In short, the place that the believers give to the devil is sin. Sin includes all the places. When believers tolerate sin, they tolerate the evil spirits behind sin. Any kind of sin will give place to evil spirits. Nevertheless, sin can be classified into two kinds: one is active and the other is passive. Active sin is the sin that man commits, such as committing evil with the hands, beholding lewdness with the eyes, listening to licentious sounds with the ears, or speaking profanity with the mouth. These all give evil spirits an opportunity to attach themselves to the hands, eyes, ears, and mouth. There is an invitation for evil spirits to come and dwell in whatever part of man's body commits sin. We should pay attention to three matters in determining how active sin develops a relationship with evil spirits: (1) some sins do not result in the possession by evil spirits, (2) other sins call for the possession by evil spirits, and (3) still other sins are caused by being possessed with evil spirits. If a believer is possessed by evil spirits as a result of committing some sin, he should specifically forsake that sin. After he regains that ground, he will be delivered. Otherwise, he will see the ground that he has given to the evil spirits gradually increase and not stop until his whole being is possessed. Many believers are still not delivered from besetting sins, even though they have accepted the fact of their crucifixion with Christ, because the source of their sickness is not just the "flesh," but the possession of their bodies by supernatural, evil spirits.

This aspect of affording evil spirits an opportunity to work through an active sin, comparatively speaking, is easier to apprehend. Most believers believe in this. We will not speak more concerning it because it is outside our present scope. We will now pay attention to the second aspect of sin—the place given to evil spirits by passivity. This is the aspect that is least understood by today's believers; most believers err in this aspect. Furthermore, this kind of sin is in the realm of the will. Therefore, we will speak of it in detail.

There is a difference between active sin and passive sin. A person commonly regards active sin as sin and does not regard passive sin as sin. In addition to calling the various unrighteous acts committed by man on his own as sin, the Bible also says, "Therefore to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin" (James 4:17). The Bible not only regards what man does as sin; it also regards what man does not do as sin. Sin is the place where evil spirits attach themselves. (We will call this demon-possession from now on.) Therefore, besides an actively-committed sin, which gives ground for demon-possession, there is also a passive sin of not doing something, which gives ground for demon-possession.

Passive sin gives ground to evil spirits through passivity in the believers. In God's eyes, both giving up the use of any part of our being or using it wrongly are sin. God has endowed us with various faculties. They are not there for us to use wrongly or leave unused. When a believer does not use any part of his faculties, allowing it to fall into passivity, a way is opened for evil spirits to use it instead of the believer. This will give place for demon-possession. Although all believers admit that sin is a condition for demon-possession, they do not realize that passivity also is a kind of sin and a condition for demon-possession. Once the place is given, a person cannot help but be possessed; once he is possessed, he cannot help but suffer.