The Holy Spirit descends on some more people, but this time after Paul lays his hands on them. I’ve spent some time discussing baptism and the Holy Spirit’s activity, but the thing that jumped out at me here is this concept that we need the whole experience, not just part of it. These people had only really understood part of the process, or part of what they were trying to do or follow, and they needed the rest. So what am I doing or believing that is only part of the whole? I think it’s easy to fall into the trap of looking at what God asks us to do as followers of Him and only sign up for the part that seems easy or comfortable for us. For some people, yeah I’ll come to church and spend time praying but all that discussion in the Bible about being generous and giving, that stuff isn’t for me. For other people it is the need to give up addictions or sin of some sort, they’ll be perfectly fine not stealing or murdering, but they won’t give up their lust. So what am I holding onto? What haven’t I allowed God to have yet? The thing that comes into my mind when I pray that question is just my overall level of comfort. My life has been and is pretty comfortable, and I don’t like to step outside of that zone. God has not asked me to live a life of comfort, and as I’ve seen in Scripture the life that is sold out to following Jesus was usually very uncomfortable. I so desperately want to give Jesus my whole, to understand and participate in the whole of what He asks me to do as His follower, it’s just really really hard.
In this next section we see God performing great miracles through the hands of Paul, and we see this encounter between an evil spirit and these seven sons of Sceva, which is fascinating. These guys are trying to exorcise a demon by the name of Jesus, and listen to the phrase that they use, “I command you by the Jesus that Paul preaches.” What boldness and stupidity that these guys displayed. First of all it’s incredibly bold to approach a demon and command the demon to leave someone, and I’ll give them props for being bold enough to do that. What was stupid of them was they were trying to cast out a demon in the name of someone they didn’t even know. They knew of Jesus, but they didn’t know Him, and the evil spirit figured that out right away. These evil spirits aren’t dummies, and they also very much recognize their place of power in this world, which is far below Jesus and those that have the Holy Spirit in them. But they also have enough power and wisdom to spot a fake when they see one, and this is what happened with these seven sons. I don’t want an evil spirit, if I ever encounter one, to be able to look at me and say that phrase: “I know Jesus, and I recognize Paul – but who are you?” I want those evil spirits to sense God’s presence so strong and so full in my life that they run scared. But, in an effort to give an honest evaluation, I’m not sure that would be their response. Instead, they would probably try to appeal to the sin in my life, to the areas of weakness in my life, and they would try to overpower me like they did these sons. Paul did not give Satan even a tiny foothold because he was so dependent upon the Spirit to guide him and instruct him on how to live, and as a result the demons fled the scene when he showed up. That’s the power that I want to have, the power that only comes when I have less of me and more of the Spirit in my life!
This last section of Acts 19 is an example of greed and control showing up and influencing decisions once again. It is saddening to see how much greed affects people. This guy Demetrius gathers all these people together against the message that Paul is preaching, and notice what he talked about first. It wasn’t the fact that Paul was teaching against the worship of Artemis that he chose to bring up first, it was the fact that if people converted to “The Way” their business would be at risk for failure. His opposition to the gospel was driven by the financial effects it would have. I sometimes greatly envy people in third world countries that don’t have any money and never will have any, as it can become such an obstacle to my faith. I want to spend more time doing ministry and sharing the gospel but I have to work enough to pay the bills. I want to give away more money to those in need but my mind says hold on, things could get tough soon and you want to make sure you have enough. Oh how I long for the freedom of not thinking or worrying about finances and only thinking and worrying about sharing Christ. I know I can do that, with a lot of money or not a lot of money, but I sure seem to struggle more when I have more. The other side of this coin is my frustration with financial-driven decisions in ministry, which is tough because I am a numbers guy with a numbers mind, so I fall easily into the trap of making ministry decisions with finances as the focus. An incredible example of people with a mission-mind and not a money-mind is the encouragement of Westwind Church for its members to come join New Heights. They knew it would affect their attendance and their giving, but they knew that God would protect and provide. They knew their budgets could be hurting if a bunch of people and their giving disappeared, but they saw the bigger picture and the kingdom-purpose in the decision to send as many people as they could to go to Indianola.
What’s incredible, and yet sad that we as humans can’t get things through our heads is that when we stop worrying about numbers and finances and focus on the mission and the people like we should, God always takes care of the finances and the numbers. Westwind encourages their people to leave to start New Heights and their attendance begins to increase and will more than cover the loss in people, and likely the loss in giving, when it comes time for their members to head to Indianola. What was likely going to be a decrease in the short-term has become an increase, something only God could do. How many times does God have to do things like that before I will trust Him and quit worrying about things? How long will He have to be faithful to me before I turn and surrender it all to Him? I want to get there quicker. I want to get there sooner. I want to be there now!
Father you bless and you provide and you are faithful, but I need to trust you and depend on you if I want to see you protect and provide and bless! If I sit comfortably doing the same old things I won’t really need much from you, and that is a terrible place to be in life. It is a comfortable place, but a terrible place. God help me to be uncomfortable. That is a probably a stupid prayer to pray, but make me uncomfortable because that’s what I need.
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