Do The Demons Know You?

Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.”
Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so. 
And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” 
Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
          Acts 19:13-16

Would you say that the demons know you? In the above passage some Jewish exorcists decided to try and use the power of Jesus as Paul was doing. They attempted to exorcise some evil spirits and were not able to do so. On top of that, they were wounded and stripped by the possessed man.

What had gone wrong?

When the Jewish exorcists had attempted to remove the evil spirits the evil spirit had told them that it knew Jesus and Paul, but not them. And why was that?

These Jewish travellers attempted the exorcism “by Jesus whom Paul preaches”. They did not know Jesus and were simply using His name because they must have seen or heard what Paul could do in Jesus’ name.

What about us? As we worship, remember Jesus, and do other good works in Jesus’ name would the demons recognize us as Jesus’ disciples? Will those of the world recognize us as brothers and sisters in Christ?

We must make sure that we are not just going through the motions. There are a number of examples in the Bible where just doing good works (or what we think is good) isn’t enough. Christians need to have the proper attitude and relationship with Jesus.

There must be a full commitment to God. And if we have this true commitment we will be recognized by others. People will notice that there is something different about us and the demons will know who we are and to whom we belong.

                -- John Thrower Jr.