How Can a
Christian Have a Demon?
By Donna Varno
If you were walking down
the street and a person approached you that was clearly manifesting a demon,
what would be more important, making sure that individual knew Jesus as their
personal Lord and Savior or casting the demon out? Of course, making sure that person is saved is most
important. If you cast the demon out of
that person and their name was not written in the Lamb's Book of Life, what
good would you have done if that person was free from oppression but still
eternally lost? Now, say you led that
person in a prayer of accepting Jesus into their heart first, is the demon
automatically cast out? No. But now that person is a Christian. If leading a person through a prayer cast
out demons, that would be all we would ever have to do and we would all be
automatically free from all oppression.
But that is not the case. Jesus
commanded us in His word to CAST out demons, not pray them out. In order to
understand how a Christian can have a
demon we must look at the Word for our answer.
What are we?
Man is a spirit. That’s
whom we really are, the part that will someday leave this flesh body.
We have a soul. That’s
our mind, our will and emotions.
We live in a body. (1
Thessalonians 5:23)
Once a person becomes
“reborn” in Christ, their spirit is “sealed” and belongs to God. (I Corinthians 1:22) But our soul can
still be afflicted. James 4:7
says that we are to resist the devil and he must flee from us. If a Christian couldn't be oppressed, why
would we be instructed to resist the devil?
When you became a
Christian, did all of your addictions, sinful ways and attitudes automatically
leave you? No because we are to be transformed
by the renewing of our minds (or souls) to the Word. (Romans 12:2)
But Christians do sin
according to John 1:8-9. We can also be
prompted by demonic influence to sin with the words of our mouth as Peter did
in Matthew 16:23. Jesus said to
Peter, “Get thee behind me Satan” proving that what Peter had said to Jesus was
clearly influenced by Satan.
Christians can be
prompted to sin by their actions as Ananias and Sapphira did in Acts Chapter
5:3. Lets look at verse 3, "
But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the
Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Peter knew that this could happen to a believer
because it had happened to him.
When a person is set free
from any torment of the devil, that is considered a healing. Acts 10: 38 says, “
how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, who went
about doing good and healing all who were oppressed
of the devil.”
In Luke 13:10-13
we see how a "daughter of Abraham" which was a follower of the Law in
those days was bound with a spirit of infirmity.
And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the
sabbath. 11And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of
infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift
up herself. 12And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him,
and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. 13And
he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and
glorified God. [1]
This passage of scripture goes on to explain what had actually happened to her in verse 16.
"And ought not this woman, being a daughter of
Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from
this bond on the sabbath day?"[2]
As a daughter of Abraham, this woman was a believer in that day.
In light of these scriptures can we say, ”The devil made me do it" and excuse our lack of self-control? No, sanctification is an ongoing process. We are to crucify our flesh. (Galatians 5: 24) We are to walk in the spirit so we do not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. (Galatians 5:16)
If becoming a Christian got rid of all the
demonic oppression, then we would never have to “cast out a demon” at all. We could just convert people to
Christianity. Jesus said very clearly
in Mark16: 17, “And these signs will follow those who believe: In
my Name, they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues…” Who
will cast out the demons? Jesus’
believers. Out of who shall we cast
demons? Out of other believers. If you were to cast our a demon out of an
unbeliever you would be doing that person a grave injustice. Why? Because they do not have access to the
infilling of the Holy Spirit. In
Matthew 12:44-45 Jesus taught that when an evil spirit is cast out, it
will say, “I will return to my house.”
And having it been swept clean it will bring with it 7 more". If you cast a demon out of an unbeliever,
that person now has 8 demons because there was no authority of Jesus or
protection of the Holy Spirit in their life to protect them and now they far
worse!
The word "possessed" is not in the
original Greek text. The actual word is "demonized". A demon cannot
own a spirit. But it can attach itself to areas of the soulish realm through
unconfessed sin, such as unforgiveness, is or in deep wounding from our past.
Until we enforce the victory we have in Jesus, areas of our life can
remain hidden to us thereby giving the enemy a stronghold to us. (2 Corinthians
10:4) These strongholds are brought down through obedience to God's word and
the breaking of generational curses.
Every born again child of God needs to have some form of deliverance
from the enemy. We all have ancestors that did something that could have put a
curse on us. Jesus paid for our total freedom at the cross; why not take
advantage of this precious gift Jesus purchased for us.