Mental Illness or Demon Inhabitation

Mental Illness or Demon Inhabitation Acts 8:7-8 Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed. And there was great joy in that city. There's a biblical subject that isn't talked about or mentioned in most churches or even considered a possibility by many Christians -- demon inhabitation. If Phillip had come to your town instead of Samaria, and he had run across someone inhabited by a demon -- what do you think "our" diagnosis and recommended course of treatment would involve? When we see unnatural behavior, we immediately think mental illness. This is sensible -- there is evidence that many strange behaviors in people are nothing more than mental issues. Our solution might be to get the person to a crisis center or into some type of counseling (which might involve a drug therapy as well). My point is that the thought of demon inhabitation does not even enter our minds. Why is that? Has demon activity ended? Hardly! Has it moved to places nobody goes? In other words, have demons decided to ignore civilized or "Christian" settings? Biblical evidence suggests demons were exceptionally active in regions where God was worshipped. I believe our lack of awareness is because the "enemy" has so successfully penetrated our culture and even our churches that he has completely camouflaged himself from our thought process. If we saw the devil as a man is a red suit with horns and a pitchfork we would know immediately who he was. But would you ever expect to see the devil robed as a sweet little blue hair lady? It is doubt full but it can as does happen. The popular Christian views relating to demon inhabitation is that it is either a "superstition," is so rare as to not be a concern, or only possible in a third world country. It certainly could not happen in my town in the good old U.S. of A. Want to bet your life on that idea? We hold these opinions despite the fact that Jesus Himself regularly addressed the issue of demons (Mark 1:23-26, 5:2-20, 7:25-30) and in Matthew 12:23-27 confirmed that one of the signs that the kingdom of God had come to His believers was the casting out of demons. As we see in our passage today, the disciples of the new church followed Jesus' instructions and example and cast out demons wherever they went -- what followed was great joy, "...evil spirits came out of many... so there was great joy in that city." You will note that whenever Jesus spoke, demons were forced to obey (Mark 1:27; Luke 4:41); Jesus gave His disciples this same power through His name (Matthew 10:1,8); and which we have inherited as "co-heirs" with Christ (Romans 8:17). So there is no need for us to fear demons. However it would be irresponsible for us to ignore their existence and their influence on both the believer and unbeliever. Satan uses unsuspecting people to do his bidding. Uses them to destroy the home, tear down the moral fiber and infect the minds of children. He does it in such a subtle way we never even suspect what is happening until we find ourselves in a battle to save our lives or the lives of those we love. The devil has not gone into hiding he is very active in the world today. In fact he is hiding in plain sight. He might even be next door across the street or in the pew behind you.