Possessed?

“I think I’m possessed.”

What would you say if your friend, or your spouse, or your child, came to you and confessed that they were possessed?

The word itself conjures up images of horror and unspeakable evil.

Hollywood has filled our minds with countless examples of what it looks like when a human being is possessed by an evil spirit. We hear the demonic voices, we see the twisted faces, and we recoil when objects start flying around the room and people start to levitate.

But when it comes to being possessed by the Holy Spirit, we have very little idea what that looks like. Mainly, because no one has any expectation that a “Holy Possession” is even possible.

Which is unfortunate because the New Testament is filled with examples of Holy Possession, and Jesus and His Apostles go out of their way to explain what it should look like.

Jesus was the first to suggest that His disciples would be possessed by the Holy Spirit:

“He [the Holy Spirit] lives with you and will be in you.” [John 14:17]

This was in fulfillment of the OT prophecies about the New Covenant that God would make with mankind, through His Body [the Church] when He promised:

"I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.” [Ezekiel 36:27]

And at Pentecost that’s exactly what God did. He poured out His Spirit on all flesh, just as he promised.

And over and over again Paul emphasizes this reality:

“Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” [1 Cor. 3:16]

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” [1 Cor. 6:19]

“For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God and they shall be my people.’” [2 Cor. 6:16]

“Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.” [2 Tim. 1:14]

“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” [Roman 8:11]

“However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.” [Romans 8:9]

“For this I toil, struggling with all His energy that He powerfully works within me.” [Col. 1:29]

But what does this all mean?

It means that the very same Holy Presence of Almighty God that once rested over the Ark of the Covenant in the Temple, behind a massive veil, is now alive within you. [Yes, you].

It means that if you are in Christ, then Christ is in you, by His Holy Spirit.  Moment by moment, day by day, with every beat of your heart, Jesus is alive within you – and every single other member of the Body of Christ all over the planet, too.

It means that as you submit to the indwelling Holy Spirit your thoughts become His thoughts, His heart overtakes your heart, and His will overrides your will.

In essence, everyone who is abiding in Christ is possessed by the Spirit of the Living God. This is the only way in which Christ is still alive and at work in the earth today. We are His hands, His feet, His Body.

This is why Jesus said that it was better for us if he went away, because now that the Holy Spirit has been poured out on every single Christian, all over the world, the power and the presence of Jesus can be experienced by everyone we come into contact with.

We just have to take up our cross daily, deny ourselves, and allow Him to shine through us.

“He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” [1 John 4:4]

-kg

"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." [Gal. 2:20]