Join us on Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs as we delve into the complexities of the spiritual realm. Pastor Jack provides insightful teachings on whether Christians can be possessed by demonic spirits and explores the concept of spiritual oppression. This episode will navigate historical examples, including the spiritual challenges faced by figures like Martin Luther, offering a deeper understanding of the forces at play beyond our visible world.
00:00:01 The Incompatibility of Demonic Possession and Christianity
Are you a Christian? If you’re a Christian, you cannot be possessed by a demonic spirit. Impossible.
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This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I’m David Jay, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God’s Word, the Bible. Did you know there’s an easy way to stay informed on the latest biblical events shaping our world today? Check out the Happening Now section at jackhibbs.com. Now, these live events feature Pastor Jack Hibbs alongside special guests diving into current events, cultural shifts, and how they align with biblical prophecy. It’s a unique blend of Bible teaching and real-time analysis that helps you make sense of today’s headlines through the lens of Scripture. Happening Now is not just about information. It’s about equipping you with the truth and encouraging you to stand firm in your faith, no matter what’s happening around you. Now, these discussions are eye-opening, they’re thought-provoking, and they’re a great way to stay spiritually grounded in a rapidly changing world. Whether you watch live or catch up on past events, Happening Now will help keep you connected to God’s Word and what’s going on in the world today. Visit jackhibbs.com and click on Happening Now. Don’t just watch the news. Understand it from a biblical perspective. on today’s edition of Real Life Radio. Pastor Jack continues now with his series called First Samuel and a message titled The Spiritual Realm. Samuel of the Old Testament was the last judge of Israel and the first of her prophets. So here in Chapter 28, we’ll consider how there is a spiritual world beyond our visible realm. You see, as Christians, we’re to always look for spiritual answers from the Holy Spirit. But King Saul, in desperation, sought spiritual answers through mediums and occult practices. This reminds us that there is indeed an evil side of the spiritual realm. So today, Pastor Jack teaches us that as Christ followers, we have the Holy Spirit inside of us. We can be oppressed by outside forces while not possessed by demonic spirits. God lives in us and gives us the power to overcome any demonic attack. Now, with his message called The Spiritual Realm, here’s pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.
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So here’s what is important tonight. Understand this. Jot it down in your Bible. These are some of the questions that came to me this week as a result of last Wednesday. Can a Christian be possessed by a demonic spirit? Before I answer that question, I want to ask you this one. Are you a Christian? If you’re a Christian, you cannot be possessed by a demonic spirit. Impossible. Yeah, but I heard on Channel 40… That’s why I don’t watch Channel 40. In 2 Corinthians 6, God says, through the Apostle Paul, the Lord speaks concerning you, a Christian, who has been redeemed by the Holy Spirit. He says he dwells in you. Also, 1 Corinthians, beginning at chapter 3, all the way through to chapter 6, He says, you are the temple of the Holy Spirit. He says, I dwell in you. In fact, there Paul writing quotes the Old Testament out of Ezekiel chapter 36 and says, I will put my spirit in you and I’ll live in you. And he doesn’t share his glory with anybody else, says the book of Jeremiah. He says, what fellowship does light have with darkness and Jesus with Belial or Jesus with Satan? None. Yes, it’s in the context of being unequally yoked, of course, but he goes, Paul goes to an interesting turn. He’s talking about relationships physically and then he goes into relationships spiritually. a Christian cannot be possessed by a Holy Spirit, by a demonic spirit. Why? He’s already possessed by the Holy Spirit. A Christian is possessed by the Holy Spirit. The book of Ephesians tells us that that truth is our seal, our down payment until the coming of Christ. We’ve been sealed by the Holy Spirit in our lives. Now, Then why, for example, do some people experience demonic attack in their life? Well, let’s keep it in the context of a Christian at this point. Christians throughout history, including Paul the Apostle himself, have been oppressed, not possessed, oppressed by demonic activity. Throughout history, Christians have been oppressed by demonic activity. Oppression means to be hindered or to be sequestered or the attempt to hold down a Christian from doing the will of God. It’s common. If a Christian is advancing the will of God, that Christian can expect oppression. And it can manifest itself in many, many different ways. It could be unusual, unusual, unexplainable, emotional sadness or depression. There’s no reason for it. It’s almost like you woke up or something. In the middle of the day, you walked right into a fog bank and you can’t explain it. And when you go to pray… You’ve checked all your bases. You haven’t robbed any banks or killed anybody. And you haven’t cussed. You’ve checked all your bases. I’m not sinning. What’s wrong? And you begin to pray. And it’s almost like the roof has come just about an inch above your head. And it feels like your prayer can’t get out of the house. You feel like you’re being crushed. That’s called oppression. The reason why many Christians today are ignorant about these things, you want to know why? It’s an indictment against us. We’re not reading the lives of great Christian men and women who have gone before us. And we’re not believing the Bible when we read it. Did not Paul the Apostle say, regarding the abundance of ministry that the Lord revealed to him, that what he was to do in his life, that God allowed a messenger of Satan to come and buffet Paul? Have we forgotten that? It’s in the Bible. It’s in the Bible. Martin Luther, quite frankly, Martin Luther had some pretty interesting, strange theology and areas. He’s a man. We’re all people. We all have our quirky views on things. But I’ve got to tell you right now, you know why you and I are sitting here as Christians? Because God touched Martin Luther’s life. Martin Luther was, of course, as you know, a priest in the Catholic Church. And he began to read his Bible. And he said, something’s wrong here. There’s got to be something wrong. When I read this Bible, I see I’m not saved by works or any attempt of righteousness. And when I read my Bible, I see that I’m saved by faith in Jesus Christ alone. And then when I read my Bible, Martin Luther says, I find out that I’m supposed to confess to Jesus only and not to any man on earth. And then he says, when I read my Bible, it says not to call any man father in a religious manner on the planet, but only God only. So he began to ask questions. Didn’t go over very well. Martin Luther, great theologian, began to study. He says, I can’t do this anymore. I can’t do this. I have got to go and have this personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And while all this was taking place and Martin Luther was writing his commentaries on the Bible, studying Hebrew, studying Greek, getting into the original language of the scripture and writing a commentary, a teaching on John chapter 1 verse 1. He began in his study to experience such demonic resistance You can visit the place today where Martin Luther, in having a dialogue with Satan, as Satan appeared, Luther took his ink well and threw it at Satan, and that imprint of that ink is still against the wall. Now, why in the world? You go, I don’t want to hear that. I don’t want to hear that. You don’t want to hear that, but you’ll go watch some stupid spooky movie at the theater. I don’t get it. Listen. Listen. The Bible says in the book of Ephesians chapter 6, write it down, read it later, verses 10 through 19, that the spirit world is real. There’s light and there’s darkness. There’s good and there’s bad. We wrestle against these things. These are principalities and powers. Rulers in dark realms. And as we studied last week, if you weren’t here, you can get the tape to get filled in on this. That’s why I said if there’s any visitors tonight, I feel I’m sorry for you because you’re coming in on a really, this is a table talk tonight. If we’re going to seek to advance God’s kingdom, we’re going to get opposition. It will sometimes even manifest through people. Somebody may be so for you and just loving, and they may even be a Christian. They don’t understand all of a sudden. They don’t know. But you’re wondering, what are they saying this about me for? It seems like ever since I signed up to go on that mission trip to Germany, everything’s gone wrong. You’re under attack. It doesn’t mean your friend is growing horns at the back of his head. You know, he’s got like a little doll and he’s poking needles in it at night. It’s got your face on it. That’s not what that means. But Satan’s pretty smart and so are demons. They use Christians against Christians. They can do that. Did you know that they can do that? This is no secret. This is not my opinion. This is the way it’s been throughout all Christian history. It’s funny. What did Jesus say to Peter when Peter was mouthing off? Get thee behind me, Satan. Can you imagine Peter? Yeah, well, you know what? This is what I think. And then Jesus goes, get thee behind me, Satan. Can you imagine? Can you imagine what Peter must have been thinking? Or, you know, Jesus is looking at him. You know, that had to be heavy. That had to be absolutely amazing. Well, when we read here that Samuel appears, the witch screams. Because God had Samuel appear. She knew, I’m not in control. What in the world is going on? Doesn’t tell us. I wonder if that lady didn’t become a believer.
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You’re listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. To learn more about this ministry or to catch up on some previous episodes, go to jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. And now, let’s get back to today’s message. Once again, here’s Pastor Jack.
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What in the world is going on? Doesn’t tell us. I wonder if that lady didn’t become a believer. I can’t control this. What’s going on here? This man, he’s speaking. And then what does Samuel say? Samuel tells Saul exactly what’s going to happen. And listen, the content, it ain’t good. You know, I have this message from a spirit. This is one of Shirley MacLaine’s things. I’m speaking, really, listen, I’m telling you, I read this. She talks to this, you give her $300 an hour, and she’ll tell you what this 3,000-year-old spirit wants you to know. And you know what’s funny about it? You’re going to get rich. Let me see what else. Yep, you’re going to have this, and you’re going to have that, and it’s going to be wonderful. Makes you feel good. Lying spirits. Isn’t it funny? You see people, well, you know what? Tonight on our program, we’re going to have a man who’s come back from the dead, and he’s going to tell us what it was like. You see those people on TV, listen real carefully. The story’s all the same. Well, you know, I got hit by a truck. I was in the operating room. They were working on me. and I could feel me leave my body. I was up in the corner of the room looking at everybody working on me, and then I could feel the wind blowing, and I was really moving. It got dark, and then I could see up ahead this light coming, and I was going through this tunnel. It was getting brighter and brighter and brighter, and then right, and I was feeling so great. I was feeling so nice and just so right, and I just really felt good about it, and the next thing I knew, I was waking back up, and I was back in the OR again, right? And they revived me. So now I’m here on Jay Leno to tell you that life is cool, but death is cooler. And you don’t have to worry about anything. Have you heard their messages? You don’t have to worry. It’s very neat. You travel through with this wind. It feels really tropical. And there’s a light coming. And it’s going to be great. I wasn’t afraid of it. And I’m here to tell you in personal testimony, it was really cool. I’ve never heard, listen, one person ever say, deviate much from that story. I’ve never heard somebody say, well, you know what, I got hit by a truck, I was in the OR room, my body began to leave, I was traveling down this path, the wind started to blow, started to get a little warm, saw this light through this cloud, kept going, getting hotter, and Got there, this thing, this goat bursting through this veil. I mean, I was in hell. It was burning. There’s stinking spiders everywhere and lizards. And there’s these demons poking people. And Satan’s sitting on this throne. And he’s in torment himself. He’s all upset. So he’s throwing fireballs at people. There’s a lake of fire. And people are trying to swim at the same time they’re drowning. And then this horrible thing. And there’s these worms that were eating on our bodies. And it was horrible, and everybody was there screaming, saying, I wish I trusted Christ. And then I felt it going back, and I woke up in the OR room, and, well, that’s my story. Do you think anybody would put that on the air? Do you think Satan wants somebody to come back and tell that story? There’s only one account that’s even close to that, and it’s found in Luke’s Gospel. Christians, I’m not saying you, but Christians have become so pathetically gullible, it’s embarrassing at times to be a Christian. Oh, did you see that? So what? You know, the guy’s not a Christian and he says something about Dali or Lama or something. But anyway, the guy’s leg grew. His leg grew. Isn’t that awesome? It’s demonic. It’s demonic. But see, people are so stupid that they want that. Give me a sign and a wonder, will you? I don’t care about doctrine. I have a cold. Heal me, and I’ll follow you anywhere. Isn’t that what Jesus was talking about when he was on earth? When he fed the people, what did he say to all the people? You’re not following me because you think I’m the Lord. You’re following me because you’re hungry. But we live in a culture, if somebody could pull a rabbit out of a hat, they’ll make that person a god. Jesus said in the last days people will come and they’ll do signs and wonders and if it were possible, that means it’s impossible, that they would deceive even the very elect. Thank God. Those of you who are Christians, you’re not going to be deceived by end time miracles. God’s going to do miracles and God will get the glory. But be careful when somebody does a miracle that can’t be documented. and then stands on the TV and says, I didn’t do it. I didn’t do it. Please, no, don’t give me the glory. No, don’t. It’s not me. It’s not me. This is a dangerous time we’re living in. And this thing here in Saul’s life, demonism’s real. Spiritism’s real. Channeling is real. So when Samuel came up, he came up from what’s called Sheol, paradise. It’s known as Abraham’s bosom. We touched on this last time. Prior to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, it’s where all believers in God went. It was a wonderful place, but it wasn’t heaven. Since the resurrection of Christ, every believer who dies goes directly to heaven. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, says Paul. So don’t be deceived. God intervened in here and blew the socks off of everybody. God has given you this book as a map in spiritual, and for that matter, in material directions as well. Everything that we need is in this book. I personally believe that all of our mankind, human existence, our past, our current, our future, the answer is in this book. I just, I believe, I don’t think God is going to establish a situation or allow a situation in our lives where this book does not address the answer. It’s all here. Keep that in mind. And the moment you begin to start, uh-oh, you know, pastor talked about demons. Just leave the light on tonight. You don’t have to do that. Try to understand it this way, and then we’ll open up for some questions and answers. Well, questions. I hope answers. Those of you who have played competitive sports, if you have an inkling of thought that you could get whipped by that other team or by that other wrestler or boxer, what’s the last thing on earth you’re going to communicate? that you’re weak or that he’s stronger than you are. In fact, one of the things that, I played football when I was a little kid all the way up through Orange County, and many of you have. Renee, I know you have and you do. We had a coach that was psychologically brutal on the opposing team because he had played some pro ball. He never walked around bragging. He had the ability. He didn’t have to talk about it. And so, you know when teams are out there going, who, who, who, who? You know? What are you doing that for? Well, it’s to tell those other guys over there, you better watch out. And then it’s just like, you know. He refused to have us do that. Refused. He had us do everything silently out there. Other teams out there going, man, they’re not making any noise over there. We were just silent. Now, that team may be bigger than us, but his tactic was just be silent. We’re not going to walk around and stick our chest out and act like a bunch of lunatics. We’re just going to go out there and outplay them and outsmart them. And we’re going to win. We don’t have to stoop to that kind of dumb tactic. Why is it in the spiritual realm when there’s demonism? It’s boo! When the Bible says Satan is like a roaring lion. You know what that means? According to biblical interpretation, there’s one thing we know as we begin to break down that verse. Satan is not a lion. How do we know? Because he is like a lion. So in biblical interpretation, we immediately take out the fact that he’s a lion. This is what cults fail at doing, by the way. That’s how they’re led astray. They don’t apply those biblical mechanics to study. We look at the language and we understand, okay, one thing we know for sure, Satan’s not a lion. He’s roaming about. That we know for sure. Because it doesn’t say he’s like somebody roaming about. It says he’s roaming around. That’s a beautiful thing to know. You want to know why? He’s not omnipresent. He has to roam. He can only be at one place at one time. So because of that, he’s got a lot of little imps or goobers called demons that do his work. He can’t be everywhere at once. That’s a very comforting thing. What’s with the pitchfork? Listen, this is seriously going to make sense to you in a second here. What’s with the boo, the scary, the pitchfork, the scary paintings from medieval times? Why the dream you might have of this hairy, fuzzy, big fanged, red-eyed thing? Because that will scare you. Isn’t it interesting? What does the Bible say concerning Satan and his appearance when we will see him on Judgment Day? It says that he is the most beautiful creation God has ever made. And the book of Isaiah says we will look at him and we will be in awe at his beauty. And we will say, is this the one who caused the worlds to tremble? He’s beautiful. That’s in your Bible. So what’s with the boo? Because the boo gets to you. And that’s exactly what they want to do.
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pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio and his message called The Spiritual Realm. Thanks for spending some time with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called First Samuel, a series that highlights the prophet Samuel, who was called by God during one of Israel’s darkest times to bring the people back to a heart of true worship. And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. Fear does not have to control your life, not when Christ is at the center of it. This month, we’re featuring a powerful and deeply personal book, Living Fearless in Christ, by Hediyeh Miramadi. Once a devout follower of Islam and a high-level attorney in Washington, Hediyeh had everything except peace until she encountered the living Jesus. Choosing to follow Him cost her everything— her career, her status, and her place in the world she once knew. But what she gained was far greater— freedom, identity, and a fearless faith that cannot be shaken. Her story will challenge you, encourage you, and remind you of the power of the gospel to transform lives. Living fearless in Christ is more than a testimony. It’s a call to bold surrender. Available for the month of February for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com, where real stories point you to real truth and real life in Christ.
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Hey, thank you again so much for listening. And if you’d like to hear or see more of what we do here, you can always go to jackhibbs.com for all the latest on what’s going on with this ministry. And please, if you’re ever in the Southern California area, come see us at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills. We’d love to see you there in person. It has been so good to be with you today, and I pray you find yourself in the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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See you on the next episode. This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His Word. We’ll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.
