Acts 19:13

Acts 19:13 - 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 Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.”

As we continue on in this story we see that these men were not always successful in driving out evil spirits. In fact their situation got really bad, really quick, when one of the spirits answered them. It said, “Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” After saying that the possessed man proceeded to beat them until they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.
These men saw the power of God flowing through Paul and they wanted to take part of it. Basically they bypassed getting to know God and went straight to doing miracles. This was their mistake. They were able to cast some evil spirits out, but eventually it caught up with them.
In their mind it was ‘Paul’s’ God and not their own. They never got to know God and therefore God did not know them. Jesus warns us that on ‘that’ day there will be many who come and say, “Did we not do miracles in your name? Did we not cast out demons?” And Jesus will answer, “Depart from me, I never knew you.”
Don’t let that be you. Get to know Jesus. Spend time with Him and spend time in the Word. It’s not about ‘the Jesus Paul preaches.’ You must know Jesus yourself, then when you do miracles in His name it is personal and powerful.

Acts 18:9-10

Acts 18:9-10 - One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid, keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack you and harm you, because I have many people in this city.”

Fear can be a powerful thing. I've heard it described as False Evidence Appearing Real. Basically it is putting your focus and faith on a negative aspect of something. Then, when your focus is on that ‘fear’ it becomes larger in your mind than it actually is.
Take spiders for instance. Not many people particularly like spiders. They can bite, which is annoying and don’t get me started on their webs. Walking through those is less than desirable, but that is where it stops for me. Spiders are an annoyance, not a fear. I know I am bigger than they are and can kill them if necessary.

For some people, however, spiders are a terrifying thing. If they see a spider they will scream and run to get away from it. Even though they physically have the ability to smash and kill the spider, it has become huge in their mind and they are unable to function.

This is just one example of fear, but it can come in many different forms. Here in Paul’s situation we see him in prison, awaiting trial and for all he knew, death. It is apparent that he was getting discouraged. He had probably even thought about the fact that if he just conformed to what the leaders wanted he would probably be able to go free. He was maybe even questioning what he was doing as the fears rose inside of him. That is when God stepped in and spoke to him, “Do not be afraid.”

God has not given a spirit of fear, but of power, Love and a sound mind. When we keep our focus on God fear will not have an opportunity to sneak into our lives. If there is an area where you have fear take it to God and ask Him to show you the reality of the situation. When you have the truth of a situation, your fear will not seem nearly as scary.

Acts 17:23

Acts 17:23 - For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: To an unknown god. Now what you worship as unknown I am going to proclaim to you.

As Paul entered Athens he could see how full of sin the city was. People worshiped anything and everything, with a temple to every possible God they could make up. There was drinking, partying, prostitution; you name it, if it was sin it was there.
Many of us ‘Christians’ today would think it was a sin just to have been in such a place, but Paul had a mission. It was Paul who said, “I become all things to all men, that I might win a few.” He had a heart for the lost and he wanted to bring Jesus to them.
This is where I think many of us miss it. We think that we have to give a ‘traditional’ message of salvation to those that don’t know the bible. Often we forget how to relate to people.
That is what Paul did here. The Athenians worshiped so many gods that they even had an altar to ‘an unknown god,’ just in case they missed one. While many of us would have walked right by and not seen this Paul took noticed and used it. When he began speaking he told them that they already worshiped the real God, they just didn’t know Him yet.
Paul paid attention to their culture and their interests and used it to relate the kingdom of God to them. We need to adopt this practice as well. If we want to minister to someone we must find a way to relate to them. Don’t immediately come down on them for what they are doing wrong. Find what they are doing right and bring the message of Christ to them through that.

Acts 16:25

Acts 16:25 - About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.

Have you ever had a bad day? Who hasn't, right? We've all had those kind of days where it seems like nothing could go right. Let me tell you about this day Paul and Silas had.

It started out fine. They were going around town Loving on people and ministering to them. It felt like they were actually starting to reach some of the people, but there was this one girl.

This young girl was a slave and she made her masters a lot of money. See, she was possessed by an evil spirit that gave her the ability to tell the future. Her masters would use her for their financial benefit.

Well, this girl had been following Paul and Silas around since they had come into town and would not stop jeering and calling out to them. They ignored her for awhile, but she just wouldn't leave. Finally Paul had enough so he turned to her and caste out the demon.

You would think that the people would be happy that this little girl was finally free, but her masters were furious. They just lost a lot of money, so they stirred up the crowd against Paul and Silas and had them arrested , beaten and thrown in jail.

So there they were, sitting in jail with open sores from their beatings and they started praising God. And notice how we are told that the other prisoners were listening. If Paul and Silas were angry and irritated about what they had just gone through, which they had every right to be, things would have been different.

With a bad attitude Paul and Silas would have been grumbling and complaining, then the other prisoners would have heard that instead of praises to God. By having the right attitude, even in their struggles, God opened doors, both literally and figuratively. They were able to minister to some of those in the prison, including the jailer himself.

We too must be aware of our actions, even when we think we are alone, because we really don’t know who may be listening. Don’t lose your chance to witness due to a bad attitude. Praise God at all times and He will make good come out of your ‘bad’ day.

Acts 15:8-9

Acts 15:8-9 - God, who knows the heart, showed that He accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as He did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for He purified their hearts by faith.

Whenever we look at someone we make judgements about them. We will form opinion about that person based on what they are wearing, how their hair or makeup is done, how many piercings or tattoos they have or how they are acting. And the list goes on.

Before we have met a person we have made a decision about them in one way or another. This can be dangerous, especially if we are not looking through the eyes of Love.

When Jesus looked at people He saw them with Love and compassion. It didn’t matter what they were going through or had gone through. Their appearance didn’t matter. Jesus Loved them anyway. He looks past the rough exteriors and sees the person inside; He sees the heart.

Unfortunately we are always going to form some sort of opinion about people when we look at them, we can’t change that, but we can change the method by which we form that opinion. We need to train ourselves to see people in Love.

Love God and Love people. That is our command. People are won over by relationship and relationship starts in by seeing people in the right light. Don’t judge people, Love them. Then they will be more likely to listen to what you have to say.

Acts 14:8-10

Acts 14:8-10 - In Lystra there sat a man crippled in his feet, who was lame from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him , saw that he had faith to be healed and called out, “Stand up on your feet!” At that the man jumped up and began to walk.

This passage of scripture talks about Paul seeing that the lame man had faith to be healed. Paul was sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit and then brought healing to a man that had never walked before.
It makes me wonder how many people Paul walked right by because they did not have faith to be healed. We also see that same thing most of the time Jesus healed people. He often mentioned how their faith had healed them.

Jesus never said, “Go, for I have healed you.” It was always more like, “Go in peace, your faith has made you well.” So this puts the ball in our court in regards to healing. If we want healing we have to have faith.

Remember when Jesus visited His hometown and was only able to do a few miracles because of their lack of faith? Jesus tells us that if we ask in faith we will receive whatever we ask for. Have faith, ask for it and you will be healed.

Also, as in the case of Paul in this passage, be open to the leading of the Spirit when you are going about your day. If God tells you to pray for someone, do it. Be obedient to God and the leading of the Holy Spirit and you will see God’s power flow through you.

Acts 13:.38-39

Acts 13:38-39 - Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through Him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses.

So in life we live by the law. We do our best to be obedient to it and to do what is right. If we break the law we know there will be consequences. We might be able to continue on like this for awhile, but inevitably we will mess up. Now what happens? According to the law of Moses when you sin you deserve death.
God is a just God and cannot tolerate sin. Therefore a price had to be be paid for our sin. Before Christ the Jews used animals as a temporary covering for their sin, but that would not last. A permanent sacrifice had to be made.

Jesus was that sacrifice. He was perfect, without spot or blemish; He had no sin. When He died He took all sin upon Himself and paid the permanent price for it. No more animals were needed.

Through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you and me. We are now justified through Christ and can stand before God purified.

If compare the two we see that the law of Moses only provided a temporary covering for sin, while through Christ our sin is not only covered, it is completely washed away. You have complete and permanent justification through Him as long as you accept it.