FAITH IN THE NAME OF JESUS
Acts 19:15 And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?
We see a group of brothers, who the Bible calls vagabond Jews, that were trying to cast a demon out of this fully possessed man by saying, “We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.” Why would they do this? First, they had already seen demons exorcised and second, I don’t know what they usually did to get a demon out of someone, but they must have seen Paul get someone delivered because they tried to imitate him. You just know by what they did that they had seen and heard something. Last, we can see that they were not prepared for what happened next. In Verse 16, we see the fully possessed man leap on them, overcome them, beat them down, take their clothes off (I have no idea how or why that happened) and then, wound them, which sent them out into the street. These “exorcists” were not ready for the real deal. These sons of a Chief Priest may have had a traveling show where they were supposedly helping people, but when they came across the real deal, Paul setting people free, they tried to imitate him, and it did not end up so good.
Remember what the demon answered through this fully possessed man; it said, “Jesus I know, Paul I know, but who are you?” In short, I know Jesus has authority over me; the demons saw Him use it on a great number of them. Paul, I know; he knows how to remove me. Paul had been using His authority in Jesus’ name and the demons had to obey him. But when they said, “Who are you?”, these supposedly “exorcists” should have taken off running. In other words, the demons, and the devil himself knows who really has authority. You and I should never be afraid of the devil. Even if you never run into a fully possessed person, the devil and demons’ influences are all around, so you and I must learn to resist the devil, demons, and their works steadfast in the faith. It starts with you trusting in the name of Jesus and the authority that has been given to you in that name. The only reason the demon knew who Paul was is because Paul had faith in the name of Jesus. Remember the 70? They came back rejoicing and saying that the demons obeyed them when they spoke the name of Jesus because they were operating in delegated authority. That is what you and I have over the devil, and all demons, and all the works of the devil. We have delegated authority, and we need to use it.
So, does the devil and demons need to know your name? In a sense, yes. They need to know that when you say, “In the name of Jesus,” you know what you are talking about, and you know they must flee. It is not something you try. It is something you believe. When you say the name of Jesus, there must not be a doubt in your heart that the devil, or a demon must pick up his stuff and flee. It is good to know Jesus, and it is amazing to be able to speak the name that is above every name and watch darkness, the devil, demons, and all the works of the enemy run from us as in terror!