As a Christian counselor and deliverance minister, the fear God’s people harbor about this topic is so maddening for me that I just had to bear down and put pen to paper. What is the truth about catching someone else’s demons?
I hear this lament most frequently in church and ministry settings. An altar worker might accurately discern demonic torment in a person coming forward for ministry.
They see the need for prayer, but fear rises up out of concern that whatever demons that person has will be motivated to jump on them instead if they lay hands upon them.
Let me clear: we can become demonically oppressed through specific actions of others that can lead to entry points into our soulish realm. Typical activities include abuses or curses towards us, and these are usually beyond our control. There are, however, two specific open doors that we alone can shut:
- Sexual sin and,
- Allowing others to control us in ungodly ways.
Sexual activity involves the joining together of the flesh (body and soul), and when it is sin, one can pick up another person’s spirits just as easily as getting an STD! In 1 Corinthians 6:16, Paul explicitly warns of this in the context of having sexual relations with a prostitute. The demonic spirits reside primarily in the soul, and when the souls are united, transference can happen.
Ungodly soul ties result when someone relies on guilt, fear or some other form of manipulation to get us to do things we do not want to do. Prov 22:24-25 warns about being involved with an angry man: “Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man do not go, lest you learn his ways and set a snare for your soul” (emphasis added).
In the context of ministering in deliverance to thousands of clients and seminar attendees, we see ungodly soul ties with people typically close to us (parents, friends, spouses and so on) as a major open door for torment. We need to sever these ungodly bondings and maintain that for freedom to endure.
The bottom line is this:
- We can catch a cold or disease from others but “their” demons cannot jump upon us.
- Keep proper boundaries to avoid transference of spirits:
If you want to be free from the fear of getting demons from someone, do not engage in sexual sin and make sure to break ungodly soul ties with controlling or manipulating people in your life. The latter is often more difficult to enforce and you may need some counseling help with that.
Do not be afraid of praying for, or laying hands on someone for healing. Unless that person is actively praying curses against you, you are not in danger of being demonized! Even if they are cursing you in that way, the spirits still need an open door to enter (Prov 26:2). You have the power and authority to break those curses simply by declaring them broken. Go forward boldly and do not be afraid.
I hope this is helpful to bring clarity into what is often a murky scenario in the Body of Christ.
God’s not given you a spirit of fear but of power, love and a sound mind (2 Tim. 1:7). Having a sound mind means knowing and correctly applying the word of God to each life situation, and this is one of instances!
