Acts 16:16-24 – Slave Girl
The Living Word With Chuck Davis
Acts 16:16-24 – Slave Girl
"Welcome to the Living Word with Chuck Davis." Act 1616-24, slave girl. As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owner as much gain for fortune telling. She followed Paul and us crying out. These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaimed to you the way of salvation. And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the Spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her," and it came out that very hour. But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. And when they brought them to the magistrates, they said, "These men are Jews and they are disturbing our city. They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept their practice. The crown joined in attacking them in the magistrates, tore the garments off them, and gave them orders to be beaten with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. And received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. Yesterday, we saw Paul using the place of prayer as a meeting point. And now, we don't know how long after that, he's moving across town and there's a young girl, a slave girl, she's been bought by the people who has a spirit of divination. We know that this would be a spirit that is an evil spirit where the Holy Spirit reveals things for good, the evil spirits will reveal things to keep people in captivity. Remember spirits are fallen angels, they've been equipped by God in the same way that unfallen angels have been equipped by God for certain tasks and they continue operating that way. They have prophetic gifting some of them, so they become diviners. They're not omniscient like God knowing everything, but they might have prophetic insight and they're using it to keep people from experiencing God in all this love. There is a declaration in this of the in Ephesus in that day, there was a python spirit that was very active in divination, prophecy and foretelling. This girl has no freedom and immediately she's set free. It's interesting that evil spirits know a lot about Jesus. Remember when Jesus approached one of them, the response was, "Have you come to destroy us?" They even know Jesus' mission. But this girl gets set free, interestingly in the course of the process of discerning she's saying actually true things. These men are servants of the most high God who proclaim to you the way of salvation, that this normally wouldn't annoy you as an evangelist or a missionary. But Paul is greatly annoyed because he knows the source and basically he operates in the way of Jesus and he calls that spirit out and it leaves that very hour. It's interesting, not immediately, but that very hour. Luke never tells us if she becomes a believer in the church, but she's now useless to the owners. What would happen to her at this point? Paul and Silas are thrown into jail for this act. But what would have happened to her? Would the church become her new community after she's lost this other community? My hope is yes. The so-what of this passage is we need to be discerning about manifestations that come toward us. Maybe not even just evil spirits words, but words that are brought by individuals that are just flattery, that really are curses, and maybe even prophetic words to some idolatry in us. Don't always accept everything that is being said in the positive as something to take hold of. We need discernment even when things that are being said feel true and are true, but night might not be from the wrong source. The now-what is I need to verbalize commands. Paul does this in public because God is orchestrating it, but there may be times even in settings where we come across words that are not designed to glorify God or maybe just to glorify us. Under our breath, we need to say we don't receive this because we want the living God, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself to be praised. So Lord, give us discernment as we walk through this world to see what is from your kingdom and what is from the dark kingdom, to welcome what is from your kingdom, and to shut down what is from the dark kingdom. We pray this in Jesus name, amen.