But who are you?

“Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” (Acts 19:13-20). This is what the demons said to the seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, when they tried, (spectacularly unsuccessfully, it might be remembered!) to drive out the demons from a possessed person. The simple lesson is of course that they had heard the name of Jesus, and evidently knew about the power in His name, and had most probably witnessed one or more of the disciples performing miracles, such as healing people, and of course driving demons out of possessed people, and hence thought they could get the same results as the disciples. How else could they have known of this, and why else should they have dared to try it? This could not have been something they had invented or discovered (and the results prove it was not a revelation) - it must have been witnessed. So of course off they went to try it out for themselves. Now of course we can sit back, with the wonderful hindsight of not only the benefit of not just the end of the story, but the far fuller revelation of the New Testament to tell us exactly who Jesus was and the message that He brought, and snigger just a little: ‘Ha, ha, how could they have been so foolish! That must have taught them!’ And so on.

But tell me now, what do you think the demons say when you wake up in the morning? Could it be something like, “Ah, I see Joe is awake, let’s go and have some fun with him again; it is always fun to play with his mind and emotions and put him right off the track, before he can even start his day. In fact lets see which one of us demons can tempt him into doing or saying something really nasty first, and if we can break the previous record of how long it took, and from then on just ruin his day, so that by the time he gets home tonight he will distrust the Lord and resent his brothers and sisters in the church.” Or would it be more like, “Oh oh, Joe is awake again, better warn all the demons in the area to be on the alert and to keep well clear- this guy is trouble; he walks with the Lord daily and the Lord has entrusted him with much power, which he has used against us many times already” ? In short, are you afraid of the devil, or is he afraid of you? Do you wake up, spend some time with the Father, and in so doing refresh your relationship with the Father and, having renewed your spiritual armour, set out to spend the day destroying the works of the evil one. Or do you wake up, and then spend the rest of the day hoping nothing goes wrong, while in fact you are gradually being plundered of your inheritance - the richness of all the Father’s material and spiritual blessings and promises for your life, and all the potential He has placed in you?

And so I have to candidly ask myself (and you may wish to do so as well), how many demons have I cast out recently, and in fact on how many occasion have I even tried recently? And while I am at it, how many sick people has the Lord healed through me, or have I not even had the faith to step up and pray for any, never mind to raise the dead? In short, have I actively sought the Lord for opportunities and then consciously used my talents and gifting in the service of the Lord? Now I can’t pretend there aren’t any demonically possessed or afflicted people around any more than there are no longer any sick folk still around, or people who have died before their time, or a whole lot more who may simply need a helping hand in one way or another. We are living in the age of the church and there is plenty of work for all to do - the fields are still ripe for harvest (John 4:35). There are many spiritually and doctrinally solid self-effacing Christians around who are quietly going about doing the work of the Lord, including healing the sick, casting out demons and generally setting the captives free, just as we all have been commanded (Mathew 10:1 & 8 and Luke 9:1-2 ) and commissioned (John 14:12 and Matthew 29:18-20), so what is my excuse? Remembering that if Christ is for us, then who can be against us, to stop us reaching our full maturity in Christ and accomplishing all the works He has planned and ordained for us to do? Speaking for myself, I think the problem here is not so much the enemy without, but the ‘enemy’ within; my own lack of loving commitment to Christ, to firstly stay in close fellowship with Him, to obey Him and to serve my fellow man (both brothers and sisters in the church and the unsaved) by ministering to them with all the power, gifts and resources that the grace of God has equipped me with, in any and every way that I can, and by the grace of God to remove every sin or other spiritual blockage that may hinder or prevent me from walking in the fullness of the Lord God’s presence, power and grace (Psalm 66:18)

What is the Spirit of the Lord currently saying to the church in this regard? I understand that what the essence of the Holy Spirit was telling us last year, was that we are still weak (in our faith) and need to wake up (to the need for greater faith and spiritual growth, to take our part in the spiritual battle.) How have we and are we to respond to this? Surely not simply and only by yet another new year’s resolution to e.g. watch less television and to pray more? I have felt the need, (as Paul urged Timothy in I Tim 1:18), to remember the prophesies that I have received and to re-focus my time and energies on my God given goals and calling, and to determine that I will press on and into the things to which the Lord is calling me, whether anyone else be with me or not. I believe that it is time for the church, being the body of all Christian believers, to be strengthened, to rise up and to fulfil its true and full purpose and calling; to love and care for its members, to train them for works of service and to ‘destroy the works of the devil’ and hence to be that mighty army ‘against which the gates of hell will not prevail’. This is a job, a calling and the responsibility for each one in the church individually. We cannot sit back, coast along, and then blame the church or someone else if we still need to drink ‘milk’ and are not capable of digesting ‘solid food’, being the weightier things of God. (Hebrews 5:11-14). From Ephesians 4:11-16 it is clear that the five fold gifting is specifically given by God to some of the body of Christ in a greater measure for the purpose of training the saints, i.e. instructing, guiding, and helping each member of the church to reach his or her full maturity in Christ and so to fulfil his or her personal calling, as part of and contributing to the body of Christ. In other words the duty of those most anointed and gifted in each local church in the five fold ministries is to train, equip and to raise up the congregation for works of service, while the responsibility of the elders of each local church, being the leaders, is to direct and administer the church, and to ensure that its members are not only cared for and shepherded, but that they are fully trained and equipped. Let us all determine this year to set out on the path of true spiritual growth, so that we too can be a witness of the power of God in and through our lives, and that like Paul we will be able to demonstrate the Spirit’s power, so that everyone’s faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power. (I Cor 2:1-5).

Brian Drury