Jesus’ Run-In with Evil Spirits
Multiple times during Jesus’ ministry, he healed those who were possessed with devils. While it’s not so common in our culture today in the United States for someone to be possessed, it was a pretty common occurrence during Jesus’ time.
Evil spirits would take over a person and make them lose their mind. There are instances of people throwing themselves into fires and other dangerous situations because they were possessed by devils. It’s not something I like to dwell on personally; it can get pretty dark pretty quickly.
But there’s something about these instances that has caught my attention while I’ve been reading through the Gospels during my morning time routine. Every time Jesus had a run-in with these demons, they recognized who he was. They knew with certainty that he was the son of God. Yet every single time, Jesus commands them to hold their tongues.
Bible Examples
That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.
Mark 1:32-34
Whenever the impure spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” But he gave them strict orders not to tell others about him.
Mark 3:11,12
I read both of these passages this week, and it got me thinking. Why would Jesus command that they keep quiet about who he was? Wasn’t he trying to teach people about who he was? Didn’t he want them to know who he was? Wasn’t that the whole reason he was here on earth?
It All Comes Back to Faith
The answer is yes to each of those questions. So then why did Jesus command them to keep silent about who he was? I believe it comes back to faith. It always comes back to faith. Jesus wanted people to believe who he was by faith. Faith is believing something we can’t see.
If Jesus allowed the devils to tell the people who he really was, then they would have believed He was God’s son based not on their faith but on the testimony of the devils. The devils would give the people a personal account of who Jesus was.
These evil spirits were the same ones that would have been in Heaven with Jesus before the fall, before Satan fell and took a third of the host of heaven with him. So these demons knew who Jesus was; they’d been in Heaven with him before they were kicked out of heaven. So when they opened their mouths to testify, by their testimony, they would reveal Jesus’ identity. Jesus didn’t want that. He wanted people to believe in him by faith.
It’s Impossible to Please God without Faith
Thousands of years later, things haven’t changed. Faith is still really important to God. He still wants us to believe in him through faith, not just the faith that’s required for salvation. Jesus wants to increase our everyday faith.
And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.
Hebrews 11:6
Notice those words. It is impossible to please God without faith. So, if we lack in our faith, God says we are not pleasing to Him. If we doubt that God is going to come through on something for us, we are not pleasing to him. Let’s take it one step further. What’s the opposite of pleasing? It’s to be displeasing. So when we don’t have faith for today that God is going to come through, that he is who he says he is, or that he is working in my life, we am displeasing to God.
Here are some adjectives for displeasing: unpleasant, unattractive, humorless, ugly, exasperating, off-putting, maddening, and disconcerting. This really paints a picture and not a good one. This is how God feels when we don’t have faith. I don’t know about you, but that is not how I want Jesus to see me.
For Today
So what’s that mean for today? Today, we have to choose faith. Over and over and over again. We have to choose faith when we feel like God doesn’t hear us or doesn’t love us. When the bills aren’t getting paid, we have to choose faith that God is still for us and will come through for us. When we’re at the end of our rope, we have to believe that God will be enough.
It always comes back to faith. No matter how long we’ve been saved, it will still come back to faith. So let’s choose to believe God and take him at his word today. Let’s trust him when everything inside of us tells us we can’t. Let’s choose to take him at his word and trust that he will come through for us today, just as he always has in the past.
For More Encouragement
For more encouragement, check out my post, The Eight-Step Process of Faith. A great book to read is The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson.
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