a seat right beside Him where I could get a good look at the crowd. Something didn’t feel right. The scales on the back of my neck were tingling, and my nose was twitching.
Does anybody smell anything?
Then I spotted him. A man possessed by an evil spirit stood up and rushed toward Jesus screaming hysterically.
“What business do you have here with us, Jesus of Nazareth? I know what You’re up to. You’re the Holy One of God, and You’ve come to destroy us! It isn’t time!”
I must tell you, it was a showstopper. The assembly scrambled to get away from the possessed man.
Jesus silenced him. “Quiet! You evil spirit, get out of him!”
The demonic spirit threw the man down on the floor and left. The crowd whispered and wondered at what happened.
“What did I just see?”
“What’s going on here? A man who orders demonic spirits to get out, and they go?”
“No man can do that.”
Perhaps I should offer a point of clarification here for someone not as knowledgeable about the spirit realm as I. The enormity of what Jesus did can be understood only in the context of what demons and spirits actually are. Humans, in my experience, do not know how to differentiate between dark forces and tend to use the terms evil spirit and demon as if they are the same thing, which in fact, they are not.
Demons are multidimensional beings that are the fallen angels that rebelled against God. Some were part of the original rebellion under Lucifer; some rebelled later, before Noah’s flood. Evil spirits, on the other hand, are single-aspect, ethereal, weaker beings that were also swept up in Lucifer’s rebellion and cast to the earth like all the rest. They survived by hiding in the dark waters that covered the earth as a result of Lucifer’s flood. When the earth vomited out the warring demons that had destroyed the planet, they—the demons— were strong enough to find refuge in the second heaven, but the spirits were not. After God re-created the earth, the spirits could no longer hide in the waters. Their fate was to wander aimlessly on the earth without a place of habitation until they could find a human body to inhabit—right alongside the human spirit.
Try to keep up. When a human is “possessed,” he or she is possessed by a demonic spirit but not by a demon per se. Demons do not desire to inhabit humans.
The Jews were well acquainted with evil spirits and the rite of exorcism, but not the way Jesus did it. That’s why the people were dumbstruck.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said the younger rabbi.
“I’ve witnessed many exorcisms in my life. Most times the exorcist does not survive,” said the elder.
“It’s a hazard of the trade. When the exorcist invites the evil spirit to leave the inhabited body to come into his own body instead, he takes a big risk.”
“That’s the way it’s always been done.”
“That’s also why it’s so hard to find a good exorcist these days— and expensive if you do.”
“How was He able to do it without taking the spirit into Himself?”
“I don’t know. He told the spirit to leave, and it went.”
“But where did it go?”
“Don’t look at me; I don’t have it.”
When it became widely known that Jesus could exorcize evil spirits simply by telling them to go, His fame spread even faster through the entire region. There was hardly any place He could go to rest. Just to get away from the throngs of people, we slipped quietly out of a meeting one afternoon and went to the house of a man named Simon, who was a local fisherman.
“Can the teacher stay in your house for a while, Simon? Just until we find better accommodations for Him?” asked his neighbor, who’d been at the synagogue earlier and knew Jesus needed downtime. Simon was reluctant.
“I don’t know. My mother-in-law has been sick. I don’t think she can handle visitors.”
Jesus and I arrived at the doorstep just in time to hear what Simon said.
“Where is she?” Jesus
Does anybody smell anything?
Then I spotted him. A man possessed by an evil spirit stood up and rushed toward Jesus screaming hysterically.
“What business do you have here with us, Jesus of Nazareth? I know what You’re up to. You’re the Holy One of God, and You’ve come to destroy us! It isn’t time!”
I must tell you, it was a showstopper. The assembly scrambled to get away from the possessed man.
Jesus silenced him. “Quiet! You evil spirit, get out of him!”
The demonic spirit threw the man down on the floor and left. The crowd whispered and wondered at what happened.
“What did I just see?”
“What’s going on here? A man who orders demonic spirits to get out, and they go?”
“No man can do that.”
Perhaps I should offer a point of clarification here for someone not as knowledgeable about the spirit realm as I. The enormity of what Jesus did can be understood only in the context of what demons and spirits actually are. Humans, in my experience, do not know how to differentiate between dark forces and tend to use the terms evil spirit and demon as if they are the same thing, which in fact, they are not.
Demons are multidimensional beings that are the fallen angels that rebelled against God. Some were part of the original rebellion under Lucifer; some rebelled later, before Noah’s flood. Evil spirits, on the other hand, are single-aspect, ethereal, weaker beings that were also swept up in Lucifer’s rebellion and cast to the earth like all the rest. They survived by hiding in the dark waters that covered the earth as a result of Lucifer’s flood. When the earth vomited out the warring demons that had destroyed the planet, they—the demons— were strong enough to find refuge in the second heaven, but the spirits were not. After God re-created the earth, the spirits could no longer hide in the waters. Their fate was to wander aimlessly on the earth without a place of habitation until they could find a human body to inhabit—right alongside the human spirit.
Try to keep up. When a human is “possessed,” he or she is possessed by a demonic spirit but not by a demon per se. Demons do not desire to inhabit humans.
The Jews were well acquainted with evil spirits and the rite of exorcism, but not the way Jesus did it. That’s why the people were dumbstruck.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said the younger rabbi.
“I’ve witnessed many exorcisms in my life. Most times the exorcist does not survive,” said the elder.
“It’s a hazard of the trade. When the exorcist invites the evil spirit to leave the inhabited body to come into his own body instead, he takes a big risk.”
“That’s the way it’s always been done.”
“That’s also why it’s so hard to find a good exorcist these days— and expensive if you do.”
“How was He able to do it without taking the spirit into Himself?”
“I don’t know. He told the spirit to leave, and it went.”
“But where did it go?”
“Don’t look at me; I don’t have it.”
When it became widely known that Jesus could exorcize evil spirits simply by telling them to go, His fame spread even faster through the entire region. There was hardly any place He could go to rest. Just to get away from the throngs of people, we slipped quietly out of a meeting one afternoon and went to the house of a man named Simon, who was a local fisherman.
“Can the teacher stay in your house for a while, Simon? Just until we find better accommodations for Him?” asked his neighbor, who’d been at the synagogue earlier and knew Jesus needed downtime. Simon was reluctant.
“I don’t know. My mother-in-law has been sick. I don’t think she can handle visitors.”
Jesus and I arrived at the doorstep just in time to hear what Simon said.
“Where is she?” Jesus
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