Wednesday 28 Jun 2017

June 28: Act 19:13-16

Key Verse: Acts 19:15
One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?”

Devotion:
God wants us to go out and proclaim His Word. He wants us to show others His Word so He can follow up and convince them of the truth. To that extent, He wants to be able to use us to sow the seeds for Him. Not only should we be willing to go and talk to others but we should show we have faith in what we say. Talking about God and showing others you do actually believe in God are two different things entirely.

In this account of the acts of the apostles we are reminded of the power of Satan and other evil spirits – something we should never underestimate. The so called “vagabond Jews” were Jews who called themselves exorcists. They travelled round getting paid to do various things where they would call upon various spirits to do healing and cast our other spirits. But what rings the warning bells is the way they introduced themselves. They said (paraphrased) “We command you by the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches about”. Not an altogether commanding way introducing Christ! In fact, they don't actually acknowledge that they believe in Christ at all...

If we are simply going to say that we know who Christ is, therefore you should do things for Him, we are not saying we are doing anything for Him. How can we tell others to do things for Christ or by Christ when we don't admit to actually following Him and having faith in Him? If we are not willing to depend on Him, then we depend on ourselves. If we think as mere humans we can take on any spiritual being, then we are sadly mistaken – never mind an angelic being!

Yes, Christ does give people the power to do things in His name. He does not give them the power to do it by themselves and He does not do things just because someone uses His name – none of that really leads to Him being glorified, so why should He admit to knowing you if you don't admit to knowing Him?

Points to Ponder:
Are you allowed to impersonate a policeman?

Why should anyone think they can then impersonate a Christian?