God's Property! Conclusion

Dear Friends,

We read last week that Christians cannot be possessed by the Devil because when we’re a follower of Jesus Christ, we are owned by God. We are God’s Property! So we cannot be “possessed” by the Enemy but we can be harassed, hounded and tormented by demons as they exert outside pressure on us. They’ll use every trick to do that because they want us back, and yes, a Believer can, through their free-will, reject God and lose their salvation. Hebrews 10:26-27 NLT The Blood of His Covenant is what sets us apart and makes us holy. When we turn away from God and reject His Covenant as no longer sacred, then we have disdained and rejected the Spirit of God. Hebrews 10:29 NLT When we reject God, we’ve sacrificed our soul to Satan and opened ourselves to his possession of us.

I used to work with a woman who was an on-fire for God, “Baptized-in-the-Holy Spirit” Believer. She loved to talk about Jesus and witness to her co-workers. She’d come to my office and we'd always talk about our faith. Her entire countenance lit up every time we talked about Jesus. She truly loved the Lord! But there had always been an undercurrent of negativity, resentment and unforgiveness in her heart that she had held onto and had justified as simply who she was as a person. Then one day, two of her co-workers sought me out to tell me that they were worried about her mental health as she was becoming increasingly mean-spirited and viciously cruel to others.

I asked her to meet with me and after asking her how life was going, I was surprised that her negativity had taken on an even darker tone. She began an obscenity-filled rant about how bad her life was. Even her face looked different that day. A few weeks later we saw each other while walking through our city plaza. I smiled and waved. She turned away and avoided me by climbing up a grassy embankment so that she wouldn’t have to pass by me. I emailed her and asked what was going on. Her reply was: “The only thing you and I talk about is God and Jesus and I am so done with that.” This was a woman who had been saved for over 30 years and had been a worship leader and women’s ministry leader for many years. She wrote: “I am over the Jesus phase of my life. You're probably going to want to email me or talk to me about this but don't.” 

I’d been friends with her and her husband for fifteen years and for many of those she considered me to be her pastor. The next day I tried to pray for her and my mind was a blank. I struggled to find words to pray and suddenly God lifted the burden I had to pray for her and I felt a release in my spirit. The spiritual responsibility I’d always felt for her as her pastor was now gone. Did she cross a spiritual line? “..there is a sin that leads to death, and I am not saying you should pray for those who commit it.” 1 John 5:16 NLT

What happened? I believe that through her continued and unrepentant sin, the Devil was given a legitimate foothold in her life. Her strong faith eroded to the point of rejecting God and Jesus tells us that the unforgivable sin is when we speak out against God and reject Him.  Matthew 12:31-32 

We know that God's children do not make a practice of sinning, for God's Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot touch them. We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one. 1 John 5:18-19 NLT That scripture, along with others, tells us that by avoiding habitual sins, we remove ourselves from the reach of the Devil. But our continued and unrepentant practice of sin invites the wicked one to attach himself to us and that’s why demons are relentless in their harassment of believers. They want us back! Satan has a plan for your life – to steal your faith, kill your soul and destroy your relationship with his enemy, God. John 10:10 And the Devil does his best work in covert darkness. The Devil loves it when we disbelieve in him and in the demonic realm and then whine about how bad our life is.

Remember what Dr. Charles Stanley said, “Each day, we live in the midst of a real, personal battle that we must fight.”  We need to become warriors!

1. Affirm Your Faith in Jesus Christ. If you are not an authentic, born-again believer, you have no authority over the demonic. Read Acts 19:13-16.

2. Submit to God. Ephesians 6:10 says that when we go into spiritual battle, we need to be strong in the Lord with His power. We can’t fight this battle with our own earthly strength. The power of God is not available if we keep Him on the sidelines and are proudly in control of our own lives.

3. Confess and Repent. Those habitual, continued and unrepentant sins provide an open entry-way for the Devil to worm his way into our lives.

4. Forgive Others. You will continue to struggle without the forgiveness of God. If you don’t forgive others, God will not forgive you. Jesus made this clear in Mark 11:26 and Matthew 6:14-15. There’s no getting around it.

5. Renounce Occult Involvement and All False Religion. Go to Steps to Freedom In Christ or contact me for a handout.

6. Renounce the Enemy! Take a firm stance. Take up the battle. God is already on your side. James 4:7 tells us to “resist the Devil and he will flee from you.”  Amen?