This Post comes as inspiration from my devotion on Acts 19. On “SEVEN SONS of SCEVA”. Before we learn from this incident, I will give a context – Paul was preaching the good news. he was in Corinth and later moved to a place called Ephesus. Paul stayed in Ephesus for more than two years, he transformed this city with so many believers and disciples, and he wrote the letter to believers in Ephesus called Ephesians in new testament from this place.
A QUICK BACKGROUND OF EPHESUS - Ephesus stands on the western part of modern Turkey. It was a port City, was a prominent Trading City for the Mediterranean Region, given nature many cultural (Greeks / Jews and others) people lived, their ways were also very sinful. We read in Act 19, that they were filled with Evil Spirit and they practiced many idol worships, many practiced Sorcery (also called as witchcraft, magic etc.)
POWER OF HOLY SPIRIT - Paul comes to Ephesus and meets a set of disciples and asks them “Did you receive the Holy spirit?”, look at the word of God to understand this better
'While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?” “John’s baptism,” they replied. Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. Acts 19:1-6
Today we live in the same state of people of Ephesus, many of us are Christians but we call us as baptized, but we don’t have the Holy Spirit in us, we continue to lead a life which may not be pleasing to God
Call for Action - Ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit. To receive the Holy Spirit, all you need is to Pray earnestly from your heart to give you and fill you with his Holy Spirit. He will definitely give you the Holy Spirit as he gave to many others in Ephesus, he is the same God yesterday, today and tomorrow. The Word of God says
'If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” ' Luke 11:13
SONS OF SCEVA
If you read further in Acts 19:6, You see the people who received the Holy Spirit were on Fire, they spoke in tongues and Prophesied. Paul preached Word of God and God did extraordinary miracles with Paul, we read even handkerchiefs and aprons touched by Paul had the Spiritual power to heal and drive demons.
'God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them. ' Acts 19:11-12
Given that Ephesus was so much sinful, we see many invoked Holy Spirit falsely to do their witchcraft work. It got so bad that the Evil Spirits got annoyed and gave a beating to “Sons of Sceva” to expose on their falsehood. Read the word
'Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power. ' Acts 19:13-20
Take a moment and reflect back, we also live in this world like many of the Ephesus people. We may or may not be doing witchcraft sins like they did. But we live in a false hood life, where we don’t live the life that God has asked us to live. We live a life one for the world and one for ourselves (only our conscious knows that it’s wrong), this is called hypocrisy. We continue to fake out and think God does not know that, remember there is nothing that can be hidden from God
'Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. ' Hebrews 4:13
Call for Action – like the “Sons of Sceva”, Ask God to show what are your hypocritic Sins that’s there, which is disgusting to him?
Ask God to show one thing which is paining him the most when he sees you. Surrender to God today, He will show you the thing which is not right in his eyes (it can be Anger, lust, Coveting or anything.) kneel down and pray, ask God earnestly to show your hypocrisy that’s paining him the most, he will reveal you. Once you realize that in your Conscious, confess that sin to God, repent from your heart on that Sin and ask God to wash you away to bring close to him and make you a true disciple of God. This is a step closer to God and making us more spiritually mature. Stay blessed !!
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