Who Are You?

This question was asked by an evil-spirit(dwelling in a man no less) to seven sons of Sceva(pronounced SK-E-va) and a Jewish priest who were going around driving out evil-spirits and "TRYING to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed." They would say "In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out." Then "one day, the evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?" Then it says "the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding." a passage from Acts 19: 13-16

Wow! What an interesting passage. When I first read it, I didn't understand. I thought, we'll these men must not have been trained well enough or had not come into contact with such an evil spirit before if they were overpowered in such a way. BUT no, that's not it at all. As my mentor and i went over this passage this morning, it fascinated me. I read further. See back in the day, magic was WIDELY practiced in the ancient world and particularly in this place that Paul was. These Jewish men, believe it or not, were making money, making a LIVING by exorcising demons. I just didn't know you could or would do that if you weren't a christian. That was one of the first things that blew my mind. As we talked about it, it did make sense that evil spirits can chase off other evil spirits and the enemy can be used to do things that appear to be miracles. For instance, Satan's powers or evil powers if you will, can be used to exorcise other evil spirits out of places, things or people. I guess I hadn't even gone in that thought direction before. Why would he, wouldn't he want his evil spirits anywhere and everywhere? Yes, except for when he could mascarade as an angel of light and his powers to exorcise spirits could be mistaken in someone for the power of God. Satan is always trying to be God. Follow me here.....So these Jewish men, these exorcists if you will(new thought to me that there would be non-christian exorcists but whatever, that's just messing with some wrong powers if you ask me!) begin to attempt to take control over the demons using Jesus' name because Paul is getting such attention for what he is doing in the area in and through Jesus' name. As these Jewish men of Sceva are attempting to manipulate with the power of Jesus' name, the demon possessed man becomes furious and threatened. This evil spirit in the man knows Jesus and about Paul and knows that these men aren't of "that kind". This evil spirit knows somehow that these men don't have the authority to use the name of Jesus in such a powerful way and he attacks and beats them! These men had NO idea what they were messing with. The powerful name of Jesus and those that use it rightly are incredibly powerful but devastatingly destructive for those seeking to use it for personal gain. Wow, what a powerful lesson!