 Can Christians have a demon? Yes, but the conversation comes up often. As a matter of fact, I think too often as to whether Christians can have a demon. I think oftentimes the questions, the thought patterns are just phrased wrong, the focus is wrong, but I wanna go ahead and deal with this issue. Obviously not once and for all because some people are not going to listen. Some people are gonna, their minds are already made up as to what they think or they know, think they know about demons and also what they're missing what they're not paying attention to. And this is actually kind of a hotly debated topic but it gets into this idea, can Christians have a demon? And I would just say, if Christians cannot have demons then why did Jesus ever do deliverance ministry to begin with? Why did any of the early church do deliverance ministry to begin with? Why not just get everybody saved? Let them pray a prayer of salvation and baptize and let that be done. But the fact is that's not how either the apostles did it, that's not how the early church did it. They walked people through deliverance. Daily deliverance is up until baptism and sometimes after. Okay, so his whole concept, his whole premise is flawed. One, why did Jesus do deliverance? Remember, no one at the time that Jesus is casting a demon out happens to be saved. No one that he's ever cast a demon out. Matter of fact, no one in the Bible that ever had a demon ever was a believer ever had the Holy Spirit in them. We don't have an example of that. Notice that after the Holy Spirit has come into every people group no one has an issue with demons. We're not told about demons. Afterwards, we're not told about in terms of demons being in someone. We're not told about how to deliver someone. All the problems that the churches may have, the letters that Paul has written, James, John and so forth, even in Revelation, no one brings up the fact that we need to cast demons out. And so I think the focus is wrong. Now, I made the statement in the initial that asking can Christians have a demon? And I said, yes, but what's the but? What do you mean? Well, the but is this, Christians can have a demon but not in them. They can have a demon around them. They can have a demon in their neighbor who might not be saved. Someone who is not a believer can have a demon and then come in contact with the Christian. It's not as though that the person who is a believer who has placed their faith in Christ has the Holy Spirit and has the ultimate strongman in them who has the, you know, the greater is he, the Holy Spirit that's in you. They have that, that person cannot be possessed by a demon. Stop with the thought pattern that what you have in you is not as great as what's outside of you and that what's outside of you can come in and take over, remove the strongman. That goes counter to what we know with the power of the Holy Spirit is. But what I think people are failing to realize is this, there is a counterpart to demons. No one is saying that there is no such thing as demons. Matter of fact, there are demons, there are a bunch. How many? Not sure. However, we know that those demons are outnumbered. By who? By their counterparts. Remember, the Bible tells us in Daniel 7.10. Notice what he says here. A river of fire was flowing and coming from out from before him. That's God. Thousands upon thousands were attending him and myriads upon myriads were standing before him. The court sat and the books were opened. Now, who are the thousands upon thousands? Who are the myriads? Angels. The counterparts to demons are angels. Why do we act as though there are demons who are active? But we fail to think about the fact that there are also angels who are active. And even above them, who else is even more powerful who's active? Well, I know who it is, the Holy Spirit. We tend to ignore those two things. But we wanna focus on someone telling us that there's a demonic presence or a force that's infected us. No. Is there a demonic activity? Sure. Should we be surprised there's a demonic activity around us? No, we should not. However, if there's a demonic activity, ask Daniel, there's also angelic activity that will thwart and counter the demonic activity, especially if you are a believer. And so, why don't we focus on demons? Well, we don't have to. We've got someone dealing with them. But what does the Bible say? The Bible says that in James 4-7, it says resist the devil and he will flee. Well, if the command is to resist, and oh, by the way, this isn't the imperative, so the command is to do so, which means you can resist him. Well then, that means we can resist him. How so? Well, there's power in what we're doing. There's power that's working in us, and there's also outside forces that's enabled. We'll come to that in just a little bit, but we need to understand that something about these angels, again, the counterparts, the demons, what about them? The Bible tells us that they are mighty. In Psalm 103-20, it says, bless the Lord, you his angels, mighty in strength who perform his word. So these angels are mighty. Why do we act as though these angels are cute? That they're little babies, little chubby white babies with angel wings, that that's all they do. They're playing harps and moving around with these big, gigantic, ferocious chain-breaking demons that they're running amuck, and no one can stop them. Remember, these angels are just as powerful, if not more powerful than the demons. They're fallen angels, but they're still at least two-thirds of the angels did not fall. So what does that mean? One-third, two-third. Which number is greater? And which one has the greater backing? Which one has the power of God behind them? Remember what angels are doing, what their goal is. The Bible says in Hebrews 1.14 that they are not, are they all not ministering spirits sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation? So what are angels doing? It's not just enough to say that there are twice the number of angels as there are demons, but even more to the point, what are the angels doing? It'd be one thing if the angels were working on behalf of everyone on the planet, but they're only working on behalf according to this passage. Now, we don't have a whole lot of information about angels, nor do we have a lot of information about demons. So, but what we can glean, what we can see, let's see if we can kind of glean something, is telling us that they're working for the service, as it says, for the sake of those who will inherit salvation, so those who are believers. So all of those who are believers against those who are non-believers. Well, it would seem to me that these demons are outnumbered and those aims that are working on our behalf, there's a stronger presence because they're not out defending or working for everybody on the planet just for the benefit of those who are saved and those who will be saved, obviously. They are ministering spirits serving on at God's behest for the work of His kingdom, obviously for the people who serve and live in His kingdom by being us as believers. Which kind of helped maybe explain a little bit of what Matthew 18 is saying in verse 10, it says, See that you do not despise one of these little ones for I say to you that their angels in heaven continually see the face of my Father who's in heaven. Now, is that to say that everyone has an angel? Probably so. I would have to say that everyone has an angel. How many angels does each person have? Don't know. Is there an angel assigned to a specific person, angels over a certain people? I have no idea how it's done. We just know that they're there. They're working on our behalf and they do forth in. So is there demonic activity? Absolutely. Without question, the Bible says, however, that our weapons that we use, the weapons of our warfare, I'll go ahead and read for the King James Version, of our warfare is not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. One thing we need to do is, as he says, bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. How about you bring into captivity the thought that tells you that you can be controlled by some outside force? How about you do what the Bible says, resist him, because all he says once you do so is he will flee, which means you can do so. How about you bring those thoughts to tell you that you can't do it? Those thoughts to tell you that you have no control, that it's a demon that has more power than God, that when he says who has a son and that set free, how about you stop letting people tell you that you're not free indeed until someone else sets you free and then, oh, by the way, you're not totally free. Keep going back to get free. How about you bring those thoughts into captivity? Why don't you let the knowledge of the Lord be pervasive in your life? Why don't you believe that he is who he says he is, that he can do exceedingly above all that you can ever hope or imagine? Why don't you believe that? Why don't you let that be the dominant thought? Why don't you, as Paul says, focus on the good things, where everything is noble, where everything's of a good report or good repute? Why don't you focus on those things? Why do you spend so much time focusing on demons who are outnumbered and outpowered by a larger force and a more powerful force? Why don't you focus on that? So can a Christian have a demon? He can have a demon as a neighbor. He can have a demon driving beside him on the highway. He can have a demon that he works for or coworkers. Yeah, demons are everywhere, but do we worry about them? No, we should not. Why don't we worry about them? Because the Bible doesn't tell us to worry about them. Find the passage where the Bible tells us to worry about them. Find the passage where the Bible tells us to be afraid of them. Find the passage where the Bible tells us that we have to fear them, obey them, look out for them. No, we don't have such passages at all. What we do have are passages that focus on our walk in Christ and the power. It's not as though that the writers of the Bible, the New Testament writers, those who speak about us, have in the Holy Spirit, who they themselves have been empowered to write by the Holy Spirit. It's not as though that they just conveniently looked over the fact that this great force is out there, these demons, they looked over that and forgot to tell us that. No, they didn't tell us it because there's no need to tell us that. Why? Because our focus is on Him who can separate, now unto Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, that Him, God, that's who your focus ought to be on. Amen.