A great debate has taken place in recent years within Christianity as to whether or not a genuine born-again Christian can be demon-possessed. Some claim that, while the spirit of a Christian could not be possessed by a demon, their body could house a demon.
1. The issue revolves primarily around the word Greek word “daimonizomai.”
Those who believe a Christian can be possessed by a demon argue there has been a mistranslation of the word “daimonizomai” in the King James Version of the Bible and should have been translated as “possessed with evil spirits.” They believe that the correct translation of the Greek word “daimonizomai” is not demon possession but demonized. Therefore, they teach that the correct rendering should be “to be under the power of a demon” They argue that there is a big difference between ‘being possessed,’ which is synonymous to being ‘owned,’ from just ‘having demons’ which is a significant difference between ‘being possessed,’ or being ‘owned.’
2. The Greek word “daimonizomai” is defined by all the Bible Dictionaries and Lexicons as “to be demon-possessed.”
It is very clear that in the New Testament, the word “daimonizomai” was understood to mean ‘to be possessed by a demon.’ There is no distinction in the usage of the word in the New Testament, nor is there even a single reference or warning about this threat.
A Christian can be in a situation where demonic forces exert such oppressive attacks that it can “feel” as if there is actual possession of the body or personality. These attacks may range from mild harassment to extreme subjection of the person involved. The Greek word for “oppressed” is “katadunasteuo.” It means to exercise dominion, dominance, or control. The enemy tries to dominate and control everything. However, Jesus has control over him! Jesus went about healing “all that were oppressed of the devil” (Acts 10:38 KJV). The enemy has to submit to the authority of Jesus.
Christians often used the term "oppressed" without realizing the very thin grounds that exist in the Bible for such a category of demonic activity. Indeed, without the King James Version of the Bible, the word would not even have entered the Christian vocabulary. This belief of demonization subtly changes the focus from God to satan. It can inspire fear in the believer when they should be experiencing security in Christ.
A. The Body Of Christ
“Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh." But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit. “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. (1 Cor 6:15-18 NIV)
A. Your physical body is a member of Christ himself.
That is why you are told that you must not have sexual relations with a non-believer. To do so would be to unite the flesh of Christ with that of a prostitute. As the physical union causes us to be "one flesh," so your spiritual union with Christ causes you to be one in spirit. Thus you are physically members of Christ’s body as well as spiritually members of His body.
1. A demon is not able to inhabit the body of Jesus, nor is a demon able to inhabit the body of anyone who is united with Christ.
B. The Dwelling Place Of The Holy Spirit
“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” (1 Cor 6:19-20 NIV)
1. There are two words in the New Testament that are translated as “Temple.”
a. “Naos”
The word used to describe your body as a “temple” of the Holy Spirit is the word “Naos.” This word is also metaphorically to describe the physical body of Jesus.
b. “Hieron”
“Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days."
“The Jews replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?" But the temple he had spoken of was his body. (John 2:19-22 NIV)
The other word translated in the New Testament is “hieron,” which signifies the entire building or outer courts of the Temple where all the people had access. This is the area in the temple where Jesus taught His lessons.
Your spirit dwells in your body, and the Holy Spirit dwells in your spirit. Your body is the very shrine, the Holy Of Holy’s where the Spirit of God dwells. Only the high priest, clothed in penitential garments, amid a cloud of incense, and with the blood of sacrifice having been offered could lawfully enter in the Holy of Holies (Lev 16; compare Heb 9:7).
“For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God.” (2 Cor 6:14-16 NIV)
2. Jesus “is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5 KJV)
a. Light and darkness can’t dwell in the same place.
Only what is “good and perfect comes to us from God,” He is the “Creator of all light, and he shines forever without change or shadow.”
b. His light is so brilliant that light is His shadow! (James 1:17-18 TLB)
c. NO demon has the ability to produce darkness, causing you to stumble.
"Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble." (1 John 2:10 NIV)
Jesus clearly taught us that "Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall” (Luke 11:17-18 NIV)
3. Your body can not hold both God’s eternal light and the eternal darkness of hell because there is NO darkness in God’s holy temple – you!
4. The most Holy, Creator God of the Universe lives IN you, and He “is greater than the one who is in the world. (1 John 4:1-5 NIV) This verse doesn’t say, "Greater is the Spirit of God in you than the demon who may also be in you." The demonic spirits of the enemy live "in the world," NOT in you.
5. When Jesus was dealing with the Jews, He said they belonged to their father, “the devil.”
He didn’t say they were demon-possessed or under the oppression of the devil. He said they belonged to the devil and did “not belong to God.’ (John 8:42-47 NIV). This is the sense in which John wrote
"He who does what is sinful is of the devil because the devil has been sinning from the beginning." (1 John 3:8 NIV)
Paul says that “you were dead in your transgressions and sins” when you “followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient” (Eph. 2:1-9)
b. Paul indicates that believers do not live among those who are disobedient, those IN whom the devil is actively at work.
c. If the enemy cannot be at work IN you, as this verse teaches, then the believer cannot be indwelt and possessed by demons.
d. Those found in the kingdom of the Son are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and are not under the rule or authority of demons because of God
“has rescued us from the dominion of darkness” (Col. 1:13 NIV)
C. God’ Sovereign Rule
• The enemy can’t escape or circumvent the sovereignty of God.
• In all cases, God remains in control, even when the devil is being allowed to attack.
God makes this clear in Job 2:3. There He says to satan; "you incited me against him (Job) to ruin him without any reason." Even though Job was being attacked by satan, God retained sovereignty over the situation. The devil can only tempt you up to a point. The devil does NOT have the authority to circumvent God’s will.
a. He must submit to God’s overall sovereignty.
b. He can’t exceed God’s limitations on temptation;
"And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it." (1 Cor 10:15 NIV).
c. Because every child of God belongs to Jesus, the enemy does not have the right to separate you or keep you from experiencing the love of God.
God’s powerful promise to you is that; “…neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8:38,39 NIV)
D. God’s Limitations On Temptation
Paul says it straight out. "And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it." (1 Cor 10:15 NIV)
A. The enemy can only tempt up to a point, then God steps in.
1. At the very least, God has promised to provide a way to stand up under any attack of the enemy.
2. To do that, God must monitor every temptation and attack.
If you are under attack, you can be assured God is watching and providing the means of your success. Stand on it!
E. Nothing Can Separate You
A. No demonic spirit has the LEGAL right to separate you from the love of God found in Christ Jesus.
B. They don’t have the right to block any human being from knowing about or experiencing His love. You have been given a great promise that has powerful implications,
“…neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8:38,39 NIV)
For example, a demonic spirit might try to block the spread of the Gospel, depriving people of the knowledge of the love of God. But, you have the right to pray that the Gospel will have a "free course," unhindered by their feeble attempts at putting a stop to it.
F. Binding And Loosing
The idea of "binding" and "loosing" has risen to the forefront in some current teaching on spiritual warfare. What is interesting is the absence of these two ideas in the spiritual warfare that is mentioned in the Bible. If it were to be such an important part of warfare, one would expect to find it more prominently mentioned in the Scripture.
Those that teach demons can be "bound" or that angels can be "loosed" use Matthew 16:19 and Matthew 18:18 as their proof texts.
A. The contextual premise of Matt 18:18 is the binding and loosing effects of forgiveness - the positive results when you forgive and the negative consequences when you don’t.
“And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matt 16:19 KJV)
1. "Binding" and "loosing" is a Jewish idiom translated word for word from the Hebrew into the Greek.
Jewish texts to show that "binding" and "loosing" were the terms applied to the work of the rabbis in interpreting Scripture, allowing some things but denying others based on their interpretation of the meaning of the law. So if the rabbi said you were not allowed to walk more than a few hundred yards on the Sabbath, he was "binding" certain behavior. Although Jesus criticized the Pharisees for their hypocrisy, He required His disciples to obey their interpretations.
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach”. (Matt 23:3)
To "sit in Moses’ seat" was to have authority regarding the interpretation of the law. Later, at the Council of Jerusalem, they were to do this very thing by not requiring Gentiles to be circumcised or to follow other aspects of Jewish law. Acting in this capacity, the Apostles were "binding and loosing" in true rabbinical fashion. When you don’t forgive, you are serving as both Judge and Jury.
B. You have the power to “loose” the blessings of God upon the one you forgive or to “bind” the person from experiencing forgiveness, thereby blocking God’s blessings.
C. Jesus shows us only a superior power can drive out demons in the "strong man" passages found in Matt 12:29, Mark 3:27.
“No one can enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house. (Mark 3:27-28 NIV)
Luke’s account emphasizes that the strong man “attacks and overpowers him” (Luke 11:21-22 NIV). There is no mention of tying him up (binding). The point of the passage is not about "binding," but about the effect of superior power. Jesus had many contacts with demonic spirits, but it is never said that He went about "binding" them.
The Bible says that satan will be "bound" and "loosed." Note that satan is going to be bound in the future AFTER the thousand years reign of Jesus is fulfilled. This future tense is the only proper application of this concept to spiritual warfare.
“And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.” (Rev 20:1-3 KJV)
D. Remember, satan is not omnipresent. He can’t be in more than one place at a time.
There is only one of him, and he is limited to one place at a time. If one person has "bound" satan, then he would be prohibited from doing anything to anyone else.
G. The Mark Of Maturity
The Bible tells us that the distinguishing mark of a mature Christian is that they desire to eat spiritual “Solid food” by training “themselves to recognize the difference between right and wrong” and then taking what they have learned and doing “ what is right.” (Heb 5:14 NLT)
A. A mature Christian can discern the difference between what is right and wrong.
When you learn what the nature and character are of the enemy, you will be able to resist him more effectively.
B. When you give in to the desires of your old sinful nature, you are displaying the true nature of the enemy and are opening yourself up to his attacks and the establishment of demonic strongholds.
As a consequence, you will:
“produce these evil results: sexual immorality, impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, idolatry, participation in demonic activities, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group, envy, drunkenness, wild parties,”…“stealing” “foul or abusive language”…“ bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of malicious behavior”.. “and other kinds of sin.” (1 Cor 6:9-10, Rom 1:21-32,12:2; Gal 5:19-21)
C. You will keep the strongholds from being established when you use “your hands for honest work” and “give generously to others in need” by being “kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.”
D. To break the strongholds, you must “throw off your old evil nature and your former way of life, which is rotten through and through, full of lust and deception.”
E. The Holy Spirit will renew your “thoughts and attitude’s.” and cause you to display God’s nature, which is “righteous, holy, and true.” (Eph 4:20-32 NLT)
