Can a Demon and the Holy Spirit Coexist in the Same Space?
Some might wonder how a demon and the Holy Spirit can live inside the same body. I believe the Holy Spirit dwells in your spirit when you’re born again, and any demons dwell in the realm of your soul. This is your mind, will, and emotions. Paul tells the church in Thessalonica that there are three parts: “And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:23, ASV). So, we are spirit, soul, and body—tri-part beings—and the area where demons dwell is the part still being renewed, the soul. To say that the Holy Spirit can’t dwell where a demon is also is a stretch, in my opinion. I want to refer to another excerpt in Sam Storms’ article that I mentioned earlier:
The second argument is that this would be a “spiritual” impossibility. That is to say, “How can the Holy Spirit inhabit the same body as an unholy demon?” But again, we must remember that the Holy Spirit, in a certain sense, “inhabits” everything. The Holy Spirit is, after all, omnipresent. He dwells everywhere! You may also recall from the book of Job that Satan had access to the presence of God, indicating that the issue is not one of spatial proximity but of personal relationship. The Holy Spirit and demons are in close proximity when outside the human body, so why could they not be close while inside one? Finally, the Holy Spirit indwells the Christian even though the latter still has a sinful nature or sinful flesh. In other words, if the Holy Spirit can inhabit the same body with unholy human sin, why could he not inhabit the same body with an unholy demon? It strikes me that the force of this argument appears to be more emotional than biblical. The idea of the Holy Spirit and a demon living inside a believer is too close, too intimate of contact. The thought of it is emotionally provocative and scandalous; it violates one’s sense of spiritual propriety. The feeling is that God simply wouldn’t allow it. His love for his own is too great to let demonic influence get that far. But we must always keep in mind that the only criterion for deciding on an issue such as this is not what seems or feels proper to us but what the Scripture explicitly asserts.
Storms does a great job of explaining how the Holy Spirit and a demon can certainly dwell in the same place.
Another reason I believe Christians can have demons is in relation to the story of the Syrophoenician woman in the Bible. John Eckhardt has a great take on this from an article in a magazine titled, “Can a Christian Have a Demon?” Concerning this story, he says:
The story of the Syrophoenician woman in Mark 7:25–30 makes this clear. The woman sought out Jesus so He would deliver her daughter from an unclean spirit. But Jesus told her, “‘Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs’” (v. 27). In this verse, the phrase “the children’s bread” refers specifically to deliverance, and Jesus is saying it belongs to His covenant people. Those outside the covenant may receive a miracle based on God’s mercy, but deliverance is meant for those who have a covenant with God. Luke 1:71–73 says Jesus came “that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to our father Abraham.” He brought salvation from our enemies—devils, and demons—based on a promise, of which we are heirs (see Gal. 3:29), that He made to Abraham. The purpose of this salvation is stated in subsequent verses of Luke 1: “To grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life” (vv. 74–75). God provides the benefit so that we may serve Him without fear, in holiness, and righteousness all the days of our lives. It is very difficult to live this way without being delivered. In fact, it is practically impossible.
At the end of the day, some people reading this could see every verse, listen to every argument, and hear every teaching we have on this topic but still not be convinced until they experience it. There is something experience does that nothing else can do. A pastor friend told me he had another pastor over, and as they were talking and just hanging out, my name came up. My pastor’s friend, who is also a friend of mine, said, “Oh, I really like Isaiah Saldivar, except I don’t believe Christians can have demons, and because he teaches that they can, I don’t listen to him or recommend him.”
My pastor friend humbly disagreed and tried to tell him why we believed that. An hour or two went by, and the guy shared some struggles he’d been having, so my pastor friend said, “Do you mind if I pray for you?” The guy said sure, and they began to pray. My pastor friend began to call out any demonic spirits that were hiding, and sure enough, the man started to manifest a demon. My pastor friend took him through deliverance, and afterward, he said, “I can’t believe all this time I thought Isaiah was crazy for believing Christians can have demons, and I had a demon myself!”
Guess what? He now believes Christians can have demons. I can exhaust you with hundreds of stories of Christians having demons, but at the end of the day, you have to decide you’re willing to be wrong on this topic and say, “God, open my eyes and reveal the truth to me.” Sadly, this lie has kept countless people in bondage. I’m praying that God will open the eyes of the body of Christ, and they will see the need for deliverance inside the church.
To learn more about Isaiah Saldivar’s new book, How to Cast Out Demons, visit MyCharismaShop.com