House of Darkness…House of Familiar

fa·mil·iar

Wow! Those are some good definitions. Let’s go deeper.

Not too long ago my sister gave me a great word that sparked an incredible teaching moment by the Holy Spirit. I was having one of my, as I would call it, falling down moments. You know them, you have them too. She said, that God said, tell her “stop throwing a tantrum”. Wow. Just slap me already. I was hit straight between the eyes with a dose of truth. Now, I had been in my “moment” which she and a few others had seen many times. But this day, those words, God used to teach me about that place I have visited literally hundreds of times. Don’t be shocked, so have you.

My house of darkness and familiar         

As we hung up, I began to get a visual picture of where I was at that very moment. I was back in dark room, dark hole, dark place of pain. Holy Spirit began to teach me about this room. He began to show me what it really was and when I could see it for what it really was I didn’t want to go there anymore. It was not the comforting place or safe place I made it out to be. It was, however, a room that I knew well. So do some of you. We know the dimensions of the room. I knew that. In this pitch black room in my soul, He said “you know it like a real room in your house.” I do know that very well. I know where every piece of furniture is set and what’s on them. . I knew the exact place the lamp was, my watch, the perfume bottles. I knew how many steps it would take to get to the bathroom and the closet. I knew the exact height of the light switch on the wall. I could move around this room in the middle of the night and not stumble into anything. Get the picture.  I knew this room. But I knew the dark room too.

See when you visit a place SOOOOO many times, you get very familiar with it. Like your favorite restaurant or vacation place.  But the only thing about the dark room, it doesn’t give you the reward you really wanted.

What’s your room made of?

In this room, you expend a lot of energy in your tantrum. It drains you. It suck the life out of you. That situation or circumstance that keeps you triggered and sets you off…steals your real life. Your so familiar with the next crises in your marriage, your friendships, your family, your job, your finances, that you already know how your going to respond. Your already have the script memorized.  If he says this…I’m gonna say that. If she does this…I’m gonna do that. If no money comes….we are going to do this. If he doesn’t go to work today….I’m doing this. If she doesn’t change her ways…I’m divorcing. If he lies to me one more time and drinks, chases women, sleeps out all night…I’m putting him on ignore. I’m not serving him, I’m not meeting a need. I refuse to love a person that won’t love me back. Get the picture.

You expend all that energy in your default response. The demons in your dark room already know what your going to do so they don’t have to work hard to keep you trapped there. You don’t do warfare. See your very familiar with the house you built there. Its comfortable. You know how to react in your flesh. Its easier than doing anything God’s way. And surely easier than doing what God says for an extended period of time. So the vicious cycle continues. Except….

When you go on a vacation lets say or a restaurant and the service or what you expected to get from your hard earned, planned out trip is not up to your standard, what do you do? You eat there and you get food poisoning, what do you do? The hotel room is never cleaned. What do you do? The pool is dirty. What do you do? You spend what is rightfully yours (your money and time) to this place that is supposed to give you “pleasure” but instead you feel robbed. In your dark room, you give up what God rightfully gave you thru His son Jesus, love, peace, joy, gifts and now you feel cheated. What do you do?

Decision time!

Well, in the natural realm, we usually never go back! Get it? You tell everyone (make a confession) don’t eat there! Don’t go there! We ate there and got sick. The service is horrible. Worst vacation we ever had. And then, you make a vow. What vow? You vow…”we are never going there again, even if it was free”. You tell everyone you know, “don’t go there”.  Get it? Even if someone gave you free coupons to the place that gave you the worst meal, you wouldn’t go. You would throw the coupons out dare you risk another bout of stomach pain and bathroom trips. Even if your friends and family said, “let’s go” you would refuse. You never take a bad vacation twice.

So, why do you visit or keep visiting your dark room I ask? Because it is familiar. Your well acquainted with. Its informal easy going. You can lived unconstrained there. You’ve gotten intimate with the place of darkness. You can take liberties there. And you stay there for long periods of time. Get it?

But what does God do when we throw our familiar tantrum? I think He does what any normal thinking loving parent does that doesn’t tolerate tantrums, especially in public. We ignore the child. We let them have it out until they are rational. Now God doesn’t really ignore you, but I think He does stand back and watch us have your fit. He says in…

Hebrews 13:5 – ….for He God Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor  give you up nor leave you without support. I will not, I will not, I will not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let you down relax My hold on you! Assuredly not!

So God never leaves you while your in the dark room. But He doesn’t want you to stay there. You know you have been to your favorite restaurant so many times that you know the waiter by name, you know the speech they give when they come to the table, you know the flatware and if they got new drink glasses. That is familiar. Same with  your dark place.

Everything is a choice!

So how do you not visit there? I think the same way in the natural. We choose where we go and not go. You must choose not to go into the room that pays you nothing. The place where you get nothing for your time and money.  Choose to not go to the place that the demons know you are familiar with. Instead, give those low level defeated spirits the boot.  The next time a situation comes up that you know sends you to that place in your mind and you “choose” to go to the same dark room. Don’t! Remember this post. Make a mental picture. RUN!!!!  Praise God instead. Dance. Sing. Laugh. Quote the Word. Do anything that you don’t normally do. Do what they don’t expect.  Don’t even put your hand on the doorknob to that room. Do warfare on the outside of that room and see the darkness flee. Never take that bad vacation again. Stay out of that room. Don’t give up, what is rightfully yours from God.