----Thanks Judy. My replies are in bold
type.
believers......
During his earthly ministry Jesus explained that defilement did
not
come from the outside (see Mark 7:21-23) "For from within, out of
the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries,
fornications,
murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness,
an
evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things
COME
FROM WITHIN and defile the man"
I would assume that this is because we are natural born
sinners. We can manage to get involved in all sorts of evil without
the help of other humans, or fallen angels.
This is why we so desperately need to be Born Again or born of
the
Spirit which happens when we agree with God, first recognizing,
then
taking responsibility for renouncing and repenting (turning from)
our
own sin. At this point the Comforter/Holy Spirit comes to indwell
us and to lead us into all truth.
That has been my experience, and is in keeping with
scripture
Where does the Holy Spirit dwell? In our spirit because he is
Spirit.
Are we completely pure and holy when He comes to indwell us?
No, because if we were there would be no need for sanctification.
Paul wrote to the young pastor Timothy "the GOAL of the
instruction
is love from a PURE heart... So the walk of salvation is a walk
of
sanctification. No arguement here.
What is a demon? The word demon is not really scriptural..
the
scriptures speak of devils and spirits. The father of the boy
with
seizures said a spirit would take him and throw him into the
fire.
Can a Christian be deceived by lying spirits?
Can a Christian be taken ill by spirits of infirmity?
Can a Christian be persecuted by evil spirits?
Can evil spirits use well meaning people to spread heresy?
Can familiar or family spirits hinder spiritual health and
growth?
I believe the answer to all of the above is yes they can and this
is
why the spiritual gifts are so important in the Church and why it is
especially important for believers to have their sense exercised
to
discern between good and evil since thoughts may be generated by
the five physical senses, from our own memory, by the spirit of
God or the evil spirit. This is why we must take thoughts captive
(and examine them) to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor 10:5).
As for the evil spirit and the Holy Spirit being in the same
place
at the same time - they are anyway. Both spirits are in this
world
as we speak. They are together in Job 1:6 when they present
themselves before God. They are also together when the High
Priest stands before the Lord and satan is at his right hand to
accuse him in Zechariah 3:1. They were both in the same place
at the same time when we responded to the gospel the first
time. In my humble opinion, these two are natural
enemies. Coyotes and bobcats both live in the woods surrounding our
home. They both hunt and devour the same prey, but they do not share
the same den. They are competitors. Both the Holy Spirit and
unclean spirits inhabit the world, but not the same home (den) at the same
time. They are in competition. They serve different
masters. In Matthew thirteen, beginning at verse forty-three, we find
a homeless demon (evil spirit) who drifts around aimlessly for a time then
returns to his home to find it empty, swept, and in order. Since it is
vacant, he gets his evil friends and moves back in. This, to me, is
the story of someone who had been possessed by a demon. Let's
say he was an alcoholic. On his own, acting in his own strength, he
puts down the bottle and in effect, kicks out the demon, but he does not
turn to the Lord, and the Holy Spirit does not dwell in him. He, the
house, is empty, and in short order, the demon is back, bringing his friends
with him, and the alcoholic is now worse off than ever. Had the Holy
Spirit been invited to live there, the demons would not have found a
vacancy.
Can a Christian be demon possessed? Not so long as we are
walking in all the light we have and purposing in our hearts
to serve the Lord because the greater one is able to cause us
to stand.
"We can give thanks always to God because we are beloved of
the Lord and he has from the beginning chosen us to salvation
through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth"
( 2 Thess 13 - my paraphrase)
Grace and Peace,
Judy
I have been trying to consider your definition ( Or whoever's
definition you offered) of what constitutes a soul. I really find it hard to
buy the idea that it is long term memory.
As a toddler, my mother taught me a bedtime prayer that went,
"Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray thee Lord, my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake, I pray thee Lord, my soul to take".
This prayer gives the idea (borne out in scripture, Luke 12:20 ) that the
soul is separated from the body at death. My mother and my
father-in-law both lost their long term memory long before they experienced
death. My mother was in a catatonic state for about four years before
the Lord took her.
To confuse the matter even more, a little study in the
KJV shows that the Lord Himself uses the word "soul" in plural ways.
In Genesis, God breathed the breath of life into Adam and he became a living
soul. No long term memory here, and the soul seems to imply the
physical body, living clay. In Genesis 46:18, leah bore sixteen souls to
Jacob, meaning children. In Acts 2:41, three thousand souls are saved
and baptised. The more I learn, the less I know. I'm sure glad
that you are going to explain all this to me. I would hate for the
shoe to be on the other foot, where I had to explain it to
you.
Terry
