14 Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this.15 But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” 16 And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17 And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. 18 Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices.19 And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver.20 So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. (Acts 19.)
The church was growing like wildfire as Paul shared the Gospel on his journey. After awhile, imitators started turning up. (sort of like Elvis impersonators). But in spiritual warfare, fakes reveal themselves quickly in the face of the enemy. We live a world where we want to look good to everyone around us. Appearance is everything. But God wants to reveal the true "us". He wants us to confess Christ, if He is our Savior, and He wants us to confess our hidden sins, in order to find victory over them. There are so many parts of the real "me" each of us need to let go of, in order to experience His power working in and through us. Take time today to ask yourself: "Who am I? Am I being genuine? Am I being a witness for Christ? What does He want to clean out so I can be the real me in public?"
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