Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Can Christians Be Demon-Possessed? | Questions You're Asking | Ephesians 6.10-18

Starting point is 00:00:05 Welcome to 10 Minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. And I'm Keith Simon. Right now, we're answering questions that you're asking. A lot of these are coming from our Facebook page. So if you follow 10 Minute Bible Talks on Facebook, you can ask questions that you want us to answer or vote on questions that other people are asking. My guess is most of you are familiar with C.S. Lewis.

Starting point is 00:00:32 You've read some of his books. If you haven't, here's my recommendation. Repent right now of your sin of not reading C.S. Lewis and go pick up the Great Divorce or Mirro Christianity or many of his other books and read them. No, I'm just kidding. You don't have to repent. It's not a sin to have not read C.S. Lewis, although it is close to a sin, if you ask me. A very, very bright Christian mind died in 1963. Here's a little interesting tidbit that has nothing to do with what we're going to talk about today. and that is that within 24 hours in 1963, JFK, Aldous Huxley, and C.S. Lewis all died. And so C.S. Lewis and Aldouss their death kind of passed under the radar because JFK's death obviously was headline news around the world. Okay, all that to say this. C.S. Lewis wrote this, and I think it's really interesting and insightful,

Starting point is 00:01:23 and we'll set up the question we're going to talk about today. Lewis writes, there are two equal, and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. All right, so did you catch that? Lewis says when it comes to demonic spiritual forces, we can fall into a couple different traps. One is just to say we don't believe in them because we're modern, sophisticated people. Now, if you're listening to this podcast, there's a really good chance you're a Christian. And so to say that you disbelieve in demons, well, that's not exactly right. Because you believe the Bible is God's word, and you see demonic forces active in the Bible.

Starting point is 00:02:09 And so you believe in them. So to fall in this trap is for you to say, well, I believe in them, but I don't think they're relevant to my life. I don't think about demonic spiritual forces. Now, the other trap is to have this excessive and unhealthy interest in them. In other words, to obsess over them, to see a demon or something. Satan behind everything in your life. And that produces a lot of fear and anxiety. The wise Christian knows that there are demonic forces active in the world and is aware of them and even takes account of them in their normal Christian life, but they're not obsessing over them. We're going to

Starting point is 00:02:49 try to strike the right balance today. And what sets this conversation up is Michaela, who is a 10-minute Bible Talk listener. She went to our Facebook page, and she, asked this question, can Christians be demon possessed? Now, if Michaela were here, I'd say, well, tell me what you mean by demon possession. Because I think when most of us hear that phrase, a horror movie pops into our head, right? And we think if some demon takes over a person, controls them, and then all kinds of chaos ensues. If that's what we mean by demon possession, if we mean ownership of a Christian, then I think the answer is fairly easy. No, demons cannot own. they cannot possess a Christian.

Starting point is 00:03:29 A Christian, the Bible is really clear on, is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. A Christian belongs to Jesus. A Christian is one who has been bought with his blood. But I think that what Michaela is really asking is whether demonic spirits influence Christians. And if that's the question, well, then the answer, again, is easy. The answer is yes. Christians can be influenced by demonic spiritual forces. So let's look at a bunch of Bible verses and just see what.

Starting point is 00:03:57 what we can learn about how demonic forces want to influence our life. Let's start with this one. Paul says this in 2 Timothy 2. Gently instruct those who oppose the truth. Perhaps God will change those people's hearts and they will learn the truth. Then they will come to their senses and escape from the devil's trap, for they have been held captive by him to do whatever he wants. So clearly Paul is talking about people who don't know Christ,

Starting point is 00:04:24 who aren't Christians when he says that they're. They are captive to him and do whatever he wants. But there are things here we as Christians need to learn about our spiritual enemy, and that is that he sets traps. He wants to hold people captive. He tries to get people to do his will. His will always is in opposition to God's will. And according to Paul, as we gently instruct people in the truth, that very well may be

Starting point is 00:04:52 the means that God uses to wake them up, to get them to come to their senses and to see that these demonic spiritual forces are trying to ruin their life. They're trying to destroy them, wake them up so that they can repent and turn from their sin and put their hope and faith in Jesus. All right, let's go to another passage. This one, 1 Timothy 4.1, Paul again's writing, Now, the Holy Spirit tells us clearly in the last time, some will turn away from the true faith. They will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons. really interesting, isn't it? That these dark spirits are called deceptive spirits and that demons have certain kind of teaching that they promote. And the demon's goal is to get people to believe

Starting point is 00:05:40 their lies, their teaching. And that teaching, those lies turn people away from Jesus. Now, it shouldn't surprise us that these demons are called deceptive spirits. It shouldn't surprise us that they lie, lie about God, lie about themselves. And it shouldn't surprise this because Satan is called the father of lies. So it makes sense that his demonic forces would use the very same kind of lies to accomplish his will. The Bible makes it very clear that God's people are in a spiritual battle with forces of wickedness. Here's a pretty well-known passage out of Ephesion 6. Paul writes, Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

Starting point is 00:06:23 Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all the strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. See, Paul says we have a spiritual enemy. We tend to think that our enemy is circumstances that we face or a health diagnosis or other people in our life. But Paul says, no, no, no, our enemies are not flesh and blood.

Starting point is 00:06:58 We're fighting against evil rulers in the unseen realm, mighty powers in this dark realm, evil spirits in the heavenly places. And every Christian is in this battle. No one gets to sit it out. In this sense, there's no Switzerland. You know, Switzerland is the country that always tries to be neutral in wars, but there's no Switzerland here. Nobody gets to say, well, I'm exempt from this spiritual warfare that is taking place between God and his enemies. Now, this passage in Ephesion 6, it goes on to tell us what the armor of God looks like. And it tells us that we are supposed to put on that armor so we can stand firm against the strategies of the devil.

Starting point is 00:07:42 Well, that's interesting, isn't it, that Satan has strategies? So Satan has a plan for how to take people down. And it sounds like he has multiple strategies, various strategies for various kinds of people. And so it's important for us to put on God's armor so that we won't fall prey or victim to those strategies. So those strategies won't succeed in taking us down, pulling us away from Jesus. Can you imagine a person in the U.S. military going into battle without the right equipment? Or can you imagine doctors and nurses and other medical professionals going into hospitals full of people with COVID without the right kind of protective gear?

Starting point is 00:08:27 Well, of course you wouldn't do that. When you go into battle, when you go into the hospital, you have the right kind of gear. If you don't, you're not going to last long. But unfortunately, because we don't see our spiritual enemy, unfortunately, because we don't think the spiritual enemy attacks us, because we don't understand the strategies the enemy uses to pull us away from Jesus. We act as if the spiritual enemy isn't real, and we go out every day into the world,

Starting point is 00:08:58 into the middle of this intense spiritual battle without our armor on. And if that's true, we are going to find ourselves subject to the schemes, of Satan. We're going to find ourselves negatively influenced by him. This is what C.S. Lewis meant when he said we disbelieve in demonic forces. It's not that we don't believe they're real. It's just that we minimize their significance, their power, their influence, so we go out into the spiritual battle unprepared. Okay, let's look at another verse. Ephesians 4. Here it says this. Don't sin by letting anger control you. Don't let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil. Okay, now this is really interesting. Paul's writing about anger

Starting point is 00:09:47 and warning us that anger can be dangerous because it gives the devil a foothold in our life, specifically unresolved anger. And that word foothold can also be translated beachhead. It's a military term, saying that the devil can get a little spot, a little foothold, a little beachhead, a little room in your life, and then build on that to attack you. And you're thinking, well, I was just angry. I mean, that's not that big of a deal. And Paul says, you don't understand that your unresolved anger can lead to much worse sins, that your unresolved anger can open you up to the work of Satan in his demonic forces. Now that puts a whole different spin on anger, doesn't it? Okay, now here's another one.

Starting point is 00:10:36 1 Timothy 3. A church leader must not be a new believer because he might become proud and the devil would cause him to fall. Also, people outside the church must speak well of him so that he will not be disgraced and fall into the devil's trap. So if unresolved anger can lead to the devil having a foothold or a beachhead in our life, Well, pride can open us up to Satan's work as well. And just like it shouldn't surprise us that demons lie because Satan is the father of lies, so it shouldn't surprise us that pride opens us up to demonic forces because Satan, his first sin, was pride. He wanted to be like God.

Starting point is 00:11:20 He put himself in God's position. And so there is a warning here to all of us that we must be on God. guard in our life against pride. We don't want to fall into the devil's trap. Okay, here we go. A couple more. 1 Peter 5. Humble yourselves under the mighty power of God and at the right time, he will lift you up in honor. Give all your worries and care to God, for he cares about you. Stay alert. Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Now here's writing to a church and he says, watch out. You have an enemy, a great enemy. It's the devil. And he's prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. And of course it's not just Satan,

Starting point is 00:12:17 but it's all of his demonic forces who want to devour anyone that they can, who want to lead people into sin, who want to destroy their lives. Satan and his demon, forces never want what's good for us. They're always trying to attack us. They're always trying to pull us away from Jesus. They're always trying to destroy us. And I don't think it's a coincidence that right before he gives us this warning, he tells us to take all of our cares, all of our worries, and put them on God. Otherwise, we might open ourselves up to this enemy. So it's not just anger or pride that opens us up to the work of Satan and his demonic forces, but it's also worry and anxiety. But it's not just them. It's also lying. You might be familiar with the story of Ananias and Safira. Their story is

Starting point is 00:13:10 fully told in Acts chapter 5. They were part of the early church and they sold some property and they brought the money to the apostles saying that they were giving all of their money to the church. But that wasn't true. They pretended to be something they weren't. They could have kept their money, and that would have been totally fine. They could have given part of the money to the church and kept part of it. That would have been fine. But instead, they pretended to give all of it, even though they didn't. Listen to what happens to him, Acts 5.3. Peter said, in Anayas, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself. Now again, remember, the point isn't that they kept some of the money for themselves.

Starting point is 00:13:54 The point is that they lied. And here, Peter says, they lied to the Holy Spirit. But what led them to lie? Well, he says, you've let Satan fill your heart. So the evidence of a heart that has been filled by Satan is that we lie. Lie to God, lie to others, pretend to be something that we're not. Now, put yourself in Ananias's position. Do you think he knew what was happening?

Starting point is 00:14:21 Do you think that he knew that he was letting Satan fill his heart? Or did he just have this idea, hey, I'll pretend to give all the money, but I'm going to keep some bath because I want to buy a new car? Well, my guess is that Annius had no idea that he was letting Satan fill his heart. But he was. It reminds me of this story in the Gospels when Jesus is talking about going to the cross. And Peter says, no, we're not going to let that happen to you. You're not going to go to the cross.

Starting point is 00:14:51 and Jesus looks at him and says, get behind me Satan. Did Peter realize that he was speaking Satan's thoughts and Satan's ideas when he told Jesus that he shouldn't go to the cross? Well, I don't think so. I think he thought those were his own ideas. But Jesus says, look, those kind of thoughts, they come from Satan himself. So I think that should warn us a little bit, that we should examine our thoughts, examine our motives and say, where does this come from? Does this feel like it's coming from God's spirit? Or does this feel

Starting point is 00:15:25 like something that might be coming from my spiritual enemy? So we have a real spiritual enemy. He is looking to destroy us by pulling us away from Jesus and pushing us further and further into sin. But the good news is that in Jesus, God has defeated our spiritual enemy. 1 John 3.8, the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. Colossians' 215. In this way, Jesus disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by victory over them on the cross. Jesus has defeated Satan and all of his demonic forces. And yet they are still active today. They will be active until Jesus returns. So how do we handle them? What should we do? Well, we shouldn't be scared and run from them. Listen to what James says. Humble your

Starting point is 00:16:20 before God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. We humble ourselves under God's authority. We say, God, we want your will to be done in our life. We want to follow you. Show us any sin in our life that we need to deal with. So we humble ourselves before God, confessing our sin, turning from our sin, putting our hope and faith in God. And then also we resist the devil. Well, how do we resist the devil? Well, a lot of it is by believing the truth, believing the truth that God has told us in the scriptures. But another way that we resist the devil is through prayer. Right before Peter denies Jesus, Jesus says this to him. He says, Peter, Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat,

Starting point is 00:17:09 but I've prayed for you that your faith may not fail. Jesus says, look, here's how I defeated Satan. I defeated Satan by praying for you. So it's through prayer that Jesus frustrated the plans of Satan. And do you remember in the Lord's prayer that Jesus commanded us to pray? Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the temptation of the evil one. So prayer, again, is primary in our battle against Satan. Back in Ephesion 6 in the passage on the armor of God and spiritual warfare, Paul

Starting point is 00:17:46 says to take the sword of the spirit. That's the Bible. Take the sword of the spirit, praying at all times in the spirit. So what we learn from all this is that one of the ways that we resist the devil is by praying against him and his work, submitting ourselves to God and resisting the devil through prayer. One of my good friends, Dave, who's also a co-pastor here at the crossing with me, He has adapted a spiritual warfare prayer from lots of different sources. In other words, he's kind of taken the best of all the sources out there and put together a prayer that helps us fight against Satan, not be afraid of him, but to obey the scriptures of humbling ourselves before God and resisting the devil.

Starting point is 00:18:31 And I'm just going to put a link to it in the show notes, and I would strongly encourage you to click on that link, go to that prayer, download it, and print it out. and pray it. There might be days when you want to pray that prayer three times a day. There might be times where you pray it once a week or once a month. There's nothing magic about those words, but it gives you a guided prayer to help you submit yourself to God and resist the devil. Look, spiritual warfare is real. Spiritual warfare is serious, but we should not be scared. Jesus has defeated Satan and all of our spiritual enemies. Yet there is work for us to do. Humble ourselves before God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Go to the show notes, click on that link, download that prayer,

Starting point is 00:19:22 and let me know if it has been helpful. Go to the show notes, click the link, download the prayer, pray it whenever you feel led, and let me know if you find that that's helpful. Take care. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps find this podcast more easily. Also ask yourself who you could share this podcast with. Texting an episode to a friend or family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually. If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Can Christians Be Demon-Possessed? | Questions You're Asking | Ephesians 6.10-18

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