Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I wonder if you've
ever encountered spiritual
darkness.
You know we sometimes talkabout spiritual warfare, coming
up against something that justdoesn't feel right.
Maybe sometimes it's overt andyou think this is really jinky.
Sometimes it just feels off.
You can't quite explain it.
Spiritual opposition comes inall sorts of shapes and sizes.
(00:22):
Sometimes it's what we mightexpect and sometimes it might
not.
So how do you deal with it,though, when you feel like
you're up against somethingthat's spiritual darkness,
opposition, or straight-outdemonic opposition or straight
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out demonic?
Well, the Holy Spirit had calledPaul and Barnabas prophetically
to go and proclaim the gospelto now the non-Jewish people of
the Roman Empire.
Up till now, the Gentiles we'veseen as we've tracked along
have been welcome into thechurch, but up to this point,
they've largely been what wecall God-fearers.
They've been people who arefamiliar with the Jewish
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religion, maybe a little bitfamiliar with the Old Testament,
and now the apostles are goingto start going into
predominantly Gentile areas.
In fact, some of these placeswon't have a Jewish synagogue at
all, and so, as we track theirjourney, we find them
encountering new challenges.
They're having to adapt to newcontexts, so possibly Saul
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changing his name to Paul Paulmay have been part of his name
already, but starting to usethat because Saul, paul had
grown up in a Greek city andthey're facing spiritual
darkness.
It's not like they haven'tfaced opposition before, but
they're coming up now againstnew forms.
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So it's actually an excitingstory as you track through this
full of action, all sorts ofstuff happening and we can learn
from them how we can be awitness in our own culture
that's largely forgotten itsChristian roots.
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So look, one of the features ofthis passage that really strikes
me is just how, if you like,charismatic.
The nature of the apostolicmission is the way Luke words
this.
Now, by charismatic I don'tmean hanging from the rafters,
pentecostal sort of thing, Imean that the presence and power
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of the Holy Spirit isthroughout, particularly this
chapter.
The author Luke reminds ustwice at the beginning so you
would have read a few weeks agoin verse 2, that the Holy Spirit
said to set apart Barnabas andPaul.
And then he reminds us in verse4 that, being sent by the Holy
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Spirit, in a moment, paul isgoing to confront this guy bar
Jesus or Elemas by the Spirit,and we'll get in a few weeks.
We'll see at the end of thischapter that the disciples are
filled with joy and the HolySpirit.
Again, it's like Luke isbookending this particular
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section with the Holy Spirit toremind us that this is God at
work through his spirit.
As we've seen throughout Acts,the apostles in the church keep
encountering situations thatwould utterly defeat them if it
wasn't for the presence of thespirit with them, the spirit God
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himself with them, and so theSpirit gives them, as we see
throughout this book, asupernatural boldness to
proclaim the gospel, asupernatural power to work
miracles, even when they'redragged to prison, executed.
But the church keeps growingbecause of the work of God.
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They feed the poor, they carefor the sick among them, in an
overflow of this spirit-filledlove.
And now they'll take this samepower, this same presence of God
, and now they'll take this samepower, the same presence of God
, into new and sometimes hostile, sometimes welcoming territory.
You know, sometimes weassociate the ministry of the
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Holy Spirit with weird.
I've spent some time inPentecostal churches, which I
love, still love.
But maybe you think of anexcitable Pentecostal church
when you think about theministry of the Holy Spirit,
with raucous services and peopleyelling in tongues, which can
be quite strange if you're notused to that, and you know,
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where the Spirit is, there iscertainly joy, and where the
Spirit is, there is certainlyjoy, and where the spirit is,
there is freedom.
But good news, particularly forthe introverts here the Holy
Spirit moves in all kinds ofways and so you don't need to be
afraid to cry out to the spiritfor a fresh filling, a fresh
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baptism, a fresh move, becausethe way the Spirit moves in
different contexts is going tolook different.
The lives we seek to live asJesus followers and the
community we seek to be as achurch, the ministry we want to
bring to our community around us, this is spiritual by nature
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and as a church seeking to be agospel witness in Perth, the
presence of the Holy Spirit isas vital in our lives and in our
church and in our witness as itwas for the church in Acts.
And so why is the power of theHoly Spirit so important.
All sorts of reasons.
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But in our passage today forPaul and Barnabas because they
were called by the Spirit and Ihad been prophetically called
there were prophets in thechurch that called them that
said this is what the Spirit issaying.
It meant that when things gottough and man, we'll see things
get really tough for them, theycould be confident that they
were on the right track becauseGod had called them.
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There wasn't just a thoughtbubble they'd had when the
circumstances were dire andsometimes Paul will write in
some of his later letters thathe feared for his life.
But they could still have asupernatural joy in the midst of
that, and many Christiansthrough time have testified to
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this joy they have.
Even in the midst ofpersecution, of imprisonment, of
torture by the Holy Spirit, ofimprisonment, of torture by the
Holy Spirit, they can have thissupernatural faith that not only
keeps them going but makes themvictorious and effective.
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When they came up againstspiritual opposition, like we
see in our story today, theydidn't have to rely on their own
resources, but they had thesupernatural power of God for
insight, authority and boldness.
And so the presence of the HolySpirit is Jesus' promise to us,
to you and to me.
And you know the Spirit, thepresence of the Spirit goes hand
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in hand with the resurrectionlife, and the good news is that
the Holy Spirit is moving againtoday in our world, as we speak,
you won't see a lot of noiseand hype around it In the UK
there's this move of the Spirit.
They're calling it a quietrevival, but God is moving here
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in Australia as well.
So over there what we're saying, even though church as here,
church attendance and it'sfallen off a cliff in Britain
it's been in decline for decadesand attendance overall is still
down but what we're starting tosee is a return to church of
Gen Z, so sort of 18 to25-year-olds.
In fact, in less than the lastdecade the number of 18 to
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25-year-olds in church hasdoubled in about the last eight
years.
Isn't that incredible?
When it's meant to be all you,gen Zers, who are leaving church
and stuff, they're the onesstarting to come back.
Interestingly, they're findinga lot of young men Now.
It's both men and women, butyoung men are returning to
church.
Isn't that interesting?
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But we're seeing similar trendsin Australia.
Let's not miss this moment.
Let's not miss this moment.
Let's seek God's presence andpower so we can see his kingdom
come to your neighborhoods, yourstreets, your workplaces, our
city.
Let's unfurl the sails andcatch the wind of the spirit in
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prayer and in worship and byfaith, and let's listen for the
voice of the Holy Spirit, as theapostles did.
What's he calling us to?
What's he calling you to.
We want to open our ears andour hearts to receive his word
and a fresh experience of God'slove and power.
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The case of Barnabas and Paulit's a good thing.
They were open to the Spiritand being led by the Spirit,
because they're about to have aspiritual confrontation and
we're introduced to this guy,this sorcerer, bar-jesus.
So Bar-Jesus, bar is Aramaicfor son Jesus, is from the
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Hebrew for a saviour.
Jesus' name Literally he's theson of a saviour.
A name Literally he's the sonof a saviour, aka, we're told,
elemas.
It's really ironic, isn't it?
Because, as we'll see, he isnot the son of a saviour, he was
a sorcerer.
Sorcery could cover all sorts ofpractices in the ancient world
that word.
Now, back in chapter 8, we meta guy named Simon, who was
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called Simon the sorcerer, whopossibly dabbled in what we call
black magic.
Here Luke calls Elymas a falseprophet.
So he probably claimed to beable to tell the future through
astrology and divination.
And if Elymas or Elymas, Idon't know, make it up yourself
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how you say his name properly.
But if he was any good, it's notsurprising that a Roman
governor would consult with him.
We might think well, that's abit out there.
But you know, in the ancientworld, religion the occult and
the government were all tied uptogether.
They had this thing calledaugury, where they would release
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birds and see how the birdsacted and fed or didn't feed or
whatever, and that would tellthem the will of the gods.
And generals would do thispractice augury before a battle,
so they knew what to do.
So kind of weird, yeah, that'sthe way it was.
So not like today where we tryto keep things separate.
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So anyway, it's not surprising,if Elimus was any good, that
Sergius Paulus, the Romangovernor, was consulting with
him.
So Paulus summons Barnabas andPaul summons Barnabas and Paul.
He probably does it, scholarsthink, in an official capacity,
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because one of his jobs is tokeep the peace in this province,
and so he needs to make surethat this new Christian movement
that he's hearing about isn'tgoing to be a problem For
Barnabas and Paul.
Of course, this is a fantasticopportunity, isn't it Getting
called up before the governor totalk about your faith?
They're going to use it.
But for Elimus, he only sees athreat to his influence and he
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tries to poison the governoragainst them.
So then we read Paul filled withthe Holy Spirit, filled with
God's authority and power.
He sees what's going on and herebukes Elanus.
He does so very harshly.
Now you've got to keep in mindthat this whole interaction
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isn't just between Paul and apagan system over there.
He comes up against those sortsof things and he does confront
them, but in a very differentway.
You see, elymas is a Jew andJews weren't meant to practice
sorcery of any kind.
Paul calls him a deceiver, sohe's probably a fraud who's
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ripping off the governor.
His name means son of a saviour, but Paul calls him the son of
a devil and an enemy of all.
That's right.
That's twisting God's ways.
So there's this almost internalJewish thing going on there as
well, because although Saul isan apostle a Christian apostle,
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he's also a Jew.
What Paul does with?
Would you go up to the premierpremier's advisor, one of his
chiefs of staff or the primeministers and do something like
this?
No way, jose, I'd be doing thisIf I had to confront someone.
Sorry, I'd be doing this If Ihad to confront someone, sorry,
I'd be doing this very gentlyand respectfully.
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But Paul just has at him.
And then Paul backs it up bystriking Eliamas blind Now
temporarily, but it's like whoa.
But this is kind of propheticin itself.
This guy who's meant to beilluminating the future is
actually full of darkness, andso that's what this judgment
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spells out without using words.
So, not surprisingly, it getsthe governor's attention and he
believes the message.
Isn't this interesting that hisastonishment is not at the
miracle, it's at the messagethat they've been teaching.
Now, no doubt, as I've beenexplaining the gospel, they've
been talking about theresurrection of Jesus from the
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dead, and isn't that even biggernews than striking a man blind?
So it's not surprising thenthat the governor takes them
seriously in all of this.
Well, on the surface, elamus'sopposition probably looked
political Maybe I don't, we'renot given details but in reality
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it was spiritual, and so oftenwe encounter similar dynamics,
and it requires wisdom anddiscernment, a spiritual
discernment, to see what's goingon really.
I've been in situations in veryunexpected places in Christian
settings, where something isjust really jinky and I have no
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freedom.
I was thinking of thisparticular.
I'm not going to say where itwas because it doesn't matter,
but I'm in this Christianmeeting actually, and I was
feeling I just had no freedom.
I was meant to be making apresentation.
People commented afterwards itjust I was struggling.
I was really struggling and Ihad been looking forward to
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doing this presentation and itstruck me afterwards.
I realised there was someone inthere, another Christian but
who opposed me, and I hadn'tsort of put all this together.
I discovered that afterwardsSomeone who had spoken against
me, and I had heard that fromsomeone else later on there was
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something spiritual happeningthere from another Christian
that I hadn't put together.
Sometimes it requires spiritualdiscernment.
If I'd known what would I havedone in that situation?
I wouldn't have struck himblind.
I probably would have justprayed about it and moved
through it.
But we need discernment.
These things come in all sortsof shapes and sizes and ways and
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we need spiritual discernmentto see what's really going on.
At the political level, so muchof what often presents as just
ideology and philosophies has aspiritual root.
Was it, mel praying aboutchaplains in schools today?
And there are people who wantto end chaplaincy in school.
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Now let me ask you a questionDoes that sound like something
God would inspire someone with?
Where would that idea come from?
In some states and it's comingto WA governments are outlawing
it's illegal to pray withsomeone who is wrestling over
their sexual identity.
Someone comes who's?
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I'm a Christian and I'mstruggling with same-sex
attraction, or I'm strugglingwith my identity as a man and
feel like a woman and pastor.
Will you pray for me?
It's illegal to say yes.
Where does that come from?
Do you think that is somethingfrom God?
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Or maybe from the other place?
There are people who want andof course it's pretty liberal
here in Australia think weshould be able to end life in
the womb on demand for anyreason.
Where does that come from?
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So, at a political level,sometimes these things actually
have a spiritual root.
They look political ideology,but they're from a spirit of
darkness.
But on a more personal level,we see it as well.
We encounter people all thetime who may be full of anger
and rage and we might be able toidentify circumstances in life
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that have led them to that place.
But there's a spiritual rootthere as well.
A person who is sufferingaddiction, a person who is
abusive or sometimes depressedeven and it's not that they're
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evil necessarily, and it's noteven that all the time.
These things have startedspiritually, but they open up a
gap for the spiritual realm tocome and bring further harm.
And it's not that we don't wantpsychologists or need those
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sorts of things in there, orother interventions, but that's
not the only thing.
We maybe need amultidisciplinary approach, both
the physical, the psychologicaland the spiritual.
Sometimes people needdeliverance, and it's not always
spiritual, demonic oppressionor possession, but it can be an
oppression.
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How do you discern that, though?
How do you know?
Well, by the Spirit.
How do you deal with it?
By the Spirit, and the point ofthis story, and the point of
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what I'm saying, isn't that,when you come up against
something like that, you shouldtell people, you should make
them go blind.
That's not the point of thestory.
God revealed the darkness inElimas' heart so that Sergius
Paulus could step into the light, and that's what we want.
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We want people to step into thelight, and that's what we want.
We want people to step into thelight.
We want to bring the light, thegood news of Jesus, into the
lives of those who are filledwith darkness, as the Spirit
leads us through prayer andintercession.
The goal isn't to bringjudgment.
The goal is to bring freedomand life, and that was Paul's
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goal ultimately, here Rememberwhat Paul was dealing with.
There would be like me going upif the Premier or the Prime
Minister has an advisor therewho claims to be a Christian and
I wouldn't do it, I'm just notthat personality.
But let's just pretend the Lordsays Alex, I want you to go and
confront that person.
I'm sort of doing so.
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Even though there's a politicaldimension here, there's also a
Christian dimension here whichgives me a different kind of
relationship with that person.
That's what Paul is doing inthis situation.
But when we're out there withpeople who may or may not claim
to be Christians, andparticularly when we come with
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I'm sort of switching gears herea little bit, because this guy
Elimas, he was really in thewrong.
I mean, there's nojustification here.
What I'm trying to apply it tois more, where people are
victims of this sort of thing,the people who have fallen for
the deception of someone likeElimas, and now they're
oppressed and caught up in itbecause they fell for a
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deception.
We don't bring judgment.
We bring hope and life andhealing and love and deliverance
for them.
But we do it, and I guess thisis my point.
Why do we need the Spirit?
Because we need the Spirit tolead us, to give us the
authority to know how to do that, to do that, and that comes
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through prayer and revelation.
I guess in everything that I'vebeen saying, though, there's
also a warning for us about howwe live our lives as well.
If we're going to be led by theSpirit and bring the light and
life of the gospel to otherpeople, we need to make sure
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we're free of spiritualdeception ourselves.
We need to not be the Elimus inpeople's lives.
So, as I said, one of thereasons Paul is so harsh with
Elanus is that sorcery wasforbidden to the Jews.
So Deuteronomy 18 says let noone be found among you who
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sacrifices their son or daughterin the fire I mean, that's how
bad it got back in those dayswho practices divination or
sorcery, interprets omens,engages in witchcraft or casts
spells, or who is a medium or aspiritist, or who consults the
dead.
Anyone who does these things isdetestable to Yahweh, and
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because of these same detestablepractices, yahweh, your God,
will drive out those nationsbefore you.
You must be blameless.
Yahweh, your God, will driveout those nations before you.
You must be blameless beforeYahweh, your God.
So you know, a return to churchisn't the only spiritual trend
we're seeing among young people.
There's also a resurgence inthe popularity of what the Bible
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calls sorcery, what we've beentalking about, practices like
today voodoo, tarot, reikicrystals, new age beliefs in
general are all making acomeback as well.
These are all forbidden to thefollowers of Jesus.
And you know, we can be veryskeptical, if you well, maybe
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younger people don't, but my age, we have a bit more of a
modernist, materialist mentality, even Christians.
Often it's just the air webreathe.
It's very hard to get out ofthat.
But the problem with thesepractices isn't that they don't
work, that they're a fraud, it'sthat they do work and they come
from demonic sources.
Paul will later write to one ofthe churches he'll plant in
Corinthians.
And they come from demonicsources.
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Paul will later write to one ofthe churches he'll plant in
Corinthians.
What am I saying then?
That food sacrificed to idolsis anything, or that an idol is
anything?
No, but I do say that what theysacrifice, they sacrifice to
demons and not to God.
I do not want you to beparticipants with demons, and so
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, as Christians, we have theHoly Spirit, and when we've got
the Holy Spirit, we can't bepossessed by another spirit.
We can't be possessed by evilspirits, but if we invite them
into our lives in some way, intoour sphere of influence, the
sphere of our life.
Through various practices orhaving crystals or whatever it
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is, they can afflict us.
So, whether it's at thepolitical, the social or the
overtly spiritual level, we arein a spiritual battle.
We're battling spiritual forcesof darkness.
Jesus calls us to live aschildren of light and, in the
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power of the Holy Spirit, wehave the power to both live in
that reality ourselves andinvite others into it as well.
Bit of a heavy topic there, butlook, I want to end up with CS
Lewis in his book the Chroniclesof Narnia, the line sorry, in
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the Chronicles of Narnia, theLion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
.
Anyone read that?
You remember, mr Beaver and MrsBeaver?
And Mr Beaver excitedlydeclares Aslan is on the
wardrobe.
Anyone read that?
You remember, mr Beaver and MrsBeaver?
And Mr Beaver excitedlydeclares Aslan is on the move.
Aslan the lion who will seteverything right.
And of course Aslan is anallegory for the lion of Judah
Jesus.
And it certainly feels likeAslan is on the move today.
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But like Narnia where Aslan ison the move today, but like
Narnia where Aslan is on themove, the forces of darkness
will rise up to oppose him.
And so the question for us.
This isn't about going andlooking for demons to stomp at
all.
This is more just be ready forit.
Make sure that we are walkingin the light so that when we
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come across it, we are ready andcan deal with it.
So will we embrace the life ofthe Spirit, so that we can both
reveal the darkness through ourwords and actions, like Paul did
.
It was a problem for Elimas,but it brought life to the
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people around him when they sawthe truth.
So will we be filled with theSpirit, so we can reveal the
darkness through our words andactions and bring the light of
the gospel to those who arecrying out.
So, friends, let's not let theSpirit pass us by, but let's cry
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out to him to come among us.