Can A Christian Be Demon-Possessed?
As a new Christian, I underwent a very serious deliverance from spiritual bondage in direct connection to my occult past. As I mentioned in chapter 1, a woman at a weekly house prayer meeting I was attending saw a spirit of sorcery standing over me. As soon as she expressed that, something picked me up and threw me against the wall. Next, I went into a grand mal demonic manifestation. I wrote about this incident in more detail in my book The Intercessor’s Handbook (Chosen, 2016), but what happened to me at this prayer meeting was challenging to my pastor and to others in my Church. They believed that Christians could not manifest demonically if they truly had the Holy Spirit.
I did have the Holy Spirit, but I still manifested demonically, as those areas of occultism had to be firmly addressed and dealt with. The good news is, I found my spiritual authority in Christ during that season and learned to walk out my freedom.
Since then, I have encountered Christian after Christian needing various levels of deliverance such as what I needed. After hearing my testimony of deliverance, Kyra (not her real name) came forward at the end of a church service to receive ministry from our altar team. She could barely walk forward, however, before she fell to the ground in a strong demonic manifestation. Keep in mind that Kyra is a Christian woman. She has accepted Jesus into her heart, and she has been baptized in the Holy Spirit. Still, she manifested demonically and, like me, needed deliverance from her occult past, her issues being caused by Satanic ritual abuse as a child.
With that said, it is a huge myth to believe that Christians cannot be demonized. Notice, however, that I use the word demonized and not the word possessed. This is where most of our confusion has come from. We have confused possession with demonization, and they are two different things. The late Derek Prince explained his objection to the use of this description demon possessed in certain passages of the Bible, claiming it is a mistranslation, such as in this passage: “That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed” (Mark 1:32)
“The word possessed suggests ownership…by a demon,” Prince said. “Now I don’t believe that any born-again, sincere Christian can be owned by a demon…but the Greek word that’s used can easily be, and should be, translated demonized.”
He went on to explain that many born-again Christians are still demonized. He said there are areas in their personality where the Holy Spirit is not yet incomplete control because there is a demon that has to be dealt with.
John Eckhardt, overseer of Crusaders Church Chicago, wrote something similar in an article for Charisma magazine:
The word “possessed” is an unfortunate translation because it connotes ownership, and we know that the devil cannot own a Christian—That is, have complete control of him. But in the bible, there is no real distinction between being possessed and being oppressed, digressed, suppressed, obsessed and so forth. All these terms mean that a person is, to some degree, under the influence of a demon.
The questions remains, then, how much of a Christian can a demon possibly possess? In examining this, we need to recognize that we are all made up of three parts: spirit, soul and body. When Jesus comes into your life, He comes into your spirit and takes up residence. Paul wrote to the Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). I believe Charles H. Kraft, president and founder of Deep Healing Ministries, says it best: “A demon cannot live in the Christians spirit—that is, the person’s central core, the part that died when Adam sinned, because Jesus now lives there.”
So, then, how does a person know if he or she is under the influence of demons or not? I admit discussions like this can make people doubt their spiritual condition if they are not strong in the written Word and don’t know who they are in Christ. It can also leave us with the impression that deliverance from demons will always be a big fight. The truth—and I hope this gives you reasonable assurance—is that demons will only do what we have allowed them to do. The disciples, too, discovered this when they ministered, and then told Jesus, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name” (Luke 10:17).
More often than not, I have known Christians to be delivered with minimal manifestation from spirits in their soul such as rejections, fear, self-hatred, lust, torment and so forth after they repent, renounce whatever it is, and command the spirit to go. If there is manifestation, there might be a sigh, a cough, a shake or a twitch when the spirit leaves them, which is a signal that they are free of it. Still, there will be other believers who will have a much stronger manifestation, and we need to be prepared for that without making it a formula for deliverance. Derek Prince, for example, shared about his miraculous healing from bladder cancer. When hands were laid on him for healing, he felt a distinct spiritual battle inside himself, like two cats fighting with one another. He then let out a long, sustained “roar” and was perfectly healed from the spirit of cancer.
Does this reassure you as much as it reassures me? The truth is that you and I are possessed, in a sense, upon our confession of Christ—only not by a demon. The Holy Spirit has possessed us—the Spirit of Christ, who lives and dwells in our born-again spirit. As far as the rest of us, meaning our soul and body, these are the areas that can come under the influence of demons that have to be expelled. Still, I am confident in the power of God to overcome any such negative influence, should it come, knowing that the greater One lives and dwells inside us (see 1 John 4:4). We will always have a sure remedy in the Holy Spirit.