The Early Church had established places of prayer. In fact, in Acts 16 the phrase “the place of prayer” occurs twice—once in verse 13 and the second time in verse 16. It was Paul’s habit to frequent the place of prayer, as we learn.
On one occasion as he’s en route to this special place of intercession, an unforgettable incident occurs. He finds himself being annoyed by the spirit that influenced a very vocal young lady. He spoke directly to the demon spirit that had possessed her and commanded it to come out of her. And, because we have been given authority against all the powers of the Satan, the demon obeyed. The girl was freed.
Do you know what the indicators are for discerning demon possessed people? What do you see hidden in the text between verses 16 and 19? Let me ask you six questions, that when answered, will lead you to nuggets of wisdom concerning how one spots a certain type of demonic activity.
1. Why did the demonized woman follow Paul and company shouting: “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved”?
2. Was the demonized woman’s message true or false?
3. If her message was true, why did Paul get annoyed with her?
4. If her message was false, why didn’t Paul simply ask her to be quiet?
5. How did Paul distinguish the fact that it was a demon influencing this girl versus she just has a very vocal personality?
6. What kind of a demon had possessed her? And, how did it show its nature?
If you’d like to chime in, please answer one of the questions in your post. Thanks.
I think that they knew it was a demon spirit because she followed them to the place of prayer doing this which I am sure was very distracting. She was trying to disrupt the place where they would avail themselves the "power of God". The girl had no reverence for this place and Paul recognized this as clear demonic activity.
ReplyDeleteIn addition the most obvious clue is that she was in the business of fortune telling a practice clearly forbidden by God.
ReplyDeleteHello Everyone,
ReplyDeleteOne thing I’ve come to realize about the devil is that he never starts out with a lie, once he gets an audience, he’ll start with a tiny bit of truth and the entire remaining story is nothing else but strict lie and heresy. In this story, I think the girl was some sort of a distraction to keep people from getting the message that Paul was trying to convey. By her coming out and shout what Paul was about to say and do would have immediately diverted their interest and mainly fulfilling its purpose of the message not being spread out as Paul’s intent was. Her message was true because Paul did communicate that the Kingdom of God indeed brings salvation (I’m here and saved today- eh! he-he-he); however the substance of it would not have been as effective since the girl was a fortune teller which would be confusing to Paul’s teaching of God’s word. As far as discerning demon-talk, it can be seen in the individual’s posture, the arrogance that is displayed in the way the message is being said, there’s also the insult and disrespect as far as a tone of mockery or violent anger depending on the circumstance – she did sound as if she was mocking Paul which is probably where the annoyance in his temperament came from (You never know, she may have threatened to beat him up or something, you never know with demons, they act up a lot, you know). The lesson in today’s reading and initial post by Dr. Ireland is that as believers we have to be careful and always remain in prayer because anything in our behavior can be an open door for Satan (he’s so desperate - he'll hang on to anything)
Hope everyone have a great day today!
wh
Greetings,
ReplyDeleteShe followed them around “shouting” to create a distraction for everyone. By proclaiming a message that was true she would create confusion by allowing her audience to believe that her power was from God …… they would not be open to the message from Paul and his team …… preventing the spread of the gospel in that region.
Paul was annoyed with her because he did not want people to make a connection with the gospel and demon activity. I believe that he was able to distinguish that she was being influenced by a demon through discernment. So he had to establish a power encounter by casting out the demon and demonstrating the power in the name of Jesus Christ!
Doesn't the bible teach that God is a God of order? Clearly this slave girl, who obviously was a slave in more than one way, was causing disorder. She was distracting and conflicting with the work that Paul was doing. From this, we can conclude that the spirit in her was not of God. Paul delivered her and she is now FREE!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletea) To provide an answer you need to understand the culture of the place where Paul and Silas were visiting. The city of Thyatira (a Roman province) now Akhisar is one of the seven churches of the book of Revelations. At that time the people from that region worshipped Apollo an oracular god (Roman and Greek Mythology). The slave girl "was possessed by a spirit of divination [claiming to foretell future events and to discover hidden knowledge]" (Amplified Bible), as you see having a characteristic trait of Apollo.
ReplyDeleteb) The demon presented a truth claim through the slave girl by shouting “these men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved” to deceive Paul and Silas in thinking she is in agreement with what they are doing, in other words, to infiltrate the church (a diabolical scheme to blaspheme the HOLY SPIRIT). By associating with Paul and Silas the girl was providing credibility (another deception). Paul finally recognized the demon’s intentions and refused further endorsements by casting it out of her. Regardless of what is being said, demons should never be tolerated.
The short answer Revelations 2:18-26