For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same spirit; to another faith by the same spirit; to another gifts of healing by the same spirit; to another working of miracles; to another prophecy . . . But all these worketh that one and the self- same spirit . . . “(1Cor. 12:8-11.)
Jesus rebuked a spirit of fever in Peter’s mother-in-law in Luke 4:38-39 and she was made well.
- Mark 3:33; Mark 9:25. Notice that Jesus uses this same term to rebuke Satan.
- Sickness is described as an oppression of the devil, (Acts 10:38).
- Jesus often healed by removing spirits of infirmity which are another method of Satanic attack, (Luke 4: 40, 41).
The New Testament shows that believers can be inspired by both spirits..
- Consider Peter, who one moment spoke by Divine revelation, declaring that Jesus was the very Christ.
- Next moment was reprimanded by Jesus, who rebuked Satan in him, saying “Thou savorest not the things that be of God” (Matthew 16:13-23).
- Simon the magician is presented as one who became a believer and was baptized, but had evidently not been delivered from his occult bondage.
- He was commanded to repent and pray in Acts 8: 20-24.
- How did Satan manage to “fill the heart” of the believers Ananias and Sapphira? (Acts 5:3).
Paul himself reports that he suffered buffeting from a “messenger of Satan” in (2 Corinthians 12:7).
- Paul reproves the Corinthian Christians for receiving another spirit than the Spirit they had previously received as shown in (2 Corinthians 11:4).
- Paul was amazed that the people apparently cheerfully accepted a man who comes preaching a different Jesus than the one that he had taught them about, and they readily receive another spirit and another gospel quite different from the one they originally accepted.
- Paul inquired in Galatians 3:1, “Who had bewitched the believers to draw them away from the truth.”
Effects upon them were not just the effects of wrong mental impressions conveyed by false teachers but were the effects of evils spirits imposing false doctrine through false teachers..