Extraordinary

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

EXTRAORDINARY

Acts 19:11-12

11 God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.

NIV                     

These two verses were included in the narrative we had already looked at regarding those obstinate people that publicly maligned the Way. Although we did mention that God did extraordinary things through Paul, that is all we mentioned. Therefore, we did not take any consideration what effects of what God did through Paul. Healing was the center point of all that God did. But how this use of handkerchiefs and aprons began is very strange. All they needed to do was just touch Paul and then the people would take that handkerchief to a sick person and they would be cured as well they could touch a person processed  by an evil spirit and it would have to leave healing that person. This is indeed the most extraordinary thing we have ever read in this bible. Oh sure, there are some far-out miracles throughout the entire scriptures which we could make a list that would take hours to complete, but this one is extraordinary. It is difficult to see through Greek how this word extraordinary word is used. Other translations have used special and unusual, however, most still use this extraordinary. There have been men in our current time that have used this handkerchief thing as a method of evangelism or maybe trickery should be a better word to describe their actions, for they always were asking people to donate to their ministry. It was not as if they were selling the handkerchiefs, but it seemed to appear that way. However, we know for a fact that not a single handkerchief had ever touched Paul and we also know that God was not doing anything through these hucksters. However, people could have still been healed because of their faith in God, and if a handkerchief or reaching out and touching the television set, which was also another method of these fake healings used, was how someone’s faith was released then it served the purpose. Faith is the key to all things received from God. It is not about the handkerchiefs or aprons, but about releasing a person’s faith in God. There is nothing special about the handkerchief or the apron or touching the television that will heal someone, but it is all about releasing our faith in God. However, whatever helps someone to believe that God will cure them is a good thing. The problem that could happen is for someone to have in the thing rather than God. We cannot ever get distracted by anything or anyone from looking only to God for everything in our lives. This is not to say that God can use something or someone to cause a miracle to happen in our lives. We can never put God in a box, expecting him to always act in the same way because he did act one way once in our lives. God is God and He can do anything he wants to do any time he wants to do it and in any way He wants. He can even use a handkerchief or an apron. The theme is that our faith must always be pointed toward God, it is God who does the extraordinary things in our lives.