Jesus Recognized

“What have you to do with us, Jesus, you Nazarene? Have you come to destroy us? I know you, I know who you are, the Holy One of God.”  Mark 1:24 (Byingtons)

Jesus had just begun His ministry.  People had not yet had time to get to know His message or word to get around about His miraculous works.  However, when Jesus began teaching in the synagogue and there was a man in the crowd with an evil spirit inside of him, the spirit did recognize Jesus for who and what He was.

Wouldn´t it be nice to say that we recognize the spirit that runs secretly behind the scenes?  If it were only possible to see with more clarity those devilish forces that coax us into deceiving ourselves.  Don´t you think we could save ourselves a world of heartache if we only knew when we were being led into trouble?  What about if we could see when the Spirits of God were moving in our assistance?  Wouldn´t it be ten times more beneficial to our eternal health.  If we could see when angels or the Holy Spirit were powerfully close to us, and working to bring us to Jesus, don´t you think that it would be so much easier to work along with them?

Even though we have not been granted the ability to see these contradicting forces with the naked eye, we do not need to be ignorant of their presence nor their effect.  Anyone who has been even remotely instructed in the teachings of the Bible should be able to recognize that some things pull toward God, and other darker things pull us in a different direction.  Therefore we do not stand completely in the dark.  Our hearts are left with a choice.  We turn away from the faint knowledge of this, or we confront it and choose to look for God and His will for us regardless of the obstacles which may stand in our way.

The further we choose to go with this difference between forces that direct us to God or those that pull us away from Him or set us against Him, the more honest we become with the fact that they do exist and the weight that they hold for all human beings.  Every Christian who calls on the name of God should understand that he or she has admitted to this difference between good and evil forces.  By saying we believe in a Holy God, we admit in the same instant that for One to be Good there must be something other than good or how would we know that God is good?  This is where the human being lives at the moment.  We are trapped between two worlds.  One world is the kingdom of God where the entire system runs beautifully in perfect order to lift up the Holy One who runs it.  The other world, which unfortunately is the one more obvious to our eyes, is the world where these other forces run wild and free to direct us in any other direction than towards our Maker and Redeemer of our souls.

When Jesus stepped into this earthly scene, these spirits which do not work for the good of the Lord recognized Him immediately and were concerned with what He was going to do with them.  They knew the authority and power which the Son of God held and they knew that all things will eventually need to be reconciled to Him in one way or the other.

Dear Jesus, please give us the ability to recognize the things that point to You and those which would stand in our way.  We ask You today to adjust us to You now.  If there are things which live within us that still do not bow to You, please expose them and help us to be rid of them.  Nail everything to the cross that we carry for You and withhold nothing.  Let it be excruciatingly evident which forces are at work within us in every moment.  Help us to tolerate and embrace only those which point us to You and lift You ever higher.

Amen