Devil/demons have power over you?

[Homie]

I saw the threads here about demons and driving them out. Also the one about selling your soul. Now to my question:

When I was little I was a bit afraid because the devil was evil and was certainly more powerful than me, so I asked my mom about this. She told me that as long as you don't submit and worship Satan like we(christians) have submitted and worship God he has no power over you and cannot harm you. Of course he can still belittle your mind, tempt you into sinning, but it stops there. That is what I was thaught. Now how can a demon enter you if you have not submitted to Satan, or is what my mom told me just nonsense.

I found it logical what my mom said, but it may be wrong, can anyone answear and tell me what they think.

 

[JagSayon]

What I think -

Yes, as long as you don't submit to the Devil, sell your soul or otherwise be a channeller/medium etc (you know what I mean), and if you're a born again Christian, then the Devil and his minions cannot harm you. They might come and scare you, tempt you or influence your actions but to attack you directly or possess you is out of the question because are God's children. BUT, there might be unique cases - remember Job?

Jag

 

[Drought]

Non-Christians don't have the same bunker of faith that Christians have. At least, that's what I've been taught. A Christian who has submitted to Jesus is under his exclusive protection and cannot be possessed without, well, sort of asking for it. A non-Christian has no such protection, and can therefore be subject to all manner of nasty things Satan might want to do.

 

[SpiritPsalmist]

Originally posted by Homie
I saw the threads here about demons and driving them out. Also the one about selling your soul. Now to my question:

When I was little I was a bit afraid because the devil was evil and was certainly more powerful than me, so I asked my mom about this. She told me that as long as you don't submit and worship Satan like we(christians) have submitted and worship God he has no power over you and cannot harm you. Of course he can still belittle your mind, tempt you into sinning, but it stops there. That is what I was thaught. Now how can a demon enter you if you have not submitted to Satan, or is what my mom told me just nonsense.

I found it logical what my mom said, but it may be wrong, can anyone answear and tell me what they think.

Homie,

A born again child of God does not need to fear any demon. The scripture says that "the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet". (Rom 16:20) It also says "greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world" (1 John 4:4)

Also, Gen 1:26 "God said, "let Us make man in our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth".

Since the "serpant" was here, he was to be dominated by them. That authority was not taken away from Adam when he sinned.

So, according to scripture, the devil can lie to you and tell you he has more power than you but it's a lie. It's when we choose to believe that lie that we can be overcome by him and believe his lies the same way Adam and Eve did.

Often, when we give our lives to the Lord there is a lot of bagage that comes with us. There may be spirits that have attached themselves to us as a result of our participation in sin. Those spirits do not necessarily leave at the moment of conversion. Hence the continued struggle with temptation and sin.

They are still nothing to be afraid of. You have more authority. If you go to a church that believes in deliverence it never hurts to be prayed for.

Also, walking in obedience to His Word and continuing to render your body to the Lord will cause them to leave.

Learn all you can about your authority over them. They can only lie to you. In believing their lies you become fearfull. And then fear leads to unproductiveness. Which unfortionately is where a lot of the church is walking today.

Hopefully this has helped a little.

 

[Force]

Originally posted by Quaffer
Homie,

A born again child of God does not need to fear any demon. The scripture says that "the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet". (Rom 16:20) It also says "greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world" (1 John 4:4)

Also, Gen 1:26 "God said, "let Us make man in our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth".

Since the "serpant" was here, he was to be dominated by them. That authority was not taken away from Adam when he sinned.

So, according to scripture, the devil can lie to you and tell you he has more power than you but it's a lie. It's when we choose to believe that lie that we can be overcome by him and believe his lies the same way Adam and Eve did.

Often, when we give our lives to the Lord there is a lot of bagage that comes with us. There may be spirits that have attached themselves to us as a result of our participation in sin. Those spirits do not necessarily leave at the moment of conversion. Hence the continued struggle with temptation and sin.

They are still nothing to be afraid of. You have more authority. If you go to a church that believes in deliverence it never hurts to be prayed for.

Also, walking in obedience to His Word and continuing to render your body to the Lord will cause them to leave.

Learn all you can about your authority over them. They can only lie to you. In believing their lies you become fearfull. And then fear leads to unproductiveness. Which unfortionately is where a lot of the church is walking today.

Hopefully this has helped a little.

Awesome answer Quaffer!

 

[Rising_Suns]

Originally posted by Drought
Non-Christians don't have the same bunker of faith that Christians have. At least, that's what I've been taught. A Christian who has submitted to Jesus is under his exclusive protection and cannot be possessed without, well, sort of asking for it. A non-Christian has no such protection, and can therefore be subject to all manner of nasty things Satan might want to do.

Exactly...if you're truly a Christian (you have accepted Jesus Christ into your heart), then you have the empowerment of the holyspirit within you and evil cannot dwell inside you....but it still can tempt the flesh outside you...

Note the key phrase; "if you're truly a Christian"...some people have the title of a Christian but simply do not walk a Christian life and have not truly accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior.

 

[Andrew]

"Now how can a demon enter you if you have not submitted to Satan, or is what my mom told me just nonsense."

Kenneth Hagin best answers this question in his book Triumphant Church, which talks about demons and demon possession. (that guy has 60 yrs experience so i listened).

Anyway, the key is this -- to know that we are tripartite just like God is in the sense of the trinity.

IOW the real you is a spirit, lives in a house (physical body) and has a soul (mind will emotions). -- tripartite

A born again Christian has the Holy Spirit residing in the holy of holies, which is in your spirit. He does not reside under your skin or bones (physical body) or in your head (mind).

So demons cannot possess a Christian in the sense that the demon dwells alongside the Holy Spirit in your spirit. Can you imagine the Holy Spirit renting a room to the demon?!

But demons can take over the mind (as when a Christian 'loses his mind' and beats someone to death or jumps off a building) or manifest in the physical body in the form of say, cancer. that said, not every bad action or sickness is caused by a demon. we wont know unless the Holy Spirit gives you the gift of discerning of spirits.

demons are spirits. they want to manifest and express themselves. and they do it by inhabiting flesh. hope this helps

so we can see that of the 3 parts (spirit, body, soul), the first is saved when we are born again. ie born of the spirit.

physically, we still look the same (blue eyes, blonde hair will still be the same) after we are born again and our habits and thoughts still remain pretty much the same.

Thats why in these 2 areas we are told to Renew our mind with the Word (that's to take care of the soul part)-- which is the washing with the Word.

and as for the body, Paul says keep it under subjection to the Spirit. eg your body tells you to gorge down that cake, but you are to keep it under the Spirit, which says no.

 

[paulewog]

"greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world" Somewhere in John hehe

As a Christian, they don't haev POWER. Influence, yes, but not power.

As a non-Christian... that's different...

 

[lil_god_lova]

i know we ain't sposed to advertise here so tell me off if i've broken the rules but i have had major discussions with a few others becuase they have been under major spiritual attack over the last few days because of a programme that has started in the high school here. the address for this message board thread is http://www.nelson.anglican.org.nz/cgi-bin/bbmat.cgi?script=ROOM-OF-HOPE&frames=N all the new stuff is about spiritual attack as there were 68 or more messages added last nite just from about 54 people over this stuff so yeah i think it gives alot of good advice about spiritual attack.

 

[Homie]

A born again Christian has the Holy Spirit residing in the holy of holies, which is in your spirit. He does not reside under your skin or bones (physical body) or in your head (mind).

But I am not really a born-again christian, I have been raised in a christian home and have been christian all my life.

 

[SpiritPsalmist]

Originally posted by Homie
But I am not really a born-again christian, I have been raised in a christian home and have been christian all my life.

Homie,

What do you mean when you say you are not a "born-again" Christian?  No one in born a christian.

I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior as a child of around 4.  I'm now 48.  While there was not a whole lot of sin that a 4 year old could commit, I none the less became born-again at that point.

I was raised in a home where we went to church faithfully, but the home life was not christian.  I don't remember the moment but I know I did it.

What about you?  Have you asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins and to be the Lord of your life?  If so, then you are born again.  If not, then you should do so now. 

 

 

[Homie]

What about you? Have you asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins and to be the Lord of your life? If so, then you are born again. If not, then you should do so now.

I have done both, and do so frequently. I have always believed and I do not remember when I first asked Jesus to be Lord of my life, although I think it was rather late (maybe in the period between 10-14 years old) because when I was a child I didn't think to ask Jesus to be Lord in my life, I naturally assumed that he was.

 

[SpiritPsalmist]

Originally posted by Homie
I have done both, and do so frequently. I have always believed and I do not remember when I first asked Jesus to be Lord of my life, although I think it was rather late (maybe in the period between 10-14 years old) because when I was a child I didn't think to ask Jesus to be Lord in my life, I naturally assumed that he was.

Then my brother, you are born-again! 

 

[paulewog]

...

ditto on what Mr. Quaffer said hehe

 

[JohnR7]

We have the blood of Jesus to trample devils underfoot. Still the angels fight the battles for us, and we need to be in the will of God to work with the angels. Also, sometimes we need to be joined together with our brothers and sisters in the Lord. One can cause 1000 to flee and two can cause 10,000 to flee. Sometimes God will allow the enemy to come up against us in a way that is it more than we can handle alone, so that we need help from the church & Bible believing christians.

I feel sorry for people in dead churches that do not have any of the power of God. They do not receive the help they need in the time of trouble.

 

[SpiritPsalmist]

Originally posted by JohnR7
We have the blood of Jesus to trample devils underfoot. Still the angels fight the battles for us, and we need to be in the will of God to work with the angels. Also, sometimes we need to be joined together with our brothers and sisters in the Lord. One can cause 1000 to flee and two can cause 10,000 to flee. Sometimes God will allow the enemy to come up against us in a way that is it more than we can handle alone, so that we need help from the church & Bible believing christians.

I feel sorry for people in dead churches that do not have any of the power of God. They do not receive the help they need in the time of trouble.

Hey JohnR7,

That is all so true.

Since I have learned my authority in Jesus, the demons no longer get the best of me as they use to. However, I see everyday, Christians, walking in fear and defeat because they either don't know about it or they know but are unwilling to fight.

It's as simple as calling "help" out to Jesus. That's how I first started learning. I can remember one time when my mind was on everything but Jesus and I suddenly saw the depression I was in. The only prayer I could muster was "help me Jesus". Immediately, I felt his presense and the depression left.

Another time, I was in the doctors office and he was asking me varied questions in regards to my "lack of energy, lack of sleep, etc". After the questioning he said, "you are in depression. I want to put you on medicine (I don't remember the one he named).

My spirt jumped and I understood what I needed to do. I told the doctor no, that I would take care of it. I went home, got on my face before God and repented of getting my eyes off of Him and onto myself. The depression lifted immediately.

The last time I fought with depression it was again because I got my eyes on to my problems instead of the problem solver. I remember having to drag myself out of bed to go to work and church. I knew that if I stopped going to church I was like a sitting duck to the enemy.

God began to show me my participation in this depression. He showed me to change the words coming out of my mouth. He showed me to get the worship music on and sing and dance before Him. That's when I began to pray and sing in tongues a lot. I would sing my way through the Psalms.
I would immediately feel His delight and the angels would be there ministering.

That was about 3 years ago and I have not been depressed since. Of course the enemy tries to sneak up on me but I've learned to recognize him too. I've learned to beat him off with a stick by immediately worshipping my God and Savior.

There is definately something to all this stuff. It works. And I love Jesus with more passion than ever.

 

[lil_god_lova]

Demon stuff can be real scary but i think you have to just say "hey you're there but you have no pwer over me. so you can hang around waiting for an enterance into me but hey you'll be wasting ya time coz you ain't gonna find one!"

 

[SpiritPsalmist]

Originally posted by lil_god_lova
Demon stuff can be real scary but i think you have to just say "hey you're there but you have no pwer over me. so you can hang around waiting for an enterance into me but hey you'll be wasting ya time coz you ain't gonna find one!"

. . .and that's the truth.

If we don't open the door, then he won't be able to get in. (Eph 4:27)

 

[FOMWatts<><]

Well, I don't think our sould is our's to sell. Mine was appointed before the foundations of the earth were formed! Amen and to God be the Glory!

FOMWatts<><

 

[jayebrownlee]

If you believe that Jesus died for your sins and that you are going to Heaven when you die because God has forgiven you then you are a born again Christian.

I have been attacked by Satan and his demons a lot over the last few months and it is very hard but I know that as long as I have faith there is nothing that they can do to harm me, as has been said already they can tempt me and they can attack me but if I try I always have the power to get rid of them.

Your sister in Christ

Jay