Hi, this is Bill Vanderbush with GOD TV, welcome to God Today. I’ve talked to you a couple of times about something called spiritual “joyfare.” Here is a question that comes up a lot: can a Christian be demon possessed? The problem with answering that question is the English word “possession.” It’s an unfortunate translation, it’s a word that actually has a dualistic meaning in English. Part of it can mean “I am influenced by,” but the more common meaning is that I own something, if I possess something I own it.
Well in the Bible, written in Greek and Hebrew, both the Greek word and the Hebrew word that are translated into English as ‘possession’ give no inference of ownership at all, it’s just influence.
So can a Christian be demon possessed? Well you can’t be owned by a demon, but you can be influenced by a demon. And the reason for that is, even in Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit, you still have the freedom of choice. Which means you get to choose what influences you. That means that you get to pick and choose between the voice of the Father, your own head, and the voice of a demonic influence.
And my prayer today would be that you would know the difference, that you would have the gift of discernment to be able to tell what’s the voice of the Father, the voice in your own head, and the voice of an enemy that seeks to steal, kill and destroy.
So Lord, I pray that you would just impart today, right now, by faith, I just lay hands on every person that’s watching this today and ask that you would give them the gift of discernment, that they would know the voice of demonic influence. That they would resist, flee and cast it out, in Jesus’ name.