TUESDAY 15TH MAY, 2018 MORNING PRAYER DEVOTION
SCRIPTURE READING:- ACTS 8:4-24
TOPIC:– DON’T BE SIMON THE SORCERER
TEXT:- ACTS 8:9
Simon the sorcerer is commonly called Simon the sorcerer or magus. Sorcery is another name for witchcraft. It is a means of working magic with the assistance of the devil or evil spirits. This practice is specifically forbidden by God. God told the ancient Israelites. See Deuteronomy 18:10-12.
1. Simon the sorcerer appeared in the wake of the newly established church in Samaria. Simon the Sorcerer had “bewitched” [Acts 8:9, 11] the people of Samaria “with his sorceries for a long time.” The people of that city mistakenly assumed that he was “the great power of God.”
2. Simon the Sorcerer may have claimed to be a revealing angel from God, or this could have been the origin of the gnostic doctrine of emanations or various spirit beings “emanating” from the Godhead. The Samaritans viewed angels as “powers.”
3. Simon the Sorcerer’s status was apparently threatened when Philip entered the city and preached the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. When people “believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized.”
4. Simon was among those who believed and was also baptized. He “was amazed, seeing the miracles and signs which were done” through the power of God. Since the people Philip baptized had not yet had hands laid on them for the receiving of the Holy Spirit, Peter and John came from Jerusalem to perform this important part of baptism.
5. Seeing that people received the Holy Spirit through “the laying on of the Apostles’ hands,” Simon offered them money if they would give him power to give people the Holy Spirit. [Historically, this is the origin of the word “simony”—the buying or selling of a church office or an ecclesiastical power].
6. Sadly, Simon’s request was based upon impure motives. Perhaps he saw this as an opportunity to make more money or enhance his own reputation. It was common for magicians to purchase tricks from one another, so Simon may have viewed the Apostles as religious “magicians” or hucksters and was trying to purchase their “trick.”
7. Realizing that his motive was wrong, Peter strongly corrected Simon the Sorcerer, saying, “Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money! You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.”
8. The final piece of information recorded in the Bible regarding Simon the Sorcerer is that, instead of actually repenting of his sin, he just asked Peter to pray for him that “none of the things which you have spoken may come upon me.”
9. That was the significance of his story for Christians today. This account of Simon the Sorcerer exemplified one of the great challenges for those who preached the gospel of the Kingdom of God in the early centuries.
10. Sorcerer, palm reader, fortune tellers, false prophets are employing familiar spirit to reveal deep things to their clients. Stop visiting or patronizing them. Seeing vision for you has not taken away your problem, but to entice you that they have power. If you go there with four liters gallon of problem be expecting to come back with a drum of problem.
Prayer Points:-
1. I destroy all power of familiar spirit operating in my life now by fire, in the name of Jesus Christ.
2. I command anybody using familiar spirit to know everything about my life and monitor my life, catch fire, in the name of Jesus Christ.
3. I release myself from all entanglement and bewitchment of sorcerer, witches and juju power, in the name of Jesus Christ.
Have A Wonderful Tuesday!
