Acts 16:16-18

Good morning, church, open your Bibles to Acts chapter 16. Our text today will be Acts 16. We're going to look at verses 16 through 18. Acts 16, verses 16 through 18. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the opportunity you give to us. To declare your word, thank you for the privilege you give to us, to assemble together, to worship you. Thank you, Father, for the grace that calls us and gives to us the matchless name of Jesus, that we may go forth in your power filled with your spirit to make that name known, and the salvation that comes only through that name. Father, would you mold us and shape us and transform us? Indeed, would you conform us to the very image of Christ that we would be what you have ordained us to be, the light of the world, the salt of the earth. Do this, Father, we pray, for your glory in Jesus' name, amen. Acts chapter 16, verses 16 through 18. We could actually go all the way through verse 24 for our text today, but there's more here than we can do in one Sunday. Acts 16, beginning of verse 16. Now it happened as we went to prayer that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune telling. This girl followed Paul and us and cried out saying, these men are the servants of the most high God who proclaimed to us the way of salvation. And this she did for many days, but Paul greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her, and he came out that very hour. This is the word of the Lord. I want to talk to you today about spiritual realities. There are spiritual realities that are part of our life, part of our existence. And we live with those spiritual realities, but I think a lot of people, not just outside the church, but a lot of people inside the church. And that is the most sad state of affairs when those inside the church either deny or ignore the spiritual realities that are all around us. So I want to use our text today to challenge us, to be aware of those spiritual realities, and to not shy away from them, not deny them, not shrink back from them, and certainly don't pretend like they don't exist, but to acknowledge them and to meet them head on and realize that God has given to us the power to overcome any spiritual reality that may stand in opposition to Him, to His gospel, and to the advancement of His kingdom. They still walk among us. We read the Bible, and I think oftentimes we read it, and we think these are things that happened a long time ago. But in our modern day, with all of our technology and modern advances, those are just stories or wives' tales, all wives' tales. But we don't often see them as the reality of the world we live in. If you think such people as this slave girl possessed by a spirit of divination, a demonic spirit, if you think such people and such spirits do not walk among us today, then you need to think again. You live in a natural world that is part of a spiritual reality. And all around us is the spiritual realm, all around us right now. You can't see it, you can't perceive it with your natural senses, but it's here. You're in it. All around us is the spiritual realm filled with both light and darkness. Jesus called His church, His people, the light of the world that you, and that's me. We are the light that is to dispel the darkness of this world. I have yet to walk into a dark room, flip on the light switch, and see the light fail to dispel the darkness. It happens every time. Every time light goes forth, it dispels the darkness. In verse 16, Luke is describing something that happened on an occasion when they went to the place of prayer. Now what happened is they went to the place of prayer that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met them. And we're told this demon possessed slave girl brought her master's much profit by fortune telling. A certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, Luke writes. Previously they met Lydia at that place of prayer. On this occasion, as they're going to the place of prayer, they meet an unnamed slave girl who was possessed with a demonic spirit. The name of the slave girl was not given. We are told the name of the spirit that possessed her. She was possessed with a spirit of divination. That unclean spirit became the slave girl's identity. Where Lydia is known to us as one under the authority of the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus Christ, this slave girl was under another spirit and other lords who used and abused her for their own profit. She is unknown and formless to her. We know nothing about her except that she was possessed by a spirit of divination. She is unknown and formless to us trapped and shrouded in darkness. And by contrast, Lydia is in the light. Walking as a child of light, just as we are to walk in this world, just as we are to walk in him. We are to walk as children of light. The contrast here with Lydia is stark. The slave girl was possessed by a spirit of divination, anuma puthona. That's what it is in the Greek. The word translated divination in the Greek is the word python. We say python, like the snake. And that's where it comes from. Python, here pronounced puthon, was the name of the giant serpent or dragon that guarded the oracle at Delphi. This comes from Greek mythology. Python was the name of this serpent that guarded the oracle at Delphi. Delphi existed in a region of Greek called pythos or puthos. The serpent was killed by the mythological god Apollo. And the oracle of Delphi became associated with the worship of Apollo and the practice of divination and fortune telling. So everything about this girl and her fortune telling and the spirit that possesses her is all tied to, named for, and associated with this demonic oracle that existed in this place called Delphi in Greece. It was very ancient, Homer writes about it. Long before the birth of Christ, many, many centuries before the birth of Christ. It is ironic that Apollo, the Greek god Apollo, was the god of light. The spirit of divination, named for the ancient serpent of Delphi, was darkness masquerading as light. The oracle was the woman, she was called Pesidia. She was the one who would speak these oracles. People would come from all over the world, kings and great men and leaders would come to the oracle of Delphi to get wisdom from her, to learn what their future was, to learn what they were supposed to do. You see, psychics aren't anything new. Long before there were psychic hotlines that people called, you had oracles like this oracle of Delphi that people would go to to find out what their future held. It's demonic. It's all demonic. This oracle at Delphi, when Apollo killed the serpent, the dragon, he took control of the oracle and it became his oracle. And so now, when this slave girl is possessed with the spirit of divination, here in Greece, where they are in Paul's day, the worship of Apollo was a big deal. It was a major thing. And Apollo, strangely enough, was the God of Light. The oracle through a spirit who supposedly shed light on the future and shed light on hidden things, mysterious things in the lives of people, people from all over would come and pay handsome leads out. She made great wealth for her masters because people would pay dearly to learn their future. She was in a sense shedding enlightenment upon them except the light she was shedding was really darkness. It wasn't light at all. This is what's ironic about all of this being associated with Apollo, the God of Light, when there is no light at all. It is darkness. This is the deception of the enemy. Paul tells us that Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light, 2 Corinthians 114. Listen, the devil is never going to come to you looking grotesque like all the horror movies present him. All those horror movies that scare you when you go to the movie and you see those, what do you call them, previews? And they scare you? That's never how Satan is going to come to you. He's never going to come to you like that. The Bible tells us exactly how he comes. He comes. Masquerading is an angel of light. He will look like light, feel like light, sound like light. He will make you believe what he is showing you revealing to you is light, but it is not. And if you trust your heart and your senses because it feels like light, it feels so good, it sounds so true. If you trust your heart, your senses, you will be deceived. How do I know? Because I've seen people. I've dealt with people who are convinced it was God talking to them. It was an angel talking to them. It was Jesus talking to them. But they would not, strangely enough, measure their experiences against the Word or when they did, and the Word didn't match what they felt, what they believed in the heart, their heart of hearts. I know this is Jesus. I know this is God. I know this is life. Now listen, if it doesn't match this Word right here, if it doesn't stand up to the test of this Word, it is not light. It is darkness. Masquerading is light. And this is what was happening here. Long before there was an oracle, long before there was a place called Delphi, long before the myth of a serpent or a dragon that guarded the oracle, long before the mythology of Apollo and all the other Greek gods. There was a serpent, there was a dragon that lawlessly and deceptively guarded another source of knowledge. It was the serpent in the first garden that God made. The father of lies, this serpent is the father of lies. Who used the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to deceive Eve and Adam? The spirit of divination is simply the spirit of that liar who deceived a sinfully willing man and woman in the beginning. Men are still being sinfully and willfully deceived today. As Solomon informs us, there is nothing new under the sun. So beware and do not be deceived. No matter how much something may appear as light, your heart, your senses cannot always accurately discern such spiritual things. Only the Word of God and the Spirit of God will accurately test and reveal a thing's true spiritual nature. The Greek word Python has two meanings. One is that snake, that serpent who guarded Delphi. And the other is, and most important to us today, the other is describing the practice of divination or fortune telling. And when Luke writes that the slave girl was possessed with the spirit of divination, a Python or a Puthan spirit, he's not describing possession with the snake, but possession with an unclean demonic spirit. That demonic spirit appeared to give this slave girl the ability to foretell the future and to shed light into the unknown. Yet whatever enlightenment she purportedly imparted to people, it was not light at all but darkness. And with that darkness masquerading his light, she generated great profit, not for herself, but for her oppressive masters. She brought her masters much profit by fortune telling, Luke informs us. Those demonic powers bound that slave girl and in her bondage to the demonic she was used to make her masters rich. She was bound in every way physically, emotionally, and spiritually. She was unable to deliver herself. She was under the control of her masters physically and spiritually. She was under the control of that spirit. And no matter one's condition, good or bad, that is the true state of all who are bound by sin and darkness apart from the saving grace of God in Jesus Christ. You can't save yourself and you can't deliver yourself. Neither could this poor slave girl. Again the contrast with Lydia is stark here. Both of these women were associated with great wealth, yet in very different ways. The source of their income and the way that income was used was very different. Lydia made her wealth as a seller of purple and honorable occupation. The slave girl generated wealth by fortune telling and sorcery and divination, not for herself, but for her masters in an occupation cloked in darkness. Though acceptable in the pagan culture she lived in, she was immersed in the darkness of the demonic. Even if this slave girl experienced the pleasures of a certain lifestyle allowed by her masters, it was all fleeting. It was all temporary. She would be used as long as she could generate a profit and after that she would be discarded just like a piece of trash. The Bible teaches us that sin is pleasurable for a season. That way can seem right, but the end thereof is death. The Bible teaches us. There are those living in sin, unabated and loving every minute of it. We see them all the time on television and social media. Even Christians seem to want to model their life after these influencers. I don't know why, because apart from Jesus, the closest thing they're ever going to get to heaven is whatever they're able to experience here on this earth. So what? Those who do not know Christ, those who have rejected Christ, what they do not understand is their sinful pleasures are temporary, even if they do last a lifetime. There is an eternal reckoning. We will all face one day. The question is whether we will face that reckoning washed in the blood of the lamb or still stained by sin and the filthiness of our own good works. God has set before you life and death. It's a test. He's given you the answer. He says, choose life. Choose Jesus and be washed clean by His blood just like the slave girl of Philippi. The enemy seeks to trap those who fall prey to His false life, His darkness and His deception. And just as the serpent did even the garden, we too are tempted with lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. And all the pleasures of sin, it does not take a snake or a spirit. Men are drawn away by their own lust, by their own desires. And once taken captive, sin expends from such poor souls all their life before they are ultimately discarded. Be it sooner or later. Satan knows every man's destiny apart from Christ. If you die apart from Christ, your destiny is sealed and Satan knows that destiny apart from Christ. And in his bitter hatred, he revels in the thought of having such souls and hell with him. Men often fail to consider that those pleasures of sin are temporary and it is only the grace of God that can redeem and rescue sinners from such misery and destruction. That is exactly what God did for this poor slave girl. That is exactly what God did for you and for me. If you are trusting in Christ today, you have been redeemed and rescued from sin and certain destruction. If you are not trusting in Christ today, then trust him. No one may save and deliver their own soul for salvation belongs to the Lord. Thank Him if you belong to Jesus. We are to test the spirits. In verse 17, we see this girl following Paul and the others crying out saying, these men are the servants of the most high God who proclaim to us the way of salvation. That is the way my new King James and many of the translations record verse 17, proclaim to us the way of salvation. I like though what the Revised Standard version has there. The Revised Standard version has proclaimed to us a way of salvation because in the Greek, the article translated, the is actually not there. It is implied by some but it is technically not there. What way of salvation was this possessed slave girl proclaiming? In verse 1, John writes, we are told to test the spirits to see if they are of God. For many false prophets have gone out and we test the spirits with the word of God. This slave girl was proclaiming by an unclean spirit what sounded like truth. These men are the servants of the most high God who proclaim to us way of salvation. At first it may sound to us she is proclaiming and affirming the gospel. That is not the case. Her proclamation that these are slaves of the most high God who proclaim to us a way of salvation fit perfectly in the pluralistic and pagan culture that she was a part of. She was not proclaiming the gospel. Her constant proclamation of a generic polytheistic message became an annoyance for Paul. More than an annoyance, a detraction from the truth. This girl who was a slave proclaim that these men were also slaves. The word in your English Bible there translated slaves or servants is the Greek word dolos which is bond servant. It is the lowest form of slavery. And so what she was actually saying is these men are slaves of the most high God. They were slaves. They wore dolos of the most high God. That was true. Like herself she claimed that they were slaves who proclaim to us a way of salvation that also was true in a sense but not completely true. You know what I mean? That truth was purposefully muddled in the midst of a polytheistic culture. The spirit wanted the message to be muddled. It is like they say about Hindus. I have talked to a number of missionaries, people who have lived in India. And if you talk to anyone that has worked in India they will tell you getting Hindus to believe in Jesus is not a problem at all. Getting Hindus to worship Jesus is not a problem at all. It is getting Hindus to worship only Jesus. That is a problem because they have thousands and thousands of gods that they worship. And adding Jesus to their pantheon of gods is not an issue for them. Yeah, oh he's a god yes. I will worship Jesus. I will venerate Jesus. Yes. Along with all my other gods. But the Lord God most high is not interested in us adding him to our pantheon of gods that we worship. He is a jealous god. He wants our worship and our worship alone. He doesn't want to share our worship with a bunch of other gods and that's kind of the message that was going forth here. Oh yes, they're proclaiming a way of salvation. Yes, that's true. But the way of salvation, their proclaiming is the only way. Not one way, not a way, but the one and only way. Her constant proclamation of what appeared to be truth on the surface was actually detracting from the gospel that Paul was proclaiming. In verse 18 Luke tells us this slave girl did this for many days, but Paul greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her and he came out that very hour or immediately. Here is the demonstration of true power by the true spirit of the most high god. Paul used the name given to him and to the church and he turned and said to the spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And that is the same powerful exalted name that has been given to you and to me because we are his church and we have been commanded to go forth in that name. The word annoyed here in verse 18 does not justly convey Paul's exasperated state of being. He was more than just annoyed. He was worn out, hearing this spirit proclaim words that on the surface sounded true, but in fact we're not really pointing anyone to Christ. Do you know that is sadly true concerning the messages being proclaimed from many pulpits across our land today. They sound true, but are they really pointing anyone to Christ? Paul was worn out and grieved continuing to hear this spirit allude to a message that it had no allegiance to at all. He was also grieved for the vessel that was the slayed girl being used for such evil purposes. Paul's annoyance may also have stemmed from an understanding that the girl's message could be misinterpreted by the inhabitants of that region and the terminology she was using was consistent with that used in the veneration of the pagan gods. It's kind of like when we talk about Mormonism. Mormon, Mormons and Mormonism use all the same terminology. They talk about Jesus, they talk about the Father, they talk about the Holy Spirit, they talk about the Bible, they talk about all the right things, the problem is they pour a very different meaning into those terms. We're all talking the same terms, we're using the same terminology, but our understanding of what those things actually are and what they mean are very different. This is what the slayed girl was doing. Using terminology that sounded right, but the meaning that was actually there was very different, which is why we cannot affirm things that just sound right. Even if they are using the right terminology, who is Jesus to you? Who is the Father to you? Who is the Most High God to you? So Paul understood that even though she was using correct terminology, she was not really pointing people to Jesus. Much like the serpent in the garden who took the truth of God's words and twisted them to deceive Eve, so this slayed girl was being used by the enemy to proclaim a twisted truth that may have affirmed the lie more than it pointed to the truth. And Paul by the Holy Spirit understood this must not continue, so he uttered the name above all names and cast that spirit out of the slayed girl. And here is the first exorcism recorded in the Book of Acts. At Paul's command, the name of Jesus Christ, in the name of Jesus Christ, that spirit came out. It had to obey. This local spirit had the power to possess and to control this slayed girl. It had the power to generate wealth and to control her, to control her masters and even to control her clientele who depended upon her for light. They were captivated as they served Maman. You know what Maman is? Riches. Jesus said, you cannot serve God in Maman for you will either hate the one and love the other. And these evil masters in their service to Maman, no doubt hated God. This local demonic spirit met a power that transcended location. In the name of Jesus Christ, that spirit in the slayed girl had no choice but to obey and come out. And by the power of God, this slayed girl was delivered from the darkness that possessed her in the name of Jesus Christ, she was set free. As Christ said, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Imagine her joy at being made free. Not so much joy for her masters. They were furious with the loss of revenue. They knew they would experience now because their meal ticket had been delivered from them. They cared nothing for the life of this girl. She was a slave whose only value was how much profit she could gain for them. This is true for the enemy. He cares nothing about you. He will make you think he does. He will give you things. He will promise all sorts of things. This is what the world does for us. It makes promises that can never keep. But we fall for those false promises. We look at the light or what we think is light, but it's really darkness. We can't see it as darkness. We think it's light. We think it's so good for us until one day when the eternal reckoning comes we will know. It was darkness all along. What seemed like the right way was not the right way. Paul tested the spirit here and the spirit had to go. I want to pause here. This is why I've only gone through verse 18. I want to pause here and I want to talk a bit more about the current environment we live in. In the spiritual realities taking place all around us. Today we're going to go to the park and we're going to pray and we're going to cry out to God for His grace and His mercy to fall on His church and to fall on our land. One scripture we will pray this day is from the prophet Amos. And the prophet Amos in verse six of chapter three said these words, wrote these words. If a trumpet is blown in a city will not the people be afraid? And if there is calamity in a city will not the Lord have done it. The prophet is asking a question and the answer to the question if a trumpet is blown in a city will not the people be afraid? The implied answer is yes. When you hear the trumpet sounding an alarm you should be afraid. And the next question he asks is this if there is calamity in a city will not the Lord have done it and the answer is yes. Now what we want to say today is of course not the devil did it not God but yet God's word says no the devil didn't do it God did it. When calamity comes to a city will not the Lord have done it. We need to get our theology straight. We need to quit making the Bible conform to our own theology our own thought and who we want God to be and we need to conform our thinking and who we are to who he has revealed himself to be in his word. And if you never go to his word if you don't know what this word actually says about him and you're just pulling your favorite scriptures off of your you know scripture rock and all of that and it's all the positive thinking stuff you're not going to know who God is. And you're not going to know when calamity comes to your city it was the Lord who brought it and he brought it not because he hates us but because he loves us. Because when the trumpet sounds we are to be afraid is to tell us calamity is coming and the Lord is bringing it and he is the one who will deliver us from calamity if we will heed his word and heed his warnings. The people to be afraid when the trumpet sounds the people must first hear and they must discern the trumpet call and the people must believe the Lord is. Otherwise there is no fear of God and therefore there is no wisdom and there is no understanding in the people. And this may too well describe the people of our own time. We seem to be a people today who are chronically void of wisdom and understanding which tells me based on what the Bible teaches me there is no fear of God in the people any longer. When you look across the landscape of our land our country do you see a people who know the fear of the Lord? I'm asking I want you to think about that. When I look across the landscape I don't see much fear of the Lord out there. Today when we go to the park we will specifically pray Amos 416 through 13 where the Lord laments over Israel because she would not receive his correction that he sent to her in every shape and form imaginable. And he said I sent the sword against you I sent famine against you I sent blood against you I did all of these things and yet you did not return to me says the Lord of hosts. And we as a nation seem to be in a similar place. There almost seems to be a dichotomy forming and that may be too strong a word as there are many people in the middle of this issue yet there is definitely a separation taking place. And that separation is no doubt due at least in part to the manifestations we are seeing in our culture that have no other explanation except that these are spiritual phenomenon that the Lord is allowing to take place. Even the most skeptical people are scratching their heads and disbelief at things that are happening as Christians we should not be surprised as it is all shown to us in Scripture. God deals with his people and nations today the same way he always has dealt with them because God does not change and his word does not pass away. God seems to be giving us warning after warning as the most outlandish and vile things take place all around us and we keep riding them off and attributing to them to the most ridiculous things. For example, a mother who maliciously murdered her three children being called innocent by vast numbers of other mothers and women and a willing media all coming to her defense after she brutally murdered her children. We have murdered babies within the womb for decades we murdered babies inside the womb. Now we have the murder of children outside the womb and it's being called defensible she's not guilty. It's justified and defended as being no crime at all. Luckily we just had a man sitting on a park bench in a quiet neighborhood in Round Rock who was unbeknownst to him sitting there quietly on his park bench and the God comes up behind him and tries to take his head off with a knife. That just happened this week last week. Ambushed with a knife murdered in cold blood. That story was ignored by the vast majority of news outlets, especially the national media. Perhaps because it didn't fit their narrative, the narrative they're trying to promote. Not to mention the rise of natural disasters, fires, floods, earthquakes and storms. But of course we know that is the fault of climate change. It could not, absolutely, could not be a result of sin. It certainly couldn't be a result of us rejecting Christ. Yet the Bible tells us all of those things will come upon the land that has rejected God. We have all of those things coming upon our land. We have rejected God but certainly sin is not the issue here. It has to be something else. Can you hear the trumpet? It's sounding. No wonder this strangeness is taking place. Though it's really not strange. It's completely predictable if we read our Bibles. The patterns we are seeing will only grow more frequent and more intense if we, his people who are called by his name, do not humble ourselves and pray and seek his face and turn from our wicked ways. Only then does he promise to hear our prayer and heal our land. The ball is in our court, so to speak. If his church fails to humble herself after all the warnings he continues to give us, what should we expect? As Amos warned, if there is calamity in the city, will not the Lord have done it. And he will certainly do it if we do not heed his loving warnings. The more we turn our hearts and eyes to Christ, the more we will see his healing take place in our land. I am a firm believer that we must often times incrementally get to where we seek to go. There is an enemy seeking to devour all he can. We must resist him and stop him. He has already been defeated. In fact, he is really not our problem at all. We like to blame a lot of things on the devil when it's really not the devil at all we should be pointing the finger at. Sin, our own sin is our problem. Sin opens the door and gives place for the enemy to work in our life. If we deal with sin personally, corporately and nationally, God will keep his word. He will heal our land. He has done it countless times before throughout history, the history of his people, both in ancient times and in modern times. And he will do it again if we will obey his word and trust his promise. He will do it for his name's sake. Do we as a culture and as the church see the signs? Do you see the signs? You don't have to answer but I want you to consider the question. Do we hear the trumpet sounding? Do we believe that what we are seeing and experiencing is actually a sign of warning from God? Or is it just coincidence, just bad luck, or just the times we happen to be living in right now? Do you see how we begin to talk ourselves out of seeing things for what they truly are? We are often deaf and blind to the things we really need to hear and see. Man loves his sin and he will use any means to justify it and remain in it. Until and unless God in his grace intervenes and interrupts man in the midst of his sin. It is truly grace when God intervenes in our life and interrupts our sin in order to deliver and save us from our self and the sin we so love. God in his grace may reorder our affections, pray that he does. Many today believe spiritual things have no ground in reality. Therefore many discount them as some radical or dangerous bleeds with no basis in truth or reality. This is true for many inside as well as outside the church. And when we willfully and fully give ourselves to sin and sinful habits we are seeing like we are seeing in our culture now. When we dabble in things that often that open forbidden doors that allow the darkness to have entrance into our life, we are inviting spiritual trouble and we see it and we read about it every day. For those who do not belong to Jesus who rejects his grace, who engage in spiritually dangerous behaviors, they are ripe for the wrong spirit to attach itself to them or worse take possession of them. Don't think this only happened 2,000 years ago. There are people today on this earth who are actively really possessed by demons who need the deliverance of Jesus Christ. Yet it is not those spirits, it is not the demonic that we should fear. You know who we should fear? It is God who we should fear. We must turn from our sin, we must turn back to him for only Jesus can save us. Have you called upon his name? Do you trust in him? I pray you do and that you make his name known so that the power of his salvation can be published far and wide. Let us prepare our hearts, our minds and our bodies to come to the Lord's table to celebrate his grace, to celebrate his salvation that has been so graciously given to us in Jesus Christ. Here is your church. When you consider the demon possessed slave girl, if you think such people and such spirits do not walk among us today, think again. You live in a natural world, part of a spiritual reality, all around us is the spiritual realm filled with both light and darkness. Remember you are called the light of the world by Jesus. Therefore you are called to be the light that dispels the darkness of this world. The devil can no longer deceive the nations and stop the advance of the gospel. He is bound in that regard. The nations now belong to Jesus and you and I, his church, are to bring them under submission to his rule by making disciples of all the nations. And since the increase of his government and peace shall have no end, his kingdom and the knowledge of the glory of his name will one day fill the earth. And this is why you are invited to join our prayer, not just today, but to join in prayer, the prayers of the church, not just this church, but all of God's people for prayer is essential. And this is part of you being sober and vigilant. For Satan, though defeated, still is allowed to roam around seeking whom he may devour, 1 Peter 5 a. But the good news is he may not devour you if you belong to Jesus. Therefore fear not, but stay vigilant for he is still an enemy. The spiritual realm is not less because you cannot perceive it with your natural senses. Your lack of perception does not relieve you of your responsibility or your privilege to be a carrier of his light. You have been commanded to do so in his word. And the spiritual realm is as real as the earth you see and feel under your feet right now. Your spiritual warfare therefore matters and makes a difference. You have been given the name above all names. The name rules all realms both seen and unseen do not fear for Jesus reigns and he commands both the light and the darkness. And he has commanded you to go in his name to subdue the nations and that starts with your own heart, with your own family, with those who are closest to you and you continue from there to the ends of the earth. This is your great commission. Go now in obedience to his command and for his glory, they men. Amen. Let's sing our thanks to God. Amen.

Acts 16 · chapter mention Acts 16:16–18 Acts 16:16–18