An Imitator

Acts 8:9-10; "A man named Simon had been a sorcerer there for many years, claiming to be someone great. The Samaritan people, from the least to the greatest, often spoke of him as "the Great One-- the Power of God." (NLT)
This scripture really gets under my skin. This guy is a magician, he probably was a very good one, but have you ever thought of how good you would have to be to be considered a God or "the Great One"?  Did you ever wonder why a magician would be considered like a God? I mean what trick could a magician do that would compare you to God?
Can a magician do a trick that creates a sun or a moon, or turn water into wine?  Did he ever open up the earth and swallow a horde of rebels like God did with Dathan for Moses?  Did this sorcerer do a trick that split the Red Sea and had millions of people go across on dry ground and get it all done before rush hour traffic in the morning? God created almost everything there is out of nothing, nothing that existed already. The scientific and theological term is ex nilo, 'out of nothing.' Did this wizard make anything out of nothing? Did he just speak it and it became....?
Well that is what our God did.  He didn't take lessons to pull a quarter from behind some little kids ear...He created things out of nothing.  Did this sorcerer do that?
Church I have thought of this many times and it is a major reason why we need to evangelize and be a witness to the world.  These people thought that Simon was a god b/c they didn't know God. They knew idols and idols only. They had no living God. They had no loving God, no speaking God, no manifesting power of God...They simply had magicians or people standing in for their god. They had dead gods. There might have been a demon but there is only one God and Simon didn't know Him. There was no life or love in their idol gods and since they were dead and lifeless, the only life a god had was shown through the magician or priest that represented him.
These people were easily deceived because they were in darkness.  People in darkness have their minds captured by deception & evil. People who serve idols usually find themselves in a quick downward spiral of intelligence.  Darkness overwhelms them and they become captive to ignorance.  That is why you see so much difference when missionaries go into tribes. When the gospel comes and salvation begins to work, the heathen's mind begins to be set free because he is no longer in darkness, no longer captured by ignorance and immorality. That is why a ghetto takes on new life when an evangelist begins to teach in it.  The reason is that the gospel breaks the power of darkness, of ignorance from satanic stupors.
As more of America and the western world turns to heathen practices, you can see already that many people are being hindered  intellectually, morally and spiritually as their sin begins to control them and they go into bondage/darkness. Things that were evil and unseemly become normal practices to them. Then they start living in bondage and they are the last to find out that they are being intellectually, spiritually, and morally squelched.
When God moves and uses His power, let me tell you....it won't be confused with some man's work that can pull a fast one over your eyes.
So, go bring light to darkness and truth to those deceived. Tell them about the real Great One, the all-powerful G-O-D!