In 11:24 to 26 the Lord says, “When the unclean spirit goes out from the man, he passes through waterless places seeking rest; and not finding any, he says, I will return to my house, from which I came out; and when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes along other spirits more evil than himself, seven of them, and he enters and makes his home there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.” We need to understand the spiritual significance of this word. The significance here is that after we have been cleansed from the possession of the demons, we may still be empty, not filled with the life supply of the Spirit. In other words, inwardly we are not occupied by God and with God.
If we consider these verses in the context of the entire chapter, we shall see that we need to be those who are always praying to be brought into God and who then remain in Him to receive the riches of the Holy Spirit. When we are filled with these riches, there will be no room in us for anything else to come in. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, who brings us the riches of the Triune God, there will be no space in us for anything else to enter in and occupy us.
Furthermore, if we pray ourselves into God and remain in Him to be filled with the riches of the Holy Spirit, we shall be those who are altogether in the light (11:33-36). We shall be persons full of light. We shall have light within us and around us.
This is the understanding of these verses that is according to our spiritual experience. Apart from this understanding, we shall not know why the various sections in chapter eleven are put together. From our experience we know that when we remain in God to receive the riches of the Spirit’s supply, we leave no room in us for demons or for darkness. We are fully in the light. Therefore, we are filled with the riches of the Spirit and with light.
Luke 11:33 says, “No one having lit a lamp puts it in a secret place, nor under the bushel, but on the lampstand, in order that those who are entering in may see the light.” In His ministry the Man-Savior brings light to us. Hence, such a ministry issues in the believers as luminaries (Phil. 2:15) and the churches as lampstands (Rev. 1:20), shining in this dark age as His testimony, and consummating in the New Jerusalem with the outstanding characteristics of life and light (Rev. 22:1-2; 21:11, 23, 24).
A “bushel” is a grain measure. A lighted lamp placed under the bushel cannot shine out its light. The believers as a lighted lamp should not be covered by the bushel, an item pertaining to eating, which causes anxiety (Matt. 6:25).
In 11:34-36 the Lord continues, “The lamp of the body is your eye. When your eye is single, your whole body is illuminated; but when it is evil, your body also is dark. Watch out therefore, that the light which is in you be not darkness. If therefore your whole body is illuminated, not having any part dark, the whole shall be illuminated as when the lamp with its bright shining illuminates you.” The Greek rendered “illuminated” in verse 34 may also be translated “full of light” or “bright.” Here the Lord is saying that when our eye is single, our whole body will be full of light.
Our eyes can focus on only one thing at a time. If we try to see two things at once, our sight will be blurred. If we focus our eyes on one thing, our sight will be single, and our whole body will be illuminated.
In verse 35 the Lord speaks about “the light which is in you.” The light in us, which the eye illuminates (v. 34), is the light in our heart, which should be kept pure for God (Matt. 5:8).