365 Days of the Great Names of God, Day 129: Holy One of God

Holy One of God

"I know who you are—the Holy One of God!" (Luke 4:34 NIV)

I'm squirming a little bit today.

I've been reminded that the names of God require a response...because the Name Above Every Name deserves a response. 

It's not enough (and I'm absolutely speaking first and foremost to myself here) to just know God's names or to recognize who God is. The story surrounding today's verse shows us that. 

In Luke 4, we find Jesus in the town of Capernaum, confronting a man possessed by an evil spirit. More correctly, Jesus is confronting the spirit itself, not the man possessed by it. The spirit shouts, "I know who you are—the Holy One of God!"

Jesus commands ("sternly"), "Be quiet! Come out of Him!" And the demon does.

Only when the demon responds to Jesus, yields to His authority, and obeys His command does freedom result.

I can say I know who the Holy One is. I can know that He is the Healer, the One and Only, the Lord of Lords, the Yes of God, the Only Way, the Name Above All Names, and the Everlasting Father. But if I do not respond to this knowledge—if I am not, as the word "holy" conveys, set apart by it—then I will shudder as the demons do (James 2:19), but I will not be sanctified. I might fear Jesus, but I will not be freed by Him.

Dear Jesus, help us to know You and to know what to do with the You we know. Show us what crutches You, as our Healer, want us to throw away. Show us where we are trying to make you One of many instead of One and Only. Show us what our "yes" looks like in response to you, the Yes of God. Show us, Only Way, the other ways we're trying to go. 

And then let our sure song be, "Glory to the Holy One."

"'Holy, Holy, Holy'
Cried the seraph throng.
Glory to the Holy One,
Join in heaven's song."

(From "Glory to the Holy One;" from the project "Glory to the Holy One;" R.C. Sproul, Jeff Lippencott; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wOow74YwP0.)