Month: August 2022

Two spiritual realms were in conflict over the city in Samaria. The enemy had gone unopposed for a long time, but now the light had arrived through Philip, with great power (so much so that even his chief agent, Simon, had become a believer). Acts 8:9-25

Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, ¹⁰ and all the people, BOTH HIGH AND LOW, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is rightly (No it was a lie!) called the Great Power.” Acts 8

Social standing or wealth is worthless when it comes to discerning spiritual truth. The ‘high-ups/influential were as gullible to the witchcraft as the lowly’. The apostles who had the Spirit of God and ‘had been with Jesus’ Acts 4:13 readily discerned what was operating in Simon. Yesterday morning, while Anne was having her shower (the shower is a good place to hear from Heaven!) she got a warning for someone living far away, whom we only know through the Internet. She forwarded the word to them, the Spirit of God was intervening again to protect someone just as in Acts 8.

Simon had been given a fake title by the people he’d misled. Today we have many people in the Church who have been given or assumed titles. We live in a time of the resurgence of the Prophet and Apostle, which may rightly account for some of the titles. This morning I was reading where Jesus condemned the religious leaders of His day, pronouncing the seven woes;

THEY LOVE (Public Adulation) to be greeted in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.

⁸ “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. ⁹ And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. ¹⁰ Nor are you to be called teachers, for you have one Teacher, the Christ. ¹¹ The greatest among you will be your servant. ¹² For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Matthew 23

Jesus disapproved of religious leaders taking titles to themselves, but did approve of a servant heart. A Christian author of long ago, Doctor John White (he was a qualified doctor), after he’d written some books was told by the Lord to drop his title and just call himself plain John White. Many in the Church today have assumed titles, are we mimicking the world’s and religion’s demand for titles and self-promotion? It’s the ‘Good and Faithful servant’ who’ll receive the Lord’s commendation on that day.

Our heart attitudes before the Lord are so important and some of His Church may need to change in a very changing world situation.

God bless and keep you today.

 

 

⁸ So there was GREAT JOY in that city. Acts 8

We saw yesterday that ‘great persecution’ Acts 8:1 broke out against the heart of the new Church in Jerusalem, but the scattering of the believers led to ‘Great Joy’ elsewhere.

⁹ Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, ¹⁰ and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed…” ¹¹ They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery.

The Bible names a practising wizard, Simon, who was at work in the city where Philip was preaching. The occult couldn’t prevent the Gospel, nor stop the miracles! The people were amazed by Simon, ‘both high and low’ were deceived by his occult acts but Peter and John were about to arrive in Samaria.

¹² But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. ¹³ Simon himself BELIEVED AND WAS BAPTISED. And he followed Philip everywhere, ASTONISHED BY THE GREAT SIGNS AND MIRACLES HE SAW. Acts 8

The occult has some power e.g. the magicians in Egypt, but Simon was amazed at the miracles performed by Philip and he believed and was baptised.

¹⁴ When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria.

Apostles are SENT, a travelling ministry and they set things in order. (Derek Prince said that apostles who serve in one place become elders) Peter and John also travelled as a pair, just like Jesus sent out the disciples. Even after the people had believed and been baptised and seen miracles, the apostles were still sent to establish the work among the recent converts. The Book of Acts sets out protocols and guidance for the new Church.

¹⁵ When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, (First recorded thing the apostles did)¹⁶ because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus. ¹⁷ Then Peter and John PLACED THEIR HANDS ON THEM, and they received the Holy Spirit.

When Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was given at the laying on of hands, he wanted to buy the gift, but Peter rebuked him.

²⁰ Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! (Simon wanted what he’d had before, trying to keep part of his past alive) ²¹ You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. ²² Repent of this wickedness … ²³ For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.”

We can’t manipulate God to have things our way in the Christian life, we’re His servants, though many may not live that way.

²⁵ After they had further proclaimed the word of the Lord and testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, PREACHING THE GOSPEL IN MANY SAMARITAN VILLAGES.

Peter and John, these two apostles, preached the Good News in many other places in Samaria. They fulfilled Jesus words to the woman at the well of Sychar, John 4, people would worship God everywhere, no longer just in Jerusalem.

May God bless and keep you today.