Christian Possession? Can Born Again Believers Be Demon Possessed?

Of all the strongholds a believer can be under, torment is the one that most closely resembles demonic possession.

Because of this, many believers address the stronghold of torment as if it were demonic possession. In applying the wrong diagnosis, the believer never implements the proper spiritual cure. This explains why the tormented are the ones who often get stuck in cycles. They may experience freedom for days, months, or even years at a time only to again be afflicted in the mind. Before we can focus on the proper solution, we need to have clarity on the actual problem. You need to know what torment is not. Accurate diagnosis is necessary if you want to find the proper cure. To properly diagnose the problem, we need truth.

So, in this chapter, we address the popular and powerful deception that Christians can be demon possessed. This, more than most other misconceptions about spiritual warfare, keeps believers in perpetual bondage. This fringe idea that Christians can be demon possessed isn’t believed by most serious Bible teachers and Christians, but it’s popular enough to be a problem in a very small sub-sect of a sub-sect of Christianity. It is for the sake of that one that I write a chapter that may not apply to the ninety-nine. Usually, it’s those who are most desperate and vulnerable who fall prey to this powerful lie.

Thankfully, this doctrine is losing ground, but I write this chapter to help make sure that remains the trend. The next generation must be equipped with solid, foundational doctrines of spiritual warfare and deliverance. I do this because I love God’s people and the deliverance ministry. The deliverance ministry is sacred and beautiful. We must keep it completely pure if we are to keep it truly powerful. May this chapter serve as an eye-opener to those who are bound by this powerful lie of the enemy, and may this serve as a reference to those who desire to know and propagate the truth.

We’re going to look at the biblical truths that reveal that Christians cannot be demon possessed, and we’re even going to address some of the most often misapplied Scriptures on this topic. We will look at the explanation for why we sometimes see Christians seeming to manifest demons. Bottom line—we’re going to seek biblical truth.

Truth Confronts

When confronted with truth, we are forced into making a decision. This is why hearing the truth is uncomfortable—especially when the truth contradicts what we’ve been told often, loudly, adamantly, and over long periods of time. When the truth contradicts our deeply held beliefs, we immediately become defensive. So I want you to make a commitment right now. Make a commitment that you’ll believe what the Bible says over what people say. Make a commitment that you’ll believe the Scripture over stories, truth over tradition. Remember that strongholds have reinforcing lies, so be careful that in your attempt to defend your own beliefs that you aren’t falling for satan’s subtle tactics and actually defending your bondage. To argue with God’s Word is to argue against freedom. Don’t argue against your deliverance.

Because of its intense nature, torment is the stronghold most often confused for demonic possession, but the enemy does not have to possess you to torment you. In the case of the born-again believer, the enemy must torment you from the outside. Many believers spend far too much time seeking exorcism for what they think is demonic possession when they should be pursuing deliverance from a stronghold, which is powerful deception.

To establish this truth, we need to explore the big question, “Can Christians be demon possessed?” We know demon possession is real. We know that unbelievers can be demon possessed. Additionally, we know Christians can be attacked, affected, influenced, and deceived by demons. But can Christians be demon possessed? Can demons literally dwell in or attach to the believer’s being? Christians need deliverance, but do Christians ever need exorcism?

There are only two approaches to answering this question. One way to answer this question is to look at your experience or the experiences of others. Here’s the only issue with looking to experience as the primary means of authority. Different people have different experiences that contradict one another. So some may say, “In my experience, I’ve found that everyone who has ever been demon possessed wasn’t truly born again.” And others might say, “Oh, I’ve seen Christians manifest!” They might even say, “As a Christian, I myself was delivered from demon possession.” Now experience does count, so we mustn’t discount experience entirely. The question becomes, “How do you interpret your experiences in light of the Word?” It’s possible that some mistake an intense deliverance from a spiritual bondage or stronghold for deliverance from demonic possession.

So to avoid confusion, we look to a better way of answering the question of Christian demon possession: We must first look to God’s Word. Scripture holds more authority than our stories. We have to remember that the Bible is our ultimate authority. Don’t get me wrong. Experiences count, and experiences can be very good, but experiences must be interpreted through the truths of Scripture. So we must first answer this question based on Scripture and then seek to explain our experiences through what the Bible clearly teaches.

There’s a lot riding on the answer to this question. If Christians can be demon possessed, then Spirit-filled living alone isn’t enough to keep us in freedom. If Christians can be demon possessed, then we now need a whole new set of approaches to living in liberty. This is precisely why many become angry if you even question that idea, because entire sub-cultures of Christianity have been formed on this notion.

On whatever side of the question you currently stand, be encouraged to know that your identity is found in Christ, not in what you believe about spiritual warfare doctrines.

But don’t rejoice because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered in heaven (Luke 10:20 NLT).

If you believe that Christians can be demon possessed, then when you hear the truth from Scripture, your first response may be to defend what you believe, to explain your point of view based on some experience you had, to label the one who tells you the truth as someone who needs to “go deeper” or “learn more” about spiritual warfare.

I know this because that’s how I used to be. You see, I used to teach that Christians can be demon possessed. I taught that along with several other unbiblical spiritual warfare doctrines. Whenever someone tried to correct me, I would arrogantly argue, “But that’s because they’re religious. They lack power. I have experience, they don’t. They haven’t cast out as many demons as me.” Or I would say, “Well, the Pharisees attacked Jesus too!”

“You’re keeping people in bondage.”

“Spiritual warfare isn’t your area of expertise.”

“Maybe you need deliverance from a demon!”

Those were the attacks I used against people who wanted to help me find the truth. I had to attack the person telling me the truth, because I knew I had nothing against the truth itself. I would tell people, “Spiritual warfare isn’t your area of expertise. Leave it to those who specialize in deliverance.” But think about the flaw in such a response. In this kind of response, bias is revealed. In other words, I was saying, “You’re only an expert if you agree with me,” or, “You can’t be right if you don’t tell me what I’ve already been told.” Just because we’ve been given information doesn’t mean that information was true. Just because we’ve been given Scriptures that seem to back an idea doesn’t mean that those Scriptures were used properly. If everyone who disagrees with us is immediately discredited as “ignorant,” then how exactly would we ever receive correction if wrong?

The change came for me when I started to study the Scriptures specifically on spiritual warfare and follow the actual leading of the Holy Spirit. I was confronted and corrected. Instead of trying to hang on to unnecessary and inaccurate doctrines, I bowed to the truth of God’s Word. I repented from religion and the traditions of man.

Demonization Always Means Possession

First, we need to define what we mean by “demon possession.” To be demon possessed is to be overtaken in body by a demonic being. In cases of possession, demons attach themselves to a host and torment the person. They even have control over some of the individual’s physical capacities. To be demon possessed is to be claimed as a host, to have your body owned and inhabited by a demonic being. The Bible has a word to describe this state: demonization. It’s used here:

When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick (Matthew 8:16 NKJV).

In that verse in Matthew 8, the Greek word for demon-possessed is daimonizomai. Daimonizomai or demonization is never used to describe the condition of a born-again believer, and it literally means “to be possessed by a demon.” You can look this up in the Strong’s Interlinear New Testament under “definition.” In A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, the definition given for demonization is to “be possessed by a hostile spirit.” This is why nearly every translation of the Bible uses the phrase “demon possessed” when it comes to the word demonized. Because that’s what it means. Simply put, demonization is always a reference to full-on possession.

Sometimes the word demonization is translated as “under the power of a demon.” But the phrase “under the power of a demon” is simply another way of saying “demon possessed.” They are synonymous. Bottom line: there’s only one word for “demon possession” in the New Testament, and that one word never means anything else but full-on demonic possession, no matter how its phrased.

I’ve heard some clever word play that is often used in an attempt to create debate around the word’s meaning. You’ll often hear people say things like, “Well, the word possessed isn’t even used in the original language; it’s actually demonized. And demonized doesn’t always mean ‘possessed.’”

The problem with that reasoning is that it’s just not true. The word demonized is the Greek equivalent for our term demon possessed. And there is no spectrum of being demonized, at least not in biblical terms. You are either demonized as in “possessed” or not. Demonization is possession, it’s ownership. Again, the word demonization is always a reference to full-on possession. It never means anything else but that.

Furthermore, some cause confusion by attempting to create new phrases for possession such as “having demons,” “having a spiritual spouse” (which is a New Age teaching), “being oppressed,” or, “having demonic attachments.” This confusion is solved by sticking with God’s Word. If anyone uses any phrase to mean that someone has a demon in them or attached to them, then they are describing possession. And possession is always ownership.

You’ve possibly heard the phrase, “a Christian can have whatever they want.” There’s some truth to that, though the idea doesn’t exactly make a strong case for Christian demon possession. Dear reader, a Christian can have whatever they want, but can a demon ever have what belongs to God?

A Matter of Ownership

So if possession is ownership, the question then becomes, “Who owns the believer?” Let’s look at what the Bible says:

The Spirit is the guarantee [the first installment, the pledge, a foretaste] of our inheritance until the redemption of God’s own [purchased] possession [His believers], to the praise of His glory (Ephesians 1:14 Amplified Bible).

But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light (1 Peter 2:9 NLT).

And you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God (1 Corinthians 3:23 NLT).

It’s perfectly clear that the believer belongs to God. That’s not even debated among serious Bible believers. You then have to ask yourself, “Can a believer be both owned by God and a demon at the same time?” That is, can the believer have both the Holy Spirit and a demon dwelling them? Here’s what the Bible says:

But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world (1 John 4:4 NLT).

Notice that the Scripture makes a distinction between God in you and a spirit in the world. It clearly teaches that one is in you and then clearly states that the other is not. So it’s perfectly clear that a Christian cannot be owned or possessed. If someone ever says, “The Bible doesn’t say outright that Christians can’t have demons,” we know that verse blatantly states otherwise.

If someone is truly demon possessed, their demons will manifest as they receive salvation. But after someone is born again, possession is simply off the table. Other forms of attack can still affect the believer, but possession is simply out of the question, at least according to the teachings of Scripture. Demonization is possession. Possession is ownership. And the believer is owned by God, not by a demon.

Now at this point someone might say, “Well, Christians can’t be possessed but they can be oppressed.” If by “oppressed” you simply mean that a Christian can be attacked or deceived, then you’re right on track. That we have already seen in the Scripture. But if by “oppressed” you mean a “Christian version of demon possession,” that is inaccurate.

What About the Body?

Furthermore, the body of the believer cannot be inhabited by a demon because the body is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit:

Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NLT).

What About the Soul?

Once it’s become clear that demons can’t dwell in the spirit or in the body of the believer, it seems that demons run out of spaces to hide. It’s at this point that some might interject, “But man is a body, soul, and spirit. Demons may not dwell in the body, where the Holy Spirit dwells. And demons may not dwell in the spirit, but they can dwell in the soul if the believer gives them a legal right.”

No doubt, if a believer lives in sin and compromise, there are profound consequences. I covered how open doors might affect the believer in my book, Holy Spirit: The Bondage Breaker.

However, aside from the fact that this idea of “soul possession” was never taught in the New Testament, consider what the implications of such a reality would be. The soul is the dwelling place of the will. Not even God will take control of the will, let alone allow a demon to take control of the will. Can demons take control over man’s free will? Let’s look at the demoniac in Mark 5.

When Jesus climbed out of the boat, a man possessed by an evil spirit came out from the tombs to meet him (Mark 5:2 NLT).

What demon would will its captive toward freedom? Do we really imagine that this was the exercise of demonic will? The man was drawn to Jesus and approached the Lord by his own will. Clearly, the man’s will was intact, so it was not his soul that was possessed.

Demons, by nature, are parasites. They look for hosts. They are rather uncomfortable outside of a physical being. This is why they begged Jesus to allow them access to a herd of pigs:

“Send us into those pigs,” the spirits begged. “Let us enter them” (Mark 5:12 NLT).

Demons tire when they are expelled from their physical host body:

When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none (Matthew 12:43 NLT).

So this notion that demons can hide in the soul is just not biblical. Demons possess bodies, not wills. Consider also the fact that every case of demonic possession in Scripture came with severe and obvious signs and symptoms. The Bible doesn’t give us any examples of hidden demons or asymptomatic demoniacs. I know that some might have experiences that would seem to contradict this point, but I directly address that in my book, Holy Spirit: The Bondage Breaker.