Demon Attacks! Sickness, Sleep Paralysis, & More

The problems of sickness and disease can’t be classified as a stronghold, because they aren’t necessarily always the result of deception.

Still, I wanted to address the problem of sickness because I know that many wonder about the potentially demonic aspects of sickness. Sickness can be demonic, but not all sickness is demonic. The attack of sickness is similar to the stronghold of addiction in that it affects the physical body. Unlike addiction, it doesn’t always result from the choices we make. Sure, many of the health and dietary choices we make can cause us to be more vulnerable to sickness. But sickness can also come at random. Sickness can be a demonic attack, but it can also be of natural origin. So it’s important to understand the nuances between sickness that is completely a demonic attack and sick- ness that comes about as a result of simply existing in the natural world.

Demonic Attack

Demons cannot physically harm born-again believers, except for in two ways. Demons can physically attack the believer with sickness, and demons can physically attack the believer by means of a demonically influenced individual. In either case, in order to physically attack a Christian, a demon must use something that physically exists in this world. Demons cannot directly touch the believer, like in the case of demonic possession. If they want to bring harm to our physical bodies, demons must use one of these two extensions—sickness or a person who is demonically influenced.

First, let’s look at how demons can use sickness. Sickness is a reality of the fallen world. Though not every sickness is directly brought about by a specific sin, sickness only exists in the first place because sin has come into this world. Demons can use the existence of sickness in this world to come against a believer’s physical body. Though an Old Testament example, Job’s sickness illustrates how this might look.

Satan replied to the Lord, “Skin for skin! A man will give up everything he has to save his life. But reach out and take away his health, and he will surely curse you to your face!” “All right, do with him as you please,” the Lord said to Satan. “But spare his life.” So Satan left the Lord’s presence, and he struck Job with terrible boils from head to foot (Job 2:4-7 NLT).

We should note that though demons can use sickness against believers, a sickness is different from a demon. The Bible draws a clear distinction between the two. Demons are sentient beings, while sickness is simply a disorder of the body. Possession is when a demonic being takes up residence in your body and takes over some of your physical capacities—like a parasite. When someone is possessed, the person is said to have a demon inside. On the other hand, when someone is sick, the person is said to have a sickness. So a sickness is not the same thing as a demon.

Additionally, a demon doesn’t need to possess, oppress, or enter a believer to cause sickness in a believer. Sickness is an attack that can be used against you from the outside. Sickness can be sent into the body, but this doesn’t mean that the demon enters with it.

Second, let’s look at how demons can use a demonically influenced person. To illustrate this, I simply need to point out the various martyrs in Scripture. Stephen was stoned. John was beheaded. Jesus was crucified. These murderous acts were carried out by people who were under the influence of demonic power. Christians are not immune to violence, unless God miraculously intervenes, as He sovereignly does in some instances.

In conclusion, if a demon wants to physically harm a Christian, it must use its influence over a demonically bound individual or use a sickness. Both of these are things which exist in the physical world. Neither being attacked by a violent demoniac nor being sick is the equivalent of being possessed.

What About Sleep Paralysis?

So if demonic beings can only physically harm believers indirectly through sickness and demonically influenced people, what about sleep paralysis? Many believers report similar accounts of resting in bed and then suddenly being held down or even choked by a demon—only to be released when declaring the name of Jesus. There are countless reports like these, so we can’t just dismiss this shocking reality. What we can do is describe it in a way that’s consistent with Scripture.

First, don’t you think it’s odd that if demons can physically harm or grab Spirit-filled Christians that they always seem to do so in the exact same way, over and over again? Why do they only choke the believer? Why don’t they ever finish the job? Why do they seem to wait until the believer is in bed? Why wouldn’t they attack the body of the believer in other ways? I mean, if demons truly had the power to directly harm the born-again believer’s physical body, then why do they only seem to do so while the believer is in a half-asleep state?

Here’s why: sleep paralysis is part demonic, part biological. I know that doesn’t sound right but allow me to explain. I’m going to show you just how deceptive and sneaky the enemy is.

Let’s first address the biological aspect. To keep you from moving while you dream, your body actually paralyzes itself every single night. You can research this fact. This isn’t always completely successful, as you might know from twitching or kicking in your sleep. But this is your body’s natural attempt at keeping you from disturbing yourself while you sleep—so that when you dream of running, jumping, fighting or something like that, you don’t thrash about and wake yourself up. Yes, every night your body paralyzes itself while you sleep.

Sometimes, your brain thinks you’re still asleep even when you’re waking up. It’s at this moment that you become aware while still being unable to move.

A study done by Texas A&M University explained that “Sleep paralysis is an episode where your brain tells the body that you’re still in the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep in which the limbs are temporarily paralyzed (to prevent physically acting out dreams), heart rate and blood pressure rise, and breathing becomes more irregular and shallow. This is the stage of sleep where your most vivid dreams occur, which can explain why some people may hallucinate during sleep paralysis.”

When you wake up before your body can switch out of REM sleep mode, the paralysis stays in place, and you are left consciously suffering through the terror of it. Since this is the sleep phase, you are very likely to see things around you that are not actually in the physical realm.

So the paralysis itself, along with the increased heart rate and shallow breath, are biological. This occurs simply because you’ve become awake and alert while your body is still in deep sleep mode.

This is when the demonic attacks begin. Remember, demons love to exaggerate their power over you, and they wait to attack until you are in a vulnerable state. When you’re experiencing sleep paralysis, your mind is awake, but your body is still asleep. It’s at this point that the enemy can speak lies, causing deceptive projections and sounds. It’s in this terrifying moment that the enemy can cause you to see and hear demonic entities. So even though you’re being “held down” by your body’s own natural sleep state, the enemy can make it seem as though you’re being held down by a demonic being, thus exaggerating its power. So the biological aspect is the paralysis itself, but the demonic aspect is found in the projections the enemy creates during sleep paralysis.

I know this isn’t the popular explanation for sleep paralysis, but it is the biblically consistent one.

Consider this too: one of the known ways to break out of sleep paralysis is to take control of your breathing. Because breathing is both a voluntary and involuntary bodily function, when you take control of your breathing, your body receives the signal that you’re awake. This is partly why the paralysis is broken the moment you are finally able to open your mouth to pray.

Then the devil laughs at us for believing it was all him. It was partly him, but only the fear part. The demons that lie to you celebrate the fact that you now believe they have more power than they actually do. Then you become worried. You think, Oh no! The devil physically attacked me! His power is increasing over me. What door did I open? Where did I go wrong? Did God lift His protection from me?

And then what happens? You worry. You obsess over the idea that you’ve become more susceptible to attack. You go looking at click-bait YouTube videos and reading fearmongering articles on how the devil has more power over you now. Because of the fear, you become more exhausted, and exhaustion is a major contributing factor to sleep paralysis. So the cycle continues. You go down deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole. This is a perfect example of how the devil actually does attack Christians—he uses deception.

Because of my severe anxiety, there was a season of my life when I was experiencing sleep paralysis almost every night. I found that exhaustion, eating too close to bedtime, and sleeping on my back were natural factors. I also found that fear and believing the lies of the enemy were spiritual factors. I actually overcame the demonic aspect before I was able to overcome the physical aspect. Once I realized that the enemy couldn’t touch me, the demonic visuals and sounds no longer accompanied my sleep paralysis episodes. In fact, toward the end of the struggle, I would experience sleep paralysis with no fear or demonic visuals. I recall just lying in bed frozen, thinking to myself, Well, here we go again. Time to take control of my breathing. I didn’t fight the paralysis or try to move, which actually just makes it worse. Instead, I stood calm, thanked the Lord for His protection, and slowly began to take control of my breath. Peace and faith caused the paralysis to lift. Eventually it stopped altogether, as I was no longer exhausted due to the fear of the sleep paralysis itself. So while the enemy can use sleep paralysis as an opportunity to exaggerate his power, sleep paralysis is not an example of a demonic being actually being able to harm you or even touch you physically. It is a biological occurrence that the enemy seizes upon with frightening visuals and sounds—projections without a punch. Your body is the Holy Spirit’s temple.

Natural and Demonic

So sickness is one of the enemy’s only options for attacking the physical body of the believer. We know that sickness can be the result of demonic attack, but are there any biblical examples of sickness being of natural origin? Consider Epaphroditus.

Meanwhile, I thought I should send Epaphroditus back to you. He is a true brother, co-worker, and fellow soldier. And he was your messenger to help me in my need. I am sending him because he has been longing to see you, and he was very distressed that you heard he was ill. And he certainly was ill; in fact, he almost died. But God had mercy on him—and also on me, so that I would not have one sorrow after another (Philippians 2:25-27 NLT).

Epaphroditus didn’t fully recover immediately, even though it’s likely that Paul himself prayed for him. Epaphroditus actually came close to death before he was healed. Timothy likewise suffered from a natural sickness. Paul wrote to Timothy about help for his stomach problem.

Don’t drink only water. You ought to drink a little wine for the sake of your stomach because you are sick so often (1 Timothy 5:23 NLT).

So in Timothy’s case, there was no divine healing. Paul instead told him to use a medicinal approach. Paul didn’t get on Timothy’s case telling him to get rid of a demonic influence in his life; he instructed him to use a natural remedy for a sickness that was of natural origin. So obviously, the sickness was not demonic in nature.

This raises the question, “How can I know the difference between a sickness that is demonic in nature and a sickness that is of natural origin?” Discerning the difference between demonic sickness and natural sickness is as simple as addressing the sickness from both angles. You can learn how to do that in my new book: