Can Satan Possess a Believer?

Protected by divine power 1 Peter 1:5

Absolutely not!
No way. The Spirit of God who is within us is greater than he who is in the world. Satan is a defeated enemy. We are protected by God's divine power.

However, Satan can oppress a believer - and tragically, a believer can even allow Satan to have a foothold in their lives. This is a teaching we don't hear much these days, but a true believer can allow Satan to have an influence in their lives, in at least four ways.

We give Satan a green light when we deny that suffering can be used to accomplish God's sovereign purposes.
Peter said to Jesus on one occasion that Jesus would never be crucified, that Jesus could get to glory without suffering. At that moment Jesus said something absolutely extraordinary, "Get behind me Satan" (Matthew 16). When Peter denied the purposes of God through suffering, especially the salvation purposes of God through the cross, he was talking as Satan talks and thinking how Satan thinks. Instead of helping Jesus, at that moment he was a stumbling block.

Whenever we deny that God all-sovereign can use suffering in our lives, we in some way give Satan a green light.

We give Satan a green light when we won't forgive someone.
Paul said, "Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry and do not give the devil a foothold." (Eph 4:27) Unforgiveness, and ongoing anger against someone who has sinned against us gives Satan a green light in our hearts and lives.

We give Satan a green light when our marriages are upside down
Genesis 3 gives us the account of the Fall of Mankind, a complex multi-faceted event. Yes, it was a rebellion against God, yes it was arrogance in the face of his good commands. But the Fall was also   a disordering of marriage. Adam, who was present, refused to take responsibility for the situation, and Eve instead, wrongly, took the initiative. This is exactly marriage upside down. Both Adam and Eve failed, with Adam taking the greater blame. Whenever a marriage is disordered Satan finds a way into that home. A man either leads his wife or is led astray by her: there is no third way.

We give Satan a green light when we oppose the Holy Spirit's leadership.
The third way a true believer can allow Satan a foothold into their lives is when they set themselves against godly leadership. Paul says to pastor Timothy that he must gently instruct those who stand in opposition to him (lest he stirs up Satan who is at work in them)  in the hope "that God will grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth and that they will come to their senses" and then the remarkable sentence, "and escape the trap of the devil who has taken them captive to do his will." (2 Timothy 2:25-26)

A believer who sets themselves in opposition to the Holy Spirit's appointed elders sets himself against Christ and against God, and becomes a captive of Satan, doing Satan's bidding. What a somber doctrine!

But any church leader who has been around the block a few times will know by experience how  people who oppose godly leadership have lost "a knowledge of the truth", are "out of their senses" and having been taken captive by Satan actually do his will!

But no Christian needs to come under Satan's oppression.

By living a life submissive to God's sovereign will, a life of daily forgiveness, and a life of humble submission to undershepherds, we are protected from Satan's devices and can live instead in the power of the pure Holy Spirit.