What Can Demons Do to Christians?

"And He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And there was a woman who for eighteen years had had a sickness caused by a spirit; and she was bent double, and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, He called her over and said to her, "Woman, you are freed from your sickness." And He laid His hands on her; and immediately she was made erect again and began glorifying God."

‭‭Luke‬ ‭13:10-13‬ ‭NASB‬‬

This caught my eye this morning.  Here are my observations and thoughts.

1. The woman was afflicted by a spirit

2. The woman was in the synagogue (our equivalent of church)

3. She wasn’t seeking to get to Jesus, but instead He noticed her and called her over

4. Jesus healed her, yet she didn’t seem to be seeking healing from Him.  

5 Jesus says nothing about her faith

6. She immediately glorifed God when she was healed

I find it interesting that the woman came to "church" and apparently was not being disruptive in any way, yet she was afflicted by a spirit.  I have to assume it was a demon since it was doing bad things to her body.

Jesus healed her in the absence of her seeking him out or showing any kind of action that would indicate she had special faith in Him to heal her.  Many of his other healings involved people seeking him out to touch his garment or taking roof tiles off to lower a person down in front of him or blind men calling out to hm etc.  This woman didn’t do anything.  

Jesus says nothing about her faith, yet when she is headed she glorifies God. 

I’m wondering if it is possible for Christians to be bothered and/or afflicted by demons, while not being possessed by them?

It seems if this woman was possessed by the evil spirit she would have behaved badly in the synagogue as we see other possessed people in Scripture behave badly.  I remember the Apostle Paul said that his thorn in the flesh was a messenger of Satan to torment him to keep him from exalting himself.  I don’t think Satan and his demons really care about keeping God’s people humble, since that is what God wants us to be.  I think what he meant was that God allowed the messenger of Satan (demon) to  afflict him to keep him humble.  Even the demons end up doing God’s will unintentionally!  

Back to my thoughts.  So it does appear that while Christian’s can not be possessed by demons, they can be afflicted by them.  To what extent mental and physical affliction is the work of demons, I can not tell. But after reading this passage and thinking about Paul’s statements, I have come to the conclusion that demons can and do afflict Christians, while not possessing them.  Why else would Paul say in Ephesians that our battle is against spiritual forces?

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places."

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭6:12‬ ‭NASB‬‬