Profit and Loss - Peddling and Prosperity
When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!" (Acts 8:18-20).
Heavenly Father, long ago, You promised through Your holy prophet, I will pour out my Spirit on all people... (Joel 2:28-29). Your disciples recalled this Scripture when the Holy Spirit came on them with power at Pentecost (Acts 2:14-28).
You answered the prayer they raised to You in the face of massive opposition. You enabled them to speak Your word with great boldness, and You stretched out Your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of Your holy servant Jesus" (Acts 4:29-31).
As the apostle Philip ministered in Samaria, the crowds paid close attention...for...many... were healed...so there was great joy (Acts 8:6-8). The people learned to distinguish the true power and deliverance of the Almighty God, from the sorcery they had confusedly labeled the Great Power of God (Acts 8:10-12).
The sorcerer himself followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw. He professed belief and was baptized (Acts 8:13), but he revealed later in his interaction with Peter and John that he had not experienced true transformation, and was trying to buy the gift of God with money (Acts 8:19).
Oh Father, today, we are surrounded by so many who, like Simon, seek to peddle the word of God for profit (2 Corinthians 2:17). So many who make a show of following the light of Your truth, but whose hearts are still captive to darkness. So many who blaspheme the Holy Spirit with theatrics, and farce, and fraud and deceit. And so many who confusedly mistake them for the Great Power of God.
Help, Lord! Give us wisdom and godly discernment! Teach us to recognize those who, in Christ...speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God (2 Corinthians 2:17). Help us to heed the words of the apostle John, Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world (1 John 4:1).
Deliver Your church from all the overt and subtle ways we are seduced by marketing, and peddling, and ungodly value systems. We are steeped in the ways of the world, and we no longer even recognize its influences on our accounting, our methods, our "portfolios"—our evaluation of profit and loss. Bring us true deliverance from evil—true freedom from the lure, the temptation, and the deception of filthy lucre/dishonest gain (1 Peter 5:2 -NKV/NIV).
Your word tells us that the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Corinthians 3:17). Free us from the enticements of materialism and from the encumbrances of this world that leave us, like Simon, full of bitterness and captive to sin (Acts 8:23). Help us to count them as rubbish, in order that we may gain Christ (Philippians 3:8 - ESV).
Comments