Contemplative Bible Reading

Acts 16:16-18 (New International Version)

¹⁶Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. ¹⁷This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” ¹⁸She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.

Notice a few things about Paul’s encounter here with a girl.

1. This girl had a spirit in her
2. The spirit allowed here to predict the future (well enough to make lots of money)
3. The spirit knew the truth about Paul and God
4. Some people cannot resist spirits and become hosts for them
5. The spirit could be expelled

I haven’t had a conversation about such spirits with anyone lately. I guess we don’t like to talk about such things as we might appear to be some kind of fringe lunatic or something. But, here it is in black and white in the Bible. Maybe there are ways to explain this away or explain how these things don’t happen in our time as they passed…

I haven’t found anything in the Bible that explains how the time of spirits has passed. I am open to someone showing me such.

Point #4 above is the most troublesome for me. Perhaps this explains the behavior of some people.