Is the Holy Spirit for Everyone?

He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God.

But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith.

But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him

and said, "You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?

And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time." Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand.

Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord. (Acts 13:7-12, ESV)

It seems that we often think we understand a subject only to find out later that we were wrong about some aspect, some small point. God does amazing things, and all we have to do is accept what He does. But for some reason, we aren't happy when God does something that seems different than a preconceived notion we have about how He should act in a given situation. I mean, really. Strike a man blind! It must be the Holy Spirit working through Paul who struck Elymas blind. Talk about a misunderstanding. All Elymas was doing was trying to give a different point of view, another way to look at things. Surely you don't believe that God will hurt people with the Holy Spirit, do you? Okay, okay, I know that the Holy Spirit killed Annanias and Saphira for lying. I think I get it. But now here is poor Elymas, simply trying to keep Sergius Paulus from falling into the trap of believing everything Paul is telling him and zap! Elymas is stricken blind. Not only that. Did you see the language Paul used? He called Elymas a son of the devil. Now how does Paul know what is in Elymas' heart? Paul said he was full of deceit and villainy. Pretty bad stuff. I wonder if Paul could have been sued for libel? Does the Holy Spirit do this kind of thing? Seems odd to me.

Oh, I guess I didn't understand the whole story. Elymas is an Arabic name meaning magician or sorcerer. His real name was Bar Jesus, or son of Joshua. It seems that Elymas is Jewish. Oh, here it is. In Deuteronomy 18:9-14 it says that all kinds of magic arts, divination, sorcery, etc., were strictly forbidden under the Old Law. So what's Elymas, a Jewish man, doing playing around with something that was strictly forbidden for Jews to do? Ah, there's that word, villainy. Turning a buck. Old Elymas is just trying to get ahead in this world, using something that is strictly forbidden in the Jewish religion, to get a bit of the good life. Where's the money coming from? Oh, yeah. Sergius Paulus. If Sergius Paulus believes the things that Paul is telling him (the good news), he'll stop believing all of the lies that Elymas has been telling him. It seems that even in our times politicians often consult with astrologers, mediums, etc., to try to figure out how to stay ahead in the game, whether running for office of running a country.

But this is shocking. If God used the Holy Spirit to kill Annanias and Saphira and used the Holy Spirit to blind Elymas, what does that mean for me? I thought the Holy Spirit only did good things. You know, like give me strength for hard times. Get me out of a jam. Heal my poor friend.

But that raises another problem for me. That means that all the stuff Jesus said about, well, you know, the hot place, eternal punishment, just might be true. If I don't stay faithful to Jesus, will He really consign me to eternal pain and separation from Him? Makes you wonder, doesn't it?