The Word of God for wisdom:
Proverbs 18:4 (NLT)
4 Wise words are like deep waters; wisdom flows from the wise like a bubbling brook.
The Word of God for inspiration:
Psalm 147:5 (NLT)
5 How great is our Lord! His power is absolute! His understanding is beyond comprehension!
The Word of God for encouragement:
Acts 19:15-20 (HCSB)
15 The evil spirit answered them, "I know Jesus, and I recognize Paul—but who are you?"
16 Then the man who had the evil spirit leaped on them, overpowered them all, and prevailed against them, so that they ran out of that house naked and wounded.
17 This became known to everyone who lived in Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. Then fear fell on all of them, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.
18 And many who had become believers came confessing and disclosing their practices,
19 while many of those who had practiced magic collected their books and burned them in front of everyone. So they calculated their value and found it to be 50,000 pieces of silver.
20 In this way the Lord's message flourished and prevailed.
My observation:
The devil is an imitator, and his imps follow in his footsteps. That is what takes place in this story in Acts as some men saw the miracles that Paul performed by the power of the Lord. This is the type of things they saw Paul do.
Acts 19:11-12 (HCSB)
11 God was performing extraordinary miracles by Paul's hands,
12 so that even facecloths or work aprons that had touched his skin were brought to the sick, and the diseases left them, and the evil spirits came out of them.
These men failed in their attempts to imitate Paul. However, God used their deceit to bring about something good. There was a mighty move of the Spirit of God among the people.
One of the conditions of God blessing his people is for them to turn from their wicked ways. Surely we need a healing in our land today. Turning from and forsaking our secret sins is one of the conditions for the blessing of the Lord upon our land.
2 Chronicles 7:14 (HCSB)
14 and My people who are called by My name humble themselves, pray and seek My face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.
My prayer:
Sovereign God, Holy Father, I pray that you will visit us with the power of the Spirit of God, and convict and convince your people of the necessity to turn from our evil ways. Amen.
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8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
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