YES, CHRISTIANS CAN HAVE DEMONS

By NiteOwlDave
niteowldave@gmail.com

Can a born again Christian be possessed by a demon?

It is likely that most Bible-believers who acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior will say absolutely not.

They will say no way will the Holy Spirit share quarters with a demon or demons. They advise that demons are blocked from entering a Christian by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

That seems to make sense. I’m sure 99 per cent of us raised in a Bible church have always believed this to be rock solid truth.

It may be an eye opener to learn that nowhere in the Bible does it state that a Christian cannot be indwelt by a demon. It is assumed that Christians are demon-proofed.

The idea that a demon can attach to a Christian falls in place if we accept that all of us are triune beings, consisting of body, soul, and spirit.

I suggest one or more demons can inhabit the realm of the body (flesh) and the realm of the soul (mind, emotions, and will), but not the realm of the spirit where the Holy Spirit resides.

I will address the “how” part of the question further down. I use the demon “attach” word to try to sidestep the word debate of being demonized and demonic oppression.

There is no such thing as demon possession of a Christian. The correct wording is, Christians and a non-Christians can be demonized.

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?

The Bible does not say much about being demonized.

However, there are passages that, I suggest, seem to indicate that God does allow demons to quietly attach to a follower of Jesus Christ.

This will happen only if a demon has “grounds” which gives it the authority or right to be there. Case in point: Horrors, but was not a demon attached to the world’s greatest evangelist, the apostle Paul? It seems so.

In 2 Corinthians 12:7, it states that the Lord used a demon to prevent Paul from becoming proud of his accomplishments in establishing churches and winning the lost for Christ. Paul was helped from becoming proud of the revelations he received when he was taken to Heaven.

“And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.” – KJV

God did not use an angel here, but a messenger of Satan – a demon. This demon inhabited the flesh of Christian Paul. Paul apparently had to deal with vision problems. In Galations 6:11, he writes, "See what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand."

Demons can be sent by God if a Christian needs chastening when he does not respond properly to less severe measures by Him.

As I see it, God will allow demons to deliver physical infirmities to Christians and non-Christians. Often times, the malady cannot be diagnosed by medical doctors because it is spiritual rather than physical.

Christians who work in demon deliverance ministries tell us that most of these demons can readily be cast out unless, as in Paul's case, the demon is sent by the Lord to buffet that person to keep him from being proud or for some other reason.

Isaiah 61:1 sheds broad light on the subject: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek: he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captive, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.”

Grace Kemp, a seasoned Bible teacher, notes that the Bible says demons have access to Heaven “so why not we Christians?”

She asks, “If a demon cannot indwell a believer because of the presence of the Holy Spirit, how is it that Satan and his demons continue to have their place in Heaven until the middle of the Tribulation?”

She points to Revelation 12:7-12,“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.”

Kemp notes, “While Satan and his angels maintain their place in Heaven where he accuses the saints before God ‘day and night’, according to Revelation 12:10, ‘he is also ’the prince of the power of the air’ and ‘the god of this world.’

"In Eden, he tricked Eve and Adam into giving him the deed to earth. Consequently, Satan and his hordes of fallen angels work on earth while maintaining their place in Heaven."

“Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. And the LORD said to Satan, ‘From where do you come?’ So Satan answered the LORD and said, ‘From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it’.”

Grace's website is http://www.scriptureseries.com

WHAT OPENINGS DO WE PROVIDE FOR DEMONIC ATTACHMENT?

One area that Christians and non-Christians are particularly vulnerable to demon attachment is involvement in the occult. This would include consulting horoscopes, Ouija boards, fortune-tellers, séances and so forth.

Haven of Hope founder Shirley (last name withheld) states, “There was a time when I believed Christians could not have demons - that's what I was taught - but then my experiences showed me the truth and THERE WAS NO CONTRADICTION WITH THE WORD OF GOD.

“People who deny the possibility of Christians having demons are missing the knowledge of much of the spiritual world.

“Any kind of severe trauma, such as sexual abuse, gives ground to demons. Demons are forced to reveal what right they have to be with the person - any curses, vows or programming connected to them and any ground. The person then renounces and breaks the curses, vows and programming and renounces the ground the demon has 'in the name and shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ'.”

Shirley’s website is http://www.haven-of-hope.org/

FAILURE OF BIBLE TEACHERS

Many Bible teachers, inexperienced in spiritual warfare and deliverance ministry, usually don't want to talk about the reality of demons linked to Christians.

As radical as this may sound, may I suggest that the fear of demons comes from demons themselves. Says 2 Timothy 1:7, "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

The key is for our church leaders to be trained how to lead people to take back the demon’s ground (legal right to stay) and then to expel demons in a calm, orderly, step-by-step way and NOT by screaming, “out, out, out in the name of Jesus.”

It is the power of the shed blood of the risen Lord Jesus Christ that IS the control and removal power, yes. But like a surgeon, we must know the specific right and power a demon has to remain attached to a person. Without knowing a demon’s ground, we will be blocked and wind up frustrated.

Much of Jesus' earthly ministry included casting out demons that resulted in healing the victims of physical and mental afflictions. And before He commissioned the 11 disciples at the end of His ministry, when He sent out the Twelve, part of their charge was to cast out demons, according to Matthew 10:1-8.

Not all who have demons are maniacal like the Gadarene demoniac who wore no clothes and lived in tombs. Jesus delivered a "daughter of Abraham" whom Satan had bound for 18 years. She had "a spirit of infirmity" that had her bent over and she could not straighten up, says Luke: 13:11-16.

Children can have demons. The Syrophenician mother had a "young daughter who had an unclean spirit" and besought Jesus "that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter"

Mark 7:25-26 speaks of a man whose son had a demon. "And Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the child, and delivered him again to his father".

Take note: Rebuking does NOTHING to get rid of demons. For some reason, Christians today have not been given the same demon “rebuking and deliverance” power the Apostles possessed. The power the apostles had was given to prove that Jesus Christ was sent by God and was, indeed, the Son of God.

Jesus rebuked the demons because He is God. Not only did the Disciples and the Seventy cast out demons during Jesus' ministry, but later, as recorded in the Book of Acts, the apostles' ministry included deliverance:

Act 5:8 says, "There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one."

Again, the healing and deliverance was to prove that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, sent by God. Philip, who was once a deacon and later became an evangelist, ministered to the people in the city of Samaria. He said in Acts 8:7, “For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them...." Unclean spirits can speak through God's people, often unknown to the believer.

Matthew 16: 22-23 says, "Then Peter took him (Jesus), and began to rebuke him....But he (Jesus) turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan" Many times we hear Christians quote James 4:7 saying, "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." But that is the last half of the verse. The first half says, "Submit yourselves therefore to God."

Every area of our lives must be in subjection to God. If we do not totally submit to Him, then we give ground to the enemy to influence and defeat us in those areas. And often the work of demons is manifested as a result.

In these perilous last days we must realize that our real enemy is Satan.

Paul said in Ephesians 6:12, "...we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world...."

WHY NATURAL DISASTERS, GOD?

By NiteOwlDave
niteowldave@gmail.com

I remember hearing evangelist Billy Graham tell Larry King on his CNN 9 p.m. interview program that man’s sin is why we see such weather turmoil on earth.

“How simplistic,” I thought. However, the more I think about Dr. Graham’s observation, the more sense it makes.

God created the winds and the tides, and for our good. He created in each of us the ability to choose right from wrong. Our choices have good and bad consequences, weather wise and otherwise.

Adam and Eve opened the floodgates on mankind when they chose to sin in the Garden of Eden. Satan grabbed the controls. He laughs as he spins out earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, tsunamis, typhoons, cyclones, mudslides, and other disasters.

Sadly, tragedies such as Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the 2008 cyclone in Myanmar, the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and the 2011 earthquake/tsunami in Japan cause many people to question God’s goodness.

We can’t blame disaster survivors for that. Who wouldn’t question God’s fairness as they watched their smashed stuff float away?

One could say it’s odd that natural disasters are often termed “acts of God” while no credit is given to God for years, decades, or even centuries of peaceful weather.

Genesis 1:1 says that God created the whole universe and the laws of nature. Colossians 1: 16-17 says, that Jesus Christ holds all of nature together. I suggest this means that God, at times, does allow Satan to wreck havoc as judgment for our sin.

1 Kings 8:35 says,” When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, and when they pray toward this place and give praise to your name and turn from their sin because you have afflicted them.”

Deuteronomy 28:24 says,” The LORD will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed.”

James 5:17 and Numbers 16:30-34 also shows us that God can and does cause natural disasters as a judgment against sin. Revelation 6, 8 and 16 forecast many events that can definitely be described as natural disasters.

As for the Old Testament and Revelation verses where God sends disasters as specific punishment for sin, that is for Israel only. Israel is God's earthly people and God requires much of them.

It doesn’t appear that any of these versus apply to today’s age. See Leviticus 26, and Deuteronomy 28, 29,30 for specific blessings and punishments for Israel.

In much the same way that God allows evil people to commit evil acts, God allows the earth to reflect the consequences sin has had on creation.

Romans 8:19-21 tells us, “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.”

The fall of humanity into sin had effects on everything, including the world we inhabit. Everything in creation is subject to “frustration” and “decay.” As Billy Grahm observed, sin is the ultimate cause of natural disasters just as it is the cause of death, disease, and suffering.

Tragic disasters shake our confidence in this life and force us to think about eternity. Churches are usually filled after disasters as people realize how tenuous their lives really are and how life can be taken away in an instant.

What we do know is this: God is good. Many amazing miracles occurr during the course of natural disasters that prevent even greater loss of life.

Disasters cause millions of people to reevaluate their priorities in life. Hundreds of millions of dollars in aid is sent to help the people who are suffering.

Christian ministries have the opportunity to help, minister, counsel, pray, and lead people to saving faith in Christ. God can, and does, bring good out of terrible tragedies.

Did God Create Evil? Seems So.

By NiteOwlDave

www.niteowldave.com

This old chestnut of a question - Did God create good and evil? - harkens back to the puzzler; which came first, the chicken or the egg? Squawk!

God created good first, but many Bible believers suggest no way did God creat e evil, that He just “allowed” it. I suggest scriptural evidence and solid sense must conclude that God did create good and evil.

How can something be touchy, feely real without being created by the master planner? If God allows something, He’s on the hook for it being there. That’s abrupt perhaps,but it makes bold sense as I see it. In Genesis 2:16-17 we read,

"And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."

God created everything in the Garden of Eden, the tree of good and evil included. We see another example in Isaiah 45:7. “I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the LORD do all these things.”

God presented the freedom of choice with the creation of Adam and Eve. They chose to sin. In order for choice to work, there must be at least two options, good and evil. It takes the salvation blood of the risen Christ to purify us, if we chose that. Again, our choice.

God allows for angels and humans to choose to do right or wrong. Lucifer, the highest angel, choose to sin by wanting equal power with God. Lucifer and one third of the angelic force that choose to bow to him were booted from Heaven to become Satan and demons.

We live in a world of created opposites - day-night, fat-skinny, happy-sad, hot-cold, saved-unsaved, good-evil. Some suggest that evil has no existence of its own but is the absence of good. If darkness is the absence of light, I counter with the statement that light is the absence of darkness.

Genesis 1:4 states that God created darkness and light. It says God then separated the two. It is talking about literal day and night here, but this is an opener for the thought of created good and evil.

Critics say that God created heat and that cold does not exist by itself. They say cold is the absence of heat. Hmm. Grab a jacket. One brash Christian writer, Rick Deem, proclaims, “The Bible is quite clear that God is not the author of evil and He is incapable of doing so.” Quite clear, you say? God can’t create anything He wants? Oh, my.

If God did not allow for created evil, mankind and angels would be serving God out of obligation, not choice. God did not create programmed robots. God created the option of evil so that we could genuinely have a free will and choose whether or not we wanted to serve Him.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE FEAR OF GOD?

By Paul Tatham
tatham47@hotmail.com

Fear is a word that crops up quite often in Scripture.

It usually takes one of two forms — one has a positive connotation and the other a negative connotation. The former can be found in verses such as the following:

• “Fear the Lord, and serve Him in sincerity and in truth” (Joshua 24:14).

• “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10).

It usually refers to having a reverential awe toward God. We gaze upward on a cloudless, moonless night, for instance, and marvel at the sheer expanse of the universe and the supremacy of its Creator.

We may even find ourselves humming the chorus, “How Great is our God.” This kind of fear is positive. It’s kinder, gentler.

The other form of fear carries with it the meaning we typically associate with the word — the trembling, knee-knocking, nail-biting variety. Examples abound throughout the Bible:

• “That they may learn to fear Me . . . and that they may teach their children” (Deuteronomy 4:10).

• “That they would fear Me, and keep all commandments always, that it might be well with them and with their children forever” (Deuteronomy 5:29).

• “That thou might fear the Lord thy God, to keep all His statutes” (Deuteronomy 6:2).

• “Fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways” (Deuteronomy 10:12).

• “If you will fear the Lord, and serve Him, and obey His voice” (I Samuel 12:14).

• “Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling” (Psalms 2:11).

• “You, even You, are to be feared. Let all those round about Him bring presents to Him that ought to be feared” (Psalms 76:7, 11).

• “Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, that walks in His ways. This is how the man who fears the Lord shall be blessed” (Psalms 128:1, 4).

• “The Lord takes pleasure in them who fear Him” (Psalms 147:11).

• “By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil” (Proverbs 16:6).

• “Do you not fear Me, says the Lord? Will you not tremble at My presence” (Jeremiah 5:22)?

We hear a lot about the first kind of fear, but not so much about the second. Somehow, over the last 40 years or so, the latter has become politically incorrect and a topic that seems too harsh for our sensitive ears, even for evangelical churchgoers. Someone might be offended, after all.

This negative version of the word “fear” refers to the dread, the apprehension, that should engulf someone who would reject Christ as Savior or dare violate His commands.

And when it is “working” properly, fear serves to keep many of us from stepping out of line. So a healthy fear of God, and the consequences that await us if we displease Him, is actually — as Martha Stewart would say — a good thing.

Now granted, for a Christian to obey God largely because He carries a big stick might not be the most noble of motives. But I can live with it. Just as I can live with a person who hears a hellfire sermon and, as a result, bows in repentance at the foot of the cross.

Some folks are wired to respond more out of a hand-wringing fear of God’s Hell than of a heart-warming promise of God’s Heaven.

True fear can be a great motivator. It can drive us to Christ in the first place then play a preventative role — keep us from sin once we are saved. Moses said to the Israelites under his command, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin” (Exodus 20:20).

Sadly, in some cases it is only when we are gripped with fear that we respond to God at all. In Romans 3, Paul describes unregenerate man. After several verses describing mankind’s wayward ways, he sums things up by declaring, “There is no fear of God before their eyes” (v. 18). A person who does not fear God is unlikely to ever stop and consider what He has to say.

The fearless person is headed for trouble. The person who does not fear snakes usually gets bitten. The person who does not fear automobile accidents usually has one. The kid who does not fear his parents often ends up in trouble with the law. The teenager who has no fear of his teachers frequently ends up being suspended or expelled. An absence of fear leads to problems.

Because fear — the negative side — can so often be an agent for good, let’s not “fear” to use it. God’s Word certainly doesn’t tiptoe around it, and neither should we.

JUDGMENT DAY IN HEAVEN WILL ZIP ALONG

By Grace Kemp
gracekemp@aol.com

1. How long will it take for God to judge the billions of people on Judgment Day?

In an earthly setting, such a judgment might take a billion years to process 15 billion (?) people. When God created our cosmos, he created time with a progression from past to present to future.

God, however, lives in the eternal present where, "a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday." (Psalms 90:4) Time stands still in eternity.


2. Will there be a long line in Heaven waiting for their final judgment?

This judgment of all those who died in their sins will take no time at all because time has ceased to exist.

3. Will all sinners be dragged to Hell by the angels? Will we see it? What will be the process?

It is highly likely that angels will drag the condemned souls to Hell based on angels carrying out God's judgments throughout the Tribulation.(See Revelation 7:1; 8:2; 16:1; 18:21; 20:1, etc.)

As for the process, as each one stands alone before God, the Book of Life will be examined, only to discover that the name is missing.

This is followed by an examination of the books of works which record good and bad deeds done on earth, Many references indicate that there are degrees of punishment in Hell and the condemned soul will suffer according to their works on earth (Luke 12:47). If this were not the case, why record their works at all?

4. Will we see it?

I believe so. What is a court without witnesses? Undoubtedly, the sinner will try and change the story but "in the mouth of two or three witnesses let every word be established". (11 Corinthians 13:1) We can anticipate being called as witnesses for the prosecution. (Matthew12:42)

To recap, the unsaved dead stand before God. Their bodies, resurrected from their graves, are joined by their spirits, resurrected from Hell. (Revelation 20:13)

Each will stand alone before God, "from whose face the earth and the Heaven fled away." No "mediator" will be present to plead our case and nothing to forgive us of sin.

The names of the unforgiven will be absent from the Book of Life. The books of works will show the record of all our good and bad deeds on earth. Behind the throne will be the "cloud of witnesses," the saints of all ages, ready to testify of their encounters with the condemned person during his/her life.

Sadly, all of the unsaved will be banished to the Lake of Fire where the degree of punishment depends on their record of lifetime works. In view of this,"...what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness," says 11 Peter 3:11.

OPRAH WOULD MAKE AN AWESOME CHRISTIAN

Did any of you catch the four programs TV talk show host Oprah taped in Australia? We caught them all. Taped before Christmas, they were aired Jan. 18-21, 2011.

When you scrape away the guff, I think we must conclude that from a Christian perspective the Phantom of the Sydney Oprah House is perhaps the most dangerous woman on the planet today.

First and FOREMOST, Oprah rejects Christ as being the only way to Heaven.

OPRAH SAYS:

In these videos, she says:

“There is no sin,”

“Jesus is just one of the paths to God.”

“Jesus Christ did not come to die but to show us how to live.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xM5ILOsHLnw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW4LLwkgmqA&feature=related

THE BIBLE SAYS:

Jesus is the only Way to Heaven.

John 14: 6 says, “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’.” Jesus came to this earth to die.

John 3:16-18 say, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.”

We have all sinned.

Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

Oprah is the poster woman for success and would make an AWESOME Christian. She cares, she gives, and she brightens a room.

But because she rejects the above claims of Christ – that Jesus of Nazareth is the one Lord, the one Savior, the one Way, Oprah disqualifies herself from BEING a Christian.

WAKE UP, OPRAH

The Bible says those who reject this, face eternal Hell.

John 3:36 says, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”

Oprah preaches her gospel from an unparallel platform of power and influence. She is lauded to be the most powerful woman in the world.

She recently wound up her 25th and final season of her weekday Oprah Winfrey Show. Seen five times a week, the program had a viewership of “tens, maybe hundreds, of millions”, according to the following website that says her show was popular around the world.

Wikipedia says http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oprah_Winfrey

In January, 2011, she launched her new OWN cable television network. OWN stands for Oprah Winfrey Network.

Watch for it to feature many “you can fix yourself” New Age programs.

The Bible says we cannot heal ourselves. Only Jesus can erase our guilt and sin and truly fix us. We can fix the squeaks, sure, but Jesus must be our foundation.

KUDOS FOR OPRAH

Caring Oprah told Larry King’s replacement Piers Morgan, in his inaugural CNN program, that she figures she has given away “more than 300 million” to charitable causes.

Her endorsement of then-presidential candidate Barack Obama is seen as a major boost to Obama winning the White House. From 2006 to 2008, her support of Obama, by one estimate, delivered over a million votes in the close 2008 Democratic primary race.

She publishes O. The Oprah Magazine, with a circulation of over 2 ½ million.

She is the Pied Piper of Feel Good, giving her television audiences many freebies that include cars to far-flung trips. In December, 2010, she flew one of her TV audience of 300 to Australia on her dime.

She is an abuse survivor. She was raped at the age of nine and became pregnant at 14. Her son died in infancy. On her TV program, she has brought to light the plight of survivors and aired programs about seldom heard mental-physical-spiritual problems like Dissociate Identity Disorder (DID) that is fallout from repeated abuse to a child under the age of five or so.

In 2007, she established the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls near Johannesburg, South Africa. Inspired by her own humble beginnings and disadvantaged background, Oprah stated that she founded the Leadership Academy to provide educational and leadership opportunities for academically gifted girls. The students come from impoverished backgrounds in South Africa who exhibit leadership qualities for making a difference in the world.

Born into poverty, Oprah has been ranked the richest African American of the 20th century, the greatest black philanthropist in American history. She was once the world's only black billionaire.

Way to go, giveback Oprah. Not bad for a gal born into poverty with mountains to climb. God is so proud of you.

Like you, He is a giver. He gave us His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We must each reach out and receive Him as our personal Savior and Lord.

Check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KdvCB_JjnM&feature=related#