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Go ahead and look first at Acts 19 . See how God speaks to you individually. Then come back, if you wish, and see what God has put in my mind/heart.

Key Verse(s): Acts 19:15-16

(One day) the evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?" 16Then 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.

Title: Playing With Fire

Observation: Challenging the power of a demon, ultimately the power of Satan. In our society, we mostly scoff at the idea of personification of evil. If anything we see Satan as a symbol. Yet, to quote Hal Lindsey, Satan is alive and well on planet earth.

I once worked with a pastor who once held this position. Fresh out of Yale seminary at the time, he told the adult Sunday school class he was teaching that Satan was merely the symbol of sin and the fall of man. One of the wiser members gently inquired, “Didn’t Jesus say he saw Satan fall like lightning? (Luke 10:18)”

Flustered, my pastor friend said, “Jesus must have been mistaken.”

He decades later greatly regretted those words. He had seen the power of evil up close and personal. When we challenge Satan, we find ourselves playing with power that we don’t understand. Instead of playing around with the power of evil, we need to turn away from focusing on Satan so that we can focus on the Almighty. As we try and seek and follow Jesus, we may face spiritual attack, but in that moment we will be on the safer ground of an obedient follower of Jesus.

Application: We are not to obsess or marvel at the power of evil. We need to acknowledge that the world we live in is currently under the authority of Satan. And yet we need to not fear demons. As Romans 8:38-39 reminds us

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[ neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Prayer: Lord God, help me to not seek out power for the sake of power. Allow my actions to flow out of my love for you. Help me avoid the idolatry of power and control, and follow the wind of the Spirit. Help me never to be afraid, but to constantly live in the knowledge of your unbreakable love.

In Jesus Name,
Amen.