How To Anoint Your Home & Spiritually Clean House - Danita Jenae

Our first military move was a divine disaster! The first home we moved into had sick house syndrome and black mold, which set off a long series of unfortunate events. I had severe postpartum depression, a colicky newborn, and we didn’t know a soul in town. We lived in seven different houses in six months’ time. Seven houses! And we moved all our household goods four times.

After all the upheaval, we landed in an exquisitely beautiful home. One worth the hard road getting there. You can imagine our incredible relief to finally settle in!

However, there was some type of spiritual unrest in that place that I can’t even describe. That’s when Ms. Jane offered to come over and anoint our home with us. We didn’t know what exactly that meant, but we also didn’t know what else to do! So we said yes, please, and thank you.

Early one morning, Ms. Jane, Dan and I took oil and put it on every window and every door. We prayed through each room accordingly. In the kitchen, Ms. Jane prayed for the meals we’d prepare. In the dining room, she prayed over the people who would join us for dinner and blessed the conversations we would have. In the bedrooms, we anointed the beds and asked for deep rest and sleep. We also anointed the fence posts and the perimeter of the land. We committed the whole property to the Lord.

The mystery is that it worked. The house seemed to fall back into peace. That home became a place of great flourishing, and everyone who came to visit marveled at God’s presence in that place.

After that, my husband and I decided we would anoint all our future homes first thing, before ever moving in a single box!

I recently asked Ms. Jane where we get the idea of anointing our homes from Scripture. She told me about the Passover, how they covered the doorposts in the Blood of the Lamb and how the angel of death passed over those anointed homes. She also told me about when they set up the tabernacle: “Take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and everything in it; consecrate it and all its furnishings, and it will be holy,” (Exodus 40:9, NIV).

We work hard to keep our homes in order and to keep food on the table. We want our homes to be places of peace, so we declutter and we decorate. But truly, it’s the spiritual atmosphere in the home that our family and our guests notice first. When you walk into a home full of joy and serenity, you feel it. And sometimes, it can even be a very messy room with laundry on the sofa and toys on the floor. And yet, there’s peace. Other times, you can walk into a beautiful, tidy living room and yet, you feel it. You feel the discomfort, the possible hostility, or even resentment hanging out in those walls.

This is called discernment. It’s when you can sense something in the spiritual that has nothing to do with what you see in the natural. It’s like this. Even though I can’t see the raw chicken juice on the counter, I discern that I should probably clean the counter. As much as I regularly clean the dishes, less frequently the toilets, and seldom deep clean that fridge, I’m learning to also routinely sweep through my house with prayer.

Here are some of my favorite scriptures you can pray over your home:

1.) Anoint the front door and pray that all who enter your home will “go out in joy and be led forth in peace,” (Isaiah 55:12, NIV).

2.) Walk through the entryway and shared spaces. Lord, we set this house apart for your glory. May your name be honored here forever. Watch over our home and protect it. Just like the words you said to Solomon: “…I have set this Temple apart to be holy—this place you have built where my name will be honored forever. I will always watch over it, for it is dear to my heart,” (1 Kings 9:3, GNT).

3.) Ask for angels to come and guard every window and every door as you anoint them. “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;” (Psalm 91:11, NIV).

4.) Invite the Lord into the conversations around your table and the living room. “May our conversations be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone,” (Colossians 4:6, NIV). May the words we speak in this place be life-giving and encouraging.

5.) Pray that your family and guests will be made “joyful in your house of prayer… My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations,” (Isaiah 56:7, NIV).

6.) Bless the beds and bedrooms. Even as we dream, show us more of your great love for us, “for He gives sleep to His beloved,” (Psalm 127:2, BSB).

7.) Lord, show us how to use this home to serve you and those around us. “As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD,” (Joshua 24:15, NIV).

Thankfully, anyone can do this. Just a woman with some oil, a prayer, and some faith in a very able God. This Spring, may His peace fill your home like the fresh breeze.