Acts 19:8-20

[Editor’s Note: Yes, the writing team is still on hiatus! But, in the meantime, we’re praying you’ll be blessed and perhaps challenged by another week of devotionals from January 2024.]

I hate snakes. They’re my number one phobia, and I prefer to have absolutely nothing to do with them. Kids bring home a book about snakes from the library? “Have your sibling read that one with you.” Snake exhibit at the zoo? “I’ll wait outside, kids.” Seeing a snake in the wild? That’s me running in the opposite direction!

Listen, I know snakes are around, but we have an unspoken agreement: they go about their business, and I go about mine. I don’t disturb them, they don’t disturb me, and we all live in relative peace…

…until we don’t.

A few years ago, it became necessary to take out and replace the original landscaping around my house. Up until that point, I hadn’t seen many snakes in the yard, but after their habitat was disturbed? I saw snakes everywhere for weeks, and my fight or flight response was on high alert every one of those weeks, and even after I spotted the last one! 

I had the authority as a homeowner to do whatever needed to protect the structural integrity of my house. This wasn’t merely a beautification project; the holly trees had become overgrown, and their roots threatened the foundation of the house. 

Sounds a little bit like the Spiritual Authority in Everyday Places we’ve been learning about, yeah?

I hadn’t counted on stirring up the resident snake population, but honestly, I should have expected it when I started inserting myself into their “kingdom.” 

In Acts chapter 19, Paul really stirred up the “snakes” when he started boldly teaching about Jesus. By “snakes,” I mean those who had bent their wills against the truth (v.9) and those who tried to use the authority of Jesus without being under his authority (v.13).

Those kinds of snakes are always around. Even if there’s an unspoken agreement – we don’t disturb them, they don’t disturb us – we should expect that those kinds of snakes will come slithering out of their holes when we insert ourselves into their kingdoms.

In other words, when we have the authority to do something in Jesus’s name and follow through boldly and unapologetically, we can expect to experience some resistance from the spiritual realm. In Paul’s case, the snakes got what was coming to them. The evil spirit they were trying to expel in Jesus' name gave them a lesson they surely never forgot (v.15), and people turned to Jesus in a deeper, more life-changing way. (vs.17-20).

For the record: it’s always worth it to stir up the snakes for the good of the Kingdom!

Stirring up the snakes comes at a cost. Protecting the foundation of my house against the roots of oversized holly trees was disruptive not only to the resident snake family, but to everyday life and my bank account. But the end result was worth the cost of time, money, and snake sightings! Is there an area of your life where it’s time to start stirring up the “snakes”?