Title: When the Spirit lives, suffering comes.
Contents
The text is from Acts 19:23-31
Dear saints! If you believe in Jesus, suffering and persecution often come. If the spirit lives, and the spirit lives, those who are in the flesh hate and oppose it, and it causes difficulties in the life of faith.
Why? The answer is found in 2 Corinthians 6:14 and below. ① How do righteousness and iniquity coexist ② How light and darkness meet ③ What is the harmony between Christ and Belial (which refers to Satan) ④ What is the relationship between the believer and the unbeliever ⑤ How can God’s temple and idols come together? Yo.
Verse 18 says, “I will be a father to you, and you will be my children.” I say. If the spirit lives, God becomes the Father. But those with a dead spirit, unbelievers, heathens, and worshipers of dead idols, as John 8:44 says, “You are of your father the devil, and you also want to do the lusts of your father...” Spiritually God They are not children of the devil, but belong to the devil. Who is the devil? Satan is the enemy of God.
Therefore, those who believe and those who do not believe are bound to suffer from conflicts of faith and differences in values, internal customs, and outlook on life. Therefore, even between parents and siblings, there are severe conflicts due to differences in faith. The difference in this conflict is that we believers have pity on unbelievers, while unbelievers hate, afflict, persecute, and in extreme cases even kill believers.
Jesus knew that these sufferings and persecutions would come and prophesied earlier through the words of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:11-21). Verse 11 “When they curse and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me, “Blessed are you.” Verse 12, “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.”
In the world of gangsters, there is a saying that if you leave the organization, it will be tampered with. In the spirit world, if you want to escape from the realm of the devil, the king of this world, and live with hope in heaven, the devil will rise. But there is no need to be afraid (Rev 2:10). Because Jesus is our captain, we are winning and fighting. Jesus suffered and was persecuted before us. He helps us in our sufferings (Hebrews 2:18).
Up to this point, the words apply to those who have the spirit to live and those who have the spirit to live.
Paul, who was still alive in spirit, said to Timothy, the son of faith, in 2 Timothy 1:8, “Suffering along with the gospel,” and in 2:3, “Let us suffer with me for the sake of Christ.”
When the spirit tries to live, the suffering that comes from living the life of faith suffers, but when the spirit lives completely and the spirit is open, suffering does not occur. Even though Paul and Silas were bound and imprisoned, they sang and prayed. At this level, suffering is not suffering.
If the spirit lives, unbelievers will be persecuted (opposition), but if the spirit is opened, believers will suffer persecution. He is one of the closest believers. Because people without gifts dislike gifts or because people who do not have the experience of the Holy Spirit because of their ignorance of gifts, use their knowledge, thoughts, and judgments without experience as the standard, so they limit the various gifts and works of the Holy Spirit to their theological knowledge and belief standards. Because they criticize and oppose it, they make it difficult for those who are filled with the Holy Spirit.
In today's text, with the powerful working of the Holy Spirit, even those who are magicians repent and believe in Jesus. As a result, the presence and status of Artemis, the largest temple in the city, is shaken. The people who make and sell the image of Artemis in that city go out of their way when they think that it will cause economic loss (verse 27 “There is a risk that only our business will be ruined”). Because of this, they want to harm Paul and the others.
Even in Korea, there are 600,000 shamans, including shamans and fortune tellers, and people who work there. Those who engage in such lowly things become poor because of God's wrath, and their children are not doing well. In Exodus 20:5, He said that He would curse the 3rd and 4th generations.
When parents serve God honestly, their children will prosper. Seeing what these immigrants are doing recently makes me worried. The ruler is on the side of the left with atheistic ideas, the divorce rate is second in the world, and the suicide rate is ranked in the world rankings. It is said that by the 2050s, there are signs of social collapse due to a surge in the number of the elderly. 2nd in the world for youth smoking, 1st in the world for 2.8 million entertainment establishments, etc. However, even in this dark situation, we must receive the Holy Spirit and live our spirits. Our spirits must be opened by the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
When the spirit dies, there is no suffering or persecution. However, if the spirit is to live, the power of darkness will work within us, but even our parents, brothers, and relatives can oppose and persecute us. I pray hard in the morning and all night, so my husband, who has no faith, says, “Go crazy with Jesus in moderation.” But all of us must live in spirit and be opened to the spirit by the anointing of the Holy Spirit. This is the will of the Lord.