Acts 13:4-12\u00a0<\/b>\u2013 The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit,\u00a0went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus.\u00a05\u00a0When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God\u00a0in the Jewish synagogues.\u00a0John\u00a0was with them as their helper.\u00a0 6\u00a0They traveled through the whole island until they came to Paphos. There they met a Jewish sorcerer\u00a0and false prophet named Bar-Jesus,\u00a07\u00a0who was an attendant of the proconsul, Sergius Paulus. The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God.\u00a08\u00a0But Elymas the sorcerer\u00a0(for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul\u00a0from the faith.\u00a09\u00a0Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said,\u00a010\u00a0\u201cYou are a child of the devil\u00a0and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord?\u00a011\u00a0Now the hand of the Lord is against you.\u00a0You are going to be blind for a time, not even able to see the light of the sun.\u201d\u00a0 Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand.12\u00a0When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord.<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cNow the hand of the Lord is against you.\u00a0You are going to be blind for a time, not even able to see the light of the sun.\u201d\u00a0<\/i>\u00a0As we have already noted from\u00a01 Corinthians 12:7<\/b>, the manifestations of the Spirit are meant to glorify God. Of course they are.\u00a0\u00a0When a person is sharing the Word of God and the about the glory of God and a supernatural gift is displayed, such as supernatural discernment, or supernatural healing, or supernatural knowledge, then people that the Lord meant to touch will know it in their hearts and minds.\u00a0\u00a0When God speaks there is always a reaction!\u00a0\u00a0The desired reaction is to glorify God and to save or edify souls.\u00a0\u00a0The souls of men react to the touch of God\u2019s Spirit, to His Word and to His supernatural gifts.\u00a0\u00a0Some respond appropriately and are saved such as in\u00a0Acts 2<\/b>, and unfortunately some famously have not (Exodus 7-12<\/b>) and have suffered for their hard heartedness.<\/p>\n
The sentence against what the evil Elymas was doing came quickly after Paul, filled with the Spirit spoke a prophetic word concerning Elymas.\u00a0\u00a0Although the Lord could still do this today, I pray that none of us ever have to be corrected in such a way. We have the Spirit of God within and should have no fear of that.<\/p>\n
\u201c<\/span>Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand.<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0The sentence of full blindness, him not even being able to see the sun, immediately was fulfilled.\u00a0\u00a0Put yourself in his place and imagine the fear he felt as he became blind.\u00a0\u00a0He was \u201cseeking someone to lead him by the hand.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0\u00a0This proud man who thought he could thwart the will of God was now pleading for someone, anyone, to lead him about by the hand.<\/p>\n In the preceding verse we see that the blindness of Elymas would be \u201cfor a time<\/i>.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Noting that Ananias and Sapphira died for their deceit (Acts 5:1-11<\/b>), Elymas got off easy.\u00a0\u00a0Ananias and Sapphira received a permanent sentence.\u00a0\u00a0Elymas received a temporary one.\u00a0\u00a0A thought of why Elymas received the temporary punishment was because Paul, by the Holy Spirit, discerned that Elymas need not die.\u00a0\u00a0That Paul was informed by the Holy Spirit that Elymas would, after having been blinded, repent and come to Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0We don\u2019t know that, but we can always hope that it is true.\u00a0\u00a0We should never take pleasure in the punishment of the wicked but always hope for their redemption since that displays the heart of God in us (Ezekiel 18:23<\/b>).\u00a0\u00a0We must remember that when with transformed hearts we hate the evil that the world does, we also formerly did the same things (Titus 3:3-8<\/b>).\u00a0\u00a0Let us have the love of God for the lost (John 3:16<\/b>) and always desire people to turn from evil and to worship God through Jesus.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0\u00a0As we have noted, the purpose of the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit is to glorify God and to lead people to Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0Here we see that the Holy Spirit operating through Paul brought the proconsul to belief in Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Now it is in error taught that we don\u2019t need these supernatural gifts of the Spirit in the world today.\u00a0\u00a0Family, don\u2019t believe it.\u00a0\u00a0Today the gifts are still invaluable in sharing the love of God with the world.\u00a0\u00a0They are also invaluable in ministering to others, and even ourselves (1 Corinthians 14:4<\/b>).\u00a0\u00a0After all we know that we all have times when we would like to hear from God about something, or when we have been under attack and desire a word from Him to lift us up.\u00a0\u00a0These gifts are still an extremely valuable tool of the Spirit to save souls and to minister to already saved souls.\u00a0\u00a0Trust God!\u00a0\u00a0Trust His Holy Spirit.\u00a0\u00a0Do not fight against God and attempt to quench the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19<\/b>).\u00a0\u00a0Paul\u2019s desire for all of us is that the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit would flow through us (1 Corinthians 14:4<\/b>). He thanked God for his own speaking in tongues (prayer language)(1 Corinthians 14:18<\/b>).\u00a0\u00a0Paul said to not forbid speaking in tongues (1 Corinthians 14:39<\/b>).\u00a0\u00a0He was not writing specifically to other apostles, but rather to an undisciplined church.\u00a0\u00a0He was writing to all of our churches today, disciplined or undisciplined.\u00a0\u00a0He told them that they should not forbid speaking in tongues.\u00a0\u00a0He was in essence saying the same thing as\u00a01 Thessalonians 5:19<\/b>.\u00a0\u00a0Let me again state that if one has not seen the gifts of the Spirit flow through oneself that is not a sign that one is not saved.\u00a0\u00a0We are saved only by faith in the work of God through Jesus our Savior.\u00a0\u00a0The gifts are not given to exclude, but to include and build us up and to save souls.\u00a0\u00a0The gifts do not cull people who are saved, but they are evidence of the Holy Spirit that we are saved.\u00a0\u00a0They are meant to prove that we belong to Jesus and we come with the Eternal Truth of the Gospel.<\/p>\n I would like to say that many may have unknowingly had a gift of the Spirit flow through them.\u00a0\u00a0Not understanding what the gifts are and how they are used is entirely possible.\u00a0\u00a0However, whether one has one gift or another, God has received us all and loves us all.\u00a0\u00a0The Word says that how we are known as belonging to Jesus is by our love one for another (John 13:35<\/b>).\u00a0\u00a0Let us do so to the praise of God!\u00a0\u00a0Praise God!<\/p>\n Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/i><\/p>\n Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Acts 13:4-12\u00a0\u2013 The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit,\u00a0went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus.\u00a05\u00a0When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God\u00a0in the Jewish synagogues.\u00a0John\u00a0was with them as their helper.\u00a0 6\u00a0They traveled through the whole island until they came to Paphos. There they met…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[82,129,2257,705,100,94,17,757,105],"class_list":["post-1709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-acts","tag-corinthians","tag-exodus","tag-ezekiel","tag-john","tag-micah","tag-psalm","tag-thessalonians","tag-titus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1709"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1710,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1709\/revisions\/1710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}