EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
5/17/2026 6:56 PM
My
Worship Time Focus: PT-4
“His Preaching”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference:
Luke
4:31-34a
Message
of the verses: “And He came down to Capernaum, a
city of Galilee, and He was teaching
them on the Sabbath; and they were amazed at His teaching, for His message was
with authority. In the synagogue there
was a man possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a
loud voice, “Let us alone! What business do we have with each other, Jesus of
Nazareth?”
I continue to quote from MacArthur’s
commentary on this rather long section.
“There are some who argue that true
Christians can be demon possessed; that is, actually indwelt by a demon as
opposed to merely being influenced. One
proponent of that view writes, ‘A genuine Christian may become possessed at
least to some degree, even to the point where they speak with strange voices or
in foreign languages’ (C. Fred Dickason, Angels, Elect and Evil
[Chicago: Moody 1975], 191). Yet
Dickason cites no biblical evidence to support that claim, but rather alleged ‘evidence
from mission fields and clinical counseling’ (p. 190).”
MacArthur then goes on to write “In
my book How to Meet the Enemy, I summarized the biblical evidence that
Christians cannot be demon possessed”
There is no
clear example in the Bible where a demon ever inhabited or invaded a true
believer. Never in the New Testament
epistles are believers warned about the possibility of being inhabited by
demons. Neither do we see anyone
rebuking, binding, or casting demons out of a true believer. The epistles never instructed believers to
cast out demons, whether from a believer or unbeliever. Christ and the apostles were the only ones
who cast out demons, and in every instance the demons possessed people were
unbelievers.
The
collective teaching of Scripture is that demons can never spatially indwell a
true believer. A clear implication of 2
Corinthians 6, for example, is that the indwelling Holy Spirit could never
cohabit with demons:
What
harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an
unbeliever? Or what agreement has the
temple of God with idols? For we are the
temple of the living God; just as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk
among them; and I will be their God and they shall be My people” (vv. 15-16).
In
Colossians 1:13, Paul says God “delivered us from the domain of darkness, and
transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son” Salvation brings true deliverance and
protection from Satan. In Romans 8:37,
Paul says we overwhelmingly conquer through Christ. In 1 Corinthians 15:57, he says God gives us
the victory. In 2 Corinthians 2:14, he
says God always leads us in triumph. In
1 John 2:13, John says we have overcome the evil one. And in 4:4, he says the indwelling Holy
Spirit is greater than Satan. How could
anyone affirm those glorious truths, yet believe demons can indwell genuine
believers? ([Wheaton, III.: Victor, 1992], 22-23)
“The Lord Jesus Christ’s powerful
preaching unnerved this particular demon and he cried out (an
exclamation meaning to scream in dismay, fear, or terror) with a loud voice in
the middle of Christ’s message. The
demon felt the power of the presence of his sovereign, the Son of God, who had
come to invade the kingdom of darkness and free many held captive by the devil
by bringing them to salvation. As Jesus preached the good news that He had come
to deliver the poor, prisoners, blind, and oppressed, the dreaded reality of
his ultimate doom hit the demon, and he panicked. ‘Let us alone!’ he screamed. ‘What business do we have with each other,
Jesus of Nazareth?’ The phrase what
business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth?’ (literally, what is it to us and to You’;
cf. the same phrase used by another demon in 8:28) is an idiomatic
expression. What the demon was saying
is, ‘Why are You attacking us?’ He knew
all too well that Jesus of Nazareth was God the Son, the second person
of the Trinity, who had absolute power and authority over him. It should be
noted that in a religious environment like Israel’s, demons would rather stay
hidden as they sit in religious services.
That is their disguise as ‘angels of light,’ and they prefer not to blow
their cover. Every false religion, no
matter how moral, is demon controlled and there are surely demons present in
the leaders and the deceived people. But
they stay silent by design. They could
not hold their terror in when the Son of God was present.”
I truly hope that this section that
we looked at this evening will be of great help for those who read it, as was
stated there is some lies out their about whether or not a true Christian can
be inhabited by a demon. But think about
this, when a true believer is saved they receive the Holy Spirit of God to indwell
them, so how could a demon be there too?
They Cannot!!
5/17/2026
7:26 PM
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