Who Are You?

Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, "In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out."Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. One day the evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?" Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. Acts 19:13-16

My first reaction to this story was laughter, especially vs 16. But as I reread it, I started finding some incredible truths and challenges for my relationship with God. To set up the scene a little better, Paul has been traveling and has been spreading the Gospel, strengthening and encouraging believers, and has been debating other ideologies which is important to remember because of what the evil spirit has to say. Paul is so full of the Spirit that people were taking his clothes and giving them to the sick and they were healed. It is crazy! Or at least that was my first reaction. God was working in him so much that Jewish priest were trying to use Jesus' name to take out demons. Have you ever met somebody who says they don't believe that there is a God but then in certain circumstances the only thing they turn to is Him?! I have. Anyways that's not the point I wanted to talk about with this story.

The priests in the story respond to the evil spirit by saying, "In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out." The evil spirit responds, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?" There is one awesome truth and one awesome challenge represented here for believers. First, Jesus is the Son of God and even the evil spirits acknowledge him and know him. The Greek word meaning "to know" is different than "to know about." The evil spirit knows Jesus. He knows who is sitting at the right hand of the Father.

Then he says, "Paul I know about." Here's the challenge. Are you going to make such an impact on the Kingdom of God that the demons know about you? Or will you get the response that the priests received, "but who are you?" While the priests were shamed and beaten by the spirit and ran out naked, I have to assume that they were embarrassed being belief. We may never have that exact experience, but I think, that it would be 10x as embarrassing to stand in front of the Creator of the universe and have him say to me, "who are you?" I would probably say " but God, didn't I do this in your name, or that in your name." But if I have the kind of faith that these priest had, a faith that didn't truly believe in Jesus Christ for Myself, then that faith is useless. I wonder what would have happened if the priest took out the phrase, "whom Paul preaches', and believed in Christ themselves. We may have seen two miracles: one the salvation of sins and the other salvation of a demonic possession.

Anyways, those are my thoughts for today's Scripture reading.

God is good all the time, even when you don't feel like it.