits
making them unclean.
The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a
wounded spirit who can bear? (Proverbs 18:14) How easily we wound our spirit with
what we allow into our gates and by words, thoughts and actions. Is it not possible then that an unclean
spirit can be an open door for the spirit of infirmity? Luke 13:11 speaks of the woman who had a
spirit of infirmity for 18 years who was “bowed together and could in no wise
lift herself up.” Once the spirit of
infirmity takes hold we, like that woman, can no wise lift ourselves up.
When reading Matthew 10:1 one can discern the
relationship between unclean spirits and all manner of sickness and
disease. Which begs the question to be
asked, How are you spirit filled?
Create in me a clean heart, O
God; and renew a right spirit within me. (Psalm 51:10)
