The Spirits Know!

James R. Aist

“Therefore God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-12)

In a previous article (click HERE), I wrote about the faith of demons. Demons are evil spirits or fallen angels who know perfectly well who Jesus is, but they do not acknowledge Him as their Lord. Nonetheless, when they stood before Jesus and He commanded them, they submitted to His authority and obeyed (Matthew 8:28-32). In this article, I will expand this theme to include the human spirits of mankind.

Perhaps the most dramatic example of a human spirit knowing who Jesus is, can be seen in the raising of Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-44). Lazarus had been dead for four days, and his body was already stinking. So, when Jesus cried out, “Lazarus, come out!”, He was commanding his spirit, not his body. In obedience, his spirit returned immediately to his body, and Lazarus was revived. The spirit of the man, Lazarus, recognized and obeyed the voice of the one whose name (i.e., authority and power) is above every name (Philippians 2:9).

With that background in mind, let me ask this: In view of Philippians 2:9-12 (see above), have you ever wondered why evil angels and even the vilest of unregenerate men and women will, one day – despite their continued rebellion against God – bow down before Jesus and confess that He is Lord? I believe that the answer lies in the fact that all angelic and human spirits were created by the one and only true God, in the person of Jesus Christ. They all know that their creator is the chief of all spirits and that, because He has all authority and power, He can do with them whatever He wants to. And for that reason, the angelic spirits and the human spirits will, in the end, go to the place where Jesus sends them: the devil and his angels to the lake of fire (Revelation 20:10), the righteous people in Christ to everlasting life with God in heaven (Matthew 13:43), and the unrighteous people to everlasting torment, also in the lake of fire (Revelation 20:15).

The spirits know who is in charge and that they can only obey Him. I believe its a Spirit-to-spirit encounter that automatically transcends and overrules all other conceivable discourse.

(To read more of my articles with a biblical theme, click HERE)