“And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.” (Acts 19:11-20)

I am continually amazed at the power of the Holy Spirit at work, and seeing how effective and incredible it was working through Paul is the kind of stuff that makes you want to leap out of your seat and yell, “Go Team!” To bad they didn’t have those phone apps back then that allowed you to cheer through your phone so they could hear you. Think about it – the Holy Spirit made it so that all a person had to do was touch a towel that had been in contact with Paul’s skin to be made well! Wow! Clearly this power is not Paul’s (that seems a little far fetched to assume it came from him), as the power transferred through Paul into a piece of cloth. Very clearly the work and sense of humor of God.

To me, this is actually a pretty funny passage of scripture. The hubris and audacity of these 7 guys to speak to demons in their own power is almost laughable, if it weren’t so sad. They saw Paul’s actions and thought they could get in on this party under their own strength. Good luck, buddies! Obviously it was a complete failure and they put themselves seriously in harm’s way. Unfortunately, too many people in this day and age play around with demons and put themselves and others at risk. Without the power of Jesus (they HAVE to listen to Him), we have no weapons to fight the enemy. With Jesus, we have all we need.

Jesus is enough. His grace is enough. His power is enough. His love is enough. Are you willing to let it all in and let yourself go?