Casting Demons From Believers

The young lady now asks about demons possessing Christians….

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You can hear a lot of Christians talking about Satan and demons and how their lives are complicated by them.  Well, actually, Satan and demons are a whole lot less active with Christians than some may think.  They get quite a bit of credit for just everyday occurrences of our living in a broken world – and the consequences of our own sinful lives.

Possession insinuates the person being controlled by a demon with has no power to resist them.  As a Christian, no matter how bad off you are, you have the Holy Spirit in your life and we are told it will never leave us – at least not until the end of the age anyway.  Some would argue the Holy Spirit was only promised to the Church and not the individual Christian, in which case gifts, fruits and the ability to know God’s leading would be a whole lot rarer than they are……..  In any event, if you have the Holy Spirit in you, it is not even reasonable to assume Satan can take you over.  (Though you have to wonder sometimes about some ‘Christians’ you will encounter!)

So if you find a Christian whom you believe to be controlled by a demon, well, guess what?  They probably are not a Christian.  Yes pretty hard and fast statement. 

Do you have the power or authority to cast out demons?  Only by God’s authority.  There are no magic rites, no magic words, no 18 hours of exorcism, just the command for the demon to be gone.  But, we are warned that the person must then repent and believe on Jesus to be permanently saved from a more horrible possession to occur later.

Most the bunk you will encounter concerning demons is from the made for Hollywood crowd of ‘Christians’.  One of the better known names in today’s demonic hysteria crowd of Christendom was a personal friend for many years and I heavily supported his ministry.  But he starting making some mighty odd decisions and calling it God’s will.  Today, I no longer see he has a ministry which serves God, only his own vanity and desires.

Can a Christian be under the control of an evil spirit? No, but I say this with caution.  If a Christian plays Satan’s game, they could well end up with spiritual problems.  The best case I know of is my dear ‘sister’ whom in spite of solid Biblical knowledge was involved in transcendental meditation and astral projection.  She saw this as a tool to battle demons all over the world (something we are not called to do!  We are told to flee from evil!).  Only problem was, she lost her mind during one of her ‘sessions’.  Oh sure, she was been exorcised dozens of times (phooey!) and been taken to many doctors.  Yes, she is a Christian.  But, her mind has never returned.  Whatever her spiritual damage, we are clueless as to what can be done to return the sister we used to know and love.

So, she is not exactly possessed but has been surely compromised.  One day we will understand……