Scriptural Insights About Evil Spirits
5 Can a Christian Have a Demon?
Can a Christian have a demon? This is a subject of great debate in the Christian world. I've heard some preachers make comments on this subject that made me cringe inside because what they were saying wasn't scriptural. They leave the impression that all Christians have demons in them that routinely need to be cast out. That statement is wrong for many reasons.
First, a Christian can't have a demon in his spirit.
That's impossible. A mature believer would have to deny Christ willfully and with deliberate forethought before he could ever allow a demon to gain access into his spirit, because if he's a Christian, the Holy Spirit, not a demon, indwells his spirit. If a mature believer did deny Christ, he would cease to be a Christian, for the word "Christian" means Christ-like. It means that the life and nature of God dwells in one's spirit (2 Cor.
5:17).
The reason it's impossible for a Christian to have an evil spirit in his spirit is that a Christian's spirit has been recreated by the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 5:17).
Therefore, a Christian's spirit becomes the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit (John 14:23; 1 Cor. 6:17) and cannot also be the dwelling place of an evil spirit (2 Cor.
6:14-16; James 3:11,12).
Those who say that a Christian can "have" a demon don't define their terms properly; they don't divide man
correctly. They don't recognize that man is a spirit; he has a soul; and he lives in a body. And they don't make it clear that a demon can be affecting a person's soul or body, but not be in his spirit.
If people mean a believer can be oppressed or obsessed in body or soul by a demon, that's one thing.
Yes, a Christian can be oppressed or obsessed in body or soul by a demon. But it's quite another thing to say that a Christian can be possessed spirit, soul, and body by a demon.
Also, all Christians don't "have" demons even in the sense that they're all oppressed or obsessed with demons either. That is an extreme teaching and should be avoided. Extreme teachings in any area aren't biblical.
Actually, not one single person who had a demon cast out of him in the four Gospels was a Christian.
They couldn't have been Christians, that is, born again by the blood of Jesus, because Jesus hadn't yet died and shed His blood for mankind.
Many people were Jesus' followers or disciples until the new birth became available after His death, burial, and resurrection. They had a promissory note on their salvation until the new birth became available to them.
But in the Gospels, those who did have evil spirits cast out of them were not yet born again—they weren't Christians.
To get a biblical balance on demons in the lives of believers, study the Gospels to find out what Jesus instructed the disciples about casting out demons. Did Jesus ever cast demons out of His twelve disciples? No, He didn't. Did Jesus teach His disciples to cast demons out of each other? No, He didn't. Before Jesus ascended, did He give His disciples a formula for casting demons
out of other believers? No, He did not!
Even in the Acts of the Apostles, those out of whom the devil was cast were not Christians. In fact, there is no record anywhere in the Bible of an evil spirit being cast out of a Christian or of a Christian being demon possessed.
That doesn't mean a Christian couldn't have an evil spirit oppressing him or obsessing him, which I've already talked about. The Bible even says sickness and disease is the result of satanic oppression (Acts 10:38).
For example, sometimes in dealing with sickness in a person, I've found that I have to deal with demons which are afflicting and oppressing the person's body.
Sometimes, but not always, there is a literal presence of an evil spirit in the body enforcing the sickness or disease. And it must be dealt with by the power of the Holy Spirit in order to get the person healed. When the demon is cast out, the person is well.
On the other hand, there have been other people who were sick but didn't need a devil cast out of them;
they only needed healing. So we can't make ironclad rules in this area. We have to rely on the Holy Spirit's leading to know whether or not sickness or disease is caused by the actual presence of an evil spirit.
A Christian, just as an unsaved person, can have anything he wants to have because all people—saved and unsaved—have free will. We don't lose our free will when we're born again. If we did, we would be robots, but God didn't create us to be robots.
Even after a person is filled with the Holy Spirit, he still makes his own choices. He can think the devil's thoughts and yield to the devil's suggestions if he wants to. The devil always works through the mind, will, and
emotions of man to try to get him to do wrong so he can gain access to him. However, a Christian doesn't have to yield to evil spirits or to the flesh. He should learn how to yield to the Holy Spirit.
I am dubious of teachings and practices I don't see demonstrated in the Bible. And when some ministers teach that all Christians have devils in them that need to be cast out over and over again—that's not biblical.
You won't find that extreme teaching or practice anywhere in the Bible. Stay scripturally based and stay away from extremes and excesses.
Anyone—saved and unsaved alike—can listen to the devil and yield to his suggestions. But there is a vast difference between temporarily turning and yielding to evil spirits and being oppressed by demons that are working from the outside or even inside the mind and body. There's also a vast difference from being obsessed and being possessed by evil spirits.
In more than fifty-eight years of ministry, I have never cast one devil out of a Christian's spirit, and no one else has either because evil spirits can't be in a believer's spirit. If evil spirits are present in the believer, they are either in the body or soul—the mind, will, or emotions. In most cases, believers haven't renewed their mind so the devil takes advantage of them in their souls and bodies. But most believers aren't having trouble with demons anyway; they're just having trouble with their flesh.
Actually, very few unsaved people in this country are even demon possessed, although there is higher incidence of it now with the rise in occult practices. In my years of ministry, I have only seen one person who was fully demon possessed—spirit, soul, and body.