Evil Spirits

Do you believe spirits possess us?

God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that when the handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were brought to the sick, their diseases left them, and the evil spirits came out of them. Then some itinerant Jewish exorcists tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, "I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims." Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. But the evil spirit said to them in reply, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?" Then the man with the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered them all, and so overpowered them that they fled out of the house naked and wounded. When this became known to all residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks, everyone was awestruck; and the name of the Lord Jesus was praised. Also many of those who became believers confessed and disclosed their practices. A number of those who practiced magic collected their books and burned them publicly; when the value of these books was calculated, it was found to come to fifty thousand silver coins. So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed. - Acts 19:11-20

There is so much about this story that raises questions for me.

These seven sons of Sceva were exorcists by trade, so they must have had both experience and success at their craft.

How did that work?  Did they call out spirits without using the name of Jesus or Paul?  Or maybe they weren't successful at all, and managed to get by scamming people with false healing practices.

After the man with the demon beat on them and sent them away naked and bruised, word spread.  People who had been practicing magic burned their books and changed their ways.

So these were sorcerers who managed to convince people that they could exorcize demons, as it was the belief at the time that all afflictions were brought on by possession of some sort.

We don't tend to think that way today, though we know foreign bodies in the form of viruses and bacteria do infect us and cause us suffering.

We don't think of them as demons, but in a way they are.  Some are quite evil, though not in the human sense.

Paul and Jesus were somehow able to cure people of all sorts of afflictions and that ability is still unexplained based on what we know today.

If we thought we could simply call upon the name of Jesus and do what he did, we might give it a try, but if we failed to truly believe, chances are we would fail.

So, we accept the story as true and remain in awe of the miraculous things they could do by faith.

Maybe, it gives us the faith to do what is difficult in our lives, and that may be the whole point.

More to come...