1) Set boundaries in your house. Boundaries are a set of limits that indicate what is and what isn’t permitted. Some are set from a practical perspective, others for health reasons. Teenagers will often test these boundaries and challenge the authority they’ve lived under. This is when tough love is necessary to hold your line and not compromise. For example, we don’t allow smoking or alcohol in our house, and we don’t have any pay channels that allow pornography to come across the TV. You must agree upon and set the boundaries to prevent entrance of unwanted junk into your dwelling place.
2) Build an altar. By definition, an altar was a meeting place between God and man. In Scripture, altars were hot spots where people marked special visitations from angels and from the Almighty. At times of distress and need, they returned to the original place of visitation and presented offerings to God, requesting His intervention. Likewise, our homes should have a specific place set apart where we meet intimately with the Lord. Identify a peaceful place—a porch, office or bedroom—where you can close the door and enter into prayer.
3) Anoint your house. Anointing your house involves taking a small portion of olive oil, which represents the Holy Spirit’s anointing, and applying it with your finger to the posts of your door, both outside and inside the home. While the oil itself does not have any intrinsic value, in Scripture the act of anointing was seen as a consecration of a person or thing to God.
4) Mark your house. The Lord instructed the early Israelites to mark the gates of their homes with the Word of God. This would be difficult today and would certainly draw attention if we began painting Scripture on the outside of our homes. In Bible times a sacred object called a mezuzah (meaning “doorpost”) served as a reminder to those living in the home that the house had been dedicated to God and that those living therein were committed to walk in accordance with God’s Word. (For more on this, see my book Purging Your House, Pruning Your Family Tree.) Some people see the mezuzah as a charm designed to ward off evil spirits, but this is certainly not the original intent. The underlying point is to have a physical mark upon your house—a reminder of God’s covenant with your family and your dwelling place.
5) Purge the atmosphere with praise and worship. In the early days of our ministry, my wife and I often had trouble sleeping in hotel rooms when we would travel around the country to minister. This was unusual for us and was often accompanied by strange, disturbing dreams or bizarre experiences. I then heard about a well-known gospel singer who, upon arriving at his hotel room, would put in a praise and worship tape as he unpacked, turn up the volume and then head out to lunch or dinner. The praise and worship music filled the room while he was away. He called this purging the atmosphere. After hearing this, I decided to imitate his idea. I carried praise and worship cassettes and anointed messages from various ministers and played them from the time I awoke until the time of the service each evening. The music and messages literally changed the atmosphere where we stayed. In Scripture, David’s music brought refreshing and peace to a tormented king (1 Sam. 16:23). If music had this effect in David’s life and ministry, why would it not have the same effect today?
