Though He is worthy of praise, He is selective about who gives Him recognition. It is not because He is picky, it is because He is worthy of much better. The enemy loves to be recognized, by angels, demons, men, it doesn’t matter to Him. But the Father is looking for worshippers who worship in spirit and in truth. Demons don’t fit that description, and thus their worship is unacceptable. Jesus did not rise from the grave to redeem demons; He is the Resurrected King of men. The demon was not wrong, He is the Holy One of God, but Jesus was not interested in the false praise of a demon. Even the praises of the true angelic hosts is not what He desires. His desire is to be lifted up in the hearts of men, and if men won’t do it the children will do it. And when the children are hindered from praising Him, He will settle for giving rocks voices to cry out.
Why would the demon say “I know who You are, the Holy One of God”? It was to draw attention to itself from the people around, it was not for Jesus’ information or any other benefit. We do the same thing, name dropping for recognition. What we gain from this is a puffed up sense of accomplishment and self-importance, it does nothing for the advancing of the Gospel of the Kingdom. When we derive our identity from who we know or what we have done, we set ourselves up for great disappointment in this life and in the age to come. The sons of Sceva tried to use name dropping to cast out demons, not a good time to find out that doesn’t work, huh? And what happens when we get to the final judgment, will it do any good to name drop with the Great Divine Judge? Doubt it!
Boasting in anything but our relationship to Jesus will get us nowhere. The Lord said, “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, the strong in his strength, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he knows and understands Me.” Imagine what that would look like. If someone preached a sermon and were complimented about it and asked how they got such great revelation. How would you react if they said, “Thank you, I know God, that’s all I have going for me.” Would you be offended? I might be offended.
The thing is that those who truly do know and understand Him are the most humble people. You will not find them boasting in their relationship with the Lord. They are just like Jesus, who though being God-incarnate did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped. But if you get the dwellers of the Secret Place away from the crowds and ask them what they know and how they know it, they will tell you. They will tell you that they are addicted to the Presence of the Lord. They will tell you that they are so desperately in love with Jesus, His Spirit and His Father that they easily set aside hours to be with Them. They will tell you that when they are alone with Them, They tell the secrets of Their heart to all those who fear God (Psalm 25:14). Find them and ask.
Friendship and proximity to God are treasures untouched by most of humanity. This is not because it is difficult, for we are as close to God as we want to be, but it is not modeled and therefore not experienced by many. This is why having many teachers but not many fathers is such a problem. Teachers can only teach what they know, but fathers impart who they are. As fathers to arguably the most important generation in history, it is our duty to live Hosea 10:12 out so that they know how to do the same. “Sow with a view of righteousness, reap in accordance with kindness, break up the fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord until He comes to rain down righteousness on you.” It is time to seek the Holy One of God relentlessly until His righteousness is raining and reigning.
*Holy One of God, leave crumbs of the Bread of Life for us to find You. Amen*
