Have you ever heard of someone who was demonically possessed? Have you met someone who was? Some of us have. We don’t see it so much in America (though it’s becoming more prevalent), but in some parts of the world, it’s commonplace. We had a national leader from Southeast Asia in my missions class this past week to share a testimony. He shared firsthand accounts of demonic possession in his village. Jesus used reality of demon possession in his day to teach a parable about that generation, and what would happen if they weren’t converted inwardly.
Luke 11:24-26 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him 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.
But there’s a secondary application here. My dad called it the “principle of replacement.” The principle of replacement says that as I remove unwanted items from my life, there will be a void that I must intentionally fill. If I don’t fill that void on purpose, it will fill up with unwanted things again—sometimes worse.
The more the Lord works in our hearts, and the longer we walk with Him, the more He reveals things that we could remove from our lives. I remember, six or so years ago, when I realized I was too engulfed in listening to “conservative” talk radio. I almost wanted a reason to drive, so I could get my sound bits of Sean Hannity, Rush, Levin, Beck, and others. I downloaded the internet radio app on my phone so I could listen to them at home, and on the job site. While in the mountains one year, the Lord spoke to me about this, and it’s been years since I’ve listened to one of them. I also realized that I was into sports radio far too much. Besides the sheer amount of time I listened, I realized that these sports radio personalities were anti-Bible, anti-morals, and anti-who we were, and infused their sports analysis with their paradigm on “life.” So, I quit it about five years ago. I removed the Fox news app, so I wasn’t checking it every time I opened my home screen. And there have been other things.
However, here’s the problem. As I visited my phone, or sat in the driver’s seat of my car, or went to perform certain tasks on my laptop, I realized that there was a void. When driving to and from Huntington Beach every week, the car was quiet. When going onto my phone to open a certain app, I found myself staring at it and wondering what app to open instead. This is where this principle comes into play. What would I replace them with? To be fully honest, before I began to replace these things with things that I should, there were temptations to go back. In my car, there were temptations to turn on other things that didn’t need to be on. On my phone there were temptations to begin using other time wasters that I shouldn’t be wasting time on. And I’m certain if I had gone back, the “last would be worse than the first.” So, I did my best to apply this principle that my dad taught me—to fill this void with things that would feed my soul.
I installed the Kindle app with books on child rearing, missions, growth, and my walk with God, and biographies that feed my soul. On my phone I now have my dad’s preaching archive, inspiring clips and videos, and music that feeds my soul and draws me closer to the Lord. I’ve gotten good, inexpensive software that has served me and the purpose of my life very well. But I had to replace what I had before with something—and something better.
Many of those things above weren’t bad, but I knew the Lord wanted me to get them out of my life. As we serve Him and seek to please Him, there will be things that He will ask us to remove from our lives. Might we be willing to remove those things that should be removed. But secondly, let’s use wisdom to replace them with better things that conform us to the image of Christ, as well as that bring glory to Him and serve the purpose that He has for our lives.
This principle is important for those we work with too, as they give up music, habits, thoughts, and items—we must help them to replace them with good, godly things. If not, most likely, they’ll go back, and the latter will be worse. Let us remember the principle of replacement as the Lord does the work He wants to do in our lives!
