Apr 16, 2007 - The Holy Spirit is a gentelman
Apr 16, 2007
Act 16:16-17 KJV
(16) And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying:
(17) The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which show unto us the way of salvation.
You know that there is a little bit of the truth in most of the lies Satan uses on us. If they were so outrageously false, why would we believe them? In this case there was a lot of truth, but it was being used for the wrong reason. Years ago, I learned a statement in church that I was confused about. It was ' the Holy Spirit is a gentleman.' It confused me because I was always thinking that we needed something big happening in the church to bring the sinners in and get them saved. What I did not realize is that God will not come up against Himself. The Holy Spirit will not interrupt a church service where the word (Jesus) is being given to do something to bring salvation.
That is what was happening here. Satan was using this woman to interrupt the Word being taught. Paul dealt with it for a while, but as the woman drew more and more attention to herself and the Word could not be heard, he did what any good preacher of today would do. He dealt with the situation and went on.
Act 16:18 KJV
(18) And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.
Paul knew it could be the Spirit doing this, it had to be the work of Satan. So he did what he had to do. Get out of her Satan. And then he moved on, doing what he was suppose to do, telling people about Jesus. If that was the end of the story, all would be OK. Satan was not done though. If he could not silence them by out talking them, he would find another way.
Act 16:19-24 KJV
(19) And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers,
(20) And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city,
(21) And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans.
(22) And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them.
(23) And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely:
(24) Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.
Governments and businesses (which are made up of people) are OK with people telling other people about Jesus. The problem comes when they loose the ability to make money. This spirit was now gone out of the girl and they could no longer make money off of her. Before anything else got wrecked in their ability to make money, they needed to get rid of these two.
When you do something for God, expect opposition. It may come from a number of places. Satan may even be able to use a close friend or family member to try to stop you. Why will you get it? Because you take people out of their comfort zone. They only can see one way to do things, even when you try to show them a better way.
