With a Subtitle: A biblical reflection on clutter, deliverance, and hidden doors in spiritual warfare

A brief Excerpt: Can hoarding and clutter become more than a practical or emotional issue? This reflection explores spiritual warfare, deliverance, and how hidden strongholds may keep people bound longer than we realize.

The Author is: Ogo Cathern

When Intercession Reveals a Hidden Stronghold

It was back in 2020 when I, my husband, and his mom were interceding daily for the salvation of his dad.

Unknown to us, what was keeping him bound was his habit of hoarding.

Demons dwelt in the clutter.

Why Hoarding Was More Than a Psychological Issue

How I came to know this; one afternoon as I walked into my bedroom, I heard the Spirit of the Lord minister to me that demons inhabit unkempt spaces. Naturally, I started asking, “Lord is this me? What clutter are you referring to?” and all the sorts, but then clarity came. He wasn’t referring to me — He was bringing insight to our petition so that deliverance can be completely carried out.

Insight is light, and this is how God teaches us to engage and win in spiritual warfare.

Before this revelation, I had always joined the majority that explains hoarding as psychological. Like in my father-in-law’s case, he grew up poor, so he worried about letting things go because he never knew when he would need them.

That was our estimation of the situation — but not from God’s perspective.

All the time we held that viewpoint, demons had found a resting place in his living space and kept him bound.

I remember sharing the revelation with my husband, and his response was, “No wonder they are referred to as unclean spirits.”

Gives me some more understanding as to why the demons chose pigs to be cast into:

“And the demons begged Him, saying, ‘If You cast us out, send us into the herd of swine.’” — Matthew 8:31

What Clutter Can Teach Us About Spiritual Warfare

I find that as Christians, one of the biggest lies of the devil we believe is the neutrality of circumstances. When in reality, there are only two realities — and every circumstance is powered by the divine or the demonic.

If it’s not of God, is it of the devil. Nothing is neutral.

The Lie That Circumstances Are Spiritually Neutral

Now that my eyes have become open to this truth, I can clearly see a pattern — when people dwell in the midst of physical clutter, it is more challenging for them to receive complete deliverance.

I welcome you to do an analysis yourself. If there’s someone you’ve been praying for, for a prolonged amount of time and there seems to be little or no change, pay attention to their environment. How is their living space?

I’m not saying it’s the only thing — I’m saying it’s one of the things you should look out for.

Why Environment Can Affect Deliverance

I have been mentoring a young lady for some years now, and nothing seemed to be changing. This woman is plagued by persistent confusion. We would counsel and pray, but her deliverance didn’t seem to last. One minute she’s fine; another, she’s back to rock bottom.

Until one day, she called me on a video call. I was so shocked at the clutter in her room. It was so full, she had nowhere to sleep. Her bed was covered with stuff, and she made space enough for her body in her closet — and that was where she slept.

When Physical Disorder Reflects Deeper Bondage

I explained to her how that clutter impacted her progress and admonished her to fix it.

All these years, we had barely been scratching the surface of her deliverance because the enemy had taken up physical space in her room.

She assured me she would take care of it. I believe her because I can already see improvement in her situation — there is more clarity and a greater willingness to be obedient to God.

As someone called to the deliverance ministry, I don’t play around. I have no time, nor do I have the desire to baby demons — and neither should you.

Stop giving demons access to you. Whenever you learn of a way Satan takes advantage of people, scan your life for similarities. If you find any, take away that legal ground so that you can incapacitate his operation in your life.

Then pray to God to lead you to a person or His gathering so that you can be prayed for and those demons cast out.

You don’t have to wait till you get an individualized prophecy — because you may never get it.

In this Kingdom, we operate as a body, receiving and giving to one another as God grants grace.

Another brethren’s testimony may be the key to your freedom.

In the times we are headed into, it is wise for us all to learn to be proactive.

How Demonic Strongholds Work Through Isolation

I recently heard a man of God talk about how demons work in networks. I’ve seen it in action but never thought of it as a network.

For instance, a demon of fear may come in, next it invites anger — because anger is not only stronger, it is also a repellent. One that Satan deploys if he wants to isolate a person from help. This is so that the very people called to intercede for that person will be put off and leave them be. But if the people praying persist, then he may send the spirit of addiction, creating an open door and a legal ground for those other spirits to operate unchallenged.

It’s a terrible thing indeed.

Why Open Doors Must Be Closed in Spiritual Warfare

As terrible as this sounds, I’m saying something as mundane as hoarding or clutter can give legal ground to demons to operate in your life unchallenged.

The story that comes to mind — illustrating how a host of demons can dwell in a person and how isolation is used to keep them bound — is that of the madman of the Gadarenes (Luke 8:27–32).

He was so tormented by a host of demons that he was driven out of society. No one could come near him — he was left by himself, because isolation is one of the enemy’s greatest weapons.

If he isolates you enough, he can destroy you. Even if you are a Christian, if you continue to forsake the assembly of the brethren, eventually you will run out of fire and become prey for the enemy.

These were the same symptoms I saw present in my father-in-law’s life. He isolated himself from church and, over time, became full of anger and unforgiveness.

This was a minister of the gospel — how can such a thing happen?

My short answer: demons were given access through open doors, and by their network they were able to keep him bound for years.

But for the mercy of God.

If there is a person to pray, there is always God to answer.

God’s Mercy in Breaking Bondage and Restoring Lives

The Lord also shared that when we see my father-in-law begin to release hoarding, it’s a sign that the answer to our prayer is manifesting.

Although it took a drastic circumstance to get rid of what had been hoarding for over 40 years — the Altadena fires — it was still God’s way of de-housing those demons.

And the effect? My father-in-law could see and hear again.

How Deliverance Opened the Way for Healing and Reconciliation

That incident made room for him to accept the mercy of God.

After the fires, God gave him a front-row seat to witness how He was showing up for them. He settled them in ways none of us could have imagined.

God didn’t only restore the home and properties — He also restored broken relationships.

My father-in-law had a quarrel with one of his sons for over 10 years. Everything had been tried to reconcile them, but he wouldn’t welcome him back.

But after the fire took everything he owned, God in His wisdom positioned that same son to be a source of help.

To show how much God worked in that relationship — he went to that son’s home and spent a week with him and his wife.

What a testimony.

Today, I can truly say my father-in-law has changed. He is more willing to forgive, and his eyes are now turned back to God. And the hoarding — I believe God has worked on that too.

Glory and praise be to the Lord Almighty.