Dear beloved: We have spent the last couple of weeks talking about portals of entry that the demonic realm uses to gain access into the life of a person. This brings up an interesting question: Can a born again believer have demons, or even be demon possessed? It should be obvious from the recent discussions that a believer can be demon oppressed, or harassed by one or even a horde of demons. This is possible by the fact that our nature is of a three part being; we are spirit, soul, and body. Paul describes it in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, Now may the God of peace sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so he shows us that we are three parts, and that it is possible for the parts to be incomplete, that is, our spirit given over to Christ but our bodies and soul still having a mixture and living for the devil. Many of us can attest to this from experience as we were still smoking cigarettes, or drinking alcohol, or struggling with lust even after we had made a decision to give our lives to Jesus.
In Rick Joyner's book "The Final Quest", God gave Rick a vision of the demonic horde, Satan's army as it proceeded into battle. In it he states that the most shocking part of the vision was that the demonic horde was not riding on horses or walking, they were riding primarily on the backs of Christians! Many of the believers were host to more than one demon, but one of the demons would clearly be in charge. The nature of the one in charge dictated which division it was marching in. Even though the divisions were all marching together, it also seemed that the entire army was on the verge of chaos. For example, the demons of Hate hated the other demons as much as they did the Christians. The demons of Jealousy were all jealous of one another. The only way the leaders of the demonic horde kept the demons from fighting each other was to keep their hatred focused on the people they were riding.
Joyner goes on to write, I noted that the demons were riding on these Christians, but were not in them as was the case with non-Christians. It was obvious that these believers had only to stop agreeing with their demons in order to get free of them. For example, if the Christian on whom the demon of Jealousy was riding just started to question the jealousy, that demon would weaken very fast. Joyner continues, the power of the demons was clearly rooted almost entirely in the power of deception, they had deceived these Christians to the point where they could use them and the Christians would think they were being used by God. This was because the banners of Self-Righteousness were being carried along by everyone, so that those marching along could not even see the banners of their true nature of these divisions( Bitterness, Lust, Rejection, Pride, etc.)
And so we see that Satan has a diabolical plan to use Christians to attack each other and accomplish his purposes, to weaken individuals, then families, then churches, and eventually whole nations. Non Christians and unbelievers are easily kept in line by possession and by demons of fear, so it doesn't take too many of the horde to tie up and bind great masses of people, even whole cultures. Satan has a very simple strategy, divide and conquer. Jesus talked about it in Mark 3:23-27. v23 "and He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in parables, 'How can Satan cast out Satan?' v24 And if a kingdom is divided against itself, it cannot stand. v25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.v26 And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished! v27 But no one can enter the strong man's house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house.
Tomorrow we'll take a look at individuals in scripture that were harassed by the horde. Strap on your gospel armor this day as you prepare to go into battle! May God bless you this day, in Christ, Jim
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