Acts 19:11-20
English
Standard Version (ESV)
11 And God was doing extraordinary
miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs or
aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their
diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. 13 Then
some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord
Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom
Paul proclaims.” 14 Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named
Sceva were doing this. 15 But the evil spirit answered them,
“Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” 16 And
the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all[a] of them and overpowered them, so that they
fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17 And this became
known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon
them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. 18 Also
many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their
practices. 19 And a number of those who had practiced magic
arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they
counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver.
20 So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail
mightily.
Make no mistake here, it is very clear in this scripture, it
was not Paul that did these wondrous miracles but rather God through Paul. Paul could not do anything without the power
of our God and that goes for us as well.
Paul would rebuke solely through the name of Jesus Christ
whereas these worldly men rebuked through the names of Jesus and Paul and the
evil spirits recognized that they did not possess the power of Jesus.
Notice that the evil spirit knew Jesus and only knew of
Paul, even the evil spirits know where the power comes from. Another cool thing I see in this is that the
evil spirit only knowing of Paul indicates that there was no relationship
there. When we say we “know of” someone,
we might or might not recognize them but their name is familiar. Because Paul had a direct relationship with
Jesus Christ through His salvation, the evil spirit could not get to know Paul. Yet Christ calls all of us to repent and have
a relationship with Him. There is no
getting around knowing God even when we reject Him. You can see Him through His mighty wonders
and works. This is no different for the
evil spirit. Prior to the fall of satan
there was opportunity for a relationship with the Father yet satan rejected
that offer.
Evil spirits are still here today. People can get caught in the evil trap
through some books, games, movies, and music and not even realize what is
happening. It looks like innocent fun but it is really evil. Fortunetellers, wizards and those who claim
to speak to the dead are just as real and as evil as in the days that Acts was
written. There is a new game out there for kids that is all pink and looks like
innocent fun game for a little girl but it is just another one of the evil
spirit controlled games. Stay away from
sorcery, it is evil and it is real. The
one thing we have in common is that we both know who Jesus is, where we differ
is that some of us know Him as our Savior and others know Him as a threat. Which side of that situation do you want to
find yourself? I know I want to be on
the side of knowing Jesus as my Savior!
As you seek Him remember that He is the One and only One we
need. Evil is all around us but if we
know Him as our Savior and Lord, we are protected from those evil spirits. We cannot say, “the devil made me do it”
because we are protected from the devil!
If Christ is our source He can and will give us the power we need to
stay true to Him.
Seeking Him with all my heart,
Sheila
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