Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 8053. Can Christians be demonically oppressed? I believe they can, and I want to say so carefully, because this is an area where careless answers do real damage in both directions. A believer cannot be owned or inhabited by an unclean spirit. A believer can certainly be harassed, pressed and worn down from outside….
Reading Time: 9 minutesQuestion 8052. The words demonic possession, oppression and influence get used almost interchangeably in Christian conversation, and the confusion causes real harm. I have sat with people convinced they were possessed who were exhausted and unwell, and I have met others who dismissed every spiritual dimension of their trouble because they had only ever heard…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 8048. The words are among the most striking Jesus ever spoke to a friend. “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.” The request to sift Peter was made, it was granted, and the Lord…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 8044. Paul assumes that Satan’s schemes can be recognised. He tells the Corinthians that we are not ignorant of his designs and he tells the Ephesians to put on the whole armour of God so that they can stand against them. Neither statement makes any sense unless the enemy works to a pattern that…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 8041. Whether Satan is a literal being or a poetic way of describing the darker side of human nature is not an idle question, and I get asked it far more often than you might expect. Sceptics raise it as an objection. Believers raise it because they have grown uncomfortable with the way some…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 8038. Lying spirits are not an occasional tactic of the enemy but the whole shape of his operation. Jesus said of the devil that when he lies he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Everything else he does runs downstream of that. Scripture uses…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 8035. Whether demons can cause physical illness is a question the New Testament answers with more directness than many Christians expect, and with more care than many teachers show. The Gospels do connect certain conditions with demonic activity. They also, in the same breath, refuse to make that connection universal. Getting this right matters…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 8034. Whether demons can take physical form is a question people usually ask because they have seen something, or because someone they trust has. I want to answer it from Scripture rather than from anecdote, while treating the anecdotes with more respect than they sometimes receive. The biblical evidence is more limited than most…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 8032. Asking where demons live sounds like an odd question until you notice how much Scripture actually says about it. The Bible is not squeamish on the subject, and the answer turns out to matter for how we think about temptation, about places, and about the limits of the enemy. The short version is…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 8024. The idea that we can command angels has become surprisingly common in certain circles, usually presented as a believer’s neglected authority. Conferences teach it, books promote it, and sincere Christians come away convinced they have been leaving a resource untapped. I want to handle this carefully rather than dismissively, because the people drawn…