From what I've read, sometimes the Spirit comes on people immediately without them asking, other times it's through prayer and/or laying on of hands. In this case, it doesn't say that Simon received the Spirit. It says that he believed and was baptized. I don't know if he had the Spirit or not. For sure he missed the point of what this is all about thinking he could buy God's power. I think he'd been living a life of 'what's in it for me' and he wanted his cut. He offered to buy the power and I'll bet that he had plans to sell it and get rich. He'd been following the disciples around during their mission work. Peter chased him away forbidding him to be part of it. They sure didn't need him hanging around with his false testimony. In v24 it sounds like he repented but the wording is such that it's hard to know if it's repentance or just fear. He sure didn't want God's wrath on his sorry butt, though.
“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” ― George Orwell
It's not over when you lose. It's over when you quit.
