Can the Holy Spirit and a Demon Exist Together Inside a Christian? (Part Two)
He leads me …
Please note – There could be aspects of this blog that may be new to some readers. What follows opens up the subject of Christians being possessed by demons, for consideration and discussion. It is in no way meant to undermine what anyone believes.
In the previous blog we looked at whether the Holy Spirit and a demon would live together in a born again believer, but the study would not be complete if we did not look at how the demonic oppression occurs.
Let us start by looking at how God has created humans. In 1 Thessalonians 5:23 the Apostle Paul sends the church a blessing that reads –
Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. (NLT emphasis added)
The body – is the physical part of a person. It is where the five senses of sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch exist.
The soul – is where the personality of each person is. It is made up of the mind, the will, and the emotions.
The spirit – is the spiritual side of man that interacts with God in the Christian, but is dead in the unbeliever.[1]
These three parts of each person correspond to the three parts of the Old Testament tabernacle and temple where believers worshipped God. In the New Testament the Apostle Paul told the Christians in Corinth -
Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? (1 Corinthians 3:16 NKJV italics added)
Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19 NKJV)
The tabernacle that was used in the wilderness, Solomon’s Temple, Ezra’s Temple and the temple built by Herod were all essentially similar. Each has an outer court which represents our body, a Holy Place which represents our soul and the Holy of Holies which represents our spirit and is where the Holy Spirit dwells. What Paul is saying is that because Jesus’ followers are the temple of God, the Holy Spirit dwells in us just like God dwelt in the Holy of Holies.[2]
To develop this a bit further, the Outer Court of the temple was open to many outside influences, just as our bodies are. We can probably think of things in our own lives that provide us with comfort and pleasure, that also could become so dominant that they draw us away from genuinely following God.
God’s glory radiated light outwards from the Holy of Holies into the rest of the temple (Ezekiel 10:4; 18). The human spirit becomes alive to God the moment the Holy Spirit joins it when He enters a new believer (Romans 8:10), and the effect of this union is that the Holy Spirits work should shine out for others to see.
Our soul is between the body and the spirit and is indifferent in that it can either respond to the Holy Spirit in our spirit, or alternatively respond to our flesh with its self-indulgent desires.[3] The soul is a person’s free will. If our soul wants to obey God, it will allow the Holy Spirit to direct us. But if the soul chooses to follow the desires of our flesh, any direction or impact from the Holy Spirit will be basically fruitless.
For most Christians we come out of a life where we did basically what we wanted to do. This means that because the transition to becoming Christ-like is not immediate, we find ourselves adjusting to the new way of doing things. At this stage demons are able to work on the weak areas in our lives to try and show us that being a Christian is not working, and that we should go back to our old ways.
1 John 2:16 tells us that, ‘For everything that is in the world—the desire for fleshly gratification [the lust of the flesh], the desire for possessions [the lust of the eyes], and worldly arrogance [the pride of life]—is not from the Father but is from the world (ISV). These are the three areas where evil forces will try to cause Christians to fail in their walk with the Lord.
It may be that we are on our own, so a quick look at the site where the naked women look amazing will not hurt. Or maybe some colleagues from work are having some drinks after work and we have been invited. We think that if we have just one drink it should be okay. Alternatively it could be that we think that we will have just one more game on our mobile phone and then we will read our Bible.
This is just a start of what could be a really bad outcome. If the demon succeeds at this level, the challenges build up. We think that we got away with the smaller offence and no one got hurt, so how will it matter if we just move up a level? We find that our spirit is really wanting to resist the temptation, but our flesh is weak and is not able to reject the sin that is so tempting (Matthew 26:41; Mark 14:38).
If we do not ask the Lord to help us, we will find that we will progressively become less and less interested in anything to do with Christianity. Praying and reading our Bible will become really hard work, and we will eventually want nothing to do with Christians or Jesus. This is when the demon has got what it set out to do by having direct control over our thoughts and actions (Luke 4:33-35; 8:27-33; Matthew 17:14-18).
Bishop Kanco who currently oversees The Lord's Vineyard Church International in Ghana, Africa, explains how his church deals with oppression and the effect of sinning that new believers bring with them from their old lives. He says, ‘We kill their past when they get saved.’ He says that those praying in their church cancel all generation curses that are found in Deuteronomy, and then restore the new believer with all the blessings from the Bible. ‘They have a chance if they receive deliverance from their past when they get saved’ he said. ‘Deliverance is enjoying the freedom to serve Jesus.’[4]
As Christians there are things that we should be aware of. The Bible tells us -
· Let every part of you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. Do not allow your weak thoughts to lead you into sinful actions. (Romans 13:14 NLV)
· But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from evil (2 Thessalonians 3:3 RSV)
· Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits” (1 Corinthians 15:33 NKJV)
· Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. (James 4:7 NKJV)
Christians should be very careful in what they do. 1 Peter 5:8 reads, ‘Be clear-minded and alert. Your opponent, the Devil, is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour’ (ISV). We must remember that submitting to temptations is dangerous. It is not a game.
[1] Is There a Difference Between the Spirit and the Soul? David Guzik, Enduring Word;
[2] The Holy Spirit and the Human Spirit, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, The (Set 1) Vol. 13: The Spiritual Man (2), by Watchman Nee, Living Stream Ministry;
https://www.ministrysamples.org/excerpts/THE-HOLY-SPIRIT-AND-THE-HUMAN-SPIRIT-1.HTML
A Spiritual View of the Temple of God, Be Ye Transformed: Nancy Missler, Koinonia House Inc, Idaho;
https://www.khouse.org/articles/1997/25/
[3] A Spiritual View of the Temple of God, Be Ye Transformed: Nancy Missler, Koinonia House Inc, Idaho;
https://www.khouse.org/articles/1997/25/
[4] The Importance of the Deliverance Minister, Pat Holliday, Ph.D, Miracle Internet Church, Florida;
http://www.miracleinternetchurch.com/deliverance/the-importance-of-thedeliverance-minister
