6 Ways to change your home’s spiritual atmosphere

I couldn’t figure it out. The boys were behaving highly disrespectful. The amount of high pitched shouting, screaming and talking that I have come to expect as normal when you have three boys in your home seemed to be extreme. Something was off. My husband was not in a great place either.

Technology was failing again. What was going on? The more I looked at the situation, the more I could discern in my spirit that this was not a normal phenomenon in a family of five. I was being confronted with a spiritual atmosphere that needed shifting. The more I prayed about it, the more God seem to be laying on my heart the confirmation that the enemy was having a good ol’ party in my home.

Not on this momma’s watch!

What is a spiritual atmosphere?

Atmosphere is another way of describing the mood or tone of a physical place. Have you ever been into a shop and thought this shop is odd. Something about it is just off? Or maybe you’ve watched a movie that has had you sitting on the edge of your seat with anticipation and suspense. This is another example of an atmosphere.

Similarly, we carry a spiritual atmosphere as do our homes, suburbs, cities, churches, etc. Spiritual atmospheres can be both godly and ungodly. The spiritual atmosphere in your home can be affected by things that are happening in your life right now, in the past, or both.

1 Identify the spiritual atmosphere

One of the first things I do to shift the atmosphere in my home is to ask God is this something in me that you want to work with? or is this external?

How do you know if its internal? Simple, the emotions you are experiencing will not really go away. The situations that trigger those specific emotions will continue to do so until the wound or hurt that you are carrying has been healed by the Lord.

If it is external the moment you are away from that person, suburb, company, etc., it will lift off you almost immediately.

2 Agree with God in prayer

Knowing what God has for me and my family, what his perspective is, and the inheritance he has for us helps me to stop agreeing with all these things. The more I partner with chaos, tension, anger, stress, frustration, etc, the more I allow it to rule in my home. I partner with these atmospheres by agreeing with them (believing they are true, behaving in the same way).

As a child of God, neither you nor I have to live under these atmospheres. It is not God’s heart for us to be subjected to these things. The enemy is sneaky. He wants to get us partnering with him because that is the only way he has legal access to our lives.

Part of shifting the atmospheres in our homes is to agree with God. We do this by acknowledging what is happening in our homes. I see you stress, and I will not partner with you. Father where I have partnered with stress whether knowingly or unknowingly, I ask for your forgiveness. I step into your rest and peace. Father I know that you are with us. I trust you as my good daddy. Thank you that you are working on our behalf. Thank you that you have plans to prosper us, to give us a hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11

Then I actively begin to practice rest and peace. I take a deep breath and calm myself. Leaning into the Lord, I allow the Holy Spirit to strengthen me. If I need to, I take a few minutes to be by myself as I compose myself through prayer with the Lord.

3 Worship and Praise

I love the presence of God because nothing that is contrary to God can remain in His presence. It has to leave. If you think of how a light gets rid of darkness and shadows. It’s the same with God. He is the light and the negative spiritual atmospheres are the darkness. Bring God in (the light) and voila, darkness (negative spiritual atmosphere) leaves.

Worship and praise is one of my personal favorite ways to shift the atmosphere in my home. I want to cultivate a spiritual atmosphere in my home that is thick with the presence of God. Sometimes I use praise and worship to also help me shift my focus off what is going wrong and back onto God.

As I do this, I gain a clearer perspective. The weight lifts off and joy springs up. Faith rises while the presence of God falls and I am besotted with him.

4 Thanksgiving

Another way I shift spiritual atmospheres is when I thank God for what he has done. More importantly, I thank him for what he is going to do.

Thanking God for what he is going to do can be more challenging. It requires faith to thank God for future breakthrough. Honestly, I think that this is a deeper level of thanksgiving.

I like to do both. For some people, it may be easier to thank God for what they already have before thanking him for what is coming. It doesn’t matter since a thankful heart is a beautiful heart to God.

5 Anoint your home

It was only a couple of years ago that I started anointing my home. I don’t do it often. I do my best to anoint my home when God prompts me to do so; otherwise, I am being religious (not what I want to be).

Anointing your home is a prophetic act of declaring that your home is consecrated and set apart for God. Oil is used to anoint your home. It can be any oil. I like to use lavender oil or my anointing oil a friend gave me this year as a birthday present. However, olive oil or general oil will do.

Some people only anoint the door frames and posts of their homes. Personally, I anoint the walls, the doors, the door frames, the window frames, the beds, the sofas, the computers. Yeah, almost anything. I follow the Lord with this one. As I anoint my home, I will continue to pray (with worship playing) what God is showing me. I will speak his heart into my home and over my family.

I find this a fun, joyful exercise. When I’m done, it leaves a deep satisfaction and sense of accomplishment in my spirit. My encouragement to you is to follow the promptings of the Lord.

6 Extend grace and understanding

Ah grace. I don’t know about you but being gracious to my kids when they are fighting and screaming at each other is not an easy task. Being gracious to my hubby when he is grumpy after a hard day, not always my finest moment. Yeah, grace.

The reality is, being grumpy or frustrated with the family will only make matters worse. Grace and understanding are like fresh water on a hot day.

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Proverbs 15:1

Gentleness, grace and understanding are part of the culture of heaven. Extending these towards your family will pull heaven into your home; thus, you’ll honor your family, God, and yourself. What an incredible example of love to your family!

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