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Can Christians have demons?
I heard that Christians can have demon, if they allow it to happen. What are your views on this and why?
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Permalink Reply by Mary on
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I am currently going through some struggles in my life with lies the devil tells me. I know this may be much for people to swallow but these demons people speak about are real and I can feel and know when one is around oppressing me. There's a heavy feeling in the air and usually I feel it when I lay down to go to sleep. I feel it on the side of my bed. I'm usually too scared to look that way for fear it will show its face. I know also that when I cry out to the Lord, it will go away. What I don't understand is why it doesn't go away and stay away. It always comes back and so I call it an evil attachment that doesn't seem to want to let go. I often feel it or have sensed its presence when I am at my weakest. In recent months, I was actually shoved by it. I had a priest come and bless the place but now it is back. It hasn't touched me yet but it does harrass me with shakes of the bed or tiny touches to my arms or legs. I'm not crazy, I'm afflicted. I hate feeling like this. Sometimes I want to lash out at it with all of my strength but I have none.
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Permalink Reply by Janet on
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I can understand what you are going through because I to go through the same thing, heavy feeling in the air. Like a thinkness. At times I can smell demons..I also feel them around my bed at night. They use to shake my bed but they don't anymore because I say In the name of Jesus leave NOW! and they do but as you have said they always seem to find a way back..and like a roach they will find the smallest cracks in our walk with Jesus to get in. have you ever been in any of the Occult in the past, maybe a family member? something in your house could be keeping them there.
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Dear Janet,
Sorry it's taken me so very long to get back to you. Thanks for letting me know as the others have in this awesome place of peace, that you too have gone through similiar experiences dealing with the dark forces that oppress us all, especially those close to our Heavenly Father. To answer your question as briefly as I can as it is a very long story. My past has been full of grief (as I'm sure others have gone through some of the same experiences and hardships). When I was 4, my mother abandoned me, my sister and my brother on the side of a road, called my father to have him come and get us. She just drove off and left us there. She was an alcoholic. We ended up living in a very abusive household (as a matter of fact telling you all of this scares me a little as my stepmother is still alive and well and would not approve of this story at all...she is still in denial of what went on under the roof of our home. I hope that she is not looking online to see if I've written anything about her. She already asked me about a comment she thought I made in a newspaper (actually it wasn't about her per se, it was about abusive households in general). I had to lie just to keep the peace as I have brothers and a sister through her and my father to keep happy.) Anyway, I told you this wouldn't be long and here I am just typing away! So Sorry. At any rate, we ended up living with her and my father. It wasn't a picnic. I found out my father was abusing my little sisters and I felt so helpless. What was probably worse was that when I told our family priest about it, he instead, decided to confront my parents and I got into worse trouble. Of course, he denied everything. I was sent to a Catholic school where more abuse ensued and I couldn't say anything for fear I would be told I was not telling the truth. I was molested by my stepgrandfather and was told not to say anything so I never did about any abuse. When I was old enough, I contacted my mother who was still drinking but not as much. I forgave her (as I've forgiven everyone who has ever hurt me in my life) and we became the best of friends. I believed that God had finally given her back to me. My first marriage was at age 18 to an abusive man. We had a baby boy together. I had severe post partem depression and ended up leaving the relationship and subsequently my son as well. I just couldn't believe he was mine. It was that severe. I married again a year or two later to a better man alhtough not a Christian. We had a beautiful baby girl together. She was the light of my life and still is! We divorced 3 years later. A few years later, I found out my father had raped my nephews and so I decided to call the authorities. I was NOT very popular with the family from that point on. He died as he was riding his bike to work. I never got to say goodbye. A few years ago my mother (whom I had gotten close to) was diagnosed with Malignant Brain Cancer and died 9 months later. I didn't attend the funeral. I was arguing with my brother (my mother and stepfathers child). I wanted hospice, he didn't. My baby brother (the one I grew up with) was taking care of her (he was always trying to get her to love him just a little, but she loved her other son so much more...it hurt to watch the favoritism), he died a month before my mother. He took some of her medication, mixed it with some alcohol and died in the night. I had to pick out two caskets and arrange two funerals for my brother. It was a rough road after that but I managed through. A year later, I found my son was not at all the good kid I had been told. I always kept in contact with him and his father but was never told the real truth. He was arrested a year ago at the age of 18 for molesting his cousin. I was, of course, horrified and tried to help the best way I could. His father died a few months later and left the truth right in my lap. No explanations of how he ended up this way, he just up and died and left me with it. I reached out to my son, went and visited him (he was on probation), tried to teach him how to manage his money, his job that his father procured for him (which is tough to do for a pedophile) but to no avail, there was no empathy with my son, no motivation to better himself. He lied, stealed and ultimately ended up losing his job, his house, his car and his freedom. He is now facing 18 years in prison and my heart is breaking into a million pieces. The abyss just gets deeper with every day that goes by. I feel like I'm being tested and I don't know why but I have told God, it doesn't matter what happens to me I will NEVER stop loving him and I will NEVER blame him for the goings on in my life.
Again, I'm sorry that this is so long. When I was a little girl, I was made to take the sheets that I had soiled on accident and made to place them in my mouth for hours on end. I was made to kneel outside with my thumb in my mouth in the middle of the yard while neighbors and kids would go by. I was humilated on a daily basis by this cruel woman and yet, with each day I've risen to the occasion.
Janet, when you asked me if there was something in my past that kept the darkness near, these are just a bit of the things that I believe to be the reason for the evil attachment that lingers near, that oppresses me and continues to haunt me both day and night. When I was a little girl, we lived in a very very old house...I will never forget each night the dark shadowed figure that could walk through walls and the disturbances that would literally shake the house till the dust from the ceiling would come down. All of this would happen in the middle of the night and my parents never heard it. My brothers and sisters and I would huddle close together in the bathroom praying that the disturbances would stop but they never did. As the years went by, I always felt the dark grip of evil close by. In all of that, I never stopped praying although I did slip away from the church. I am no longer a Catholic. I love Reverend Charles Stanley though and watch him every week. I even got to visit his church.
I have often thought of writing another book but this one being much more biographical in nature. I'm just not sure where to start or if by doing so, I stir up the dust in the old mind attic.
Thanks for reading this and for commenting. I want you to know that I am here for you if YOU ever need someone. I am a good friend to all and will keep you and all my newfound friends in my thoughts and prayers. God Bless and Keep Smiling!
Peace and Love,
Marmie
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Dear Mary,
I want to thank you for getting back to me and I admire your courage and strength, that kind of courage and strength can only come from Jesus! You inspire me because I know you can help many other people that are in your place as we send emails back and fourth. God has reasons for all things I believe. And what you have gone through and are still going through is heavy but remember also that God never gives us more then we can handle. God is shaping your character and He is making you stronge as steel passing you through the fire. Look at Job and all he indured, he lost everything and I am not trying to make yours seem like nothing but God understands all of what you go through. I have gone through a lot as well and I have found a lot of healing in Jesus. I still have demonic problems..I am still haunted by my past and forgiving is very hard to do!! And that is why you inspire me so much. You make forgiving sound so easy! But I know that it is not. You need a lot of healing in your life and I know that Jesus is in the process of doing that and deliverance I believe. I have gone through deliverance's but you have to becareful who you go to... of course. How love have become a born again believer in Jesus? for me it has been since June 22, 2003. Do you fellowship with other believers? I love you a lot Mary and I want to see you fully healed. Keep trusting in Jesus and don't take your eyes off of Him!
In Christ Jesus
Your friend and sis.
Janet
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Hi Janet!
I Love You too Sister! Well, I've known Christ pretty much my whole life. I was blessed to have had a chance to meet him when I was quite young and went to Sunday School. I loved Vacation Bible school too every single year! Then, my father decided he didn't like the church and made us stop going and then we all ended up in Catholic Church and Catholic School. From that point on it was all about guilt from then on. Hence, that is why I am not Catholic. I was around 4 or 5 when I met our Heavenly father and I was saved when I was 12. It's been a hectic journey ever since but your words inspire me as well!
Well, as far as the forgiveness goes in my life. Forgiving and forgetting are too entirely different things. There are those Christians who believe that if you forgive something, you should be quick to forget it. Well, that is further from the truth! Christ certainly knew that it wouldn't be that easy to just forget our pasts, that is what makes us the people we are today and of course it also reminds us of the people we don't want to model after as well. I think forgiveness has always been easy because I knew that I wasn't a perfect parent either and although I never came close to the abuse I endured as a child, I knew that if I ever wanted my daughter to forgive me of my transgressions and failings as a mother at times, then I too needed to forgive those who have hurt me in the past. What made it easier was when I looked at my daughter and saw how much love was in those eyes. She was a gift from God and that I do believe. She was the one gift I always thought I didn't deserve but God was just in that he knew I may not have deserved it, his grace was the reason he gave me the gift of my daughter! Also, I thought...who am I to be a person who will not forgive when my heavenly father himself forgave me of all my sins? When I looked at it that way, forgiveness came so much easier and I was able to see past my bitterness. Do I still have weak moments of bitterness and anger? Sure I do, I'm human! The fact that he understands this and is willing to be so giving as to forgive me when I fall, is an awesome sense of being accepted by him. It is what keeps me going in this life. I have read the book of Job and the one thing I try not to do is compare my life to others or think my trials and tribulations are worse than others. We all have our trials and we hurt differently from each and every one of them. Some of us are stronger than others when it comes to dealing with those issues and sometimes I wonder how it is I can be strong at times when I feel so weak. The only answer I have is that the strength I have comes from Our Father in Heaven. I thank you for your kind words and I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers. As far as trusting in Jesus, I have my moments of doubt but even in the midst of the stormy trials, I know even if I don't feel him there...I kNOW he is and that makes those difficulties less painful.
Take care Janet! Please keep in touch and let me know how things are going in your life. Praise God you were saved in 2003!
In Peace and Love,
Mary
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HiYa Sister Mary!
( : I had a Christian friend who hurt myself and my friend a lot.. long story! and we have forgiven him but we cant forget. And he is like, if you forgive me then forget it. Bit it is very hard as you have said. Each time we spoke over the phone I was always reminded of the past with him. I grew up Catholic, not sure I told you? went to CCD classes but I always found the Catholic church to be boring and void. They taught me about God and Jesus but not the part where I had to have a personal relationship with Him. That came years later.
And you are very blessed to to have a Daughter Mary, I myself can not have children, God has his perfect reasons and I accept that. I do have a lot of Neice's and Nephew's though and they are GREAT! A true blessing!! You mentioned that you went through abuse with your mother? I did also but not like you did. Mine was mostly mental. But I have forgiven her and what makes it easy is the fact that she is mentally sick, so it was not really her at the time. She has cried to me many times saying how sorry she was.
Chat with you soon Mary.
In Jesus
Janet
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Permalink Reply by Soldier_Of_Christ on
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We had got into a discussion about "ghosts" and or "demons" once. Someone (wasn't clear on their religion, they might have been agnostic) mentioned that usually, only Christians can see such things and strangely, reports of possession happen to such. Now, we are aware that some who do not believe are also victims. But what if they later became a Christian after that experience? So when I mention this now, I say Christian "past, present, or future" is affected by this.
Now then again, there are those who get tormented. I have already shared some of my experiences with such in another thread. I did allow this to happen however, because it was what I was into at the time. What I didn't know at that time, was that those demons were whispering the things I didn't want to hear in my ears and I was taking it out on the flesh that surrounded me (people) when they said those things they have said. It is funny, how when you carry such a heavy mind about things, people actually pick up on it and they feel compelled to exploit that. Is that the act of human nature in some psychic sense (if that is even possible)? Or is that the work of demons, in which compels one to say such things?
Kind of makes me wonder about that one. Anyway, the problem with such fascination with demons and ghosts is that it lures you into things that "man" (Yes, women fall into that category) craves the most, such as divine power. Little do some of us know, our spiritual gifts are just as great, and the Lord can work through others to do such wonderful things if need be. I have heard many stories of miracles that are worked through those of faith by witnesses.
My apologies, I have a habit of ranting on and on about things until I get off topic. Anyway, I just thought I would toss some of those ideas and rumors about for what they are worth.
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Permalink Reply by Jody on
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I found this on a website, when I was searching for help with my own demon situation.
WHAT ARE DEMONS?
A study of the origin of the word demon, indicates these entities were observed long before the ministry of Jesus. The term ‘demon' is the rendering of two Greek words which Plato derived the meaning ‘knowing' or ‘to know.' Later, an early church Father, Eusebius rejected this definition and said it instead meant ‘to fear.' The Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (Brill Publishing, 1995) says the etymology (of the word) more likely stems from the root δαίω (daio),‘to divide (destinies)'. Thus the word could designate one's ‘fate' or ‘destiny', or the spirit controlling one's fate, one's ‘genius'. Commonly the word designated the class of lesser divinities arranged below the Olympian gods, the daimones. Hesiod describes them as the souls of those who lived in the Golden Age, who now invisibly watch over human affairs.
Two verbs from this root are important in Biblical and related literature: δαιμονάω (daimonao) and δαιμονίζομαι (daimonizomai) . Both originally meant ‘to be under the power of a god or daimon', which condition was often a blessing, producing prophetic utterance or heroic behavior; it could also be a curse, and the words could mean ‘to be insane'. In later authors, especially Jewish and Christian, they came to mean ‘to be possessed by a demon' which caused bodily infirmity or insanity; in the sense ‘to be insane' it was used pejoratively of the ‘ravings' (= ‘doctrines') of heretics (Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 7.31.1 of Mani).
WHERE DO THEY COME FROM?
One ancient theory of the origin of the demons was that they were the souls of the dead who, having been unjustly treated or killed, sought retribution. Another conception was that they were the ghosts of the wicked dead (Josephus, Bel. Jud. 7.185: “demons [are] the spirits of wicked people who enter and kill the living”). Origen tells us that the Church had no clearly defined teaching on their genesis; his view was that the Devil, after becoming apostate, induced many of the angels to fall away with him; these fallen angels were the demons (De Princ. pref. 6; Tatian, Adv. Gr. 20; cf. Rev 12:4). The most popular myth, however, is found in the Bible, intertestamental literature, the rabbis and the Church fathers: demons are the souls of the offspring of angels who cohabited with humans. According to this story, a group of angels descended from heaven and mated with human women, producing as offspring a race of wicked →giants who conquered and defiled the earth with violence and bloodshed. To destroy them, God caused the Flood. The spirits of the drowned giants, neither angelic nor human, were trapped in the regions of the air which they haunt as demons, seeking host bodies to inhabit (cf. “the power of the air” Eph 2:2; and Eusebius, Praep. Ev. 4.5.142: [Greek theologians] assigned “the atmosphere to demons”). According to Justin Martyr, “the angels … were captivated by love of women and engendered children who are called demons” (2 Apol. 5; cf. Gen 6:1–4; 1 Enoch 6–21; Jubilee. 4:22; 5:1ff.; Jude 6).
THEY CAN ENTER HUMANS
Regardless of ancient conjectures, the most accurate definition of the word ‘demon' in the New Testament is a spirit without a body that is able to enter humans, animals and objects and affect behavior or action. They are able to do this in large numbers as was the case of the Gerasene demoniac. The main effect of demons on the host in the Synoptic writers was to cause physical and mental suffering and anti-social behavior. Rather than someone being “possessed of a demon” as we see in the King James Version, the most accurate translation is “to be demonized” or “to have a demon.”
The word is wrongly translated “devil” or “devils” in the KJV. Who many call the devil is really Satan, and the demons, who are under his influence, are also called unclean or evil spirits.
A close study of the teachings of Jesus and His encounters with demons reveal they have distinct personalities.
They can speak (Mark 1:24; 5:7-12)
They have a will (Matt. 12:44; Mark 5:11-12)
They have knowledge (Mark 1:23-24: Act 19:15)
They have emotions (James 2:19)
Demons are unquestionably real and able to invade or influence the minds and bodies of humans including Christians.
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Permalink Reply by Rita Cullimore on
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Jody,
Where is that in the Bible? I refer to "demons are unquestionably real and able to invade or influence the minds and bodies of humans including Christians"? Words in question "demons able to invade the minds and bodies of Christians". Satan only has power that we give him. As a born again Christian, we are the controller, not Satan. James 4:7.
Satan influenced Peter, when Peter denied Jesus going to the cross, however Satan didn't invade him. And he didn't influence Peter for long.
Resisting Satan comes up every time we do something we ought not and he flees as we repent.
Many times when we use references that are not necessarily spiritual to explain a spiritual issue, we end up with a distorted view. Could be it's a distortion of Satan.
Rita
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Permalink Reply by Pastor Bob B on
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This is a very difficult subject to get our minds around, but I do not think we need to spend our time trying to figure out, or make speculations about the origin of demons. We know for sure that they are in league with the Devil and that we can find victory over them in Jesus Christ.
It is important to remember that we need to be submitted to God and resisting the the Devil to find victory. Resisting is not enough.
We can't give people the idea that we can deal with demons on our own just by resisting them. People who do not know God can resist the enemy also. You can see this when some one is drunk, or on drugs,or gets broken down from stress or mental illness. They loose their ability to resist the the enemy and can fall into all kind of evils that are influences from demons.
In Jude it talks about invoking the name of the Lord to deal with the enemy. I know this guy who was being tormented with a demonic spirit this man was trying with all his might to get rid of it and couldn't. I told him that in our own selves we can't deal with these things and to begin to say; the Lord rebuke you in Jesus name. He was set free. He needed to know it was the name of Jesus that has the power to dispel the enemy.
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