Can demons possess Christians?
O.K. there are a lot of different opinions out there when it comes to whether or not a Christian can be demon possessed. There are great men and women of God who differ on this subject. But after studying the Bible on this issue I became absolutely convinced that a true believer in Jesus Christ could never be possessed by a demon. Here are a couple of reasons why I believe this so strongly. First of all, there is no example in the New Testament of a believer in Jesus Christ being demon possessed. There are instances where Satan is influencing believers or oppressing believers, but no examples of demons possessing Christians.
Secondly, for a demon to take possession of a Christian he would have to first overthrow the Spirit of Jesus guarding the soul of the Christian. The Bible makes it clear in Ephesians 1:13 and 14 that
"And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession-to the praise of his glory."
That means that as soon as we trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior the Lord causes His Holy Spirit to live inside of us. He is commissioned by God to stay inside of us until we are in the very presence of God Himself in heaven! He lives inside of us as proof to us that we are His. And the Holy Spirit is God's down payment on our soul. He is there to strengthen us to serve God, set us apart from sin, encourage us when we are discouraged and protect our souls from evil!
When the Spirit of God seals the soul of the believer, it's almost as though he puts a "Do Not Disturb" sign on the heart of the believer. No demon can enter when that sign is on, and it is always on.
For a demon to take possession of the soul, he has to face the Spirit of Jesus head on. Here's how Jesus put it in Luke 11:21-22,
"When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils."
What Jesus is saying is that when a demon possesses a man or a woman the demon is the strongman who is in control of that soul. The demon is going to control and protect his turf. When Jesus comes into someone's life he becomes "the soul stealer." He takes the demon, ties him up, throws him out and steals that soul for God.
How does this prove that a Christian could never be possessed by a demon? Simple, when a demon possesses a soul that person's only hope is that Jesus comes in and takes control of that soul. Then he becomes the strongman. He becomes the "bodyguard". Now that soul is his turf. So for a demon to take possession of that soul again he would first have to tie up Jesus and throw him out. That's not going to happen.
Before I got into the ministry I was a roofer. I had a friend named Art that I used to work with every day. He had just gotten out of the Army and was bulging with muscles. He was six feet one inches tall, weighed about 195 pounds and had about 5% body fat. He could bench press over three hundred pounds and was as tough as nails.
One day when we went to work we encountered a serious problem. The roof we were working on the day before had other roofers on it. We had spent all day the day before preparing the roof, flashing in the skylights, preparing one entire side for the roofing material to be put on. Somehow another crew came to our jobsite and jumped on the side of the roof that we had spent all day the day before preparing. The problem was that we got paid by how much roofing material we put down and these guys had "stolen" our side of the roof. As we drove closer to the jobsite we could see these guys on our side and Art began ranting how he was going to beat them both up. I tried to calm him down by saying, "Art let me handle it."
I'll never forget getting out of the truck right under that side of the roof and starting a conversation that went something like this:
"Nice day isn't it guys?"
"Yeah, it's great" one of the roofers said.
"You know that yesterday we came out and spent the entire day prepping this side of the roof." I said smilingly.
"So what?" he responded.
"Well, I don't really think its fair that we spend an entire day preparing this side of the roof and you guys come this morning and take it from us. That's money out of our pockets. By rights that side of the roof is our turf." I said, still smiling.
"Well, it's a big house why don't you just jump on another side?" he retorted with a few expletives mixed in.
Now all of this time Art is just standing there heaving in a sleeveless shirt. His biceps were flexed, his brow furrowed and his eyes burning with anger. So I said this, "Guys, I totally understand. But my friend here, he just doesn't get it. As a matter of fact it was all I could do to convince him to let me talk to you first this morning as we pulled up. You see, he wants to tear you limb from limb and then throw you physically from this roof. But I don't want it to come to that. I just want to convince you to pick another side yourself so that we all can have a great day."
When these two guys looked at the size of Art and the crazed look in his eyes they almost ran to the other side of the roof! You see I had somebody a lot bigger than me protecting my turf. And when these guys saw him they ran!
You have somebody bigger and badder than Art protecting the "turf" of your soul. His name is Jesus Christ! When demons see the size of his biceps they run! There is no way they would even try to steal your soul, because to do that they would have to take out Jesus. Not going to happen.
