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Can a Christian have a demon?

Aussie Pete

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The ignorance, timidity and fear of man that binds the modern church leaves many Christians unnecessarily bound by demons. Why do you think Jesus cast them out of people. God was in their midst, but the demons did not just run away.
Acts 5:16
Crowds also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those tormented by unclean spirits, and all of them were healed.…

Mark 16:15-18
15And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17And these signs will accompany those who believe: In My name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18they will pick up snakes with their hands, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not harm them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will be made well.”

Did you look at the video? Unless you are spiritually blind, you will have seen Christians under the control of demons. Ignorance is not bliss. It is dangerous.

Demons do not automatically leave a believer when that person gets born again. They have to be driven out. When I was first saved, deliverance used to be a part of church life where I was going. That fizzled out and the church was much the worse for it. 20 years later, Howard-Browne and Copeland launched the so-called Toronto Blessing, as you see in the video. I had left my old church by then. They and many others fell for the TB deception hook, line and sinker. God's people are still destroyed by their lack of knowledge.
 
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Aussie Pete

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Define "have a demon".
Having a demon means that it resides in the person, in their soul, and has an influence over their thoughts and consequent behaviour. They can stimulate the flesh also. It may take the form of an addiction, contrary to the person's will. The mind is open to demons and evil spirits. They attempt to plant suggestions in the mind contrary to God's word. (2 Corinthians 10:5) A friend of mine was having a hard time. One evening she shouted at me and said that she was going to jump in front of a car. She immediately said that it was not her intention at all. A demon had tried to get her to kill herself. She's no fool spiritually and immediately took steps to deal with the issue.

If she had accepted the thought, she may well have unwittingly invited the demon to occupy her soul. I suffered suicidal thoughts for years after I was saved. I had those thoughts before I was saved. It did not stop just because I was born again.
 
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Aussie Pete

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Absolutely. "War on the Saints" is the most comprehensive book I've read on the subject. If you can get a copy of the original, unabridged version, it's even better. Watchman Nee draws heavily on WOTS and he wrote an excellent section in "The Spiritual Man".
 
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topher694

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I'm as familiar with as anyone on how the demonic and deliverance works. I'm just curious how Blade defines his term, "have a demon". He was pretty strong in his assertions but vague on content.
 
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Aussie Pete

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Well you are wrong. Being filled with the Spirit is not automatic either. Christians can grieve and quench the Holy Spirit. Why do you think we are exhorted not to get drunk but instead be filled with the Spirit? It's because we need to be filled afresh. My scholarly friend told me that literally it says "Be being filled" - a continual process, not a one off event. Jesus is Lord and dwells in every believer. But He is not Lord in experience for many, who are a law to themselves. It's a choice that every Christian must make for themselves.
 
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Aussie Pete

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Your misunderstanding does not take into account what happens when people are born again. Demons do not leave just because a person in saved. They must be driven out. And that is the definition of the Kingdom of God, the gospel that Christians are supposed to preach. Did you watch the video? What is your conclusion? That none of the people involved were saved to begin with? That's a tough call to make without knowing the people and hearing their confession of faith.

Paul addresses spiritual warfare in 2 Corinthians 10 also. He declared these things because not everyone was doing them. Christians can be taken captive by demons, or be captive before they are saved and never be set free. Ignorance is not bliss. It is dangerous.
 
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RDKirk

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The Christian "house" will not be empty, however. The Holy Spirit abides within it.
 
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ozso

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I wasn't offering my understanding. I offered the main consensus views. Yes I watched the video, but it's nothing new to me. I've been aware of this sort of thing for a long time. Hank Hannagraff has addressed it pretty thoroughly. Like you say, it's a tough call to make as to the state of those involved. Perhaps for the general audience it's a matter of spiritual immaturity or they're not true Christians and are just hoping to cash in on the prosperity movement. For the ones putting on the show, perhaps they're just hucksters.

Matthew 7 comes to my mind regarding some of them.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ Matthew 7:21-23

Do I think Kenneth Copland is demon possessed?



Well....
 
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ozso

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Do you think you're demon possessed or will become demon possessed?
 
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NBB

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Really this argument that true christians can't have evil spirits in them is just making so the enemy has an advantage, or worse people are calling children of God that they are not christian because they think they have spiritual issues, look, OCD that so many post in here about, specially intrusive thoughts, i had them for years, God showed me this entity and i just drove it off with Jesus name, never had those hammering intrusive thoughts again. Please drop this silly argument, it appears nice and true somewhat that christians can't have evil spirits but is not true at all. Why do you think deliverance exists, is to deliver christians... unbelievers don't believe demons exist in the first place, or is useless to drive them off of them, since without God the devil has advantage over them.
 
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Aussie Pete

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Do you think you're demon possessed or will become demon possessed?
When I came to Christ, I had many problems. I was raised mostly by my mother because my father's work kept him away from home a lot. My mother was, like a lot of the English, steeped in the occult. I had an occult spirit from my earliest days of life. It is a miracle that I lived beyond my infant days.

I also had a lust spirit, probably because I joined the armed forces at the age of 16. I suffered severe depression after I graduated from training, which was about 4 years after I signed up. I'd been a heavy drinker since I joined, which was normal for most of us. I was sick and I was suicidal. It was just as well that I was born again because I was drinking myself into the grave.

I had spirits of fear, rebellion and pride. I also had stubbornness. I did not know any of this until I met someone who knew about such things. I spent a whole day with a married couple who ministered deliverance. I came away from them feeling like a million dollars! Even the natural colours seemed brighter.

It is possible for a Christian to let down their guard and become demonised again. People have the wrong idea what it means to be possessed. From time to time I can see that I've allowed a demon to attach itself to me. If I get careless or stop resisting the devil, I can have problems. I'm more conscious of the potential these days. I won't say I have been possessed. However, I've still needed to drive a demon out of my life.

We are in a war and it is possible to become a captive if we fail to deal with the enemy of our souls. The best defence is attack. Resist the devil and he will flee. However, it truly is not automatic.
 
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Hazelelponi

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Your experience in your younger days all describes an unsaved state.

The experience of seeing natural color again and everything being brighter is often described similarly by Muslims after coming to Christ. One Iranian woman in particular said she never knew the sky was blue because she'd only ever seen it as grey ..

But all you said describes either your unsaved state or state after you were saved.

After that, you're describing temptations and trials. That's not possession. Even Jesus faced temptations. We can fall prey to temptation if we let our guard down, but it's not the same as needing to cast out demons from our bodies.

If we are filled with the Holy Spirit demons cannot exist within our body, this house belongs to the Lord alone.
 
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NBB

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And with that argument you are stating than any christian that had mental issues with spiritual problems are not christians, "congratulations"?. Or that any spiritual problem gets resolved in a instant when you believe, another imagination that is not real.
 
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Aussie Pete

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You are deceived. Demons do not leave just because a person gets born again. The Holy Spirit dwells in the born again spirit. Demons inhabit the soul. I wish you were right, it would save Christians a whole lot of grief. Wishing does not make it true.

If demons could not stay in the presence of God, they would have fled as soon as Lord Jesus came into their presence. For sure they knew who He was, as the account of the man possessed by legion proves. Deliverance from demons is no big deal. Christians have authority and power to drive them out. But it is not automatic.
 
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Aussie Pete

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Thanks for the backup.
 
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Aussie Pete

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I came across Kenneth Copeland early in my Christian life. He was already hooked on the prosperity bandwagon. I listened to some of his early preaching. Some of it was good, but much of it was focused on prosperity/healing. I stopped listening to him.

I was stunned when I saw the video ( I once had a copy of the whole meeting. I lent it to someone, it did the rounds and I never got it back). I can't even look at him now.
 
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ozso

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People do all kinds of crazy stuff during the "slain in the spirit" routine. I'd say at the very least there's demonic influence involved.

 
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ozso

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When I think of demon possession I think of the stories I've heard from those who have been present when a demon was actually cast out of someone. I've never seen it myself. While I don't think I can actually be possessed in that manner. I do know I can be swayed by demonic influence if I become complacent.

There is the passage that goes: "Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” 23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns." Matthew 16:22-23
 
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Hazelelponi

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Question: There are numerous passages in Scripture that refer to a person's heart, soul, spirit, and/or mind. Are these four things the same? - Wheat Ridge Lutheran Church, Wheat Ridge, Colorado

Answer:

There are two ideas of thought on this question: dichotomy and trichotomy. Dichotomists say that man consists of body and soul/spirit, while trichotomists say that man is made up of three separate entities: body, soul and spirit. It seems the difference lies in the definition of the immaterial part of a person, whether there is any difference between the soul and spirit.

Man first appears in the Bible in Genesis 1:26 where God contemplates the creation of man, after which God forms man from the dust of the ground and breathes the “breath of life” into him. Only two aspects of man are described there, the physical body and the breath, there is no reference to a third part of man. Later in Ecclesiastes 12:7 Solomon says “the dust will return to the earth as it was and the spirit to God who gave it”. Here also only two parts of man are described, body and spirit.

Later in the New Testament Jesus says in John 10:28, talking to His disciples, “fear not those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Jesus was talking about eternity and it seems if there was another part that might be eternally destroyed by God, Jesus would have mentioned it. Some people believe the body, soul and spirit are three parts because of the way in which they interpret Paul’s words in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, where he prays that the sanctification of the Thessalonians be whole, which includes the material part (body) and the immaterial part (whether it is called body or soul). Complete sanctification is the central issue. This is similar to 1 Thessalonians 3:13 where Paul prays for the purity of their hearts. The heart controls the life of a person, the mind, the intellect and the emotions of a person; all these should be holy.

Jesus said in Matthew 22:37 when talking to the lawyer, to “love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind”. These verses seem to me to emphasize the wholeness of a person. If division was the focus, then we could derive five or even six parts in man: body, soul, spirit, mind, strength, heart. I don’t believe Jesus was dissecting the man but rather teaching us that our love for God must flow out of every part of our being, all of our parts, what ever we call them."
 
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topher694

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Well said and very true. I'll take it a step further and say this attitude can be very harmful.

Recently I was supposed to do a inner healing & deliverance session (note the "inner healing" part) with a young woman. She is married with young children. This woman has been through all the worst kind of abuse you can imagine: physical, emotional, sexual. She's lost loved ones to drugs. She has been cursed to her face by practicing Satanists/witches. She was dedicated to Satan at a young age by some of those same people.

This young woman has given her life to Jesus. She genuinely loves the Lord and desperately wants to follow Him. But this junk in her past didn't just magically go away when she got saved. She's incredibly wounded, struggles with major shame and has nothing but bad examples and habits to follow from her past. I have seen countless people like her go through inner healing and deliverance and come out on the other end transformed and equipped to walk in freedom.

She was supposed to go through inner healing and deliverance recently (and 2 times prior), but she didn't. You know why? We just found out it was because she went online and found stuff just like what has been written here: "Christians can't have demons", "It was all taken care of at the cross", "If you have a demon you were never actually saved". And you know what that did? It sent her into a downward spiral. It reinforced all the shame and condemnation. If those things are true then there must be something wrong with her. It convinced her that she was worthless, unsaved, and that God didn't love her, which drove her to do some pretty self-destructive things... does that sound like Jesus?

Statements like we've seen here sound good and spiritual on the surface, but in reality the enforce a works mindset over grace. Possession the way we think of it today is NOT a biblical concept and does not apply to Christians. But Christians CAN be demonized and Christians DO need freedom. Some imply this diminishes what Jesus accomplished on the cross, but it doesn't, it magnifies what He accomplished.
 
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