God the Holy Spirit ministers in Ephesus

Application

• Anything of spiritual value must come from God the Holy Spirit—it helps guarantee that a believer does not attempt to claim credit.
• We do not control what God the Holy Spirit does. He chooses what He will do, when He will do it, and through whom He will do it—because part of His ministry is to lead people to the Lord Jesus Christ.
• Repentance must follow confession. How do we know repentance has occurred? Action demonstrates repentance led to forsaking. Confess/Repent/Forsake: That’s “Holy Spirit work,” not mine and not yours!
• Conclusion: Human effort will give a certain amount of energy, but it is unsustainable in spiritual matters. Remember the “stony ground” and the “thorny ground” in the parable of the sower? No Fruit! Only “Holy Spirit power” is consistently sustainable.

Bible Text

(11) God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, (12) so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out. (13) But also some of the Jewish exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, “I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.” (14) Seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. (15) And the evil spirit answered and said to them, “I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” (16) And the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. (17) This became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived in Ephesus; and fear fell upon them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified. (18) Many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices. (19) And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone; and they counted up the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. (20) So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing.

-Acts 19:11-20