"Go away in the name of Jesus!"

Part 1 of 3When our daughter was 2, she indicated scary things were in the room terrifying her.  While we were tempted to just write her reactions off as a normal but overactive imagination  - you know, the "there aren't really monsters under your bed or in your closet" thing, her reactions were so real. Sometimes we'd hold her trembling body, and she'd look in the corner of the room, squeal and look away. It was as if there really were something in the room. We shown a bright light in the corner to prove nothing was there, and she would just point and say, "It's right there!"I was frustrated and more than a little scared. I said, with anger, to the empty air, "Go away in the Name of Jesus!"She instantly calmed down. "It's gone."What just happened?Well, spirits just happened. There were demons in the area, and we had somehow invited them in to afflict her. But we didn't fully comprehend this at the time.She was still scared they'd return, so we would pray, and snuggle her till she fell asleep. Sometimes they'd come back at night and scare her, or sometimes she'd have nightmares... not the normal night terrors that growing children have sometimes, but actual night attacks.  We could even feel the dark presence in the room. She described dark shadows in there. And they always reacted and left at the name of Jesus and at our command.This begged the question... were we inviting them in? Was there a way to make them go away?  The answer was Yes, and Yes. But that was part of our journey.  In the meantime, when we said, "Go away in the name of Jesus" - and we taught her to say that when she saw something that scared her, it always worked.One of the next things we tried was a good, old fashioned Amityville Horror-style a House Cleansing.