Faith Filled Family Magazine October 2016 | Page 9

The Holy Spirit does seal (mark)
all Christians with the seal of God
on their foreheads for the day
of redemption (Revelation 9:4,
Ephesians 4:30). The spirits of
Christians are joined to the Holy
Spirit, but we are not all filled
with the Holy Spirit. We are all in
Christ, but He may not be fully in
all. Without the necessary filling
of the Holy Spirit, Christians lack
the power to overcome sin and
stave off demons.
According to Russell, exorcism
and a formal renunciation of Satan was practiced in the early
church in addition to repentance
and before baptism. These were
considered necessary steps in
the salvation process in order to
formally break alliances with the
kingdom of darkness and expelling unclean spirits in preparation for the in-filling of the Holy
Spirit. (Russell 1981) Since this
was a necessary practice in the
early church, we can infer that
early Christians believed that unless renunciation and exorcism
were also performed, individuals would still be legally bound in
agreements with the kingdom of
darkness and would still be susceptible to being under the influence of demons even after baptism. Additionally, the laying on
of hands for the in-filling of the
Holy Spirit was a necessary step
that made the salvation process
complete.
In most churches today, exorcism and the formal renunciation
of Satan are not practiced as a
part of the salvation process.
Neither is there an emphasis on
the necessity of the in-filling and
continued filling of the Holy Spirit. Why would these practices be
important back then, but not to-

day? Has something changed?
If these steps are no longer practiced, are Christians properly being delivered from the kingdom
of darkness?

return to their home or attempt to
reclaim their house by force with
the help of other demons who
are more wicked.

Unclean spirits do not leave
“their homes” willingly and easily. They have to be expelled.
Even after they have been driven out, they relentlessly try to
get back in. This is an important
reason why ungodly ties must be
formally and explicitly severed.
Individuals should officially proclaim their commitment to Jesus
and be filled with the Holy Spirit
after salvation.

We also learn from this passage
that although this individual may
have gone through the salvation
process, he was not filled with
the Holy Spirit. We know this
because he was described as
being empty and dry. Demons
prefer dry places. The reference
to dry places here is a reference
to the absence of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is Jesus whom
the Bible describes as the living
water.

Jesus gave us an example of how
tenacious demons can be about
their agenda to cause temporal
and eternal torment for mankind.
He explained that when an unclean spirit leaves a man, he
goes looking for other dry places
to dwell. When he does not find
any, he decides to return to his
former house. When he returns,
he finds “his house” unoccupied,
swept, and decorated (Matthew
12:43-44). There has been much
conversation in the Church
about the state of the man in
this passage. There are important clues in the text that helps
us ascertain that this man may
have been a Christian. Jesus
revealed that deliverance— “the
children’s bread”—is provision
for the children of God (Matthew
15:26, Mark 7:27). Since this
man was at one point delivered
of the demon, it is like