Once, a man confronted Jesus with an unclean spirit.
He shouted, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?”
Jesus said two things:
•He told the unclean spirit to be silent.
•He told the unclean spirit to come out of the man.
The voice and interruption from the unclean spirit first had to be silenced for several reasons. Its voice was loud and disruptive, it kept the people from being able to hear the teachings of Jesus, and because its intention was to distract the people in order to plant seeds of doubt regarding who Jesus was.
Jesus knew the plot of the unclean spirit and silenced it first off.
After Jesus silenced the unclean spirit, he commanded the spirit come out of the man. It was not something the spirit wanted to do. The spirit liked to use the man as a means to spew its wickedness. Give that up? Not easily. But the power of Jesus won, and the spirit left.
The modern mind typically balks at hearing about unclean or evil spirits. But they do exist, even today.
They mostly reveal themselves through hatred, jealousy, revenge, self-pity, timidity, arrogance, greed — the list continues.
Every person has an unclean spirit — or more than one — within them. Most just don’t like to acknowledge it.
Such an acknowledgement feels too ugly. It’s too uncomfortable.
It’s too embarrassing.
It’s too real.
So most people do nothing about it.
As a result, people get distracted from hearing Jesus Christ's voice, which encourages them to hear how much God loves them and how they can live for him.
Jesus wants the disruptive, destructive and distracting thoughts and behaviors to stop. He wants the unclean spirits within us to hear his command, “Stop talking. Come out of that person.”
When this is acknowledged, our Lord will help you heal.
Because of that healing, you will be able to hear and claim the deeper message he gives: “You are my beloved child. You are precious to me.”
Allow Jesus to mend you — heart, mind and soul. Hear his voice over the din of society, over the distractions of worries, over the messages that seek to destroy your faith.
He does this as an act of love, a love that is unmatched; a love that shines not only on Valentine’s Day, but every day of your life.
The Rev. Mark Broadhead is Laurel Hill Presbyterian Church and First Presbyterian Church of Crestview's pastor.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: From the Pulpit: Here's how to fight unclean spirits