Satan's limitations

[2bossy]

I agree that Satan isn't omnipresent, but how do we know he doesn't know what we're thinking?

[Timothy]

He is neither omnipresent, nor omnipotent. Someone who is saved is indwelt, permanantly, by the Holy Spirit. Satan can not read a saved person's mind, otherwise the implication is that he is powerful enough to knock the Holy Spirit out of you, etc.

[B A N E]

that satan can read minds...

However, I suspect that he is the penultimate behavioral interpreter.

This allows for the deception of "apparent mind reading".

[jenniofYahushua]

i would say satan cannot read a beleivers mind from without. however i absolutly 100% beleive that a christian can have demons in them, and in those cases ( which may very well be alot) the demons within know what u r thinking and can gain help from demons without.

however with the satan thing i do think that sometimes the Lord may tell satan what u r thinking possibly. as there are times when the Lord may use him to test you or chasten you- on a teather of course.-

[Woodworker]

however i absolutly 100% beleive that a christian can have demons in them, and in those cases ( which may very well be alot) the demons within know what u r thinking and can gain help from demons without.


How is this possible? How could a demon and the Holy Spirit occupy the same space? They cannot co-exist. A believer can be Oppressed bad enough it may SEEM to be a possession, but they can't be possessed. That would require the absence of the Holy Spirit, who indwells every believer. If you are a believer you are SEALED with the Holy Spirit of promise. (Eph 1:13 ) SEALED.


William

[ehbowen]

Satan may not be omnipresent, but I believe that he--and probably all the angels, and eventually we ourselves--is multipresent, or able to manifest and to act in a number of widely separated locations at the same time. Jesus said, of children, that "their angels always see the face of my father in Heaven." So that implies that guardian angels are always physically present at the throne of God--yet at the same time they are able to fulfill their responsibilities to watch and protect their charges.

I don't yet know how to describe it, but I remember one particularly vivid dream when it seemed that I was looking at the world through hundreds of multifaceted eyes. All different places, and yet all beautiful--beaches, mountains, woods, you name it. I think that this is the way in which we will eventually experience eternity--never leaving the throne of God, and yet at the same time free, in other 'facets', to explore the length and breadth of the universe. Personally, I believe that the more powerful angels have the capability to interact in a lot of places--perhaps thousands, perhaps more--at the same time. And so, with Satan being the most powerful of the angels, it may be that he has the capability to personally oversee a significant portion of the battle for men's souls.

Which leads to the question of whether he can read minds. I know for a fact that he can place thoughts in our minds; I have experienced this on more than one occasion. It would seem, though, from the accounts of people that have had a "glimpse" of heaven via near death experiences, that angels routinely communicate telepathically. And so if garden variety angels can read our thoughts, it seems virtually certain that Satan possesses the capability to do so also.

Now, I believe that God's holy angels and of course God himself are able to shield us from Satan's "probes," but I wonder if they might not do so less often than we might think. Personally, my experience is that when I am walking with God and in the center of his will, I really don't care whether or not angels, demons, or Satan himself listens in on my thoughts. It is mainly in those moments when I am doing or thinking something that I know I ought not that I most desire "privacy"--and, looking at the situation dispassionately, I realize that it is at those same moments that I am least likely to have it.

[ILJ]

I agree that there is no evidence that Satan can read minds. I did hear a really great sermon a long time ago that Satan and/or demons do like to whisper things into your ear and they usually begin with the word "I" so you think that you have thought them. Ever have just a horrible horrible thought come into your mind and you wondered where in tarnation that came from? Granted, Satan and his buddies cannot be credited with all of our "stinkin' thinkin", we, too are responsible for our thought life. However, I do believe Satan can put thoughts into your mind but he cannot read it.

My opinion is that Christians cannot be possessed by demons. We can be oppressed by them for certain. The minute a person becomes saved, Satan/demons have to put their packages of Oreo cookies away and get to work. :laugh Many people who become saved think (at first, that is) that their salvation will make life on Earth a bed of roses. It doesn't. In fact, it can become even more difficult as demons will try to make us doubt, fear, sin, etc. The list goes on and on. Thanks be to God that the Bible teaches us to know our enemy! :thumb

[jenniofYahushua]

woodwork :D:

well first off i would like to say about this that having a demon (s) doesnt mean you are damned or anything like that. and one can have demons in them and not be " possessed" by them. having demons doesnt nessessarily mean that they have full control of you etc... Every beleiver I have ever met or read the writtings of who does deliverance from demons has seen that christians can have demons and often they do not get delviered from them because people falsely teach them that they cannot have demons. I myself have seen christians who have demons. it seems that often when christians have demons the demons have less and less control and power to influence as the person grows closer to the Lord and sometimes the demons leave on their own and other times they stay even if they havent been allowed to work in that person for years. Certianly the Spirit can be in the same vacinity with demons as the Spirit and demons are on this earth, satan and other fallen angels were allowed to reenter heaven at times and surely the Holy Spirit dwells in heaven etc... It is like the vision given to ezekiel about the temple. He saw the temple and OUTSIDE the holy of holies there was idols in there and other nasty stuff. Our bodies are the temple now and as we all know once you are born again you are not in a perfect body, you are not sinless etc... we are told the Spirit does not dwell in darkness but surely that does not mean that if we sin we dont have the Spirit or the Spirit has left us. Our flesh is corrupted and contains corruption and in the flesh demons can dwell. However i will state that I absolutly beleive that a christian who is born again and has demons has the power,and athoirity in the Lord Yahushua over those things and is not at all powerless to obey there will. at times the Lord may even send a demon to do HIS will and Only His will. for instance, paul got to see such magnificent things in the 3rd heaven that the Lord allowed him to have a " messenger of satan" that was as a " thorn in his flesh" to keep him humble and paul prayed to have it go away and the father said no my grace is sufficent for u. now many argue this was a physical ailment, and truly the cause of the messeger may have been physical but a " messenger of satan" isnt just a physical illness caused by biology. Sadly often chrisitans have demons and want delvierance and are told to go home by other christians who refuse to beleive it is possible and so they dont get delivered and they get discouraged so they dont ask the Lord for the deliverance.:wave

[Timothy]

The unsaved, of course, can be inhabited by demons.

Ephesians 2:1-3 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

There's simply no scriptural basis, or account, that a saved person can be inhabited or possessed by demons. Once saved, a person is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and sealed by the Holy Spirit. There's simply no scriptural basis, or account, that a saved person can have demons dwelling in them.

II Corinthians 1:22 Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.

II Cortinthians 6:15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

I Corinthians 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

II Timothy 1:14 That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.

Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

Ephesians 2:2 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.