Read Acts 16
This chapter makes me ask more questions than I have answers for. Paul and Silas leave to minister. They start out and everywhere they try to go God gives them a "no". So they keep going. They finally reach the seaport of Troas. Where do you go when you reach the sea and God keeps telling you "not here". That night Paul has a vision of a man telling him to go across the sea to the island of Macedonia and help them. That man had to be the angel of the Lord. They took a boat and finally arrived in Philippi which is the main city in Macedonia. On the sabbath they went to the river side where the women of the town gathered to pray. They baptised Lydia, a wealthy lady, along with her family. She compelled them to stay at her house. While they were still praying ther was a young girl who was possessed with a demonic spirit of divination. She kept proclaiming that they were the servants of God who came to show them the way of Salvation. What she said was the truth but the spirit from which she was saying it was not truth. It was a familiar spirit just not the real thing. So instead of it bringing life it brought death. When Paul and Silas could take it no longer they spoke to the spirit in her and commanded it to come out of her. It did. Now that she had lost her prophetic gift her masters were irate. They took Paul and Silas into the marketplace and accused them of being troublemakers. They were said to teach against their customs. What kind of crime is that? Jealousy leads to murder so they inspired the crowds to oppose them also. The magistrates had them stripped and severly beaten and thrown into the interior of the prison and had their feet put in stocks.
At midnight Paul and Silas were singing and praying surrounded by the other prisoners. Suddenly there is an earthquake and all the doors were opened and everyone's chains popped off. The jailor went to kill himself so he wouldn't be tortured the next day for letting the prisoners free. Paul stopped him and told him they are all there. (It is amazing to me that none of the prisoners left. I guess after hearing Paul and Silas pray and sing they wanted to stick around and see what other crazy thing they were going to do.) The officer is so impressed he wants to be saved immediately- not only him but his entire family. Then he fed them and put ointment on their stripes.
The next day the magistrates sent word to let them go. The now-saved keeper told Paul, and Paul said, "no way". He was a Roman citizen and what they did was unlawful. They would have to come and get him themselves. Paul was no mamby-pamby Christian. He knew who he was in society and in God.
What a picture. The demons were stirred up when they had to leave that girl so they attacked Paul and Silas. When God came to their rescue he not only set them free but all in the jail and the main guard was saved. Satan never wins unless we stop fighting and give in. When it looks like the devil has bound you, try praying and singing. God will move earth for you and set you free.
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