(v.14)"And a certain woman named Lydia,a seller of purple,of the city of Thyatira, who worshipped God, heard us: whose heart The Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.(v.15) And when she was baptised, and her household, she besought us saying, if ye have judged me to be faithful to The Lord, come into my house and abide there. And she constrained us.(v.16) And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying:(v.17) The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, these men are the servants of the most high God, which show unto us the way of salvation.(v.18) And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name iof Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour."
You can get a good message from a bad source! In the Body of Christ, the primary requirement is discernment! What a difference in the attitudes of these two women! Of course, Lydia was in her right mind, displaying humility and clarity of thought and motive.These are the effects of The Holy Spirit,who brings true liberty to those who accept Christ, as Lord of their lives. In contrast, the young girl was captive to satan and her will was not her own.She was abused and used for ill-gotten gain by unscrupulous men, who cared nothing for her welfare, but much for financial reward! There are many parallels today...How many think they have it 'all under control', when the fact is that they are being controlled by powerful forces,which will ultimately drag them down? A recent film 'The perfect storm', described freak weather conditions in the North Atlantic,which produced unprecedented havoc to any shipping in the area.Things were indeed 'out of control', disaster being the only possible outcome! Paul may have appeared stern in his treatment, though he 'addressed the spirit'(v.18).Yet, Paul delivered the girl from a spiritually disastrous situation.There are many today who would rather place a bandage over a fracture,where surgery is clearly needed! Those of us who are called to ministry:(Eph.4:11ff).would be wise in considering this. Paul did not care about the consequences of his action, but left everything to The Lord. Paul knew there would be a price to pay! and he was prepared to pay it! The devil has been a problem to the Church for a long time...Let's emulate Paul and start becoming a problem to the enemy. !!! May The Lord Bless you.