The Greek word means “to demonize.”

There are levels of “demonization.” An obsession is to have an unnatural attraction or interest in something. When we are obsessed with something we are, if not seeking it out, at least allowing it to begin to have an unusually high amount of influence in our life. This is the way Satan always begins. It is something we allow to happen. Oppression then follows obsession. An oppression of satanic influence brings with it a state of burdens, depression, dullness of life, or a great sense of heaviness or weight. Then, if we allow this demon oppression to continue, we become a candidate for demon possession. To be demon possessed means that we have allowed continued demonization to the point of turning over control of our thoughts and actions to the power of demons. It can become so extreme as to resemble madness or lunacy to objective onlookers.

Although I believe that Satan cannot “possess” Christians (we have already been bought with a price, 1 Corinthians 6:20), a Christian can be demonized to the degree that he is willing to allow it. Ephesians 4:27 says, “Neither give place to the devil.” In this passage of Scripture the Christian is commanded not to give the devil foothold, a ledge or access into his life. By implication Satan must be able to gain this access if we allow it, or the warning wouldn’t be necessary.

And so a Christian can be demon oppressed, but not demon possessed. Paul told Timothy that Christians would certainly be tempted or influenced to sin (1 Timothy 4:1) but that the responsibility for recovery lies with the individual, “…that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will” (2 Timothy 2:26).

Satan cannot initially control any part of “you” against your will. He isn’t a terrorist who rushes in and takes over. It is the personal, willful, stubborn insistence on keeping and guarding known sin that gives place to Satan in our lives. We are to stay away from the “ledges” that give Satan a foothold: dirty jokes, bitterness, anger, impatience, pornography, devilish music, liquor and drunkenness, horoscopes, etc. The list goes on.

The Bible says, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” (Romans 6:12-16).