THE GUIDANCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Acts 16.6-7.16-18

THE GUIDANCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

The Holy Spirit of the Lord sometimes guides people wherever they go, just like it described in verses 6-7. In these verses Holy Spirit guides the missionary work of Paul and Timothy, but in other places of the Bible the Holy Spirit of the Lord guides other people in kingship, in battle, in prophesying, in teaching, and very much in everything else.

Upon what kind things GOD chooses people to influencing them and guiding them is known only to GOD, because He know the hearts of all people on Earth, and He chooses them according to His Own standards and requirements.

So, in this chapter, the Holy Spirit of the Lord forbid Paul and Timothy to go to the towns of Asia Minor, but the Holy Spirit of the Lord guided Paul and Silas to Lydia's house, to Thyatira of Greece (v 9).

Mention of Timothy in this chapter perhaps ends on the verse 8, and up to this point it is unknown where Timothy actually spent his time.

The first mention of Silas as a companion of Paul starts from the verse 19. But Silas most likely was with Paul as soon as Paul left Asia and headed to Greece, because Silas mentioned together with Paul in Thyatira of Greece (13-40).

(Verses 16-18)

THE SPIRIT OF DIVINATION

The Bible describes many different spirits in its context. Here we have a spirit of divination, which means that the girl who possessed it was a sorcerer and able foretell the future or even recognize people who they actually are.

As it indicated, she was bondservant, means slave (16-18), and has no other choice but obeying her masters. How she received this gift and why it was given to her is not known, but the fact remains as fact, she possessed this rare ability and successfully used it to benefit her masters.

She quickly recognized Paul and Silas as, "the bondservants of the Most High GOD," (17) and their mission she described as, "who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation."

The precision with which she described Paul and Silas is amazing, and there is no doubt that she is truly possessed the ability to see very much everything about a person and his or her destiny. No wonder she made her master extremely wealthy by foretelling everything about a person she was guided to and the destiny of any individual that paid very well for her masters.

In this case, because such great gift and power was not used in proper way and turned to generate only profit and nothing else, this ability certainly was not given by GOD, and because of it Paul was able to extort this spirit of divination from the girl who "greatly annoyed" Paul when she for "many days" revealed who they are and their mission (18).

The words of the girl did not provide any good for Paul and Silas, attracting unwanted attention to them and their mission, and actually can be considered as unnecessary flattery or even mockery because it was done for so many days on end (Proverbs 27.14, 29.5).

This event probably occurred in Thyatira of Greece there the Lydia lived (14). Greeks in general are very protective of their numerous gods and such revealing of Paul and Silas could cause only trouble and not friendliness of locals toward them.

So, Paul extorted the spirit of divination from the girl, but the trouble for Paul and his companions came in form of "proclaiming customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans." (21). They perhaps meant being Roman citizens no matter of the nationality, because most likely Thyatira was a one of many other Roman colonies.

Because Romans themselves have many different gods, Gospel preaching by Paul and Silas and their title as, "bondservants of the MOST HIGH GOD," was not welcome in this city.

This story has some similarity with the story of Paul and Elimas (Acts 13.6-11), in which Elimas tried to buy Holy Spirit in order to profit from it but was cursed by Paul. These two episodes and other similar to these events revealed one important meaning and conclusion that profiting from the power of the Holy Spirit or from power given by Satan, at the end will not benefit anyone.