One of the greatest revivals we see in the early church is in the city of Ephesus. Ephesus was a pagan city full of evil, including rampant sorcery and witchcraft, sexual immorality, and the worship of false gods. Ephesus was ripe for a Great Awakening! Acts 19 describes the events that led the city of Ephesus to experience such a powerful move of God that it transformed the entire city.
When the Apostle Paul first arrives in Ephesus, he immediately finds some fellow believers, and his first question to them is if they’ve received the Holy Spirit. They responded that they’d not even heard of the Holy Spirit, so verse 6 tells us, “When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.” Paul understood that if the city of Ephesus were going to experience the spiritual awakening God desired, His people would need to be full of the Holy Spirit.
Paul then spends two years preaching powerfully in the synagogues and throughout the city. Verses 11-12 tell us that “God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 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.”
Miracles are taking place, evil spirits are leaving, and then we see a radical event demonstrating just how powerfully God was working in people’s lives. Verse 19 tells us, “A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas.” A drachma was equivalent to a person’s daily wage, so based on the average salary in America today, fifty thousand drachmas would be between four and five million dollars!
People are being saved, baptized, healed, and filled with the Holy Spirit. They are parting ways with evil and turning to Jesus by the thousands. The city of Ephesus was experiencing a Great Awakening! This is what we are praying for our cities, our state, and our nation. We desperately need God to sweep across our land so that we might see millions turn to Jesus as their Savior!
Acts 19 provides great insights into what must happen if we are going to experience such a Great Awakening in our nation today. Believers must be full of the Holy Spirit, praying for people to be healed and sharing the message of Jesus with those who don’t know Him. These 21 days of prayer and fasting are preparing us for a season of increase in what we’ve seen God do over the past several years. God wants to do more through each and every one of us, but for that to happen, we must continue to get ready for awakening!
Scriptures
Acts 19:1-21 (NIV)
“While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?” “John’s baptism,” they replied. Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. There were about twelve men in all. Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord. God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 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. Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power. After all this had happened, Paul decided to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaia. “After I have been there,” he said, “I must visit Rome also.”
