Be Quiet!

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

BE QUIET! AND GO AWAY! 

Luke 4:33-37

33 In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an evil spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, 34 "Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are — the Holy One of God!" 35 "Be quiet!" Jesus said sternly. "Come out of him!" Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him. 36 All the people were amazed and said to each other, "What is this teaching? With authority and power he gives orders to evil spirits and they come out!" 37 And the news about him spread throughout the surrounding area.

NIV

Another example of the power of God. Demons are a member of the spiritual forces of evil, that we know about and the reason we dress ourselves in the armor of God. We can take our stand against those dark forces of the world and the forces of evil in the spiritual realm. Because we live in Christ and Christ lives in us, that is we have Jesus in our hearts, but we also have the Holy Spirit dwelling within who has all the authority against all the evil in the world and in the spiritual realm, because He is God. Just to think that we have God dwelling within should give us the most awesome feeling. But this knowledge of the Spirit living within us should also give us all authority over any evil spirit, any demon, that we encounter. That is the authority Jesus showed us in this narrative of the evil spirit Jesus encountered in the synagogue who possessed that man. If we think that we never encounter evil spirits in the world, we might be too naïve or so unaware of what we are up against. Of course, we know that we face temptations, but do we think those temptations are generated within ourselves? We just saw the temptations of Jesus and they were delivered by none other than the devil, the most evil spirit of them all. We know that we face temptations that are the result of some evil spirit coming to us and tempting us and we have the authority to tell it, or them, to be quiet, to go out from being near us, as we take our stand against it or them. They may not speak openly as they did with Jesus, but as we encounter people who are living in the darkness of this world, some of them could have evil spirits inhabiting them, who may try to get us to follow their advice, or engage in their pattern of thinking or behavior, even what might seem innocent enough. We hear people at work, known to us as non-believers, gossiping about other co-workers. What we have to remember is that if someone does not have the Holy Spirit dwelling within them, then perhaps some other spirit is. However, the problem we see is gossip comes to believers, and we wonder who influences that voice of gossip. That is not to say everyone who does not believe is possessed by an evil spirit, or everyone who gossips is possessed, but they are very susceptible to being influenced by evil spirits. Of course, there are many other temptations we all face every day from the forces of evil, pride, boasting, jealousy, envy, and a host of others.  We have all the authority of Christ living within us, and we are able to take our stand against all the evil in this world and in the spiritual realm. Any time we hear a voice of evil we can tell it, at least in the Spirit, to be quiet and go away.