Tag Archives: demon

Another Lesson Learned

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ANOTHER LESSON LEARNED

“When they came down off the mountain the next day, a big crowd was there to meet them. A man called from out of the crowd, ‘Please, please, Teacher, take a look at my son. He’s my only child. Suddenly he’s screaming, thrown into convulsions, his mouth foaming. And then it beats him black-and-blue before it leaves. I asked your disciples to deliver him but they couldn’t.'” Luke 9:37-40 (The Message).

This is strange. Not long before this, the disciples went out on a preaching tour, authorised by Jesus, and were very successful. They did everything He sent them to do including casting out demons. Why were they incapable of evicting this one?

The description of this demon’s vicious activity in the boy seems to indicate that it was a particularly nasty and tenacious spirit that had hold of him. It was not about to give way easily and made its intentions known. The disciples were obviously intimidated by its resistance and perhaps believed that it was more powerful than they were, and they gave up.

The boy’s father was relieved to see Jesus and wasted no time in pleading for His help. Jesus’ reaction to His disciples’ failure revealed His exasperation with them. They had been with Him long enough to know how to deal with the opposition from the dominion of darkness.

“Jesus said. ’What a generation! No sense of God! No focus in your lives! How many times do I have to go over these things? How much longer do I have to put up with this? Bring your son here.'” Luke 9:41 (The Message).

Thisparaphrase captures the essence of the disciples’ failure and Jesus’ frustration. He perpetually lived in the environment of God’s presence. His God-awareness kept Him from being intimidated by apparently uncontrollable circumstances and enabled Him to restore to wholeness what the evil one was using to destroy people. Demons were part of the devil’s arsenal of destructive weapons against people whom they had overpowered but Jesus easily overpowered them because He, not the devil, is Lord.

Jesus knew that the power of God and the kingdom of God were greater than Satan’s power and in that awareness and environment He ordered demons to leave. The disciples, on the other hand, were yet to live in the mind-set of God’s presence and power. They had not yet grasped the authority that they had in Him.

“While he was coming, the demon slammed him to the ground and threw him into convulsions. Jesus stepped in, ordered the vile spirit gone, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. They all shook their heads in wonder, astonished at God’s greatness, God’s majestic greatness.” Luke 9:41-42 (The Message).

This demon was a show-off! He had to have his last fling before he left. But leave he had to, because he knew who had authority over him. In Mark’s version of the story, after this final thrashing, the boy seemed to be dead but Jesus had him up on his feet, healed and delivered, and handed him back to his relieved father.

The disciples were puzzled, according to Mark (Mark 9:28-29). Why did they have no power over this demon? Jesus’ reply is equally puzzling. The implication of His response seems to be that, before they could cast out the demon, they had to spend time in prayer. But that was not practical.

Prayer is essentially not about getting our needs met. Jesus said that that was the Father’s responsibility. Prayer is about developing a God-awareness that places us, like Jesus, in the environment of God’s presence and power.

Circumstances overwhelm us because they are more real to us than God. The more time we spend engaging with God and opening our spirits to His Spirit, the more real He becomes to us in the difficult circumstances of our lives. This is the essence of faith — and the outcome is God’s intervention to bring us a step closer to wholeness.

God is as real and powerful to us as we want Him to be.

Weigh Up The Evidence!

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WEIGH UP THE EVIDENCE!

“He went down to Capernaum, a village in Galilee. He was teaching the people on the Sabbath. They were surprised and impressed — His teaching was so forthright, so confident, so authoritative, not the quibbling and quoting they were used to.

“In the meeting place that day there was a man demonically disturbed. He screamed, ‘Ho! What business do you have with us, Jesus? Nazarene! You’re the Holy One of God and you’ve come to destroy us!’ Jesus shut him up: ‘Quiet! Get out of him!’ The demonic spirit threw the man down in front of them all and left. The demon didn’t hurt him.

“That set everyone back on their heels, whispering and wondering, “What’s going on here? Someone whose words make things happen? Someone who orders demonic spirits to get out and they go?’ Jesus was the talk of the town.” Luke 4:31-37 (The Message).

Just look what you missed, people of Nazareth!

The citizens of Capernaum were a more receptive lot, it seems. At least they didn’t write Jesus off because they thought they knew His pedigree. They saw something more in Him than just the son of Joseph and Mary. They recognised a confidence and an authority in His teaching that set them thinking.

But there was something more than just His words that caused a stir, at least in the spirit world. A demon was there who seemed quite comfortable in the presence of the people of Capernaum until Jesus showed up. This evil spirit occupied a man who, over the years had obviously made space for him in his life by habitually believing his subtle lies and living his dirty life until the demon unobtrusively had taken up residence and begun to control him.

Jesus’ presence in the synagogue blew his cover. Speaking through his host, he blurted out, ‘Jesus, this is my turf and you are intruding. You might look like an ordinary guy from Nazareth, but I know who you really are — God’s Holy One — and I can’t stand being near you! Is it time for you do us in?”

Jesus didn’t answer him. He had no cause for discussion with a demon! His words were terse and commanding: ‘Shut up and get out!’ That’s all. Here was another confrontation with the demonic realm. His victory over the devil in round one had equipped Him to evict the squatters wherever they identified themselves in His presence. His unconditional submission to the Father put Him in position to deal decisively with the opposition.

The residents of Capernaum were unwittingly being confronted with the evidence that they were to weigh up and decide for themselves who this man was and what to do about it. First there were His words — His teaching that impressed them as authoritative and believable because He seemed to know what He was talking about. Then there was His action — throwing out a demon they didn’t know was there! They had never seen that happen before.

What if the people of His own village had been patient enough to watch and listen? Perhaps they might have been more tolerant of their “village kid”, Jesus. Perhaps they would have been convinced that this “son of Joseph and Mary” was actually the Son of God.

And what of us? Jesus is not interested in winning a popularity contest. He had only one question to ask of us, ‘Who do you say that I am?’ On our answer hangs the direction of our lives. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” brings us into the realm of a partnership with Him to throw out all the “squatters” and set the world back on the course of restoration and eventual perfection.