I was recently reading in the Gospel of Luke, when I came across an interesting passage.  Jesus is explaining to a crowd that his power to cast out evil spirits comes not from the devil, but from God.    Then he tells the following story:

“When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, it walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, it saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out.  And when it cometh, it findeth the house swept and garnished. Then goeth the evil spirit, and taketh seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first” (Luke 11:24-26, JST).

At first I was confused, thinking that the man from whom the unclean spirit went out cleaned his house and the evil spirit needed some help getting back in.  After some pondering, I realized that the house that is mentioned is the man.  The unclean spirit returned to his home (the man) and found it garnished, or prepared for him, so he went and got some friends to join the party.

How does this effect us in our lives?  Each of us, at some point, will encounter severe temptations and perhaps we will even fall prey to them.  We may have desires or habits that are sinful.  This is like the unclean spirit in the man.  Just like Christ and his disciples cast out devils during their mortal ministries, we can pray to our Heavenly Father for help, that He will cast those desires out of us, and He will respond.  The man in the story, after the evil spirit left his body, did not change his life in such a way to prevent that spirit from returning.  In fact, he continued in his sinful habits so that his life would be prepared for the evil spirit’s return.  When the spirit returned, the man’s situation was “worse than the first.”  When the Lord gives us the great gift of His Atonement and we use it to be cleansed of sin, our spirits are clean, all the unclean spirits are cast out; however, we must clean house, we must change our lives so that we do not return to our sins.  We must stand in holy places and, in effect, put out the “unwelcome” mat for those evil spirits that want to enter our lives.  If we do this, and keep our houses clean–make choices that keep our bodies clean and our minds pure–then will we be free of these habits and desires and free to welcome the Holy Spirit into our lives.