How is it possible for a Christian to ever be taken or influenced by a demon? I’ve been told by Christians that God’s very presence will destroy evil. If God inhabits your heart, how could a demon ever enter your body? I’m asking because I believe that Christians have had exorcisms performed on them throughout history.
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This is the correct answer.
Matthew 12:43 is Jesus description of what happens when an evil spirit is exorcised or cast out from a non-believer. Eventually it will return to that person and attempt to enter them again.
If they find the ‘house’ “empty” they will move back into their “former house”, and invite many other unclean spirits, more wicked than the first, and they also will enter the person.
This is Jesus describing the fate of a person who still rejects Jesus and therefore doesn’t have the indwelling Holy Spirit- their house remains empty.
I think this is an example of Jesus speaking to believers, and not everyone, because it would be hard to understand the symbolism He is using.
He doesn’t say, but He implies, that if the unclean spirit returns and finds the house is occupied [by the Holy Spirit] because the person now follows Jesus, the unclean spirits will not be allowed to re-enter that person.
The way I was taught was that demons cannot possess you because your soul is inhabited and held by Jesus. (Romans 8:38-39) They can pester you and influence the world or the lost people around you though. So its not a good idea to leave yourself open to those kinds of things as christians can invite demons in by giving in to appetites, addictions, and transgressions.