Today Christians lack two kinds of knowledge. Because of this lack, they fall into endless misery that they cannot recover from. These two kinds of knowledge are: (1) the condition for evil spirits to work, and (2) the principle of spiritual life. Because of ignorance, Satan and his evil spirits are given the greatest advantage, and the church of God experiences the greatest suffering. "My people are destroyed / Because of a lack of that knowledge" (Hosea 4:6). This is truly a word written for today's believers. Much of what man regards as knowledge is merely his ideas. Hence, they are of no use. Apart from this knowledge, godly knowledge is indispensable to the believers. The absence of godly knowledge will result in grave damage. It is sad that in a time of widespread ignorance as today, believers still do not humble themselves before God and seek after the truth that God would reveal. They are still proud and boastful of their familiarity with the Scriptures and the abundance of their experiences. On the one hand, they fall into danger and do not know how to turn back; they fall into a hopeless situation and have no idea of the need for deliverance. On the other hand, they boast of the richness of their knowledge. How pitiful this is!
In the four Gospels there are many accounts of demon-possession. There are still many cases of demon-possession among the "heathen" today. If we tell a believer that Christians can be possessed by demons (or evil spirits), he will be greatly surprised. An ordinary believer in China thinks that only heathens have the possibility of being possessed by demons and that it is not possible for Christians to have the same experience. There is also a misunderstanding that once a person is possessed by demons, he is like a lunatic. But the Bible tells us that demons not only caused people to fall suddenly into water and fire (Matt. 17:15); they also caused a woman to be bent double (Luke 13:11) while she was still very gentle and quiet.
Believers realize that there is a possibility for them to be seduced, tempted, attacked, or deceived, but they do not realize that there is also a possibility for believers to be attached to—to be possessed—by demons. When they first believed, they received many wrong teachings; now they think that as long as a Christian has Christ, he will not be possessed by demons. They say this because they think that a Christian would never lose his mind like some heathen. However, this teaching is not found in the Bible. Neither is it confirmed by the experience of the saints. God's children are very unclear that evil spirits can change their appearance and attach themselves to the believers' bodies. Today there is an unexpectedly great number of believers who are possessed by demons. The unalterable fact is that many believers are possessed by demons.
What exactly does it mean to be possessed by demons? After a believer understands the meaning, he will realize that it is possible for Christians to be possessed by demons. "Being demon-possessed," or simply "being possessed," means that evil spirits have attached (cleaved) themselves to the whole or part of man's body. Evil spirits attach themselves to the ground they have gained. As long as they have a footing, no matter how small it may be, they can keep on working until they gain the entire being. Common believers think that demon-possession must be as severe as the cases recorded in the Gospels. They do not know that those were all extreme cases. Furthermore, according to the Gospels, the degree of suffering was not the same in those who were possessed by demons; their suffering was quite different from each other. The two cases we spoke of earlier were entirely different from each other.