This is the last excerpt from my new book,

THE TOV HEART: God's Design for a Life Rooted in What Matters Most

If you are intrigued, you can order it from Amazon here THE TOV HEART

Whether you get your own copy of the book or not, it is my hope and prayer that you will be blessed and challenged to look for more with God - Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit. No matter how much you think you have, there is always MORE! Godspeed!

“When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.” – Matthew 12:43–45

This passage has been very disruptive for me. It may be one of the most disruptive passages in the New Testament.

For years, I read this passage with a big question mark hanging over it. Why, if this person cleaned up their life, were the foul spirits so easily able to return and occupy the “house”? The house, of course, being the person’s heart.

Applying the measure of this verse to my own life, if I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior, repent of my sins, and stop doing bad things, isn’t that enough?

That’s the “Gospel” preached in most American churches; isn’t it? We are told to clean up our act, to clean house. And, yes, cleaning house is a great and necessary start, but so often we forget what the foul spirit found when it returned.

The house was empty. Unoccupied.

When a squatter looks for a house to live in, do they just barge into an occupied house and kick the owner and his family out? No, they find a house that is empty, unoccupied. Why? Because there’s no resistance.

“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”– James 4:7

“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” – Romans 8:6-11

“To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” – Colossians 1:27

If you are to keep the squatters from returning and destroying the house of your tov heart, it must be occupied. Jesus must dwell there for it to be safe.

Excerpt From THE TOV HEART: God's Design for a Life Rooted in What Matters Most

Copyright © 2025 Ray Schmidt