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In Matthew 12:43-45 (NIV), Jesus says this:

43″When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. 44Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. 45Then 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 man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”

Upon reading this, the first thought that came into my mind was “Doom is upon me…I am doomed to contain my demons forever. How can I ever be free of them if they’re just going to come back in greater numbers?” I wonder how many others also have this thought going through their mind.

However, upon speaking with my dad he offered a piece of optimistic insight. It goes something like this: in order for your demons to leave/get kicked out, you must be at a certain level of faith and assurance in God. Now, while you are building up in faith, your demons are roaming around. When you are finally at the pinnacle of your faith again, the demon returns with a new gang of other demons, be it increased addictions or what have you, as an attempt to bring you back down.

And so this is how I’ve always seen my walk as: a semi-constant roller-coaster increasing and decreasing in faith — this is something some strong fundamentalist Christians would shun. I believe their argument would be something along the lines of, “Faith should always be increasing, if not constant. You should never be losing or decreasing your faith in God.” But don’t all of us have valleys of dryness, trials and death?