Can Demons Read our Thoughts?

Although there is no way of knowing a certain answer, the Bible does give us some indication as to the limitations that demons have when it comes to reading the thoughts in the human mind.

What The Bible Teaches

1. God Knows our Thoughts 

O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off.

Psalms 139:1-2

Then hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone know the hearts of all the sons of men).

1 Kings 8:39

Our thoughts are the most secret parts of our being. No one can know our thoughts unless we communicate them. These verses make it clear that God, however, knows the hearts of men and He can understand our thoughts.

2. Jesus Knew People’s Thoughts

When we look at the New Testament, we also see that Jesus saw people’s hearts and could discern what they were thinking.

But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts?

Matthew 9:4

Other good verses that demonstrate this is Luke 9 and John 2, saying,

And Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart, took a little child and set him by Him.

Luke 9:47

And had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.

John 2:25

3. The Devil Can Put Thoughts into Our Minds

Another example that lets us know the limitations of demons and our thoughts is shown in the following Scripture in Acts. The Bible says that Satan filled Ananias’s heart. In the same manner, Satan may be able to fill our minds and heart with certain thoughts and thus “read our mind” by anticipating our behavior.

But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself?

Acts 5:3

A similar thing is also exemplified by Judas at the Last Supper.

And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him,

John 13:2

Satan cultivates this thought and instead of aborting these thoughts, Judas assists them and he causes an open door.

4. The Devil Can Guess Our Thoughts Based on Our Projected Behavior

Spirits that are on the outside (not residing within a person) can guess what our thoughts are based on how we are behaving. In Job, we see this to be the case.

And the Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?”

So Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.”

Job 1:7

A few verses later satan tells God to stretch His hand out against Job and he will curse Him. Notice in these verses that satan is not omnipresent because it says he was going to and fro.

It also does not state that satan knew Job’s thoughts or heart because he took a guess that if God removed the blessings, Job would curse God.

This was satan’s guess perhaps based on other people’s behavior. However, when we read the entire book of Job we also see that satan miscalculated Job’s love and consecration to the Lord.

Just as satan cannot be everywhere at once, he also is not all-knowing. However, he can guess thoughts based on behavioral patterns exuded from ourselves or other people.

5. Demons Can Read Our Minds if Given Access

For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.

1 Corinthians 2:11

When a demon is living on the outside of a person and that person has not given access to a demon through an open door, then the Bible tells us that only the spirit of man knows what’s inside of a man. Seeming to say that our thoughts cannot be read by anyone other than God and ourselves.

In fact, because God is omnipresent, He doesn’t have to be inside a person to know their thoughts, that’s why unbelievers can sometimes hear God speaking to them.

But, I believe that if a demon lives within a person (demonized), then that person can communicate with demons in their thoughts or hear them. Demonized believers seem to be able to have conversations in their minds with demons. Now I do want to make it clear that these are assumptions based on things I have seen, researched, and experienced but there are no clear verses in Scripture to indicate for or against this assumption.

If we give demons access to our thoughts, they will communicate with us – telepathically. 

The same thing applies to deceived believers. Believing that a demon cannot read the thoughts of born-again Christians in any capacity would conflict with the reality of the born-again believers who fall into the New Age and speak to beings and channel entities they believe are light beings telepathically.

In the same way, we can communicate with the Holy Spirit in our minds, I believe that genuinely deceived born-again Christians can interact with demons in their mind.

Now some may argue that these people are not believers, but I will allow the Lord to decide that. I know of people who have been undergoing the process of sanctification and are getting layers peeled off of them as they come closer to the truth. And, I have also known believers who were demonized and heard as well as interacted with voices in their minds.

Final Thoughts

To discredit all of it when I have seen it firsthand in the ministry of deliverance is something I cannot do. Again, we don’t see in Scripture anywhere stated that Christians can not have demons, or that they cannot communicate with demons if given access. On the contrary, I’ve seen from experience and the Scripture that if the door is open, these demons could communicate and harass you.