Thanks, brother! And thanks for the reference to the sick lady; I hadn't thought of her.
Okay, now it gets heavy. Have I said that in previous posts? Well, maybe; in dealing with this subject, it's all heavy, But here's where it gets really heavy.
A simple question: Can a Christian be possessed by unclean spirits?
Many Christians say "No, absolutely not! A Christian can never be possessed!" That answer is based, for the most part, on two things: wishful thinking, and a single verse of Scripture. The verse is 1 John 4:4: Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. The context is, indeed, talking about unclean spirits, but it's not talking about day to day spiritual warfare; it's talking about our positional victory over the Enemy. (It's like 1 Jn. 2:13b: I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. That doesn't mean that every young man has permanently defeated Satan in his daily activities and habits; it means that the victory has been won, at Calvary, and that even young men share in it.) But a lot of Christians, mostly charismatics, say, "Well, greater is He that's in me, than he that's in the world; therefore, an unclean spirit cannot inhabit the same body that's indwelt by the Holy Spirit." That's a big "therefore!" And it's not a sound (or even logical) exegesis of the verse. But that's the verse you hear quoted, over and over. And Christians jump through all sorts of hoops trying to justify this notion. You've heard it said, or said it yourself (I said it, like a good little evangelical, for years): "A Christian can be obsessed by demons, or oppressed by demons, but not possessed." Using the same approach, Bill Clinton said "It all depends on what the meaning of 'is' is." People like to play word games.
Can a Christian be possessed by an unclean spirit? Yes, but before going any further, we should check our terminology. In the Bible, nobody is possessed "by" an unclean spirit. The Bible terminology is "possessed with devils," or, occasionally, possessed of devils. (Mtt. 4:24, 8:16,28,33; 9:32; 12:22; Acts 4:32, 8:7; and others.) Is the choice of prepositions important? Well, it is if you're a Bible believer. God chose His words carefully; He wasn't sloppy. I can't fully explain the difference between "possessed by" and "possessed with," but I can read the Bible, and God never uses the words "possessed by demons." So, naturally, that's exactly the way the world - - - and most Christians - - - say it! We're a perverse race, aren't we? Even our language is skewed.
A person possessed with an unclean spirit doesn't act like they do in the movies. (Why do I keep going back to that? Because the movies and television are where 90% of Christians get their information!) Possessed people don't necessary bark at the moon or kill people or levitate in the air, and their heads certainly don't swivel around on their necks. You almost certainly are exposed to possessed people every day, unless you're a stay-at-home mom who never goes shopping or to church.
Jessie Penn-Lewis again, defining possession:
"... a hold of evil spirits on a man in any shade of degree; for an evil spirit "possesses" whatever spot he holds, even though it be in an infinitesimal degree, and from that one spot, as a spider finds his base ere he weaves his web, the intruder works to obtain further hold of the whole being."
So, possession can be a sudden, dramatic thing, but more often, it's a very gradual thing, and it takes time. In a sense, possession is very similar to alcoholism, or sexual perversion, or chronic gambling: it usually starts out small, with a an isolated act that becomes increasingly more frequent, until one is completely caught up in it. Of course, possession is more scary and horrifying, more truly diabolical, because instead of dealing with the world and/or the flesh, one is dealing with living, external creatures that are consciously seeking control and domination. A whiskey bottle or a deck of cards doesn't plot against us; it just sits on the shelf until we reach for it. But the unclean spirits are planning and conspiring, even while we're asleep.
(Another side note: I don't think we need to worry about dreams. I do not believe that unclean spirits, or Satan himself, enter our minds and cause us to have certain dreams. They can certainly suggest certain things while we're awake, and these things might come back to us in a dream; but I think God protects us while we're unable to pray or resist or protect ourselves. I've had some truly terrible, "Satanic" dreams, and you probably have, too, but they were caused by "input" that was there before we went to sleep. And, when we dream of sin - - - this may be of practical interest to the young men in the forum - - - I don't believe God holds us accountable for it. If I dream of having sex with Queen Elizabeth, or strangling the Pope, I don't think God expects me to confess it! Dreams are dreams. We do not "sin in our sleep," although the Enemy might, when we awaken, try to make us feel guilty. That's His game: He's the accuser of the brethren. Nor do I believe, from Scripture, that Satan or the spirits can "read our minds." Satan is powerful, but he can't do everything.)
Possession starts out small, in most cases. So, how does it get started? What starts it? Well, it's entirely voluntary.
The two places where possession starts are passivity and ground.
Passivity is exactly what it sounds like: being passive, instead of active. (Ruckman talks about this a lot, especially in connection with music.) When we're not engaged in some active ... um ... activity, we're being passive. The activity might be internal: meditating on the word of God, for example, or praying. Or it might be external: anything from working at our jobs to playing a game or sport. Anything that we're doing, or allowing God to do through us. But they key word is "doing." Passivity is just the opposite: it's when we're just sitting like a couch potato, absorbing whatever's in the air: being "entertained" by television or sports or all kinds of stuff, where we're spectators and not participants. We can be "passive" sitting in a stadium with 50,000 fans, watching a football game: because we're just reacting to what's happening on the field; we're no longer individuals, but part of a big, screaming crowd. We can be passive at a rave, on a dance floor, letting the music and the mood and the atmosphere move us around. (A dancer or rock fan says, "I just become the music!" Yes, and you cease to be yourself, an individual.) Reading is not usually a "passive" activity, because your mind is engaged; but when the words start to blur, and our attention starts to wander, it can become very passive indeed. And this passivity, where we're not really in conscious control of ourselves, can open the door to unclean spirits. No, it doesn't always have that result: but it can, very easily.
Passivity is, among other things, a surrender of our individuality. (God doesn't make groups; He makes individuals.) You sit in a theater, watching a horror movie or a comedy, and the entire audience gasps or giggles or groans at the same moment; they're being manipulated by the moviemakers, and they're no longer acting as individuals. Things that don't really scare you cause you to jump; jokes that aren't really funny cause you to laugh - - - because everybody else is doing so. (This becomes very clear from seeing a movie in a theater, and later seeing it again at home, on DVD, when you're in control of the environment: you react differently, don't you?) Anything that makes us passive is risky.
And, to be clear, there's a difference between being passive and being receptive or submissive. We should be receptive to God's voice when we pray, for example. We should be receptive, and mentally alert, when listening to Biblical preaching and teaching. In many ways, in many circumstances, we should be receptive to our spouse. God says "the way of a man with a maid" is wonderful (Pro. 30:19), and that involves submission and receptivity. But zoning out and becoming nothing but a sponge for our environment is totally passive, and attracts unclean spirits just as a corpse attracts flies. Because, let's face it: in the Western world - - - Europe and the English-speaking nations - - - we live in the filthiest environment in many centuries.
God says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service (Ro. 12:1). That's submissive, but it's not passive; it's very, very active. And, if we're not consciously doing that, then we're gonna submit our bodies and minds to .... something else.
Anyway, that's passivity, and it's one way that unclean spirits get a hold. The other is what Penn-Lewis calls "ground," which is as good a term as any. And, if passivity is something that we don't do (like thinking or acting), then ground is something that we do. It's the "active" route to possession.
It can be unconfessed sin, or it can be deliberate, intentional exposure to "questionable" things when we really know better. See the difference? Passivity means doing nothing, or thinking nothing; ground involves something wrong that we do. And the unclean spirits seize on ground like a dog on a bone.
Think of it this way: when you sin, or when you refuse to do the right thing (which is one definition of sin, James 4:17), you're giving the spirits something to work with. And they can attack you without worrying about your "free will" - - - which they are bound to respect, just as God Himself respects it - - - because you've deliberately chosen to do wrong. And they can get very "territorial" about it. Penn-Lewis again:
The faculties may become severally held, or possessed, by evil-spirits, by yielding to the sin of passivity--passivity is the sin of omission, for God does not give a faculty either for misuse, or non-use, or yielding to sins of action, e.g., if the tongue lends itself to slander or foul language, it lends itself to sin; and becomes liable to possession. And so with the eyes, ears and other parts of the body; the lust of the eyes in seeing, and looking at vile things; the ears by wrong listening--eaves-dropping is lending the ears to the emissaries of Satan--or, on the other hand, evil spirits may take hold of the nerves of the ear, so that the person cannot hear what he should, yet is permitted to be alert enough in bearing all that he should not hear.
Let's say that I decide to subscribe to an occultic magazine or website. "I'm just gonna read it for research," I tell myself. But really, I have no business doing it for any reason; and, in doing it, I have given the spirits ground in my life. At that point, I may as well have said, "Spirits, please come deceive me for awhile; I'm a big boy, I'm not scared of you!" And God is under no obligation to protect me from such deception, caused by that foolish decision. Now, He might protect me, and He often will protect me, because He's patient and loving and gracious: but, in yielding that amount of ground to the unclean spirits, I have (as somebody said) "stepped out from under the umbrella of God's protection" in that area. If I sleep around, God is not obliged to protect me from AIDS.
What a horrible thought! Being out from under God's protection!
Ground can be anything from bitterness to gambling to laziness, from drug abuse to gossiping about the pastor. It's something we do, or something we neglect (like reading the Bible).
Some folks, including the authors recommended by Jack Chick in this area, get very confused about this. They say, "Well, if you own a CD by Ozzy Osbourne, there's a demon in it, and it can get you at any time." But that's superstition, not Bible doctrine. If you own any Ozzy CDs, you're probably already in trouble, but there's not a demon "in" the CD. That's absurd.
So, "possession" doesn't necessarily mean complete control of a person by a spirit or spirits. But this is where it starts: with passivity and ground.
For what it's worth, I've heard Ruckman say, "I figure I pick up ten or twenty devils every day!" Then, at the end of the day, he casts them out. Of himself! That sounds goofy, but it makes sense. And, in the next post, we'll talk about how to get rid of unclean spirits, in ourselves or others. We don't need an exorcist or a faith healer; we just need to trust and obey!
Home