DEMON POSSESSION
Evil spirits have been influencing humans since the time of our first parents. Such influence can come in many forms and through a variety of means. In demon-controlled cases, the possessed cannot act freely because an outside force controls the person’s behavior like acting under the influence. That makes the person behave strangely, hurting himself or others. By being liberated from such external influence, the person is freed in body and soul.
The demons in the possessed persons could identify the divinity of Jesus. “Whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him and shout, ‘You are the Son of God.’ He warned them sternly not to make him known” (Mk 3:11-12). Luke reports, “Demons also came out from many, shouting, ‘You are the Son of God.’ But he rebuked them and did not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the Messiah” (Lk 4:41).
Jesus, who liberated many from the demons’ possession, shared his power with his disciples. In the name of Jesus, they healed abnormal people and manifested Jesus’ power over the evil spirits. When the 72 disciples returned after their assignment, they shared with Jesus, “‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name.’ Jesus said, ‘I have observed Satan fall like lightning from the sky’” (Lk 10:17-18).
The disciples continued casting out demons after Pentecost. When Philip preached in Samaria, they paid attention to him, “For unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice, came out of many possessed people, and many paralyzed and crippled people were cured. There was great joy in that city” (Acts 8:7-8). While Paul was in Philippi, he cast out a demon from “a slave girl with an oracular spirit, who used to bring a large profit to her owners through her fortune-telling” (Acts 16:16-18).