Before I had an encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ, I dabbled in the occult. As a result I experienced demonic oppression and, subsequently, deliverance. It is a bit of a conundrum, I guess, that I unintentionally validated the existence of God by first validating the existance of Satan and his minions.
One thing I learned from my experience is that the human spirit is designed to be bound to something. I find it interesting how all of creation demonstrates this truth; but this makes sense, since all of creation is designed to reveal and give glory to the Creator.
We see this "need to be bound" in marriage, a human relationship ordained and instituted by God. We see it, for example, in chemistry where an oxygen atom almost never occurs alone; oxygen atoms occur in pairs, forming the molecule O2. Many chemical elements, when "unbound", become unstable - the "unbound" state cannot be maintained.
So too the human spirit is designed to be connected to something else for completeness. This is what makes a human susceptible to demonic oppression/posession.
What I realized in contemplating this is how closely "possession" by the Holy Spirit and "possession" by any other spirit are related. The Bible makes it clear that if we repent of our sins and accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God comes in to dwell with us - we become "possessed" by the Spirit of God. Similarly, if I give myself to something other than God, I can be "possessed" by the spirit associated with that thing/behavior/choice. This is often manifested as "addictive behavior", psychosis, etc.
The effects of possession can be similar. While possession is the "normal" state for the human soul/spirit, the meeting of the spirit world and the physical world produces some predictable, and often seemingly dramatic results. In my case, my involvement in the occult resulted in a spirit other than my own gaining temporary control of my body (and immediately trying to leverage the situation to destroy me.) Similarly, once I repented and was "baptized in" the Holy Spirit (another way, I think, of saying I am "possessed by the Spirit of God"), then I had a different paradigm; I now had a spiritual force at work from within me, to preserve and enhance my life. Previously, when I moved to do something evil, I often felt a physical "rush" that essentially served to reinforce the action. Now, when I attempt to do something evil, I tend to have a sense of dread/foreboding... "something" tells me not to do what I am about to do. When I "move through" that sense and do the wrong thing anyway, then I find myself confronting a sense of guilt/remorse, which leads me to repent of the thing. This is a "negative reinforcement" - the feeling is so uncomfortable that I do not want to experience it again.
Moreover, the interaction between the spiritual world and the physical world, in a human body, can sometimes produce "manifestations". I personally believe this is because a human body exists outside the spiritual realm, and is limited in its ability to respond to spiritual influence. In the case of demonic activity, you sometimes see people manifesting "seizure like" activity or symptoms that mimic psychosis, etc. In the case of Holy Spirit activity, you sometimes see people trembling, falling down as if passed out, etc. Obviously, all of this can be faked, and I believe there are limits to what should be expected/accepted in these "manifestations" - but the point here is just that manifestations can and do occur when there is spiritual activity in a physical body.
Drawing a parallel between the activities of evil spirits and the Holy Spirit also can explain, in my mind, the difference between "oppression" and "possession".
A person can be "oppressed" by an evil spirit, meaning that the person still has control of their physical body, but the external spiritual influence causes pain, suffering, emotional distress, etc. The person is being "harassed" or oppressed by the demon.
Similarly the Holy Spirit works externally on a person - to woo them, to call them to repentence, etc. Once a person submits to this process, and repents, the Holy Spirit can then "move in" and be joined to that individual's own spirit, and this relationship can then deepen and grow, resulting in sanctification for the individual. If the relationship is nurtured and developed, the person will gradually be renewed and changed to look more and more like Jesus, who is, himself, the "very image of God the Father." And that should be the goal of everyone who is pursuing righteousness and relationship with the Father.
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