How Does a Person
Become Demon Possessed?
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The Doorway to
Hatred
There are other
doorways besides sexual immorality
that lead to demonic possession and
we must consider one more doorway
involving passion. This passion is
hatred. (God’s anger toward evil
is sometimes called hatred, 37
but God’s hatred is unlike human
hatred.) Human hatred is the inverse
of love.38 The ultimate
desire of human hatred is murder.39
hatred generally springs from
bitterness, jealousy, or vanity.
Hatred can grow from real or
imaginary injustice. Hatred can
become a passion and it can become so
powerful in a person’s heart
that he cannot free himself of it.
Prisons are full of people who are
bound internally with hatred. Demons
can easily possess a hate-full heart
because hatred does not care about
right and wrong, justice or truth.
Hatred is blind. If possible, it
would seek more than death can offer!
Hatred is like a bucket with a hole
in its bottom that cannot be filled.
Demons seek out people who harbor
hatred because such people will often
commit predatory violence.
John wrote, “Do
not be like Cain, who belonged to the
evil one and murdered his brother.
And why did he murder him? Because
his own actions were evil and his
brothers were righteous. [So,] Do
not be surprised, my brothers, if the
world hates you. [Cain was
humiliated when God honored
Abel’s offering, but refused to
honor Cain’s offering and this
made him furious with Abel.
Cain’s hatred for Abel led him
to kill his brother for revenge.] We
know that we have passed from death
to life, because we love our
brothers. Anyone who does not love
remains in death. Anyone who hates
his brother is a murderer, and you
know that no murderer has eternal
life in him.” 40
The Fight to Do
Right
As long as the carnal
nature is within us, we must not stop
fighting the good fight.41
The greatest battles on Earth occur
within the human heart – the
fight to do right must never end. We
cannot give in and allow passions of
hatred, sexual immorality, or
pleasures to overtake us. Be assured,
the devil has a custom set of
temptations carefully crafted for
each person. If a person is too old
or too wise to chase after
pornography and knows better than to
indulge in the temporal pleasures of
sexual immorality, then be assured
that the devil has plenty of other
temptations. In the game of life, the
devil uses chips such as money,
power, fame, drugs, leisure,
shopping, sports, and materialism to
capture our affections. He uses these
chips as a foothold into our soul and
too many sit at his game table,
winning very little, but having a
great time (they think) as he
overtakes their souls!
There is a doorway
into each heart and the devil and his
imps know where it is. They are doing
their best to kick it down with
tailor made temptations so that they
might overpower us and possess us.
Until the sealing of god’s
children is completed, 42
the war between Christ and Satan over
the souls of human beings will not
end. If, through Christ’s
strength, we persevere and win a
victory over one passion, watch out
for a “door kicking event”
in another area. The devil
doesn’t knock. He lures us into
temptation when opportunity is
present; he attempts to kick the door
down with everything he has. Jesus
said, ‘When an evil spirit
comes out of a man, it goes through
arid places seeking rest and does not
find it. Then it says, “I will
return to the house that I
left.’ When it arrives, it finds
the house swept clean and put into
order. Then it goes and takes seven
other spirits more wicked than
itself, and they go in and live
there. And the final condition of
that man is worse than the
first.” 43 We see
here that no victory over the flesh
is final until the sinful nature has
been removed. So, be on guard –
fight the good fight!
Lucifer has been
called a murderer from the beginning44
because he was the first to be filled
with violence.45 When
Lucifer saw that he could not have
what he wanted, violence broke out in
Heaven.46 The same process
holds true on Earth. When someone is
filled with insatiable bitterness,
craving, or passion, predatory
violence often follows.
The devil and his
demons never sleep. They are doing
everything possible to increase the
misery index of mankind. They are on
a mission to destroy us by (a)
eliminating the Word of God (which
tells us about God’s love for us
and the knowledge of good and evil,
(b) dulling our minds with additive
substances, and (c) inflaming carnal
passions and pleasure. These demons
are relentless because they know
that they can overtake a person when
a sinner gets so deep into sin that
he stops struggling to do what is
right. Listen to the words of
this wise woman: “Whatever
weakens your reasoning, impairs the
tenderness of your conscience,
obscures your sense of God, or takes
away your relish for spiritual
things, in short if anything
increases the authority and the power
of the flesh over the spirit, that to
you becomes sin, however good it is
in itself.” Susanna Wesley
(mother of John Wesley)
Is There Any Hope
Is there hope for a
sinner after he sins defiantly,
willfully, accidently, or ignorantly?
Yes! Yes! Yes! There is hope for any
sinner unless he becomes
defiant and remains defiant. Defiant
sin leads to the unpardonable sin.47
The Holy Spirit knows the
incalculable value of eternal life.
The Holy Spirit loves each sinner
with boundless love. The Holy Spirit
knows the devil’s games.
Therefore, the Holy Spirit does a
little “door kicking” at
times in an effort to get through.
The Holy Spirit is not temperamental
or easily discouraged. He dearly
wants to enter a sinner’s heart
and bring that sinner to Christ so he
might be saved! “My dear
children, I write this to you so that
you will not sin. But if anybody does
sin, we have one who speaks to the
Father in our defense – Jesus
Christ, the Righteous One. He is the
atoning sacrifice for our sins, and
not only for ours but also for the
sins of the whole world.’”48
Summary
The human race is
caught in a war for souls that is
intensifying. The Holy Spirit is
working hard, but the devil and his
demons are winning the battle just as
they did in Noah’s day.49
Sinful natures mean we are hit with a
double whammy! We have carnal nature
and there is a devil. The bible
teaches there is a sin that does not
lead to death50 because
God knows that it is impossible for
someone with a sinful nature to consistently
live without sinning.51
Yes, Jesus offers victory over every
temptation.52 Jesus offers
to transform the desires of our
hearts and minds so that we will not
become a victim of our own passions.53
When temptation comes knocking,
we should recognize that the devil is
hiding, ready to rush in, kick the
door down and take over another soul.
On our own, we cannot overcome a
single temptation for very long, but
we can overcome a whole world of
temptation through honesty and faith
in Christ.54
Prayer is the key to
overcoming. Pray ahead of temptation.
If we ask the Lord to change our
heart from within, He will! When He
sees that we really mean what we say,
He will repair the damage within us
and that temptation will have no
appeal.55 If we abide in
Christ, we will become and remain
conquerors,56 and like
Peter, walk on the water. It
is highly important that we show
the Lord our sincerity. If
pornography is a problem, show the
Lord you recognize it is a problem by
throwing it out of your house, shut
off the internet and all sources
through which it comes. Buy no more
of it! If sexual immorality is a
problem, show the Lord you recognize
it is a problem by breaking off the
relationship. If it is an ongoing
relationship, by all means, do not
get married until the relationship is
rebuilt on solid ground and the Lord
is the center of it. If substance
abuse is the problem, show the Lord
your sincere desire to stop the
problem by seeking a counselor who
understands the twelve step program.
If spending or shopping is a problem,
show the Lord you are aware of it and
seek a godly counselor who
understands problems involving
insatiable desires. Most of all, we
have to stop looking to this world as
a pattern for our lives. We have to
focus on God’s Word: “Do
not conform any longer to the pattern
of this world, but be transformed by
the renewing of the mind. Then you
will be able to test and approve what
God’s will is – his good,
pleasing, and perfect will.”57
I hope this helps!
Larry Wilson –
Faith is like a greasy flagpole
– the minute you stop climbing,
you start slipping!
References
1. Matthew
4:24; 8:16; 8:28; 9:32; 12:22; 15:22
2. Matthew
10:1; Mark 3:15
3. Matthew
8:28,29; 17:14-20
4. 1 John 5:17
5. Matthew
12:31,32
6. Luke 11:13;
Jeremiah 13:23
7. Romans 3:23
8. Romans
7:15-17
9. 1 John 1:9
10. Matthew 5:23, 1 John 5:17
11. Roman 6:23
12. Genesis 3:13; 2 Corinthians
11:3
13. Romans 7:23
14. Galatians 6:7, 8
15. Romans 2:14, 15; Acts
10:15; 34, 35
16. See 1 Corinthians 3:9-15
17. 1 Chronicles 28:9
18. John 3:21
19. 1 Peter 1:1, 2
20. Genesis 2:17
21. Genesis 3:22
22. Genesis 3:6, 6, 13; 2
Corinthians 11:3
23. Romans 5:12
24. Romans 7:23, 24
25. Romans 3:23; 7:12-20;
8:5-12
26. Genesis 6:3-8
27. Matthew 22:34-40; James 2:8
28. Exodus 20:3-17
29. Galatians 5:17-21
30. James 4:17
31. Romans 3:23; 1 Corinthians
10:31
32. 1 John 3:9, 10
33. Galatians 5:19; 2 Timothy
3:4; Jude 1:7
34. Colossians 3:5, 6
35. Leviticus 18; Matthew
5:17-20; Acts 15-29; Hebrews 13:4
36. 2 Peter 2:19, 20
37. Deuteronomy 16:22;
Psalm45:7; Proverbs 6:16; Malachi
2:16
38. Matthew 12:30
39. John 8:44
40. 1 John 3:12-15, insertion
mine
41. 1 Timothy 6:12
42. See Chapter 6 in my book,
Jesus: The Alpha and The Omega
43. Luke 11:24-26
44. John 8:44
45. Ezekiel 28:16
46. Revelation 12:7-9
47. Matthew 12:31, 32
48. 1 John 2:1, 2
49. Genesis 6:3
50. Romans 3:23; Romans
7:11-20; 8:5-12
51. 1 John 5:16, 17
52. Romans 6:14; 1 John 1:9; 1
Corinthians 15:57
53. Ezekiel 36:26
54. 1 John 5:4
55. 1 John 1:9
56. John 15
57. Romans 12:2
