How do you know if someone has a demon?

[Faulty]

Scary. What kind of creature, I'm curious?

It was only for a moment. The feature I recall the most was eyes that seemed dead and hollow. The person actually took off in the opposite direction quickly once our eyes met.

If you've ever been to a 3D movie and looked at the screen without your glasses, you would see the main image then slightly offset ghostly images. That's kind of what it looked like.

 

[Tobias]

If there was a part 2 to this question it would be:

What's the difference between a spirit and a demon?

What characteristics would a person have if they had a spirit of <<enter name here>> vs. a demon of some sort?

Where would you think a demon would come from?

Where do you think a spirit of <<enter name here>> would come from?

Interesting that you would make the distinction between a spirit and a demon. Most Christians it seems, simply assume that all spirits that are not the Holy Spirit are a demon! But I don't see things explained that way in the scriptures, nor have I experienced such in real life.

1 John 4:4 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

This passage does NOT say: "Test the spirit to see if it is God." It says to test them to see if they are from God. We live in an age where most of the time, any spiritual encounter is doubted, and the one interacting with them is suspected of mental problems. We seem to continue this suspicion in the church, where only testimonies of occasional encounters with God are acceptable. Anything more, and you must be crazy...

This is NOT the same as the society in which the scriptures were given. They did believe in spirits, spirits everywhere!

So why were they encouraged to test them? Maybe because not all spirits are bad. Maybe because not all good spirits show up in a flash of light, and stand over us at twelve feet tall and have wings on their back.


I remember back when I first started playing guitar on the worship team. I wasn't very good. But I would feel this "presence" jump into me, kind of like half possessing me in my arms and torso, helping me to play better. I simply thought I was getting angelic help. And considering it happened in church, where the presence of God was strong, and the fact that I was on the Deliverance team... I think it's pretty safe to say that this spirit tested out to be "from God".

Now compare that to demonic possession; demons seem to be rather difficult to get rid of. Not that I have ever encountered a true possession IMO, but with the typical demonization or oppression, we find that demons attach themselves and do things that are unwanted by the host. The Holy Spirit, in contrast, has been described as a Gentleman. Though it is worth noting that He still is God, and can get rather earnest at times when insisting that we do what He says. A good solid "NO" will send Him away, and will not only crush your heart but the immediate sense of vacancy and vapidness to your life will be apparent.

I think there are other spirits sent by God to help teach us things from time to time. Mostly though, we do not notice they are here doing their thing. We can ignore them, or send them away, if we ever get that sensitive to where we sense them but wrongly judge them as "not from God." This does not produce the same type of vacancy as when we offend God and send Him away. But is still does effect our spiritual walk, kind of like if we quit a ministry at church that God really wanted us to participate in. We loose all the knowledge, growth, and fellowship that would have come if we had stuck it out.

 

[FoundInGrace]

Some deliverance ministries have a list of symptoms that could show a demon (but as has been said not necessarily). Thats why we need God to give us discernment. Sometimes its really obvious like Faulty and others mentioned God lets you see it, I've also seen something similar with a friend when we were talking about Gods love and opening the Bible she sat back and a demon sat forward and looked at me which was helpful i knew i was on the right track then, but other times you just kinda know and its not that you literally see but you know. Its also sometimes not clear even when someone has sneered at me and had hatred in their face - a Christian lady at my church - I wondered but its not clear so may have just been anger etc so need discernment from God. Now I just treat it all as just peoples emotions unless God makes it known. Gods love and knowing the Bible.. well knowing God really is more important and a more positive focus than seeing demons everywhere. For me God mercifully delivered me from some things, life was quite spiritually aware for a while (dreams, seeing things etc) and now thankfully God has given me some years where can just get to know Him and enjoy Him and life without that intrusion of darkness so often our God is so merciful and kind. To me I dont think we were made for that realm. It is not for us. It is too wearying on our souls and lives. Unless God is with you and calls a person to that in ministry or as you are following Him He allows you to see etc for His purposes then it will harm you. But God does loolk after His kids if you need to know for some reason God will show you.

 

[Andrea411]

Interesting that you would make the distinction between a spirit and a demon. Most Christians it seems, simply assume that all spirits that are not the Holy Spirit are a demon! But I don't see things explained that way in the scriptures, nor have I experienced such in real life.

1 John 4:4 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

This passage does NOT say: "Test the spirit to see if it is God." It says to test them to see if they are from God. We live in an age where most of the time, any spiritual encounter is doubted, and the one interacting with them is suspected of mental problems. We seem to continue this suspicion in the church, where only testimonies of occasional encounters with God are acceptable. Anything more, and you must be crazy...

This is NOT the same as the society in which the scriptures were given. They did believe in spirits, spirits everywhere!

So why were they encouraged to test them? Maybe because not all spirits are bad. Maybe because not all good spirits show up in a flash of light, and stand over us at twelve feet tall and have wings on their back.


I remember back when I first started playing guitar on the worship team. I wasn't very good. But I would feel this "presence" jump into me, kind of like half possessing me in my arms and torso, helping me to play better. I simply thought I was getting angelic help. And considering it happened in church, where the presence of God was strong, and the fact that I was on the Deliverance team... I think it's pretty safe to say that this spirit tested out to be "from God".

Now compare that to demonic possession; demons seem to be rather difficult to get rid of. Not that I have ever encountered a true possession IMO, but with the typical demonization or oppression, we find that demons attach themselves and do things that are unwanted by the host. The Holy Spirit, in contrast, has been described as a Gentleman. Though it is worth noting that He still is God, and can get rather earnest at times when insisting that we do what He says. A good solid "NO" will send Him away, and will not only crush your heart but the immediate sense of vacancy and vapidness to your life will be apparent.

I think there are other spirits sent by God to help teach us things from time to time. Mostly though, we do not notice they are here doing their thing. We can ignore them, or send them away, if we ever get that sensitive to where we sense them but wrongly judge them as "not from God." This does not produce the same type of vacancy as when we offend God and send Him away. But is still does effect our spiritual walk, kind of like if we quit a ministry at church that God really wanted us to participate in. We loose all the knowledge, growth, and fellowship that would have come if we had stuck it out.

Tobias... if you think something jumped into you then you need deliverance. Just go ask for deliverance and if its from God.... no problem. Your doctrine about spirits is some of the most unscriptural I've ever heard.
You've made it up all on your own and its very dangerous... the day may come when a spirit that represents itself as 'a helper' will come into you and you will not be able to make it leave bc you have given it your permission to be there....
There are two forces, God's and the enemies there are no neutrals... truth or error

Little children, you are of God, and have overcome them; for he who is in you is greater that he who is in the world. They are of the world, therefore what they say is of the world, and the world listens to them. We are of God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and he who is not of God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

May the Lord give you His truth...

 

[ToBeBlessed]

Tobias... if you think something jumped into you then you need deliverance. Just go ask for deliverance and if its from God.... no problem. Your doctrine about spirits is some of the most unscriptural I've ever heard.
You've made it up all on your own and its very dangerous... the day may come when a spirit that represents itself as 'a helper' will come into you and you will not be able to make it leave bc you have given it your permission to be there....
There are two forces, God's and the enemies there are no neutrals... truth or error

Little children, you are of God, and have overcome them; for he who is in you is greater that he who is in the world. They are of the world, therefore what they say is of the world, and the world listens to them. We are of God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and he who is not of God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

May the Lord give you His truth...

I don't think he said that Andrea.

Try to be nice. Remember what you said, about everyone needing to be respectful and that we need to love each other. I bet Tobias is not feeling the love.

 

[ToBeBlessed]

Interesting that you would make the distinction between a spirit and a demon. Most Christians it seems, simply assume that all spirits that are not the Holy Spirit are a demon! But I don't see things explained that way in the scriptures, nor have I experienced such in real life.

1 John 4:4 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

This passage does NOT say: "Test the spirit to see if it is God." It says to test them to see if they are from God. We live in an age where most of the time, any spiritual encounter is doubted, and the one interacting with them is suspected of mental problems. We seem to continue this suspicion in the church, where only testimonies of occasional encounters with God are acceptable. Anything more, and you must be crazy...

This is NOT the same as the society in which the scriptures were given. They did believe in spirits, spirits everywhere!

So why were they encouraged to test them? Maybe because not all spirits are bad. Maybe because not all good spirits show up in a flash of light, and stand over us at twelve feet tall and have wings on their back.


I remember back when I first started playing guitar on the worship team. I wasn't very good. But I would feel this "presence" jump into me, kind of like half possessing me in my arms and torso, helping me to play better. I simply thought I was getting angelic help. And considering it happened in church, where the presence of God was strong, and the fact that I was on the Deliverance team... I think it's pretty safe to say that this spirit tested out to be "from God".

Now compare that to demonic possession; demons seem to be rather difficult to get rid of. Not that I have ever encountered a true possession IMO, but with the typical demonization or oppression, we find that demons attach themselves and do things that are unwanted by the host. The Holy Spirit, in contrast, has been described as a Gentleman. Though it is worth noting that He still is God, and can get rather earnest at times when insisting that we do what He says. A good solid "NO" will send Him away, and will not only crush your heart but the immediate sense of vacancy and vapidness to your life will be apparent.

I think there are other spirits sent by God to help teach us things from time to time. Mostly though, we do not notice they are here doing their thing. We can ignore them, or send them away, if we ever get that sensitive to where we sense them but wrongly judge them as "not from God." This does not produce the same type of vacancy as when we offend God and send Him away. But is still does effect our spiritual walk, kind of like if we quit a ministry at church that God really wanted us to participate in. We loose all the knowledge, growth, and fellowship that would have come if we had stuck it out.

Thank you Tobias for sharing!

 

[Tobias]

Tobias... if you think something jumped into you then you need deliverance. Just go ask for deliverance and if its from God.... no problem. Your doctrine about spirits is some of the most unscriptural I've ever heard.
You've made it up all on your own and its very dangerous... the day may come when a spirit that represents itself as 'a helper' will come into you and you will not be able to make it leave bc you have given it your permission to be there....
There are two forces, God's and the enemies there are no neutrals... truth or error

Little children, you are of God, and have overcome them; for he who is in you is greater that he who is in the world. They are of the world, therefore what they say is of the world, and the world listens to them. We are of God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and he who is not of God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

May the Lord give you His truth...

If you feel my post is "unscriptural", then I believe the forum rules state that you should address the content of my post, rather than addressing me personally. Especially with your (often repeated) overtones that suggest that I am in sin.

If there are so many scripture passages that contradict what I've said, then following the rules should be easy enough for you to do, right?

 

[Tobias]

I don't think he said that Andrea.

Try to be nice. Remember what you said, about everyone needing to be respectful and that we need to love each other. I bet Tobias is not feeling the love.

Thank you Tobias for sharing!

Thank you!


I missed your posts while I was typing out a big long one to Andrea... which then got trimmed down to only what you see...

 

[Andrea411]

If you feel my post is "unscriptural", then I believe the forum rules state that you should address the content of my post, rather than addressing me personally. Especially with your (often repeated) overtones that suggest that I am in sin.

If there are so many scripture passages that contradict what I've said, then following the rules should be easy enough for you to do, right?

No dear, I think your doctrine is unscriptural and that allowing "entities' to come and go in your body is very dangerous.
I was expressing genuine concern for you personally. It was way past something like just sin... it was on the order of something more akin to a spiritual catastrophe.
If someone can allow a demon entrance into them from just playing with a Ouija board, how much worse could it be for someone who allows a 'spirit' to come into them to control them while they play a guitar. I did address it scripturally, but sometimes if someone designs their own doctrine there are no scriptures to address it.

Like if I said, I loved playing with unicorns while I pray... no scripture to tell me I shouldn't. Except that maybe I should get deliverance and see if any of those unicorns get mad.

But I am honestly concerned for your wellbeing... IDK why that would be difficult to understand... since I believe those entities are demonic

 

[Andrea411]

I don't think he said that Andrea.

Try to be nice. Remember what you said, about everyone needing to be respectful and that we need to love each other. I bet Tobias is not feeling the love.

IDK To be blessed, but this is one of those times when we should lay aside our differences and think about the person... 'Tobias'. If I am wrong I sincerely apologize but the point is this

(Tobias wrote) I remember back when I first started playing guitar on the worship team. I wasn't very good. But I would feel this "presence" jump into me, kind of like half possessing me in my arms and torso, helping me to play better. I simply thought I was getting angelic help. And considering it happened in church, where the presence of God was strong, and the fact that I was on the Deliverance team... I think it's pretty safe to say that this spirit tested out to be "from God".

And the other thoughts about some spirits not being demonic or from God.

He isn't listening to me, but he may listen to others.

May the Lord give you His wisdom, andrea

 

[Tobias]

... I did address it scripturally, but sometimes if someone designs their own doctrine there are no scriptures to address it.

Like if I said, I loved playing with unicorns while I pray... no scripture to tell me I shouldn't. Except that maybe I should get deliverance and see if any of those unicorns get mad.
...

I quoted the passage: 1 John 4:4 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

And then gave an example of angelic help I received while playing guitar.


Your rebuttal was what? This passage?

Little children, you are of God, and have overcome them; for he who is in you is greater that he who is in the world. They are of the world, therefore what they say is of the world, and the world listens to them. We are of God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and he who is not of God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.


How does "for he who is in you is greater that he who is in the world" translate into what you said? That I need to fear the enemy, because some day I might not discern correctly, and a demon might possess me?

God is greater than anything in this world! He lives inside of me, and can not only help me discern the evil spirits before they get near me, but also remove them from me if I do make a horrible mistake!

 

[JimB]

How do we detect demon possessed people?

Well, their heads spin around, they foam at the mouth, and levitate. (Just kidding).

John Wimber used to say that we can supernaturally discern spirits by the Holy Spirit but that we could also naturally detect them just by keeping our eyes open. The Vineyard also teaches that the term &#8220;demon possessed&#8221; is a bad translation of &#8220;diamonizomai&#8221; (you may note that in the KJV the word possessed is usually, if not always, italicized, meaning it was added by the translators). &#8220;Demon possession&#8221; is a purely Elizabethan English notion that demons could actually inhabit, take up residence, inside people but in reality, no one is actually &#8220;possessed&#8221; by demons. Rather, the Vineyard teaches that while the term &#8220;demon possession&#8221; is actually unbiblical, it is better to refer to a person as &#8220;demonized&#8221; than &#8220;possessed&#8221;&#8212;and that would include most, if not all, of us. Some, especially unbelievers and people that practice the black arts or invite Satan to be part of their spiritual pursuits, are typically demonized to a greater extent than others, but we are all acted upon by demonic influences. And though they cannot lay hold of us (1 John 5.18), through deception (Satan&#8217;s only weapon), he can get the advantage over (i.e., outwit) us (2 Cor. 2.11). This bit of knowledge has helped me in helping people get through demonic influences in their lives.

 

[geetrue]

Have you ever believed a lie?

I have ... the devil is just one angel, but he has all of these workers of iniquity working for him. If the devil couldn't deceive you ... he wouldn't try now would he.

Todd Bentley and Lakeland, Florida healing revival comes to mind, which I have chronicled here: Home

The devil's true name is the hinderer ... a hindrance to our ability to perceive God's perfect will.

Dr Stanley a well known good Baptist preacher said on stage in his own church,

"Don't think that I am one of those preachers that think there is a demon behind every tree"

and then he shocked everyone by saying,

"I know there is a demon behind every tree"

"They are everywhere, there are millions of them"

I think perhaps you mean can someone other than ourselves be demon pocessed , but the OP plainly said,

"How do you know if someone has a demon?"

They lie, steal, cheat, murder, get people to commit suicide, back stab, deceive you into thinking that they are normal and they want to be your friend just to name a few of the things that they do.

They also try to lay hands on you and impart that spirit to your soul.

Yes of course the Lord cares and protects us and loves us and delivers us not by our works, but he also warns us. I don't have time to find all of the warnings, but a lot of them are in two letters that St Paul wrote to Timothy.

They (demons) hate the blood of Jesus, especially when you use the blood as your righteousness or plead the blood for a ministry, brother or sister or even CF and SF/C sub forums.

Demons are really just disembodied spirits, they use to have a body and then they died and now they are waiting the final judgment. Some of them kick in with the devil due to his reward system, these are the bad ones and the ones to watch out for they know what happens if they get caught by an angel like a hawk can catch prey so can an angel catch demons in the misty moon light or even if they are brave enough to fly around in broad daylight.

I was just watching a video on YouTube:Derek Prince - How To Apply The Blood - YouTube

Derek Prince talking about how there is no in between God and Satan it is either or there is no in between.

If you are being bothered by demons or you know someone that is, remember even St Paul said that he had been given a thorn in the flesh ... a messager of satan sent to buffet him and reminded Jesus that he had prayed three times for this thorn to be removed.

We all know the answer that Jesus gave him ... "My grace is sufficient that my grace is made perfect in weakness"

I speak from experience for I also have more than one of these little messagers buffeting me, but the grace of our Lord is with me and his word comforts me and his angels minster to me everyday.

Keep the faith ToBeBlessed you don't really want to know more than what I have stated ... just say thank you Jesus for what you did for me on the cross at Calvary.

ABC, CBS and NBC all believe in demons when that famous rock and roll singer died they said, "He couldn't deal with his demons"