When Jesus cast demons out of people in Mark 1, :34 says: “He did not allow them to speak, because they knew Him.”  There are a couple of important lessons in this verse:

One is that the demons have a better understanding of spiritual things than most people do:

— they know who the Messiah is

— they know who is controlled by the Spirit

— they know who is really possessed or oppressed by an unclean spirit

There is another world going on behind the scenes of the one we see, a spiritual realm which we cannot discern with our physical eyes. Most of us are so blind to these spiritual things that we don’t begin to see things that even demons see and know! We need to ask God to help us develop our spiritual senses so that we can discern spiritual things better.

Second, this also reminds us that just knowing facts about the Lord is not enough. The demons “knew Him” — in the sense of knowing who He was — but that didn’t save them. It won’t save you either.  James 2:19 reminds us: “You believe that God is one; you do well — the demons also believe, and shudder.”  What they did not have was a personal commitment to Jesus that is more than just “knowing about Him.”  The most important question of your life is: do you know Him in a better, more personal way than the demons do?