The Word of the Lord Growing Mightily and Prevailing.

Acts 19:13-41 (NASB) from the daily reading in the One Year Bible (link on links page)

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.

The text today begins by giving an example that even though Jesus says: Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.(John 14:13-14), it is not merely saying the name of Jesus that invokes the power and authority to do things, as if Jesus name is part of a magical incantation.

Prayer and spiritual warfare is a serious matter. We see in the text both the response of the evil spirit and the outcome for those who tried to invoke the authority of the name of Jesus without having that authority. The text says:

 “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.

The authority we have is in the person of Jesus not just His name. Jesus says in John 14:12: Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.  There are two key aspects of the authority we have in Christ in that promise. Let's begin with what Jesus says last; because I go to the Father. Jesus also says this about going to the Father:     7"But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. (John 16:7)     and in John 14:26:     "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. and also in John 14:16-17:      I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; ¹⁷ that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.      So the first part of the authority we have in Christ is from the indwelling Holy Spirit we have been given. In order for us to have authority Christ must be present and visible in us, in the person of the Holy Spirit.

The second part of the authority in Jesus promise that we would do the works He did is in the words: he who believes in Me. He who believes in me means more than an intellectual ascent or acknowledgement of who Jesus is. If we believe in Jesus, then He is Lord. He is the one who is guiding our life and so our prayers. That brings us to another part of where our authority in Him lies. 1 John 5:14-15 says:

This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. ¹⁵ And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him. 

If Jesus is truly Lord then we are submitted to Him. The Holy Spirit is our guide so our prayers are His prayers. The psalmist says: Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.(Psalm 37:4) Our desires and so our prayers are in agreement with His desires and prayers, so we will receive what we ask.

The second part of believing in Him, which brings us authority, is about our faith. In Mark 11:23-24 Jesus says:     "Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. 24"Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.     

If we believe in Jesus, if we believe that He is God and if we believe that:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being....And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.(John 1:1-3,14) 

Then we have confidence in knowing that nothing is impossible. Jesus says: “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.(Matthew 28:18) He also says:  upon this rock(the revelation that Jesus is the Christ) I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” 

We have authority. We don't need to fear as the ones in today's text that the enemy has power or authority over us. The psalmist says: O give us help against the adversary, For deliverance by man is in vain. 12Through God we shall do valiantly, And it is He who will tread down our adversaries. (Psalm 60:11-12)

Our authority and our confidence is in more than just a name. Our authority and confidence comes from the indwelling presence of God. Our authoirty is in Him.

If God is for us, who is against us?(Romans 8:31)

Thank You heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ and precious Holy Spirit, that through the work of the cross and the resurrection, we have more that a knowledge of who You are. We have You, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the presence of God with us and in us. Today I choose to walk in the fullness of Your call and authority in my life. I believe in You. May I see today as the early church did:   the word of the Lord  growing mightily and prevailing.   Amen.