Art Toombs Ministries 

Online Bible Commentary

Ever wondered why you can’t seem to overcome those bad habits that are running, and ruining, your life? You think you have them beat, and then they come back with a vengeance. Here is the solution.

 Luke 11:19 Now if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your followers drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. 

20 But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you…

24 “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.’ 

25 When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order.26 Then it goes and takes 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.” (NIV) 

Jesus speaks of an “impure spirit” in this passage. An “impure spirit” is a demon, doing the work of Satan. A demon is anything that has taken over your life. It is anything that keeps you from being all you can be. It is an idol, because you worship it above all else.

We all have one or more demons that, if allowed, will take over our lives. We hear stories of people whose careers and lives are ruined because they are unable to overcome their demons. Many people go to rehab and seem to be cured, only to relapse later. We may quit a bad habit for a time, but then it returns.

God, who made us, and knows us better than we know ourselves, gives us the solution to this problem through the words of Jesus. The principle is an easy one to understand. Anytime you push out the demon, the bad habit, there is a void left in that spot in your heart.

The habit had such a pull on you that you now have an empty space inside you that has to be filled by something. It is all too easy to return to the familiar to fill that hole in you. Thus, comes the relapse. 

This passage tells us “if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you”. The hole inside you can only be made by the “finger of God”, and then can only be filled by God.

Every person is created by God with a void that can only be filled by God. We get in trouble when we try to fill that void with anything else, such as relationships, drugs, money, power, wealth, or any other search for significance. Only through a daily walk with God can we truly fill that hole and end our search for significance.