Do You Know My Name?

 

Acts 19:11-17

New King James Version (NKJV)

Miracles Glorify Christ

¹¹ Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, ¹² so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them. ¹³ 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^[a] exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.” ¹⁴ Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so.

¹⁵ And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?”

¹⁶ Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered^[b] them, and prevailed against them,^[c] so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. ¹⁷ This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.

 This week a celebrity and her husband made the news.  I did not read the article fully so I cannot comment on it in great detail, but something she said caught my attention.  Allegedly, her husband had been pulled over for a DUI (Driving Under the Influence) and she had some type of problem with it.  She told the police at one point, “Do you know my name?”  That is where the whole story ended for me!

Do you know my name?  What did she mean?  She was saying, “I am not just anybody!  I am so and so, and I am important, and I deserve a particular type of treatment you don’t give the ‘average’ person’. I am rich, famous, and have proven my success and this qualifies me, in my mind, for the royal treatment!” 

Years ago, my son broke his nose playing basketball in high school.  The coach called me to tell me. He let me know not to put this off because if those bones began to grow back together, a very extensive surgery could be involved.  It was very important he saw a doctor and had it treated quickly!   There was a particular doctor in the city (remember I live in the country) who was just the ear, nose, and throat guru of all time!!  Or so everyone thought!  My father was very well-known at a major hospital.  He had been a department head for many years.  Before this he had trained at Baylor under Dr. DeBakey, himself!  To me, this qualified my father as a person to be respected and treated in a special way, just as this celebrity seemed to think!  Thank God, I have more sense than this now because God never leaves you in your messiness!!   There were times I could “name drop” my dad’s name and it got me in doors no other could go through, I saw people without a wait, and it gave me the outcome I thought was important for me to have! 

I called this particular ENT doctor and I was put on hold.  The receptionist came back on the line and told me I could not get in with Doctor Guru!  At this point I decided the name dropping was necessary and I used it!  She put me on hold again and I was very pleased!  I was going to get what I thought I knew was best!!  When she came back on the line was I ever surprised to hear her say, “Dr. Guru just cannot take anymore patients.  I am so sorry.  Your son will have to see Dr. ‘Lesser Than The Rest!”‘  Of course, that wasn’t his name, that was my perception of him.  As I was holding the second time, God spoke to me and said, “Will you please just let Me handle this, this time?”  I thought about it (oh, yes I did…God had quite a way to go on me!!  This should really encourage you, dear reader, because I am sure you are far ahead of where I began and you see you don’t have as far to go as you may have thought you did!!!).  I put my “fit pitching” strategies away and decided to just let God go with it! 

I called my father after the appointment was made and told him the whole story.  It ended up Dr. “Less Than” ended up being Dr. “Best” for what my son was going to have done!  I was going to demand my way, and if I had gotten it, my son would not have received the quality care he got!  And I didn’t even have to get upset!!  🙂  Thank God, I deferred to Him and let Him work it out!

If you are a Christian, satan knows who you are!  He knows the covenant you have with your Heavenly Father and the blood of Jesus that covers you!  He knows you are not one to be contended with because you are special!!  You do require and are qualified for the royal treatment because we are the sons and daughters of the Most High God!!  Remember what the demon said to the seven sons of Sceva…”Jesus we know, Paul we know, but who are you?”  And then he beat them almost to the point of death!  Thank God, as Christians, we are in the group that is well-known to that scoundrel!  We carry an authority he can never beat!!  All he can do is blow hot air, and believe me, he is full of it!  He is a toothless lion and can only do to us what we allow by not taking our authority and using it against him as we should!

Let God handle your “impossibilities”!  God will even change the minds of your enemies, if you will give Him full reign!  Now that is powerful, my friend!!  Have faith in God, let Him handle things as HE sees fit!  You rest in faith knowing He is working, even when you don’t see it with your natural eyes, on your behalf!  You will have a testimony of God’s power and miracle-working ability and all you had to do was trust!!  How simple is that??

Blessings to you, precious reader!!  I will see you soon!!   Juliana

Talk to the Hand Because the Ears Aren’t Listening!

I have to admit I am pretty shocked by what God is having me write on today.  I am not a theologian and I have never claimed to be!   This is an area that is so out of my comfort zone that there is no doubt in my mind God is writing this one!  I want to talk to you today about “Whom do you seek”.  Are we seeking God or power?  Are we seeking God or a name and using Him as a platform?  Are we seeking God or material gain?  Let us get right in to this subject of seeking the wrong things and the consequences of what is, in all truth, idolatry.

⁷ So be subject to God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him], and he will flee from you.  James 4:7

I have never been a “devil chaser”.  Years ago it was very popular in some Christian circles to supposedly find demons in lamps, cups, bushes, etc..  You name it, they thought the devil and his demons were living there and they were going after him!  Friend, you don’t have to go looking for the devil!  You are not SUPPOSED to go looking for the devil and his demons.  He will show up all on his own and you will know it when he does!  God didn’t say seek demons He said to seek HIM! During this time I would get so aggravated with Christians who, at one time, had been so anointed and loved God.  They were focused on His goodness as they should have been!  These same people got in with immature Christians and  began to do crazy things!  I know one woman whose life just seemed to be falling apart.  Her husband divorced her, her thriving business began to fail, etc..  It was truly sad!   Months prior to any of this she had begun attending  a “Bible study” where demonic activity and the seeking of power to cast them out was what the main focus was.  They weren’t seeking God at all.  They were seeking God’s hand, not God’s heart!  She began to have bizarre behavior!  I won’t go into all of it, but one of the things she did was to throw all of her jewelry into a river.  One of the other ladies attending these meetings told her that if she had on a piece of jewelry and an ungodly person had on an identical piece of jewelry she would be in covenant with them and the demons that affected them would in turn attack her.  She then took her jewelry and threw it over a bridge.  Now folks, this is just plain ridiculous!  For one thing this is in NO WAY Biblical!  You cannot find one instance of such silliness!   What had happened?  In seeking the wrong thing, she got to the point she no longer walked in wisdom and no longer heard from God nor could she rightly divide the word of truth accurately.  It matters who you are with and who you listen to!  Slowly but surely the enemy led her right into idolatry.  She idolized “power” over God, Himself.  Do you remember the seven sons of Sceva?   He was a Jewish priest.  His sons had seen the mighty acts done by Paul who was anointed and led by the Holy Spirit.  They decided to “play” church with a demon possessed man.  Let us look at the Biblical account of what happened to these guys.

Acts 19:11-16 Amplified Bible

¹¹ And God did unusual and extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul,

¹² So that handkerchiefs or towels or aprons which had touched his skin were carried away and put upon the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.

¹³ Then some of the traveling Jewish exorcists (men who adjure evil spirits) also undertook to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, I solemnly implore and charge you by the Jesus Whom Paul preaches!

¹⁴ Seven sons of a certain Jewish chief priest named Sceva were doing this.

¹⁵ But [one] evil spirit retorted, Jesus I know, and Paul I know ^[b]about, but who are you?

¹⁶ Then the man in whom the evil spirit dwelt leaped upon them, mastering ^[c]two of them, and was so violent against them that they dashed out of that house [in fear], stripped naked and wounded.

What happened?  They were playing with something they had no business playing with and it got them into more than they could handle!  Notice they admitted they didn’t know Jesus as Lord and Saviour.  They talked about “Jesus Whom Paul” knew!  This is not something to delve into out of curiousity!  It isn’t something to delve into for any reason!  The Bible also says when the disciples themselves came back to Jesus and were so excited because even demons had to obey them in the name of Jesus, Jesus Himself corrected their focus.  He said in Luke 10:20 KJV  “²⁰ Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.”  Where was their excitement and rejoicing to be?  In the fact they were going to heaven!  It was to be on God and God alone!!

Do I believe there are demons?  YES!  I know there are!!  One day as I attended a Bible study at my church, we were all gathered in a prayer line.  We were praying for one another and the lady facilitating the study was praying for us individually.  I had never in my life seen nor heard a demon and I didn’t want to!  There was a lady standing beside me that had mental issues.  We all knew she did because they were very apparent.  We loved the lady and knew this dear woman needed to feel the love and acceptance we had for her.  She had been a brilliant chemist.  She had her PhD in Chemistry.  She had been very successful in her field!  One day this lady seemed to literally lose her mind.  She was institutionalized and when released had to live with her mother.  Her children would not go near her and her husband could not handle the mental instability and divorced her.  She had lost everything!  She could not work because, even though she was no longer institutionalized, she was still very disturbed.  As I stood in this line next to this lady, the facilitator went and began to pray for her.  Suddenly, I began to hear a gutteral sound coming from this woman’s throat.  She began to talk in a voice that was similar to a growl.  It was inhuman and you could tell it.  Now before I would have thought I would have “made a door where there wasn’t one” to get away from such a thing!  I thought I would be petrified!!  But, instead of fear I felt the peace of God come over me and I stood right where I was.  I knew I had authority over satan and he could in no way harm me!  The facilitator took authority over this demon and told it to “hush” in the name of Jesus.  It did!!!  She told the lady how much we loved HER!  After this, I didn’t go looking for this lady to see what would happen next.  I didn’t focus on books that talked about demonic activity.  When it was all said and done nobody even mentioned it!  The lady continued to come and we continued to worship God and study the word as the Holy Spirit led.  Let me add, that demon never again manifested itself at any of the future Bible studies and prayer meetings and this lady came to every single one for years to come.  That was the last we heard of that!

We are told in the word to bind evil and loose good!  We are told to put on the whole armor of God that we may be able to withstand the “wiles” of the devil.  We are told to fight the good fight of faith!  Notice in all of these things, our concentration is GOD and obeying what HE is saying!   When the enemy shows up, tell him to hush in the name of Jesus!  Do as Jesus did in the wilderness when the devil came to tempt Him.  Jesus simply spoke the word and told the devil to “get thee behind Me”.  In other words, get out of His sight!  The Bible tells us Jesus went into the wilderness to fast and pray, not to argue or “reason” with or research the devil’s tactics!  There was a saying years ago that said, “Talk to the hand because the ears aren’t listening!”  I love that!  Shut the enemies voice up by SUBMITTING TO GOD!  How do you submit to God?  You know what HE is saying and you are doing it.  You are seeking Him first and His righteousness (God’s way of doing and being)!

I don’t know who this is for today, but I feel the Lord giving you a warning!    Not that God is going to no longer  love you, by any means!  But God wants someone to know don’t “witch hunt” so to speak!  You are getting off from the truth and putting your focus far too much on what satan is doing!  You are walking away from the direction God had you in and you are following after things He literally disapproves of!  If you are putting what people you admire and what they think above what God says, you are in idolatry, I promise you!  If you are seeking power, you are in idolatry!  ANYTHING OR ANYONE who is pointed to and gains your attention more than God is an idol!  Heed what God is saying, dear reader.  Now is the time to turn this thing around!  Grace is being extended to you and it is not too late!  Yes, pray and worship God and when the enemy and all of his foul deeds show themselves, rebuke him, but keep God in FRONT of you and satan BEHIND YOU!  You cannot concentrate on what is behind you…your concentration is always on what you put before you!  Stay in balance in all things!

Thank you for stopping by,  dear reader.  I hope this has helped clarify some questions you may have been having!  See you next time!

Talk to the Hand Because the Ears Aren’t Listening!

I have to admit I am pretty shocked by what God is having me write on today.  I am not a theologian and I have never claimed to be!   This is an area that is so out of my comfort zone that there is no doubt in my mind God is writing this one!  I want to talk to you today about “Whom do you seek”.  Are we seeking God or power?  Are we seeking God or a name and using Him as a platform?  Are we seeking God or material gain?  Let us get right in to this subject of seeking the wrong things and the consequences of what is, in all truth, idolatry.

⁷ So be subject to God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him], and he will flee from you.  James 4:7

I have never been a “devil chaser”.  Years ago it was very popular in some Christian circles to supposedly find demons in lamps, cups, bushes, etc..  You name it, they thought the devil and his demons were living there and they were going after him!  Friend, you don’t have to go looking for the devil!  You are not SUPPOSED to go looking for the devil and his demons.  He will show up all on his own and you will know it when he does!  God didn’t say seek demons He said to seek HIM! During this time I would get so aggravated with Christians who, at one time, had been so anointed and loved God.  They were focused on His goodness as they should have been!  These same people got in with immature Christians and  began to do crazy things!  I know one woman whose life just seemed to be falling apart.  Her husband divorced her, her thriving business began to fail, etc..  It was truly sad!   Months prior to any of this she had begun attending  a “Bible study” where demonic activity and the seeking of power to cast them out was what the main focus was.  They weren’t seeking God at all.  They were seeking God’s hand, not God’s heart!  She began to have bizarre behavior!  I won’t go into all of it, but one of the things she did was to throw all of her jewelry into a river.  One of the other ladies attending these meetings told her that if she had on a piece of jewelry and an ungodly person had on an identical piece of jewelry she would be in covenant with them and the demons that affected them would in turn attack her.  She then took her jewelry and threw it over a bridge.  Now folks, this is just plain ridiculous!  For one thing this is in NO WAY Biblical!  You cannot find one instance of such silliness!   What had happened?  In seeking the wrong thing, she got to the point she no longer walked in wisdom and no longer heard from God nor could she rightly divide the word of truth accurately.  It matters who you are with and who you listen to!  Slowly but surely the enemy led her right into idolatry.  She idolized “power” over God, Himself.  Do you remember the seven sons of Sceva?   He was a Jewish priest.  His sons had seen the mighty acts done by Paul who was anointed and led by the Holy Spirit.  They decided to “play” church with a demon possessed man.  Let us look at the Biblical account of what happened to these guys.

Acts 19:11-16 Amplified Bible

¹¹ And God did unusual and extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul,

¹² So that handkerchiefs or towels or aprons which had touched his skin were carried away and put upon the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.

¹³ Then some of the traveling Jewish exorcists (men who adjure evil spirits) also undertook to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, I solemnly implore and charge you by the Jesus Whom Paul preaches!

¹⁴ Seven sons of a certain Jewish chief priest named Sceva were doing this.

¹⁵ But [one] evil spirit retorted, Jesus I know, and Paul I know ^[b]about, but who are you?

¹⁶ Then the man in whom the evil spirit dwelt leaped upon them, mastering ^[c]two of them, and was so violent against them that they dashed out of that house [in fear], stripped naked and wounded.

What happened?  They were playing with something they had no business playing with and it got them into more than they could handle!  Notice they admitted they didn’t know Jesus as Lord and Saviour.  They talked about “Jesus Whom Paul” knew!  This is not something to delve into out of curiousity!  It isn’t something to delve into for any reason!  The Bible also says when the disciples themselves came back to Jesus and were so excited because even demons had to obey them in the name of Jesus, Jesus Himself corrected their focus.  He said in Luke 10:20 KJV  “²⁰ Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.”  Where was their excitement and rejoicing to be?  In the fact they were going to heaven!  It was to be on God and God alone!!

Do I believe there are demons?  YES!  I know there are!!  One day as I attended a Bible study at my church, we were all gathered in a prayer line.  We were praying for one another and the lady facilitating the study was praying for us individually.  I had never in my life seen nor heard a demon and I didn’t want to!  There was a lady standing beside me that had mental issues.  We all knew she did because they were very apparent.  We loved the lady and knew this dear woman needed to feel the love and acceptance we had for her.  She had been a brilliant chemist.  She had her PhD in Chemistry.  She had been very successful in her field!  One day this lady seemed to literally lose her mind.  She was institutionalized and when released had to live with her mother.  Her children would not go near her and her husband could not handle the mental instability and divorced her.  She had lost everything!  She could not work because, even though she was no longer institutionalized, she was still very disturbed.  As I stood in this line next to this lady, the facilitator went and began to pray for her.  Suddenly, I began to hear a gutteral sound coming from this woman’s throat.  She began to talk in a voice that was similar to a growl.  It was inhuman and you could tell it.  Now before I would have thought I would have “made a door where there wasn’t one” to get away from such a thing!  I thought I would be petrified!!  But, instead of fear I felt the peace of God come over me and I stood right where I was.  I knew I had authority over satan and he could in no way harm me!  The facilitator took authority over this demon and told it to “hush” in the name of Jesus.  It did!!!  She told the lady how much we loved HER!  After this, I didn’t go looking for this lady to see what would happen next.  I didn’t focus on books that talked about demonic activity.  When it was all said and done nobody even mentioned it!  The lady continued to come and we continued to worship God and study the word as the Holy Spirit led.  Let me add, that demon never again manifested itself at any of the future Bible studies and prayer meetings and this lady came to every single one for years to come.  That was the last we heard of that!

We are told in the word to bind evil and loose good!  We are told to put on the whole armor of God that we may be able to withstand the “wiles” of the devil.  We are told to fight the good fight of faith!  Notice in all of these things, our concentration is GOD and obeying what HE is saying!   When the enemy shows up, tell him to hush in the name of Jesus!  Do as Jesus did in the wilderness when the devil came to tempt Him.  Jesus simply spoke the word and told the devil to “get thee behind Me”.  In other words, get out of His sight!  The Bible tells us Jesus went into the wilderness to fast and pray, not to argue or “reason” with or research the devil’s tactics!  There was a saying years ago that said, “Talk to the hand because the ears aren’t listening!”  I love that!  Shut the enemies voice up by SUBMITTING TO GOD!  How do you submit to God?  You know what HE is saying and you are doing it.  You are seeking Him first and His righteousness (God’s way of doing and being)!

I don’t know who this is for today, but I feel the Lord giving you a warning!    Not that God is going to no longer  love you, by any means!  But God wants someone to know don’t “witch hunt” so to speak!  You are getting off from the truth and putting your focus far too much on what satan is doing!  You are walking away from the direction God had you in and you are following after things He literally disapproves of!  If you are putting what people you admire and what they think above what God says, you are in idolatry, I promise you!  If you are seeking power, you are in idolatry!  ANYTHING OR ANYONE who is pointed to and gains your attention more than God is an idol!  Heed what God is saying, dear reader.  Now is the time to turn this thing around!  Grace is being extended to you and it is not too late!  Yes, pray and worship God and when the enemy and all of his foul deeds show themselves, rebuke him, but keep God in FRONT of you and satan BEHIND YOU!  You cannot concentrate on what is behind you…your concentration is always on what you put before you!  Stay in balance in all things!

Thank you for stopping by,  dear reader.  I hope this has helped clarify some questions you may have been having!  See you next time!