Can a Christian have a demon?

Christians disagree on this one. Some churches and deliverance ministries teach that a believer can carry a demon and needs it cast out. The Lakepointe Church clip in If you still struggle with sin, are you even saved? says when you sin, the demon enters. Others say a believer can be tempted and harassed by demons from the outside but can’t be owned by one. This page lays out the second case, from Matt Mason of Lion of Fire Ministries in “100% PROOF Christians CANNOT Have a Demon” and a second video on the same subject.

Possessed or oppressed

Matt draws the line here. Possession, or demonization, means a demon has power and control over a person. Oppression means being tempted or influenced. He says a true Christian can be oppressed but can’t be possessed, and that someone who only professes faith without being born again can be possessed, the same as any unbeliever.

His case from Scripture

You were set free. “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36). God “hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son” (Colossians 1:13).
The Holy Spirit lives in you. “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you” (1 Corinthians 6:19)? “What agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God” (2 Corinthians 6:16).
He that is in you is greater. “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” (1 John 4:4). The Spirit is in you, and those spirits are in the world.
No example, no instruction. After Pentecost, there’s not one example of a Christian having a demon, and not one instruction to cast a demon out of a Christian. What believers are told to do is “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7), and put on the armor of God (Ephesians 6).
The empty house. Deliverance teachers point to the spirit that returns to a house it finds “empty, swept, and garnished” (Matthew 12:44). Matt turns it around: if an empty house lets them back in, a house filled with the Holy Spirit doesn’t.

Why it matters

Matt says these ministries can keep people stuck. Someone with a real problem comes forward expecting a demon to be cast out and the problem to vanish, when what they need is to deal with it before God. He shows clips of hours-long sessions and lists that blame everything on a spirit, down to chocolate and knuckle cracking. Experiences aren’t the standard of truth, he says. The Bible is.

He also answers “deliverance is the children’s bread” (Mark 7:27): Jesus was talking about Israel, before Pentecost, before anyone had the Holy Spirit living inside them.

Where this site lands

This one isn’t settled here yet. What Scripture is clear on: the Spirit lives in every believer, you’ve already been delivered from the power of darkness, and you have authority to resist the devil (see I don’t believe in the devil).

Say it like this

“Christians disagree on this one. Here’s what’s clear. If you’re saved, the Holy Spirit lives in you, God has already delivered you from the power of darkness, and greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. So whichever side you land on, you’re not helpless. Submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee.”

Keep reading: I don’t believe in the devil · If you still struggle with sin, are you even saved? · Can you lose your salvation?