Demons and Christians

Question

What does the Bible say about demons and Christians? Can we be possessed by demons? Should I pray to be covered by Jesus’ blood as protection against them? Should we chase or rebuke or cast out demons or evil spirits?

Answer

There is no evidence that a believer in Jesus could ever be possessed by demons, and there is good evidence that we cannot be since the Holy Spirit himself lives in us. Paul describes Christians multiple times as being “sealed” by the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13; 4:30).

While Jesus’ blood continues to cleanse us from our sins as we walk close to him and confess our sin regularly (1 John 1:7, 9), nowhere does Scripture tell us to pray for his blood to cover us or that his blood is a protection against demons. You will also not find a single command for Christians to chase or rebuke or cast out demons or any explanation as to how we are to do it.

Instead, we are told that our warfare is spiritual and that we are to “stand” firm (four times in Ephesians 6:10-14) and that it is when we submit ourselves to God that we can resist the devil (James 4:7-8). But notice that standing firm and resisting are not the same as chasing and rebuking.

We learn in James that our defense is God himself as we submit to him, and it is God’s armor (not our armor) in Ephesians. We cannot do battle with those forces that we cannot even see, but God fights for us when we humble ourselves before him. Paul asked in Romans 8:31: “If God is for us, who can stand against us?”