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We have seen how the Spirit has led and sustained disciples throughout the Book of Acts. In Acts 16 we see this leading of the Spirit continue on the Second Missionary Journey (the second missionary journey began in Acts 15:36). In this chapter we are introduced to Timothy and the important city of Philippi. In this chapter we will learn a great deal about the nature of the Spirit’s leading as we watch Him lead the apostles.
Remember our stated study purpose:
The Spirit of God using the word of God to make people of God and changing the people of God into Spirit-empowered, effective, edifying, disciples of Jesus Christ.
As we see the Spirit’s edifying work in Acts, we should pray He does the same work in us.
The Second Missionary Journey
The Second Missionary Journey of Acts begins in Acts 15:40 and continues through Acts 18:23. The First Missionary Journey began in Acts 13 and continued until the Apostles returned to Jerusalem for the Jerusalem council. The Third missionary Journey begins in Acts 18:1 and ends in Acts 21:17 when Paul returns to Jerusalem. These Journeys were efforts to spread the gospel as well as solidify and ground in the faith those churches and converts who had already accepted the gospel. These Journeys speak to us about the necessity to spread the gospel wherever we go. Spreading the gospel should be a part and emphasis of everyone Christian’s life.
The Spirit Leads and His Servants Submit
Here we are introduced to a prominent figure in the New Testament, Timothy. According to the New Testament, Timothy was the son of a believing mother and unbelieving father (Acts 16:1, 3). Paul refers to Timothy as being a faithful believer from a very young age whose grandmother and mother were believers too (2 Timothy 1:5; 2 Timothy 3:15). Later on in his life, Timothy is recognized by the church leadership who laid hands on him (1 Timothy 4:14). Paul put a great deal of trust in Timothy, giving him various ministry responsibilities in Troas (Acts 17:4), Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 3:1-2, 6), Corinth (Acts 18:1-5; 1 Corinthians 4:17; 2 Corinthians 1:19), Macedonia (Acts 19:22), and Ephesus (1 Timothy 1:3). Paul sought his company in ministry at Rome (2 Timothy 4:9, 11, 21).
Paul thought of Timothy as his “son in the faith” (1 Timothy 1:2, 18; 1 Corinthians 4:17). Paul referred to Timothy as a faithful servant of the Lord whose character had been proven in ministry (Philippians 2:22). Timothy was someone trusted by Paul, a disciple of his, able to teach other churches because Timothy taught and passed on accurately what Paul had taught him (1 Corinthians 4:17). Timothy may have been somewhat timid in nature as Paul often exhorted him to courage and perseverance (1 Timothy 4:12-16; 1 Timothy 6:20-21; 2 Timothy 1:7). He may have been sickly (1 Timothy 5:23). Timothy may have also been emotional, as Paul mentioned his tears (2 Timothy 1:4).
Though Timothy was brought up by a Jewish mother, he was not circumcised. This is probably because of the influence of his Gentile father, who was a Greek. Timothy had a good reputation (Acts 16:2) and was probably converted under Paul’s ministry during the first missionary journey when Paul ministered in Lystra (Acts 14:6; 1 Timothy 1:2). Paul wanted to take Timothy with him but knew that as he went through territories with a high population of Jews that Timothy’s uncircumcised condition would hinder the ministry of the gospel. Therefore, Paul circumcised Timothy to avoid any hindrance to the ministry of the gospel.
How would anyone know whether Timothy was circumcised? It says of the Jews in the region to which Paul was taking Timothy, “for they all knew that his father was Greek.” Apparently they knew that though Timothy had a Jewish mother, his Greek father did not have Timothy circumcised. Whether or not someone was circumcised was an important religious issue. Circumcision identified whether a person belonged to God under the Old Testament (Genesis 17). Whether or not a person was circumcised was a simple matter of asking them. If there was a question about whether a person was indeed circumcised, verification by family or the person (a mohel) who had performed the circumcision would be attained. It might also help to understand that the privacy and discretionary mores of our day were not the same in the time of Acts. There were public baths where whether a person was or was not circumcised was readily observable.
That Paul had Timothy circumcised is not contradictory to Paul’s teaching on circumcision earlier in Acts 15 or as he wrote in his epistle to the Galatians (Galatians 2:3-5). In his letter to the Galatians Paul is opposed to circumcision because it is being made a requirement of justification. Here in Acts, however, circumcision is viewed not as a requirement of salvation, but in terms of being a hindrance to ministering the gospel. Paul wanted to remove any impediment that would close the door of ministry. If he went into a territory and the Jews knew Timothy wasn’t circumcised, though he had a Jewish mother, they wouldn’t even listen to Paul. Therefore, Paul makes a strategic preemptive decision to circumcise Timothy.
Why didn’t Paul have Titus circumcised? In Galatians 2:3, when Paul is making his argument against the idea that circumcision is a requirement of salvation, he comments, “Yet not even Titus who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised.” Titus was a gentile who accepted Jesus as Savior. There was no requirement or expectation under the New Covenant that, as a gentile, he should be circumcised. This was the decision of the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. Timothy on the other hand, had a Jewish mother and, as such, the issue of whether he was circumcised might come up. So, to remove any distraction from the gospel, Paul had Timothy circumcised.
The Submissive Heart of Timothy – Led by the Spirit to be Circumcised.
Why was Timothy so willing to submit to the leading of the Spirit in this situation? Timothy was likely a young man. Circumcision is no trivial medical procedure for one who is a man. It would be a painful physical procedure. But even though this would be a great physical sacrifice, Timothy was willing to make it and submit to the will of the Spirit as dictated through Paul. It is probable that Timothy’s willingness to submit and be circumcised came from his upbringing in God’s word. Paul’s letter to Timothy tells us of this when he says:
Timothy’s upbringing in the word of God inclined him to give His all to God, even if it meant undergoing circumcision.
The one led by the Spirit is a living sacrifice willing to submit to the Spirit’s leading. If you’re going to be led by the Spirit, the first step is to have a servant’s submissive heart. That is exactly what Paul would later write in his letter to the Romans when the Spirit inspired him to say:
Timothy was following in the footsteps of his mentor Paul, who was a living sacrifice. That willingness to follow and have a servant’s heart is probably why Paul wanted to take Timothy with him as a fellow minister and disciple him.
The Spirit Led Attitude – A Servant of All Discipline
What is the attitude we need to be led by the Spirit? Paul exemplifies this Spirit-led attitude. Paul saw himself as a servant of all. Paul saw himself as a slave not only to Christ, but also to all for the sake of the gospel. He was willing to sacrifice anything to see others come to Christ and be saved (see Romans 9:1-3). Paul’s willingness to sacrifice his liberties for the sake of the salvation of others is conveyed in his words to the Corinthians, where he states:
For Paul, the priority was the winning and discipling of souls and for that he was willing to give up any liberty. Paul saw this willingness to serve all as a “discipline.”
The word “discipline” here comes from the Greek term HUPOPIADZO (Strong’s #5299 – hoop-o–pee-ad´–zo) which means literally, “to hit under the eye (buffet or disable an antagonist as a pugilist).” It means figuratively, “to tease or annoy (into compliance), subdue (one’s passions)…keep under, weary.”208 The form of this word infers that this is an ongoing practice (Present/Active/Indicative). Paul recognizes that making oneself “a servant to all” was not something that came naturally but is a work of the Spirit that required constant training like a boxer or athlete training for a competition. It is God who does this in us (1 Corinthians 15:10; Philippians 2:13), but there is also a part that we should do (Philippians 2:12). We need to show up and give ourselves to Him as a living sacrifice and be willing to serve in the Spirit. The one led by the Spirit has a servant-of-all discipline they follow in the Spirit.
Timothy, in being circumcised, shows the same heart as Paul, the same servant-of-all discipline. This led to his willingness to be circumcised if it meant it would enhance the outreach to lost souls and furtherance of the ministry. Timothy and Paul were united in their commitment to the saving of souls. The ministry flourished under the leadership of the Spirit and the right attitude of the disciples.
The Spirit Leads Those Willing to Submit to His “No”
Twice here it says that the Holy Spirit forbid Paul to go into certain areas (Acts 16:6-7). We are not told how the Spirit communicates His forbidding them to go to the regions in question. It may have been through circumstances, Godly counsel, or the prophetic word. Maybe the Spirit forbade them to go in a certain direction by not providing funds or provisions to go in that direction. Maybe they couldn’t come to a unity in their plans to that end. Maybe transportation or some other means was not available for some reason. For whatever reason, the Spirit did not provide for them to go into Asia or Bithynia.
What we do not see is Paul throwing a tantrum or forcing his way into places or activities that the Spirit has forbidden. Paul and his missionary party submitted to the “No” of the Spirit. They did not try to force the hand of the Spirit to do their bidding. They did not act like DEA agents (i.e., Drug Enforcement Agents) and take a battering ram to the door closed by the Spirit. They saw the forbidden and closed door of the Spirit not as rejection but as redirection. So often, people have something set in their minds and fight against the Spirit until they force their will to be done rather than pray for God’s will to be done. The Spirit has a plan, and He only wants what is best. When we ignore His counsel and pry open doors that He has shut, we settle inevitably for second best and often find ourselves in situations that lead to much pain and even sin.
The Spirit does direct Paul here by way of a vision in the night or a dream. In our study of Acts 1:12-26 we looked at how the Spirit leads and who He leads. Here we see the Spirit again leading the apostles.
The Spirit Leads By Open Doors and Closed Doors
In the Book of Revelation, Jesus tells the church of Philadelphia that He had set before them an open door. This helps us in recognizing how God confirms His word through circumstances. In Revelation, it states:
Now Jesus may be referring in particular to the door of heaven through which the true church would be raptured (Revelation 4:1; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). But this verse also conveys the thought that before us are doors, some of which God opens, some of which He shuts. When we receive a “word from the LORD” it will be confirmed by an open door of opportunity to fulfill that word. That is how we know it is from the LORD.
In the passage of Acts we are presently studying, it says, “they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit”, and “the Spirit did not permit them,” (Acts 16:6-7). I believe this indicates that the Spirit did not open the door of opportunity for the missionaries to minister in these areas. The apostles apparently had a thought about going to preach in Asia and Bithynia, (otherwise why would it even be mentioned?). When the apostles came to a closed door, they moved on accepting that the circumstances did not confirm the word they had thought was from God. They did not pout but saw rejection as God’s redirection. God confirms His word to us by circumstances, which verify fully the word that He speaks.
The Spirit Speaks Through Visions
In Acts 16:9, Paul receives a “vision.” What is a “vision”? A “vision” is a means of divine revelation similar to a dream. The difference between a dream and a vision is that dreams only occur while a person is asleep; visions can occur while a person is awake (Daniel 10:7). In the Old Testament, much of what is written in the Book of Ezekiel and the Book of Daniel (Ezekiel 1:1; Daniel 8:1, 17) is the result of revelation from God received via visions. In the New Testament, we see God giving His word by way of visions in the life of Ananias (Acts 9:10-17); Peter (Acts 10); Paul (Acts 16:9-15); and John (Revelation 1).
This is important to grasp because the LORD communicates His plans through means such as prophetic visions. Through the prophet Amos, God states, “Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants, the prophets” (Amos 3:7). We need to discern God’s message delivered prophetically. When a prophet claims to be conveying a message from God, it must fit within the parameters of God’s word already delivered through inspiration (i.e., Deuteronomy 13:1-5) and any action predicted must come to pass as stated by God (i.e., Deuteronomy 18:21-22). If either of these criteria is not met, that “prophet” is not from God and is to be disregarded.
We need to pause here and build a bit on what we considered earlier in the Book of Acts (see Acts 1:12-25). What we need to consider is the question, “How Do I Discern God’s Will and Heart from My Will and Heart?”
The Problem of our Flesh in Discerning the Will and Leading of the Spirit
This is the million-dollar question. How do we know if a thought that comes into our head or heart is from the LORD or not? The Spirit is there and leading us into all truth (John 14:26; John 15:26), but sometimes we aren’t sure of which way the LORD is directing. You see, we have this troublesome issue of the flesh (Greek SARX). Our flesh is self-centered, self-serving, self-promoting, and self-conscious to the maximum. Our flesh is sly and deceptive in getting its way and will use manipulation and self-deceit to get what it wants. On the surface, we say we want to discern and follow the will and guidance of the Spirit, but underneath, in our flesh, we are sometimes really just pursuing what we, or me, want, desires or lusts for. Remember what God revealed to us about our hearts through Jeremiah the prophet who was inspired to write:
Our heart is naturally inclined to deceive us, especially before we are saved and indwelled by the Holy Spirit. But the truth is, our heart and fleshly carnal nature continues to try and promote its self-centered ways even after we are saved and indwelled by the Spirit.
The apostle Paul knew about this struggle and wrote about it, saying:
Our flesh can be very tricky, and it leads us to rationalize and manipulate reality to its favor when we allow it to. Therefore, sometimes it’s hard to discern what thoughts are from God and what thoughts are from me. So what do we do? We need to prayerfully go to the Spirit and seek His help and His truth in our regard.
The Solution to the Flesh Problem – THE SPIRIT FILLED LIFE
There is triumph available for the disciple over the struggle with the flesh. The Galatians 5 passage above tells us, “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). The greatest book of the Bible is Romans, and the pinnacle of this great epistle is chapter eight, where the victory that is possible over our flesh in the power of the Spirit is laid out by Paul, who says:
The Holy Spirit Who indwells the believer empowers the believer to resist his or her fleshly desires and proceed in the ongoing process of sanctification which is the work of the Spirit in us to conform us to the nature of Jesus. If we are going to rightly discern the Spirit’s leading, we need to be aware of our fleshly tendencies and side with the Holy Spirit against them. We need to seek the confirmation of the Spirit’s leading. And there is a way to do this.
The Three Confirming Tests of the Spirit in Discerning the Will of God
There are basically three tests to determine whether or not a thought or word in your head is or is not from the Spirit. The three questions we need to ask to determine if a word is from God or not are: Is the word on God’s will COMPLIANT? Is the word on God’s will CONFIRMED? Is the word on God’s will CONCLUSIVE?
First, Is My Sense of the Spirit’s leading COMPLIANT With God’s Word?
The Spirit will never give us a word or steer us in a direction that contradicts or is out of compliance with His written word. God will never contradict Himself. Therefore, the first question and the predominant question we need to ask is, how does it jive with the Bible? In the Book of Deuteronomy the LORD states through Moses:
This is an extremely important if not the most important aspect of confirming God’s will in your life. Just because a “sign” or “wonder” comes to pass does not mean it is from God or that it confirms God’s will for your life. In the end times the Antichrist will have the ability to do “lying wonders” and if you are inclined to look at miracles, signs and wonders alone as confirmation of God’s will and presence, you will be ripe for deception (2 Thessalonians 2:9-10). We are seeing even now in our time the rise in the occurrence of apparitions (e.g., of Mary), of charlatans who perform so-called signs and wonders. There is a “power evangelism” that focuses on getting the attention of people via the supposed miraculous. What we see in our world today and in the church is often an emphasis on the experiential, to the neglect of God’s word. This is dangerous because when experience, signs and wonders are given priority over God’s word, it paves the way for deception and manipulation. Therefore, the phrase, “and the sign or wonder comes to pass,” indicates that confirming circumstances does not necessarily mean something is from God. A confirming word or circumstance is only from the Lord if, and only if, it complies with the written word of God.
It is also important to understand and apply this verse in somewhat of a more personal way. What do I mean? Well, your flesh (i.e., the carnal nature discussed above) is like a false prophet within who will manipulate Scriptures to fulfill its own lusts. It is amazing what the flesh will lead people to do in terms of misinterpreting and rationalizing away the meaning of Scriptures in order to get what their flesh wants. You need to beware of this and while we do not stone or kill off false prophets in our day, you definitely should do everything to stone and put to death the fleshly false prophet within (Romans 8:13; Colossians 3:5-9).
For a practical example, say you are working overtime to pay some outstanding bills and you have been praying for God to help you with your finances. One night while working late you find that the company’s petty cash drawer filled with money is accidentally left unlocked. A word comes to you, “Go ahead, I left the drawer open for you. Take the money. No one will know. Go ahead take it.” In that situation there is a word and a confirming circumstance, you have prayed for financial help and now here is an opportunity to get some money, i.e., the unlocked and open petty cash drawer. BUT that would be stealing and that does not comply with the word of God (Exodus 15; Ephesians 4:28). Therefore, it must be rejected as being a word from God or the will of God. If it is not from the LORD, where is it from? It could be a word originating from our fleshly desires, or it could be a word from Satan much the same as in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). Remember, in the Garden of Eden Eve received a word. There was an opportunity to follow through on the word she received. But since that impression or word contradicted God’s word, she should have rejected it.
Another example can be seen in someone who feels called to ministry or who feels the Lord wants them to do a certain task or do a certain thing. There are those who have left family, even divorced so that they could go and live as a monk or follow some other “ministry” opportunity or do something they have in their mind to do. But this contradicts what Paul wrote to pastor Timothy, saying:
The Spirit will never guide in a way that one’s family is neglected or uncared for. A good saying to follow is where God guides God provides. If the Spirit is leading you into ministry, then He will provide for you AND your family, (especially your family). You won’t find one example in Scripture where the Spirit led someone to the neglect of their loved ones. The Spirit is a great supporter of the family. Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church (Ephesians 5:25-26). Wives are to cooperate and respect their husbands (Ephesians 5:22-23). Fathers are to provide for their families, as the verse from Timothy states above (see also Ephesians 6:4). There is nothing that will tarnish a minister (and the God they claim to serve) more, than neglect of the family.
The Right Application of God’s Word
Cults misuse the word of God to confirm their false doctrines. People can twist God’s word and take it out of context to confirm their will. God reveals a simple gospel in the Bible and sinful man is always trying to add to it in an effort to gain control or manipulative influence over others. The Bible warns us against such falsehoods when it says:
The Spirit tells us here through Paul that the gospel is simple, it’s not complicated, and it is designed by God to be understandable. The gospel is not enigmatic or esoteric; it is profoundly elemental (2 Corinthians 11:3). Paul here points out in verse four that there are those who present and preach “another Jesus,” that is, one different from the Biblical Jesus. There are those who scrape and peel parts of what the Bible says about Jesus that they don’t like and when they do, they put themselves in a position of authority and create Jesus in their own sinful image (e.g., the Jesus Seminar). Paul also speaks of “a different spirit…or a different gospel” that some will present, and these are false and impotent to save and sustain spiritual life (see Galatians 1:6-9). What makes these false teachings all the more difficult to discern is that God’s word is often used (i.e., misused) to present the false teachings.
How are we to differentiate the real Jesus, the real Spirit, and the right gospel from those that are false imitations? We differentiate the true from the false, the authentic from the imitation, by the right application of God’s word in the Spirit to confirm them as from God or not. It is the right use of God’s word that counts! A word taken out of context is a pretext, a manipulation, and a false use of God’s word.
In the wilderness, Satan came against Jesus to tempt Him. He brought some words to the mind of Jesus, but if you examine that situation, you see a perfect example of handling the temptations of Satan. Jesus viewed all things through the lens of Scripture (Matthew 4:1-11). Every time Satan struck out at Jesus, Jesus responded, “It is written.” We should do the same. We should also note that it is the right application of God’s word that is important. Satan misused Scripture in his attempt to draw Jesus into sin. We should not twist Scriptures to get by these criteria of determining if or if not a word is from the LORD.
We should apply the word rightly as Paul states to Timothy:
We need to diligently study God’s word as a worker or student who is well-trained in its true meaning. Paul was inspired to write to the Thessalonians:
The word of God is the instrument by which all things are to be tested. When I was a young man, I worked in a precision machine shop with my father. One of the instruments we used there was a micrometer which we used to measure the widths of pieces to ten-thousands of an inch. But if the micrometer was off, our work would be ruined. Therefore, we even had to test the micrometers with a special cylindrical tool that was exactly a certain width. That is what the Bible is like; it’s the one reliable gauge to which all other things must be compared.
The compliance with the word of God takes priority over confirming circumstances. The primary determining factor whether a word in your head, heart or coming from someone else, or is from the LORD, is whether it complies with God’s written word. That is why in the New Testament it states of the Bible:
In this verse from 2 Timothy, the term “reproof” is ELEGMOS, (Strong’s #1650) and literally means, “a reproof, a proof, proving, testing.”209 One of the primary purposes of God’s word is to determine what is and what isn’t from God. So know your Bible, it’s indispensable to discern what is and isn’t from the LORD.
Second, Is My Sense of the Spirit’s Leading CONFIRMED?
Is what you sense the Spirit leading you to do confirmed by circumstances and /or by others? If you feel as though the Lord wants you to do something, but there are no funds to do it, then perhaps you have read Him wrong. Or perhaps He is telling you, “Wait, now is not My time.”
The Spirit will often confirm His direction by way of opening and closing doors (see above – Revelation 3). Where God guides, He provides. It is a pretty good bet that if you find yourself in a situation where you are lacking funds or resources, that God did not guide you there. That is why it is so wrong for those on radio and television or any other ministry to beg for money and donations as though God was poor. God is not poor and to plead for funding betrays the likelihood that those pleading and begging for funds have not followed the guidance of the Spirit and has likely overstepped their bounds.
In addition to the confirmation that comes through open and closed doors, there is a second very important means of confirmation, Godly counsel.
Getting Godly Counsel BEFORE You Make a Decision
It is always good to seek counsel from other Godly people, before you make any final decisions. As pastor, I often have people coming to me for my thoughts on certain issues in their lives. I have learned that those who come to me before they finalize a decision tend to be genuinely seeking the will of the Lord because they are trying to objectively weigh the evidence and confirming issues. But those who come to me and say, “Hey pastor, guess what, I’m doing this… What do you think?” Those people who come to me after they have made their decision really did not want my honest advice because if they did, they would have come before they made their decision. Those who come to me after the fact really are just seeking my approval of their decision rather than any honest counsel from me. Perhaps they are fearful I would not have confirmed their sense of the Spirit’s leading, so they only come after the fact. Some people go out of their way to avoid getting Godly counsel because what they really want is their own (fleshly?) way. If you think about it, those who avoid Godly counsel in their decision-making process probably already have a sense that what they want to do is questionable; otherwise they would have sought honest Godly counsel. God loves you and wants His best for you. Wouldn’t it be better to submit to His confirmation through Godly counsel so that the Spirit can lead you on the path of His blessing? Seek God and His righteousness first and all these things will be added to you.
The Bible conveys this prudent path of getting Godly counsel before decisions are made when it states:
If you are sensing a call to something, the Spirit will often confirm it through others who see the same thing in you. But make sure the counselors you rely on are true and honest enough to tell you the truth even if it will disappoint you (Proverbs 27:6).
So, you see, if the confirmation does not come, it may be that the word you received was not from God or that you need to wait longer for God to confirm the word. If you can’t wait, it may be an indication that the word was not from God. Let patience have its perfect effect in you (James 1:2-5).
A Time to Wait on the LORD
What do we do when we have a word that doesn’t contradict God’s word but has yet to be conclusively confirmed? We wait on the LORD. We have to give the situation and ourselves to the LORD. That is what the word of God states in the following verses:
Now you might read these verses and say, “Hmmm, I see the idea of waiting from the Old Testament verses, but the New Testament verses seem to refer to our waiting for the return of Jesus. How does that have anything to do with my particular circumstance?” It has everything to do with it! We need to wait patiently on the Lord to use us the way He sees fit. I believe the time is short before Jesus will return to rapture His church from the earth. Jesus knows exactly how to use us until His return. He will not waste us; we can trust Him to use us in the most effective way.
Those who rush ahead of the Lord are often those who feel their lives are slipping away without any significant impact being made for the Lord. When you reach a certain age, and you haven’t attained some self-imposed goals or objectives, you begin to get nervous, frustrated and wonder if you will ever reach them. That is when people begin to compromise and settle for anything just to move on in their lives. But impatience and self-assertion are not the way to find and be fulfilled in God’s will. That will only lead to a mess and falling short of God’s perfect plans for you.
We need to remember the prerequisite for discerning the Spirit’s leading, Romans 12:1-2:
The application of this verse can’t be emphasized enough in discerning God’s will for your life. If you are to find God’s best for your life, you must come as a living sacrifice before God, which means you must prayerfully seek for Him to help you come to Him objectively with no ulterior motives. For those seeking to be married, you need to ask yourself, “Am I ready to accept that God may want to keep me single?” For those seeking a promotion you need to ask, “Am I ready to accept that God may want to use me where I am and not promote me?” For those seeking higher education ask, “Am I ready to accept that God may not want me to go to school but may want to equip me in a different way for ministry?” For those looking to move to a different location, ask, “Am I ready to accept that God may not want me to move away, but may want me to stay where I am even if it is not as economically beneficial as if I were to move away?” If you want to discern God’s will, you need to come to a point where you say, “Whatever you want Lord, I’m yours.” You need to be willing to receive what God has for you even though it might not be something you have considered or even want right now. But we can be certain that submitting to God will always result in His abundant life and fulfillment more than anything we force or refuse from Him.
God’s Desires in Your Heart
You say, “But I want…” and then fill in the blank. God does put desires in our hearts, but we first have to give ourselves to Him. We have to give up our carnal wants and desires. The Psalmist wrote:
That doesn’t mean that if we “delight” ourselves in the Lord, He gives us everything we want. Quite to the contrary, when we delight ourselves in the Lord, when we are pliable and open to His will, when we are open and objective to whatever He desires for us, then He will put His desires in our heart. Leave what you think you need and come to God seeking His heart and what He knows you need. If you have a desire to do something, and it complies with God’s word and is confirmed by an open door and Godly counsel from the Lord, then go for it!
Choosing a Mate
Let me pause here and consider one of the biggest decisions people make in their lives; choosing a mate. God provides those He wants married with a mate (Proverbs 18:22). But marriage is a big responsibility and not everyone is destined to be married (see 1 Corinthians 7). There is nothing worse than marrying the wrong partner or getting into the wrong business relationship or dragging your loved ones on a wild goose chase fueled by delusions of grandeur in one’s flesh. Sometimes people never marry because their standards differ from what the Lord wants. Physical attraction is important, but the Bible says that the inner beauty of the soul and spirit is of far greater worth (1 Peter 3:3-6). Is that something you have considered in your search for a mate? The most important aspect of picking a mate is not whether they are knock-out beautiful or handsome, but are they so strong in the Lord that they will enhance your walk with the Lord, are they a soul mate, a friend in the Lord? (See 2 Corinthians 6). Are you limiting God’s will for you because your “dream” mate must be blond or have blue eyes? Have you overlooked someone God may have brought your way, but for some superficial reason you have refused to consider him or her? There are frogs that God can turn into princes today. There are Shrieks and pretty princesses that God can bring to pass. I don’t want to be accused of trying to be a matchmaker here; I am simply trying to introduce you to some thought-provoking considerations and potential possibilities from the Lord.
The Escape
Many times we make decisions in an effort to escape the Lord’s will or discipline in our lives. Jonah is one who comes to mind in this regard (see the Book of Jonah). People faced with God’s discipline which they may find uncomfortable or who rebel against God’s will, sometimes flee for supposed greener pastures only to find that until we go through and learn the lesson God is trying to teach them in a certain aspect of their life, they will be stalled spiritually until they submit to God. God won’t let us escape; He loves us too much for that (Hebrews 12). God will pick up where we left off until we learn what He wants us to learn and then and only then can we move on. God is diligent and persistent in this regard, and He will go out of His way to make His point. He’ll go so far as to bring a storm and a great fish if He needs to, in order to get your attention (again see Jonah).
The Two Errors People Make
The two errors people make in discerning God’s will for their lives are either not going through the doors God opens before them or trying to bash through the closed doors He puts before them. When you aren’t certain of which is which, wait on the Lord until the Spirit shows you. When there is no confirmation or clear leading from the Lord, stay put and wait for the Lord until there is. The Spirit may be telling you that you are right where He wants you, or that at least it is not time for you to move out of where you are.
When my wife first met me she felt as though the LORD told her that she would marry me. I didn’t get that word at first, but she did. She didn’t tell me this until after I proposed to her. She waited on the Lord to put that desire in my heart and so that she would be certain that it was from the Lord and not something she coerced out of me. Well, three years after we met, the word she heard was confirmed as from the LORD because we were married. She waited three years for her confirmation that what she felt the Spirit was telling her was right.
In another situation, I felt as though the Lord was closing the door to ministry where I was and opening the door for me to go to seminary. Initially, my wife Dee was not interested in leaving an area that she had never been away from before. The thought of moving to Kentucky (where the seminary was located) was not something my wife felt she wanted to do. But I left it in the Lord’s hands, trusting Him to either change her heart or change mine. He changed hers and we went off to seminary. I let the Lord do His work. If it was His will for me to go to seminary, He would guide and provide, and that included communicating His desire to my bride. I would never have gone to seminary if God hadn’t confirmed His will like He did through Dee. A spouse is one of the best and most practical ways the Lord confirms His will for your life, and I would never ignore any advice from my wife.
When I was considering seminary, I wanted to make sure this was from His heart and not my heart. Therefore, I felt that if this was the Lord’s will for me, that He would provide the funds for it. I prayerfully reasoned that it wouldn’t be right or the Lord’s will to go into hock to be trained for ministry. If I graduated seminary in debt, it would hinder my freedom to go where the Lord might want me to go. I didn’t feel it was the Lord’s will to take such a yoke of financial bondage on myself. In prayerfully preparing for this venture in faith, I never asked for donations or financial help from anyone. We sold almost all of our earthly things and bought a 1973 Ford Econoline Window Van in which we packed our clothes and my books with some other items and drove off to Kentucky. We drove the 700 plus miles to the state of Kentucky with enough money for the summer to live and for me to take classes. It was a step of faith. If I was wrong, I’d have to admit that I was wrong in my reading of the Lord’s will for my life. But I believed God had put this desire in my heart. Sure enough, God provided by helping us to both get jobs, and I was awarded scholarships, which paid for my seminary education. Now my job was a humbling one, cleaning offices and restaurants at night (and let me tell you it was a Mexican food restaurant, and those bathrooms were pretty raunchy and filthy at times!). God guided and provided, and I graduated on time and debt free. I knew that all this was from the Lord because of how He confirmed it by providing for us during this venture in faith. I can’t say it enough. Where God guides, God provides. If there are no provisions, then you need to ask, “Is the Lord guiding me in this direction?”
Stiff-necked Spirit Resisters
There are some people who are willfully self-deceived because they are overcome with their desire to do or get something they want. With such people, no matter how clear the Spirit directs that what they want is not what He wants for them, they still twist the circumstances to their own carnal desires. The Spirit may be slamming a door shut through circumstances, Godly counsel, and even His word, but they still refuse to see the writing on the wall (see Daniel 5). Such people have tunnel vision and such a self-centered and self-willed (fleshly) perspective on things that they close themselves to the leading of the Spirit. This is sad because it leads to ruin and great harm and disappointment not only for them, but for those around them as well. When such people do come around to repenting, their cry becomes, “Oh Lord, please bless this mess!”
Such people often compound their sinful stubbornness by blaming God for their miserable situation (that they got themselves into by their own fleshly self-willed ways). There is a name for such people in the Bible and that name is “stiff-necked.” There are people who are stiff-necked Spirit resisters who turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the communication of the Spirit in their lives, in order to assert and get their own will and way, no matter what.
The people of God in the Old Testament were characterized by such stiff-necked and stubborn ways throughout their history. Some examples of God’s indictment of His people in this regard are:
Beware your flesh and the schemes of the devil who will try to coax you and insight you into being a stiff-necked Spirit resister. Repent from such ways and seek the Spirit to cleanse your heart and free it from such sinful self-centeredness! (Romans 2:28-29). Remember the words of Scripture which state:
As we continue now in our study of Acts we see how He confirms His leading to the apostles.
Third, Is My Sense of the Spirit’s Leading CONCLUSIVE?
Here we ask, Does the word about God’s will I hear come to pass? A word might come to you saying, “Today is the day I am going to rapture you to heaven. Go shout the news in the streets.” Now if the day passes, and you’re still here shouting about the coming of the Lord in the streets, it wasn’t from the LORD and you’re going to look like a crazy fool, not to mention you will defame and dishonor the name of God. Many a false prophet has been exposed by this test. Does the word conclude as it is purported to? In Deuteronomy, God is preparing His people through Moses to ward off pagan false teachers, and so, He forgives a very simple and clear test for determining if a word is from God:
This test is not only for false prophets, but is all encompassing in that if you receive what you think might be a word from the LORD, you will know it actually was from the LORD if and only if it comes to pass and conclusively fulfills all it claims.
A Modern Day False “Church”
In the above previous illustration, I knew it was God’s will for me to go to seminary because He provided where He guided. My wife Dee knew that the word she received about me being the one she would marry was from the Lord because God conclusively confirmed it by uniting us in marriage. On the other hand, there have been those in recent times who have predicted the rapture of Christ in 1988, 1989 and those who predicted the end of the world in 1994 none of which came to pass. Therefore, we know the words they received were not from the Lord.
It has been well documented that the Jehovah’s Witnesses cult has predicted the end of the world would occur on numerous occasions. They predicted the end of the world would occur in 1874, 1910, 1914, 1918, 1925 and 1975. But we’re still here and certainly nothing like the end of the world has occurred, and therefore, we see the only thing that is confirmed in regard to the Jehovah’s Witness cult is that they are a false church, not of God, and they are teachers of falsehoods.210
A Modern-Day False Prophet
One of the more popular people in the Christian community in recent years is Benny Hinn. However, this popularity is baffling given the repeated false prophecies of Mr. Hinn. Personal Freedom Outreach, (a ministry which exposes false, false teachings and cults by the application of God’s word) in an article entitled “Prophecy or Presumption? (Time is running out on the spurious oracles of Benny Hinn)” by G. Richard Fisher and M. Kurt Goedelman 211 expose the false and unfulfilled nature of so-called prophetic words of Benny Hinn. In their article, Mr. Hinn is quoted as predicting in his December 31st, 1989 New Years Eve message (at his church, the then Orlando Christian Center that is now known as the World Outreach Center), that in the 1990s there would be a proliferation of angelic manifestations, that God would judge and destroy the homosexual community of America, that there would be a major earthquake on the east coast of America and in places that hadn’t previously known earthquakes, that Fidel Castro would die, and that a “short man” who would be a world dictator would come on the scene.
This article was written in 1996, and we are now out of the nineties and beyond the year 2000. Have any angels come to your door? Has the homosexual community been destroyed by fire? Has there been a proliferation of earthquakes on the East Coast and throughout the United States? Is Fidel Castro dead yet? Has a short man become prominent in world politics? None of these predictions have come true and only one inaccurate prediction in the name of God qualifies one as a false prophet according to God’s Deuteronomy 18 standards. None of the things predicted by Mr. Hinn came to pass in the 1990s like he said they would. He also predicted that two “giants” of Christendom would die, one in their sleep and one from an illness. This did not happen either. The rise of false prophets predicted by Jesus is coming to pass, right before our eyes (Matthew 24:23-26). Mr. Hinn also fulfills Paul’s prophetic words about false teachers in the end times (1 Timothy 4:1-2; 2 Timothy 3:1-5). We need to watch and test all things, especially charlatans like Mr. Hinn. False prophets need to be exposed for what they are, messengers of darkness.
What Should Be Done with False Churches and False Prophets
When it becomes clear that a group is cultish and false or a person is a false prophet, what should be done? In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians he is inspired to write:
Disciple, we need to wake up and take a stand, we need to expose that which is false with the light of God’s Scripture truth. How do we expose such falsehood? It is first by withdrawing any support for such false entities. Then, it may be by sharing truth with someone we come into contact with who is caught up in such falsehood. It may be by writing a letter or supporting a ministry that exposes such falsehoods by standing for truth. We should be in God’s word and prayerfully depend on the Spirit to equip us to test all things to see whether they are of God and according to His truth. In Acts 17 we will consider this in greater detail when we come across the account of the Bereans.
The Spirit’s Leading is Often Confirmed by Fruitfulness in Ministry
The change from “they” to “we” here probably indicates that Luke, the human author of Acts, joined up with Paul and his company at this point (Acts 16:11-13). We see the troop led by Paul come to the prominent city of Philippi where a church may have been planted in the house of the first convert in the area named Lydia. Paul would later write one of his most moving epistles to the church in this city (Philippians). You can tell by the letter of Paul to the saints in Philippi that they were very beloved to him and that he cherished their fellowship (Philippians 1:3-7). He wrote this epistle to the Philippians from jail, yet it is a letter filled with joyfulness (Philippians 1:4, 18, 25; Philippians 2:2, 29; Philippians 3:1; Philippians 4:1, 4, 10).
Notice that it was the Lord who opened Lydia’s heart to understand the things spoken by Paul (Acts 16:14). We need to always pray that the Spirit gives people an ear to hear and understand the word being ministered to them and a heart to receive and submit to it. Later in Acts, Paul will bear testimony and mention the work of God through him by recollecting Christ’s calling on him, stating:
That should be our objective in the Spirit too.
In Revelation, Jesus exhorted the seven churches:
That is what we need to pray for so that our ministry can bear lasting fruit and souls would be saved and edified.
Confirming Spiritual Fruit
Here we see the Spirit confirming His will by way of the fruitful ministry of Paul to Lydia. The Spirit led Paul to where He wanted Him to minister, just like He had done with others in Acts (see Acts 8 and Philippians). This was a Divine appointment. What made Paul go down to the riverside? He was simply following the leading of the Spirit and a soul was saved as a result. The fruit of salvation in the life of Lydia confirmed the leading of the Spirit.
Notice here that fruitfulness does not always mean numbers; fruitfulness in ministry can simply mean lasting fruit, one soul saved (e.g., Lydia) who becomes a disciple of Jesus. God cares for individual souls and the Spirit may lead you to reach the soul He has targeted. Fruitfulness may equate to numerical response, but not always. Spiritual fruitfulness may also be equated with the edification of believers. Therefore, the Spirit can confirm His will and way via numerical response, individual response and or internal response to ministry.
Our faithful witness in the Spirit can be a source of great fruitfulness. For example, there is the account of how Edward Kimball gathered the nerve to witness and win the soul of a young shoe salesman named D.L. Moody to Christ. D.L. Moody went on to become one of the greatest evangelists in his world. But do you know THE REST OF THE STORY? D.L. Moody went to England and worked a profound change in the ministry of F.B. Meyer. F.B. Meyer, with his new evangelistic fervor, influenced J. Wilbur Chapman. Chapman helped in the ministry of converted baseball player Billy Sunday, who had a profound impact upon Mordacai Ham. And Mordacai Ham, holding a revival in North Carolina, led BILLY GRAHAM to Christ. And the man who started it all was a layman, Edward Kimball, who took seriously Christ's commission to be a witness in his world.
The Spirit’s Path to Spiritual Fruitfulness
How can a disciple become spiritually fruitful? Jesus told us that there are fields ripe for harvest:
The problem that is conveyed by Jesus here is that “the laborers are few.” The Spirit wants to lead the disciple to places of spiritual harvest, the fields ripe for the harvest. How can we be led by the Spirit to such fields ripe for harvest? There are eight things we need to take to heart if we are to be led by the Spirit into the ripe harvest fields like the apostles in Acts were.
First, spiritual fruitfulness must be preceded by spiritual rebirth. You cannot be led by the Spirit unless you have been born of the Spirit (John 3:5, 8; Romans 8:9, 14). To Titus Paul wrote:
Observe here that salvation is a work of the Holy Spirit, not our works, and only when one is regenerated by the Spirit can one do “good works” or be fruitful in a way pleasing to God.
Second, spiritual fruitfulness must be preceded by prayer. In the above verses from Jesus about the ripe harvest field, He says:
You won’t know where or when the Spirit is leading you in terms of a ripe harvest field, unless you are praying and seeking His direction to one. We need to be in prayer if we are to be led by the Spirit to a ripe field of spiritual harvest.
Third,spiritual fruitfulness begins in the servant disciple’s broken heart. In the parable of the Sower, Jesus said:
Jesus is talking about fruitfulness in this parable. The seed of the word is sown in the world and when it falls on good ground, it bears fruit. That is true of the fruit of salvation and that is also true for the disciple. If we are to be fruitful, we need to have the Spirit till or break up the hard ground of our heart. The Lord likens the hard ground of the heart as fallow ground. Through Jeremiah, He stated:
The Lord is speaking specifically to Israel through Jeremiah here, but the disciple can be hard too at times to the need of harvesting in the world. We need to pray that the Spirit will break our hearts for the lost and give us a desire to be used by Him to save them from their sin and God’s judgment. Read a few verses to this end:
In Acts, we have learned that in order to serve the Lord powerfully, those who have been born of the Spirit need to be subsequently empowered by the Spirit not only being within them but coming upon them (Acts 1:4-5, 8; Acts 2:1ff.). This empowerment is a work of the Spirit in the heart of a disciple. Remember and read again how Peter described the empowerment of the Spirit at the Jerusalem counsel:
This heart purification spoken of by Peter is purification from those things that would hinder and inhibit from serving God as well as receiving a pure perspective and Godly vision for service. If we are to find fruitful fields of spiritual harvest, we need to have the Spirit work on our hearts.
Fourth, spiritual fruitfulness is not a matter of our work, but living in the Spirit and letting the Spirit work in us. Paul writes to the Romans:
Working under the Law means that a person is attempting to be right with God or be used by God by working in their own strength. That will always prove futile and fail. Instead, we need to depend on Jesus in the Spirit. How can this be done?
Fifth, spiritual fruitfulness is preceded by dying to self. Jesus said:
Jesus here is, of course, speaking of His mission to go to the cross to serve as the just substitute and sin-bearer for the world (2 Corinthians 5:21). If we are to be led to the fields of spiritual fruitfulness, we need to die to self. To die to self means we no longer call the shots in our life; it means Jesus is the true Lord of our lives, and we are willing to die to our wants and desires. It means “To live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). Only when we are dead to our self (i.e., the flesh) can we be led by the Spirit to the fields of spiritual harvest. To become spiritually fruitful, we need to die to our dreams and live for His dreams for us; we need to die to our wants and desires and live for His wants and desires for us.
Sixth, spiritual fruitfulness requires we abide or cling to Jesus. Jesus said:
We can’t do anything fruitfully without Jesus, and therefore we need to abide or cling to Him in every way. We need to go to Him for every move we make. We need to live in the Spirit who bears witness of Jesus’ will in our lives if we are going to be led to the ripe fields of harvest (John 14:26; John 15:26). Jesus told His disciples that as they abided in Him they would produce fruit in ministry, lasting and real spiritual fruit. How’s your fruit? Are you abiding in Jesus and relying on the power of the Spirit? If so, you will be sustained through hard times and the Spirit will turn even the hard times into times of fruitfulness (Romans 8:28).
Seventh, spiritual fruitfulness requires we yield to God, not ourselves or the enemy. The apostle Paul wrote to the Romans:
The word “present” in the King James Version of the Bible is translated “yield.” Now what does this mean? Think of how the word “yield” is used as a road sign. When you come to a point on the highway where traffic is supposed to merge, a “yield” sign directs which traffic has the right of way. In the same way, when we come to points in our lives where choices need to be made, we need to give God the right of way to direct us and merge us onto His highway to fruitful spiritual harvest. This reveals a great Biblical truth; when and if you yield to God, you will yield a great gain of spiritual harvest and fruitfulness.
If you are going to be led to the ripe fields of spiritual harvest, it may mean fewer sports activities and less time to watch TV (e.g., QVC or HSN). It will mean doing fewer things for you and doing all things for the Lord. You may go to a ball game, but you will go with a heart to find the field that is ripe for harvest. You need to be a slave to God and His willing servant with His priorities if you are to be led to that field ripe for harvest. We need to surrender ourselves to Him and adopt a servant’s, a slave’s obedient attitude to the Lord.
Eight, spiritual fruitfulness results when you let the Spirit WORK in and through you, and you WORK in the Spirit. Spiritual harvesting is hard work (in the Spirit). But it is definitely worth the effort. What does that effort look like? Peter describes it by saying:
This is what the Lord wants to do in you so that He can use you to harvest spiritual fruit (Philippians 1:6; Philippians 2:12-13).
Now, I am not saying that we are to work in our own strength, that would be legalism and that would only lead to a frustrating fruitless harvest. We are always to do, whatever we do, in the enabling power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8). When we work in our own strength, the result is a burden too heavy for us to bear. Jesus called out to those overburdened and bending to the breaking point under their own strength in legalism that they should take His yoke which was easy (because He knows the right way to do things) and His burden which was light (because He carries that excess part of the burden that is too much for us – Matthew 11:28-30). Paul was inspired to write to the Galatians that when one of their fellow believers was overburdened they should help them and together such loving cooperation was a fulfillment of the “law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). However, in the same passage, Paul points out that each person has a load, a responsibility, a part to do (Galatians 6:3-5). If your burden is threatening to break you, it may be that you are usurping the position of Jesus to do work in your life. There should be no burnout in the believer’s life because Jesus bears our burdens. On the other hand, we are not to sit back like Christian couch potatoes while others in the flock do all the work of harvesting. Everyone has a spiritual gift (Romans 12; 1 Corinthians 12; Ephesians 4) to use in the body of Christ to help in the harvest; there is enough work to go around for everyone and no one should be sitting back and lounging around while a few do all the work in the body of Christ.
This is what it takes to be spiritually fruitful. This is really the practical outgrowth and manifestation of what happens when the Holy Spirit leads living sacrifices. It is in the spirit of a living sacrifice that these eight harvesting tools are used. It is not something we do but is something we surrender to the Spirit to do in and through us. He will give us His desires as we delight in Him to do this in and through us (Psalm 37:4-5). Lord do it!
The Spirit’s Leading Is Opposed By Demons and Trouble
Did you ever feel the Spirit come upon you and call you to prayer? There are times when you get that urge to just get alone with the Lord and pray to Him. Did you ever notice what happens when you try to follow that desire to pray to the Lord? The phone rings, the kids run amuck, a salesman or friend comes to the door, or some other annoyance to distract you from your time of prayer. It is very interesting that the incident with the salve girl happened when Paul and Silas were going to prayer. Satan does not want Christians to pray. He doesn’t want you to pray because He knows that when a believer prays suddenly he is fighting an uphill doomed battle because God is factored into the equation. There is an old saying that goes something like this, “Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon their knees (in prayer).” When we pray, we are declaring our dependence upon God, and when we do that, the Spirit helps our weaknesses and helps us to pray according to the will of God (Romans 8:26). When, through the Spirit, God is called into our circumstance, Satan knows he’s a goner.
Before every service at our church, we gather to pray. When we gather as a group to pray we ask the Lord’s anointing on our worship, the teaching, our fellowship, and our prayers. As the pastor, I usually close the time of pre-service prayer and when I do, I am always sure to ask the Lord to protect us from Satan’s attacks and schemes aimed at undermining and thwarting the Lord’s work in our church. Sometimes I will ask the Lord to remove Satan out of sight and out of mind. I ask the Lord to remove him far enough away that we won’t even hear his tantrum, his kicking and screaming for not being allowed to intrude on God’s holy work. I believe, (as we will see in a moment further on in our study) that when we come to God in the name of Jesus asking for His protection from Satanic influence, God always answers that prayer and protects His flock. The God of peace soon crushes Satan under our feet (Romans 16:20).
The enemy sometimes uses the strategy of annoyance. This should be responded to in the Spirit, firmly. But when ministry in the Spirit leads to material losses for those in the world, the reaction is often troublesome and painful. These verses give us a very literal picture of the spiritual warfare those who are led by the Spirit can sometimes expect to encounter and how to handle such attacks as experienced by Paul and his missionary team.
The Presence of the Snake (Satan)
The word translated “divination” comes from the Greek term PUTHON (Strong’s #4436…poo´–thone) or literally, “a Python.” 212 Earlier in Acts 14, we saw how the enemies of the gospel sought to “poison” the minds of the people (Acts 14:2). In Acts 14, we saw the venom of bitterness and division. In Acts 16, we see the snake from whom the venom comes.
A python is a type of serpent or snake and when we look at the Bible, the serpent is associated with Satan from the beginning to the very end of Scripture. This is clearly seen in the following verses:
These verses show that the Bible associates the serpent or dragon with Satan, and it is not an accident that the woman encountered by Paul is said to be “possessed with a spirit of divination”, which is translated from Greek terms that associate a python or serpent snake with the possession.
One commentator makes the following remarks about these verses:
The English words, a spirit by which she predicted the future, translate two Greek words, “a spirit, a python.” This concept goes back to the Greek city of Delphi where the god Apollo was believed to be embodied in a python snake. The original priestess at Delphi was purported to be possessed by Apollo and thereby able to predict the future; therefore anyone possessed by the python spirit could foretell coming events. No doubt an actual demon gave such a person predictive powers. Demons took advantage of people’s worship of false gods (cf. 17:23; 1 Corinthians 10:20).213
Furthermore, another commentator adds:
The demoniac girl who followed Paul and disturbed his preaching services was miraculously healed. Spirit of divination (Greek puthon). The priestess of Delphi was called “the python” after the serpent that had guarded the oracle, and the word was also used of soothsayers. Such a person was thought to be inspired by the god Apollo who was associated with the giving of oracles. This girl was demon-possessed, and her uncontrolled utterances were considered to be the utterances of a god. Paul exorcised a demon from this slave girl and set her free. She had previously followed them around chanting, "These men are the servants of the most high God " (vs. 17). Just as a demon had recognized Jesus as the “Holy One” (Mark 1:24), so this demon recognized the divine power upon Paul and his companions. The demon was cast out of her in the name of Jesus Christ. Only by His personal power and authority resident in the one who uses His name can such be accomplished214.
In his book entitled, Occult Invasion, Dave Hunt (“occult” refers to the practice of seeking mystic, hidden knowledge through magic and calling on the spirit world) points out that imagery of a serpent (and dragon) is a common figure in the occult, mythology, and religions. In Haitian voodoo the creator of the universe and the source of all true wisdom is the Great Serpent. In addition to the serpent figure is the figure of the dragon which is also prominent in religions. The dragon as a serpent related figure is commonly seen in Asian religions. Hinduism, a polytheistic religion, has three chief gods one of which is Shiva. Shiva is pictured as having serpents entwined in his hair. The dragon and serpent figures are found in Yoga (e.g., kundalini inner power is symbolized as coming from the base of the human spine which is illustrated by a serpent.) Other examples are Quetzalcoatl, a feathered serpent of the Mayans; Hopi Indians do a snake dance. Dave Hunt in his book quotes Manly P. Hall, (an authority and practitioner of the occult) who writes:
Serpent worship in some form permeated nearly all parts of the earth. The serpent mounds of the American Indian; the carved stone snakes of Central and South America; the hooded cobras of India; Python, the great snake of Scandinavia; the Nagas of Burma, Siam and Cambodia…the mystic serpent of Orpheus; the snakes at the oracle of Delphi…the sacred serpents preserved in the Egyptian temples; the Uraeus coiled upon the foreheads of the Pharaohs and priests – all these bear witness to the universal veneration in which the snake was held…[He goes on to say] The serpent is…the symbol and prototype of the Universal Savior, who redeems the world by giving creation the knowledge of itself.…It has long been viewed as the emblem of immortality. It is the symbol of reincarnation…215
More closely connected to our passage in Acts, Dave Hunt states:
In Greek mythology a serpent was wrapped around the Orphic egg, the symbol of the cosmos. Likewise at Delphi, Greece (for centuries the location of the most sought–after and influential oracle of the ancient world, consulted by potentates from as far away as North Africa and Asia Minor), the three legs of the oracular tripod in the inner shrine of the temple were intertwined with serpents. Or, as one further example, consider the Greek and Roman God of medicine, Aesculapius, whose symbol was a serpent-entwined staff from which the symbol of modern medicine, the caduceus, was derived.
In the temples erected in his honor, Aesculapius was worshiped with snakes because of an ancient myth, which said that he had received a healing herb at the mouth of the serpent. Here, quite clearly, we have the Genesis story perverted: The serpent is not the deceiver and destroyer but the Savior of mankind, replacing Jesus Christ….
There can be no doubt that the serpent, who came to Eve, is identified everywhere (except the Bible) with the occult, and is honored as embodying that mysterious force which occultists of all kinds seek to enlist in the accomplishment of their desires. The Bible, on the other hand, identifies the serpent with Satan and declares that those who seek his occult powers eventually find themselves entrapped as his slaves and lost their souls.216
That last phrase from Mr. Hunt, “those who seek his [Satan’s] occult powers eventually find themselves entrapped as his slaves and lost their souls” is almost what happened to the slave girl encountered by Paul. The favorable light in which the serpent is used in pagan and non-Christian religions is evidence of how Satan deceives the world and presents himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 4:4; 2 Corinthians 11:14). How can someone involved in and even possessed by such demonic influence be freed from it? This passage we are studying shows us.
Removing the Serpent IN JESUS’ NAME
How can someone be freed from demonic influence? When Paul recounts the call of Christ on his life, he says that Christ called him to free sinners from the power of Satan. Paul testifies of his calling later in Acts by recounting Jesus’ words as:
Now how does the Spirit through a disciple free someone “from the power of Satan to God”?
Paul did not free the possessed slave girl in his own name, in the name of the church, or the name of anyone other than the name of Jesus. He commanded the demon in the girl to come out of her in the name of Jesus; this is the key.
In the Bible, a name is very significant because it represents the substance or nature of the one it represents. When in the Old Testament Moses asks to see God’s glory, the Lord puts Moses in the cleft of a rock and passes before him declaring His name by proclaiming His attributes (Exodus 34:5-7). “The name of Jesus” refers to the nature and substance of who Jesus is. When we look at the New Testament we see a number of things connected to the name of Jesus.
When we get toward the end of the last book of the Bible, we are shown a vital association with the name of Jesus. In Revelation 19 at the Second Coming of Jesus, He is described in the following way:
Why this designation for the name of Jesus? Because the Jesus that is real, that is our Grace-Giver, Savior, Healer, Sustainer, the One worth suffering for, the One we ought to give thanks to, the One to Whom every knee shall bow and tongue confess that He is Lord, is the Jesus who reveals Himself in the word of God. Jesus is the “word made flesh” (John 1:1-2, 14). Jesus is the One that the entire volume of God’s word is dedicated to revealing (Hebrews 10:7). The Jesus who reveals Himself in Scripture is the only Jesus whose name has authority (see 2 Corinthians 11:3-4).
Authority in The Name of Jesus
There is authority in the name of Jesus. When, in the leading of the Holy Spirit, the disciple proclaims the name of Jesus and its authority, the enemy must obey. Paul commands the demon to leave the slave girl in the name of Jesus. There is authority in the name of Jesus because Jesus defeated the devil on the cross and made a public spectacle of him. Paul wrote to the Colossians:
On the cross, Jesus knocked out the teeth of the devil, who prowls around like a roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8-9). Satan is still a formidable foe because of his genius and deceptiveness, but when he comes up against the name of Jesus, his bark or roar is worse than his bite. In the name of Jesus, in the power and leading of the Holy Spirit, we in Christ, can gain victory over the enemy Satan.
The word “command” is translated from the Greek term PARAGGELLO (Strong’s #3853 – par-ang-gel´–lo) which means, “to transmit a message,…charge,…command…declare.”217 Paul was merely speaking as one who was an ambassador of God; he was not stepping out in his own strength or will. Also, the form of this word “command” (Present/Active/Indicative) denotes a persistent continuous action by Paul in commanding the demon to leave the girl in the name of Jesus. He may not have simply named the name of Jesus and demanded the demon leave the girl once but may have had to repeat the command persistently until the demon left.
The command spoken to the demonic spirit in the girl in the name of Jesus in the power of the Spirit led to her liberation (Acts 16:18). And the phrase “that very hour” tells us that while Paul’s commanding was more than just a one statement command (Present/Active/Indicative of “command”) it did not last days or weeks or months, but was in “that very hour,” or probably not more than an hour. Demons cannot stand before the authority of the name of Jesus. God has promised to crush Satan under the feet of the one who goes out in the name of Jesus (Romans 16:20). Greater is the Lord who resides in the believer than any demonic power (1 John 4:4). If we resist Satan and his hordes, they must flee (James 4:7).
It was an awesome manifestation of the Spirit’s power and a clear indication that the serpent Satan is no match for the Spirit’s work in the name of Jesus. But do you think this awesome miracle was well received? No it was not. Why? Let’s see.
Possessed by a Profit Margin Mentality
When this girl was freed from demonic possession, it did not lead to rejoicing by those who had been using her for their own gain, it led to an uproar because they had lost a source of profit (Acts 16:19). The result was the apostles were beaten and thrown in jail (Acts 16:20-24). These “masters” or owners of this possessed girl saw the girl not as a human being, but as a piece of property, a possession to make a profit. This shows the depth of their sin. There are those who are so deeply devoted to their sinful ways that they view and treat human beings as objects, as pleasure possessions.
Jesus, speaking in the parable of the sower, explained that the seed of the gospel that fell amongst the thorns was like the person who allows the pleasures of this world to choke off the word and its potential fruit. He said:
You see, the girl was possessed by the python Satan, but her owners were possessed by their sinful pleasure-seeking-possession mentality. They might have been affected by this great work of the Spirit to free this girl, but they were hard and closed to God’s work because of their worldliness. Such a mentality can be just as enslaving, according to Paul, who wrote:
To be enslaved by your possessions like these men were, is to be a servant of your flesh and ultimately prey for the serpent Satan.
The apostle John wrote that the love of the world was diametrically opposed to loving the Lord. He said:
Nothing this world has to offer can compare with what God offers us in Christ. If you haven’t turned from your sins, sought forgiveness through faith in Jesus and received Him into your heart, do it now! Don’t let possessions or worldly things get between you and God. And if you have been saved from your sins through faith in Jesus, maybe you’ve slipped back into a profit-margin mindset that is hindering your walk with Jesus. Don’t compromise with the world; give your heart to Jesus. Seek His kingdom first and all these other things will be taken care of (Matthew 6:33-34).
Expecting Opposition
As we study through Acts, we see a great deal of opposition encountered by the apostles. We shouldn’t be surprised that they, or even we, encounter opposition in ministry. Jesus never promised His disciples a rose garden. Quite the contrary, He warned that His disciples would face trails and hardships in this world. Below are a few statements to this effect from Jesus:
If you remember, in Acts 14, the apostles made sure to tell those who had been saved that they could realistically expect to face hardships related to their walk with Jesus (Acts 14:22). Just because you encounter difficulty, doesn’t mean you are not where the Spirit wants you.
Are you going through difficult times? Persecution? Are you doubting the Lord’s leading? Check the word of God to see if you are compliant and seek Godly counsel and, above all, pray it through. The Spirit will guide you.
Demonic Influence or The Flesh?
There are those who see any obstacle to attaining something they want as an attack by the devil or his demons. There are those who attribute disease and hardship to demonic activity. They see the demon of lust, the demon of ill-temper, the demon of covetousness, the demon of cold, the demon of anything and everything. Such people also at times see those who oppose them as being demonically oppressed. They did not see the oppression before that person disagreed with them, but now that that person disagrees with them; they must be oppressed by the devil. It should be obvious to see that such views are often self-serving and rooted in the flesh of the accuser. Such views give too much credit to the devil. Satan does attack and such attacks can range from annoyance, as we see in Acts 16 here with Paul, to severe hardships as we see in the life of Job (see Job 1; Job 2).
We are definitely in a spiritual battle (Ephesians 6:10-18). Indeed, Satan is like a vicious lion prowling around looking for people to devour (1 Peter 5:8-9). But we are also in a war with our flesh (Galatians 5:16-17). The two are often connected in that Satan incites and pours fuel on the fires of our flesh by way of temptations (Satan is a tempter – Matthew 4:3 and 1 Thessalonians 3:5). To overcome the flesh we need to walk in the Spirit (Galatians and see previous discussion in this chapter above). The Lord gives us promises in His word regarding Satan and our war with Him. Jesus has defeated Satan on the cross; Satan is a loser (Colossians 2:14-15). Satan may be seeking to sift us or separate us from the Lord, but Jesus is praying for us (Luke 22:31-32; Hebrews 7:25). God promises to crush Satan under the feet of the believer (Romans 16:20). God tells us in His word that if we submit to Him and resist Satan, that Satan must flee us (James 4:7). He tells us that He dwells in us and is greater than Satan who tries to hit us from the outside (1 John 4:4). Satan is no match for Jesus who indwells us by the Spirit. When Satan comes knocking on our door, we simply have to let Jesus answer the door.
Satan is a liar and murderer (John 8:44). He is looking to destroy believers, especially in any way he can. But we make a mistake in attributing all our obstacles and differences of opinion to the work of demons. Sometimes God is trying to tell us we are wrong or going in the wrong direction when we come to a closed door or obstacle. It is walking in the Spirit and having ears sensitive to His voice that we will be able to be wise in His ways and negotiate the path of His will in this life. Don’t give Satan more credit than he deserves. Don’t forget your fleshly inclinations are at war against the Spirit who is in you. Don’t forget to prayerfully seek the Spirit’s leading in discerning the difference between the two.
When the Spirit Leads, We Have Joy and Even Hard Times Turn Out For Good
When you are walking in the Spirit, nothing shakes your faith. Prison didn’t dampen the spirits of Paul and Silas; they knew God was in control (Acts 16:25). They knew they were in the center of the Spirit’s will, and this was a source of great comfort and joy. Now had they been in prison for some sinful act or as a result of rebelling against the Lord, they would not have had such peace, and they would have been very anxious.
Because Paul and Silas had been led by the Spirit, they could be persecuted and still have that inner joy. Joy is not like happiness. Happiness depends on happenings. I am happy when things go my way, when people like me, when I get a raise or something good happens to me. But when someone says something mean to me or I get persecuted, happiness becomes fleeting and dissipates easily. Joy is not like that. Joy transcends circumstances because joy depends on Jesus, on my certainty and assurance from the Spirit that I am in the center of Christ’s will for my life. Paul and Silas knew that they were right where God wanted them even though they were in prison. Jesus had forewarned them of such things (Matthew 10:16-22), now they were experiencing them just like He said they would. Therefore, they could rejoice because, for them, the most important thing for them was to be in the will of God, not simply to live in comfort. Paul would later write of this attitude in his letter to the Philippians, as he was inspired to say:
How about you? Do you feel imprisoned? Are you able to maintain a joyful outlook despite your life circumstances? That is God’s will for you in the Spirit. Why don’t you pause a moment right now, pray, repent if necessary, and ask the Lord to work in you a joyful heart and attitude that will last no matter what!
A prison is a small obstacle to overcome for God (Acts 16:26). Even prison can lead to an opportunity for someone’s salvation (Acts 16:27-30). When you follow the leading of the Spirit, one saved soul leads to another, and another, and another (Acts 16:31-34).
The Spirit’s Good Thing – “Sirs, What Must I Do To Be Saved?
We should examine the good that God brought through the Spirit in this difficult situation so that we can be used by the Spirit to bring that same good to others. The salvation of the prison guard and his family is described in the following way:
The guard was about to kill himself when he saw that the earthquake had wrenched open the prison cell doors (Acts 16:26-27). He was going to do this because he was responsible for the prisoners and would likely have been executed under Romans law as a penalty for letting them escape. But before he can commit suicide, Paul calls out to him that they haven’t fled the scene but are still there (Acts 16:28). Paul must have sensed in the Spirit that God had more work for him to do in that prison. Paul and Silas were at peace in this prison (Acts 16:25). When you are at peace, it indicates you are in God’s will and that He is going to use you. This peace and Paul and Silas’s integrity to remain imprisoned and not try to escape impressed the guard. The guard must have also heard how Paul and Silas were used by God to liberate the demon-possessed girl from her plight. All of this led to the jailor’s plea, “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30).
Paul’s answer is of the utmost importance, not only for what he says, but also for what he does not say. To be saved Paul says the jailor must:
What does this verse and those with it in context tell us about what is needed to be saved?
First, salvation is not based on works. Notice what Paul did not say. He did not say, “You have to join or attend my church.” He did not say, “You have to be a really good person and do certain good works.” He did not say, “You have to be baptized” (though they were baptized after they believed – Acts 16:33). Paul did not prescribe certain rituals or sacraments or give him a scapular to wear. Paul didn’t tell him to go on a pilgrimage or ask for money for indulgences. No, none of these things or anything other than “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” was necessary for the jailor to be saved. Salvation is not based on works we do, but on the work Jesus has done and that we receive by faith (Romans 4:5; Ephesians 2:1-9; Titus 3:3-6).
A very important point to grasp here is that faith (belief) is not a work. Paul is later moved by the Holy Spirit to make this contrast in his doctrinal section of the letter to the Romans when he says:
Faith is not a work, and we see this clearly as faith and works are put side by side in the Scripture. Faith is contrasted with works showing that, as far as God is concerned, faith is not a work.
Second, the jailor recognized he was a sinner and needed to be saved. The jailor must have seen the difference in Paul and Silas who were joyful in the midst of the trial of imprisonment. That witness was used by the Spirit to pay soul-harvesting dividends when the earthquake hit and busted open the doors of the jail. What was even more shocking to the jailor than the earthquake was the fact that these holy prisoners did not seek to escape but were more concerned with their souls than their own freedom. The contrast between himself and the apostles must have brought a holy conviction of his own sinful state. The Bible tells us we are all sinners who have broken God’s just law and are under the just penalty for such sin (Romans 3; Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:1-3). The Spirit convinced him of his need for salvation (John 16:8-11).
Third, salvation comes through faith alone in “the Lord Jesus Christ.” Faith alone in Jesus alone saves from sin and God 's judgment (Romans 4:5; Romans 5:1-2). Trusting entirely in the finished work of Jesus to save you was what was required. Because God was in Jesus reconciling the world to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:19), the Bible states therefore that God is both Just and Justifier in salvation (Romans 3:26). This is simply amazing. For anyone to try to add by works, or add-ons, to the grace and salvation God provides in the gospel, is to not only underestimate the sufficient work of Jesus on the cross, but it is to minimize and blaspheme it. Jesus must be trusted as Lord, Master, complete and only Savior from sin in salvation. Jesus must be received as one’s Lord of life and salvation because He is “the Christ” the Messiah and Savior (see John 1:12; Ephesians 2:4-9; Titus 3:3-7). It was Jesus alone who was made sin for us that we could become righteous before God through faith in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus said His work of salvation was completed on the cross when He cried, “It is finished!” (John 19:30).
Fourth,salvation is based on individual personal decisions. We need to understand that the phrase, “and your household” does not mean that those in the jailors family were saved on the basis of his faith in Jesus. It states:
These words indicate that the word of God and the gospel contained therein was shared with the jailor and those in his family old enough to receive it. On the basis of the gospel of God revealed in His word, they believed and were saved and each of those who personally decided to receive Jesus as Savior by faith was baptized. There is no reason to believe that there were infants in this household who were saved by being baptized. Such interpretations are based on mere empty speculation and have no basis.
On the flip side of this, we need to understand that God has created human beings with a will. Human beings have the capacity to make decision by exerting the will God has created in them. Some doctrinal views (e.g., Calvinism) hold that people do not have a human will or free will. This conflicts with Jesus’ words when He said:
Recognizing and saying that a person has to make a choice to either receive or reject the gospel in order to be saved does not affect the omnipotent status of God who created people with that capacity. God is sovereign and in control enough so that He can give human beings a free will and still be the Almighty.
Therefore, in Acts 16:31, Paul was probably speaking prophetically when he said, “you and your household” would be saved. The gospel and the way to be saved are found in God’s word and God’s word requires individual decisions to receive Jesus personally in order to be saved. Being born into a Christian family or even being baptized as an infant does not save a child. A person is saved if and only if they make a personal individual faith decision to receive Jesus as their Savior. (Those who die as infant’s or who die before birth such as in abortions, are saved by God’s grace and Jesus’ provision Who died for the sins of the world – 1 John 2:1-2)
Fifth, salvation is based on the gospel and the Jesus revealed in God’s word. Remember what it states:
The gospel was not Paul’s opinion or something new he had concocted; it was based on God’s word. Paul did not have a pocket New Testament with him. When it speaks of God’s word, it is referring to the Old Testament. Paul may have shared how people in the Old Testament were justified by faith (e.g., Genesis 15:6; Habakkuk 2:4) and that Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies of Messiah (e.g., Isaiah 53) and therefore should be the object of that faith. Because of God’s prophetic signs, Jesus could be proved and clearly identified as the Messiah and Savior.
It should be noted here, Salvation in the Jesus of the Bible and not “another Jesus” (2 Corinthians 11:3-4) makes all the difference in salvation. If you put your faith in the wrong or a false Jesus, you are not saved. You may even sincerely put your faith in a false Jesus, but you will sincerely unsaved.
Sixth, there is fruit evidencing salvation. The jailor and those in his family who accepted Jesus as Savior were changed. We see the change in these verses:
The jailor acted with a servant’s heart and tended to the wounds of the apostles (Acts 16:33a). This was a very un-jailor-like action and shows a definite impact on this man’s life. The jailor and those in his household who were saved were baptized, which is a way of witnessing outwardly to all that an inward work of God has taken place in their heart (Acts 16:33b). There was a noted impact and fruit that resulted in their decision to put their faith in Jesus to be saved. (See Matthew 13 and Jesus’ parable of the Sower).
Seventh, salvation results in joy. It states:
When a person is saved from their sin, the Holy Spirit comes to live within their heart, bringing the presence of Jesus to them (John 14:16-17, 26; John 15:26; Romans 8:9-16). When you are in the presence of Jesus, you experience His joy (Psalm 16:11; Galatians 5:22; Jude 1:24).
The joy of salvation for this jailor was compounded by the salvation of those in his household. The apostle John said:
What a joy it is when one’s family is part of the family of God in Christ. For those of you who have loved ones who are not saved, maybe children of spouses, why not pause a moment and pray for their eyes to be opened and that they would be saved (Acts 26:18).
The Joy of Knowing That You Know Jesus and Are Saved
Why were the jailor and his family so joyful? Why did they rejoice? It is a joyful thing to know that you know Jesus and are saved from your sins. It is joy unspeakable and full of glory to have the inner witness of the Holy Spirit that confirms and assures you that you are saved from your sin and right with God through faith in Christ. The Bible reveals that we can know we are saved from our sins and have eternal life in Christ. This is referred to as the assurance of salvation.
Assurance of salvation brought by the Holy Spirit in a believer is what separates Biblical Christianity from all other religions (and unfortunately some confines of Christianity). Islam, Roman Catholicism, and even Calvinism teach that a person cannot be certain of their salvation.218 This is in direct conflict with what the Bible says. The Spirit of Scripture tells us we can have an inner witness; an assurance that we are God’s and secure in Him. We see this in the following verses:
When a person receives Jesus as their Savior and Lord by faith in Him, the Spirit regenerates that person entering their heart and bringing the presence of Jesus into their being (Titus 3:4-6; John 14:16, 26; John 15:26; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20). The presence of the Holy Spirit in the saved person’s heart brings an assuring presence and holy confidence that one is saved from their sin and has eternal life through faith in Christ. That certainty is the great difference between Biblical, Spirit-ordained Christianity and religion (i.e., works oriented understandings of God that focus on what a person must do to be right with God rather than on what God has done to provide a way for lost sinful people to get right with Him) in all its forms. You can know that you are saved and have eternal life.
These seven things we learned about salvation are the good that the Spirit was able to bring during the course of leading the apostles through a difficult situation. Perhaps the salvation of this jailor and his family and what we would learn from it is exactly the reason why the Spirit brought the apostles through this jail trial, rather than save them from it. Think of what the jailor, and we, would have lost if the Spirit had simply spared Paul and Silas! The Spirit knows what is best and He will not waste time. We need to trust Him because who knows how He intends to use us.
You Can’t Intimidate a Spirit Led and Spirit-Empowered Minister
Paul didn’t allow the authorities to push him around or intimidate him. Being a Christlike minister doesn’t mean we should allow ourselves to always be easily brushed aside or pushed around. In the Spirit we are often led to be bold and take a stand for what is right (Ephesians 6:10-11). There is a time to stand up to governing authorities.
Paul was bold in the Spirit and even feisty at times, as the above passage indicates. He would not be intimidated by the attacks brought against him in ministry. Paul went through many trials in ministry and through them all he prevailed in the power of the Spirit. In his letter to the Corinthians he shared a bit about his experiences and his testimony gives us great hope. If the Spirit helped him, He will also help us. Paul wrote:
Paul went through a lot as the Spirit led him, but he never gave up, and never rebelled against God. Paul always submitted to the leading of the Spirit and God used him mightily. When you submit to the leading of the Spirit, no matter what, He will bear much fruit in you and through you.
Conclusion
Dr. David Livingston served as a missionary explorer to Africa from 1841-1873. He left his medical practice in London to spread the gospel in the heartland of the African continent and fought the Arab slave trade in the process. He became the best known and most loved of missionaries to Africa. He traveled a total of 29,000 miles during his missionary life. In 1873, David Livingston was found dead in an African hut, where he died on his knees in prayer. David Livingston died on his knees in prayer. What a way to go! When he died, those who had been blessed by his ministry buried his heart under a tree in Africa and carried his embalmed body on a one-year journey to the sea where it could be taken to his homeland of England and buried there. In England, he received burial honors due a prince or king. What did this great partner of Jesus say about his life? Listen:
People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Can that be called a sacrifice, which is simply paid back as a small part of the great debt owing to our God, which we can never repay? Is that a sacrifice which brings its own reward of healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of glorious destiny hereafter?
Away with such a word, such a view, and such a thought! It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say, rather, it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering or danger now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause and cause the spirit to waver and sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall hereafter be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice. Of this we ought not to talk when we remember the great sacrifice which He made who left His Father's throne on high to give Himself for us. – David Livingston, missionary to Africa.
Nothing God can ask of us is too much in light of the sacrifice of Jesus. We need to trust the Spirit completely.
A young new minister was walking with an older, more seasoned minister in the garden one day. Feeling a bit insecure about what God had for him to do, he was asking the older preacher for some advice. The older preacher walked up to a rosebush and handed the young preacher a rosebud and told him to open it without tearing off any petals. The young preacher looked in disbelief at the older preacher and was trying to figure out what a rosebud could possibly have to do with his wanting to know the will of God for his life and ministry. But because of his great respect for the older preacher, he proceeded to try to unfold the rose, while keeping every petal intact…It wasn't long before he realized how impossible this was to do. Noticing the younger preacher's inability to unfold the rosebud without tearing it, the older preacher began to recite the following poem…
It is only a tiny rosebud,
A flower of God 's design;
But I cannot unfold the petals
With these clumsy hands of mine.
The secret of unfolding flowers
Is not known to such as I.
God opens this flower so easily,
But in my hands they die.
If I cannot unfold a rosebud,
This flower of God 's design,
Then how can I have the wisdom
To unfold this life of mine
So I’ll trust in God for leading
Each moment of my day.
I will look to God for guidance
In each step of the way.
The path that lies before me,
Only my Lord knows.
I’ll trust God to unfold the moments,
Just as He unfolds the rose.
It is my prayer that we be led by the Spirit and have a strong assurance of His leading so that we can experience His joy no matter what circumstance we find ourselves in. That is God’s will for us, and He will bring it to pass, as we present ourselves to Him as living sacrifices. Let the Spirit unfold your life like a rose.
208 James Strong, New Strong’s Dictionary of Hebrew and Greek Words [computer file], electronic ed., Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997, ©1996.
209 W. E. Vine, Merrill F. Unger and William White, Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words [computer file], electronic ed., Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997, ©1996.
210 See David A. Reed, Ed. Index of Watch Tower Errors, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House) 1990.
211 This article and audio recordings with written transcripts of the messages by Mr. Hinn, can be accessed at www.pfo.org.
212 James Strong, New Strong’s Dictionary of Hebrew and Greek Words [computer file], electronic ed., Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997, ©1996.
213 John F. Walvoord, and Roy B. Zuck, The Bible Knowledge Commentary, (Wheaton, Illinois: Scripture Press Publications, Inc.) 1983, 1985.
214 Jerry Falwell, executive editor; Edward E. Hinson and Michael Kroll Woodrow, general editors, KJV Bible Commentary [computer file], electronic ed., Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997, ©1994.
215 Dave Hunt, Occult Invasion (Eugene, OR: harvest House Pubs) 1998. pages 107-108
216 Ibid. pages 108-109
217 James Strong, New Strong’s Dictionary of Hebrew and Greek Words [computer file], electronic ed., Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997, ©1996.
218 Dave Hunt, What Love is This? (Sisters OR: Loyal Pub.) 2002. pages 378-379.
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