Myth: You must welcome demons into your life before they can enter you.
Why would anybody knowingly welcome a demon spirit into their body or mind unless they were already possessed? The truth is, in many cases, a person will pick up an unclean sprit without even knowing it (providing that they open the door to it)! Then there are cases where a person was born with an unclean spirit, which was handed down to him or her. We can see an example of this in scripture when a young boy is found with a demon, and when Jesus asked the father how long the boy had this spirit, the father said that it was from infancy:
Mark 9:17-21, “And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit; And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him: and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away: and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not. He answereth him, and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him unto me. And they brought him unto him: and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tore him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming. And he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child.”
If you look up the word ‘child’ (last word in above passage) in the Greek, we are given the word paidiothen, which means, “from infancy”. Furthermore, if the boy was a child at the time, it would make no sense for the father to tell Jesus that, “My child has been like that since a child”… clearly, this spirit entered the child since it was an infant! Furthermore, in Matthew 17:14-18, we find this story again, and the boy was actually found to be a child at the time:
Matthew 17:18, “And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.”
A good question that I like to ask is, can you show me in the Bible where it tells us specifically what we must do before a demon can enter us? I’ve seen people try to make an argument on how we must officially welcome a demon before it can enter us, and yet they cannot show me where their theology is found in the Bible. The Bible is clear on specific spiritual rules for defilement, which I believe is a very big open door to the demonic in one’s life. For further information on this subject, see the teaching Breaking our hedge (Defilement explained).
Now don’t get me wrong… demons cannot simply walk around and enter anybody they please at their own freewill; what I am saying is that it doesn’t take a demonic ritual before a demon spirit takes up residence in a person. Many times we can open the door through various means of defilement (sins, ungodly soul ties, generational curses, etc.) without even knowing it. That is why it is so important to live a holy and Godly lifestyle and keep our relationship with our heavenly Father cultivated on a daily bases!