HANDKERCHIEFS – APRONS – DEMONS – WHAT A CRAZY MEETING

Acts 19:11,12 – Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them.

At the end of the day Jesus came to destroy the works of the enemy and to bring those who belong to Him into a place of freedom and enjoyment in the very real presence of the Lord. In today’s unusual verse we see miracles, unusual miracles by the hands of Paul as well as these comments about handkerchiefs and aprons being used to bring gifts of healing as well as deliverance from the power of sin and demon oppression and possession. These miracles flowed freely in those early days of the church in Ephesus. It seems like the manifest presence carried extreme measures of the Holy Spirit. People were easily receiving their miracles because the kindness and love of God was being poured out. Here is a description of this from the comments in the Net Bible.

“God was performing extraordinary miracles by Paul’s hands, so that when even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his body were brought to the sick, their diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them.….This became known to all who lived in Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks; fear came over them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was praised. Many of those who had believed came forward, confessing and making their deeds known. Large numbers of those who had practiced magic collected their books and burned them up in the presence of everyone. When the value of the books was added up, it was found to total 50,000 (today’s value 5 million dollars) silver coins. In this way the word of the Lord continued to grow in power and to prevail.”

Sometimes I think our dependence on so called science puts us in a position to not expect the supernatural to break in on us. These miracles were clearly a display of God’s love for man, as the Spirit was poured out more and more during those two years the exploding congregation in Ephesus was bathed in the love of God. This first love atmosphere is the absolute atmosphere of signs and wonders. This makes it easy for us, we don’t pursue miracles, we only pursue Him. When He is present and the love of God is being poured out one of the things that will happen is unusual miracles.