Can a Christian Who Is Filled With the Spirit Have a Demon?
WELCOME to Issue #276 of The Seedhead from Alex and Hannah at Dandelion Resourcing
- a weekly confidence booster to help you step into naturally supernatural discipleship and mission!
Discover the 5 Levels of Demonic Influence.
“Can a Christian who is filled with the Spirit have a demon?” is a meaty question—and one we’re often asked when teaching on spiritual warfare and deliverance.
It’s one that Christians do disagree about. So how do we start teasing this out?
We think the way to process this is to use Scripture, and then to recognize that the enemy attacks people in different ways and levels of intensity.
To start, watch this video to hear some of our thoughts:
Here are the 5 levels of demonic influence:
Temptation
Harassment
Oppression
Habitation
Possession
Here are some of the relevant Scriptures:
Ephesians 4:27 “Do not give the devil a foothold.”
Mark 8:33 “But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. ‘Get behind me, Satan!’ he said. ‘You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.’”
2 Corinthians 11:3-4 “But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.”
2 Timothy 2:25-26 “Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.”
James 1:13-15 talks of what happens when one acts upon temptation: “When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me’. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.”
Acts 5:1-11 Ananias and Sapphira obviously gave some sort of foothold to the enemy when they lied about the land they’d sold. “Then Peter said, ‘Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit’.”
Next Steps
Look at the Scriptures listed, along with others that come to mind, and discuss them with another mature believer.
Is there anything unconfessed in your life that you need to repent of?
Is there anyone unforgiven in your life whom you need to forgive?
With love,
Alex + Hannah
ALEX AND HANNAH ABSALOM
