“Many of those who had believed also kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices. And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of all; and they counted up the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.”
If you have ever brought a vehicle to the mechanic, you have to tell them the problem. You do your best to describe the issue using sounds and such. It can be very funny stuff to watch. The mechanic, well, he is looking for evidence of what is wrong while listening to you describe the problem. Detectives use evidence to piece together a crime. So, evidence is the part of the puzzle left for us to find so we can discover what really happened.
The Bible tells us in verse 11 of Acts 19 that God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs and aprons were being carried to the sick and the possessed, and when those objects touched those people, they were healed and demons were cast out. In short, a mighty move of God was happening.
While this was happening, some Jewish priests attempted to cast out demons by saying, “I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches,” and the demons told these priests that they knew Jesus and they knew Paul, but, “Who are you?” Side note: Is your commitment to Christ strong enough that the demons know you? Or is your faith counterfeit, playing Christian, if you will? The move of God was gaining ground there in a big way.
Our verse comes into play as evidence of the move of God. Many were confessing and disclosing their practices and getting rid of sorcery books as a result of Christ moving into their lives. The evidence of God moving is the many people coming to Christ. Not only that, but they began to confess their sins and straighten up their lives in miraculous ways. The revival at Asbury started with one person confessing sin, and God’s Spirit spread over the crowd, making Asbury a historical event and a mighty move of God that has spread to many places.
Another piece of evidence for the move of God is the stripping away of things that are against God. The cost of such things can be pretty high, as the cost of all those sorcery books and idols added up to a whopping fifty thousand pieces of silver. Your commitment to Christ could lead you to get rid of some things that cost you some serious dollars, like your drug addiction and the cost associated with it. In the end, following Christ is worth so much more and can never be compared to the cost of your sinful ways.
Just like the mechanic and the detective, who are trained to look for evidence, we need to be trained to see the evidence of the move of God. It could be the smallest thing, like perfect timing or a word from a friend in a time of need. It also could be someone letting you in on the sin that has gripped them. The evidence of God working is all around us. Can you see it?
Prayer: Father, open my eyes to the spiritual realm and allow me to see Your hand working. I pray for supernatural eyes to see You moving in every way around me. I pray that my eyes will see Your hand at work, and I pray for the boldness to declare it. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Let It Go 
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