I Know About Paul, But Who Are You?

There is a profound incident recorded in Acts 19. God was doing extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that handkerchiefs and other cloths which had touched his skin were put upon sick people, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. Seeing all this were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest. These seven men were traveling exorcists who had been following Paul and were amazed at the miracles.

It is apparent that they weren't having much success with their own exorcisms, so they decided to try doing it as Paul did. They said to a person who was possessed of evil spirits, "I solemnly implore and charge you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches!"

But one of the evil spirit replied, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?"

Then the man who had the evil spirits attacked the men and overcame two of them so violently that they all ran out of the house, wounded and in great fear. The story spread throughout Ephesus, and the name of Jesus was extolled and magnified throughout the area. Many people became Christians and they all brought their collections of books containing the magical arts, and burned book after book on the pile, in the sight of everyone, making full confessions and rejecting their former occult practices. The value of all the books amounted to 50,000 pieces of silver, and the Church grew and the gospel was widely spread as a result. The story is in Acts 19.

I have always loved this story, and the implications within it are so many that a person could almost write an entire book about it. But, the largest point is in the statement the evil spirit made:

"Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?"

This is a succinct example of the presence and knowledge of numerous other beings that see everything we do! And we are completely oblivious to them. They watch us, analyze us, discuss us, and make plans to interact with us. An array of evil satanic spirits - and also God's angels - are integrally involved in our lives. In fact, there is an ongoing battle between these entities for our very souls.

As these evil spirits said, they certainly knew who Jesus was, and they certainly knew who Paul was, and they knew it wasn't worth much of their time to take them on. The powers of these evil spirits was no match for the power Jesus and Paul had at their disposal. But they knew they could tangle with the Jewish exorcists, who had no power. Rather, the evil spirits had power over them ... and they used it to overcome them.

A Christian has access to the same power that Jesus and Paul had, through the Holy Spirit. I would rather be under the power of the Holy Spirit than under the power of the evil entities.

Live in such close fellowship with the Lord that the evil spirits won't be inclined to waste a lot of time and energy on you.

Royal Heir