Chapter 5
5 Can a Christian Have a Demon?..............................
Can a Christian have a demon? This is a subject of
great debate in the Christian world. I've heard some
preachers make comments on this subject that made me
cringe inside because what they were saying wasn't
scriptural. They leave the impression that all
Christians have demons in them that routinely need to
be cast out. That statement is wrong for many reasons.
First, a Christian can't have a demon in his spirit.
That's impossible. A mature believer would have to
deny Christ willfully and with deliberate forethought
before he could ever allow a demon to gain access into
his spirit, because if he's a Christian, the Holy Spirit,
not a demon, indwells his spirit. If a mature believer
did deny Christ, he would cease to be a Christian, for
the word "Christian" means Christ-like. It means that
the life and nature of God dwells in one's spirit (2 Cor.
5:17).
The reason it's impossible for a Christian to have an
evil spirit in his spirit is that a Christian's spirit has
been recreated by the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 5:17).
Therefore, a Christian's spirit becomes the dwelling
place of the Holy Spirit (John 14:23; 1 Cor. 6:17) and
cannot also be the dwelling place of an evil spirit (2 Cor.
6:14-16; James 3:11,12).
Those who say that a Christian can "have" a demon
don't define their terms properly; they don't divide man