Reflect:
Acts 13:1-14:28
“Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at Elymas and said, ‘O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord? And now, you indeed, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time.’ And immediately a dark mist fell on Elymas, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand.” (Acts 13:9-11)
Up to this moment, Paul, who was called Saul, had been in the background. He was ministering in the church at Antioch, but was basically the ministry associate to the better-known Barnabas. Saul was playing second fiddle in this orchestra.
All that changed on this ministry trip to Cyprus when an influential sorcerer named Elymas harassed Barnabas and Saul. Elymas’ demonically inspired powers held sway over the Roman proconsul Sergius Paulus, to whom Barnabas and Saul were witnessing. This up and coming official was on the verge of accepting Christ as his Savior, but Elymas was making it very difficult.
Saul, discerning that this sorcerer was being used as a tool of Satan, turned on Elymas with both barrels and gave him the unedited version of a Holy Spirit smackdown. And as they say, the rest is history: Elymas was immediately struck with blindness, Sergius Paulus came to faith in Christ, and “Paul and his party set sail from Paphos.” (Verse 13)
Don’t miss the significance of that last line. It is no longer “Barnabas and Saul”, now it is “Paul and his party”. From then on in Acts we read of Paul and Barnabas, or Paul and Silas, or Paul and his companions. Apart from his dramatic salvation experience on the Damascus Road, this was the moment that defined Paul. This victorious power encounter with a demonically inspired sorcerer launched Paul’s ministry into orbit, and on to becoming the most influential leader and theologian in the history of the church.
Paul could have backed down from making a scene. He could have waited to see how team leader Barnabas handled this disruption. He could have tried to out-reason Elymas. Rather, he responded to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, seized this God-ordained moment and smashed the devil in the chops in one of the most dramatic encounters you will read of in the entire New Testament. And in this God-moment, Paul was defined for the rest of his life.
You never know on the front side of any given moment if it will be life-defining or just another ordinary experience. But when you stay filled up with the Holy Spirit, when you sense his prompting, and when you seize that moment to take a dramatic, risky stand against what is clearly the work of the devil, you may very well be in the throes of a moment that defines you—either in your private character or in your public life, or perhaps even both.
If it doesn’t turn out to be that kind of a moment, no big deal! You got to kick the devil’s fanny—and that’s always a good thing. But you never know when your moment of courage will be just the thing that opens the door to even greater things, so be prepared.
“Courage is the human virtue that counts most—courage to act on limited knowledge and insufficient evidence.” ~Robert Frost
Reflect and Apply: Pray this prayer, if you dare: “Lord, fill me with your Holy Spirit. And keep me courageously ready to seize any given God-moment for your glory.”
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