07/08/2012 - Watch out for those who are coming up to you

• 
• 
• 
• 

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.

Acts 16: 16

Those who are called to do the work of God are not free from the enemy’s assaults which usually cause some of his agents to try to take the servant of The Lord away from The Way. The strategies used by the devil are clearly pointed out in The Scriptures as a reality; yet, whenever we are persecuted we must not fear them. The example set by those who were victorious in the past must serve as a strong incentive to all those who do not want to leave the work half-done.

Of course the devil is not afraid of those who attend a prayer meeting to seek power, but those who come out of it filled up with the divine Grace. Now, he will try to turn away all those people’s steps. That was the attitude of that girl with a spirit of divination: she spread out everywhere Paul and his team’s identity and also their mission. Well, she was telling the truth, but behind that talk was an evil plan for them to draw their attention to her.

Demons love going towards the servants of The Most High to defy them and to drive them into error. The sad thing is seeing some children of God being carried away by the adversary. Regardless of what the devil might be attempting to offer you, even if apparently that seems to be something good, you must not accept it. Once, a lady whose father was sick told me that another lady who used to attend a witchcraft house, had offered her to pray for him – and she accepted it. Then, I had to say to her: “Don´t you trust God”.

That girl reported in the book of Acts was possessed by a spirit of divination. Other people have a spirit of treachery; prostitution and other errors. Stay away from everything that comes from the devil because nothing good can come from him. Many servants of The Lord have let themselves be carried away by a temptation and when their eyes were opened it was almost too late. The devil will never give up tempting because he knows that there are people who cannot resist it for too long.

Those who are used by the devil, very often, become braver than those who are used by The Lord. They will not think twice when it comes to luring servants of God, but some of the latter are intimidated even to give those The Word of Holiness. Well, our love towards our Father should be much stronger, shouldn’t it?

There will always be those people who, out of any interest, are behind those who are being used by the devil – and the reason for that goes from a sinful pleasure to any illegal profit. If, on the streets, some even turn to prostitution, that also happens because someone behind them are protecting them; the reason for the existence of corrupt people out there is that there are those who cause corruption. Satan works with all his capacity to take us away from The Truth.

Paul was obedient to the command of Jesus who stated that those who believed in Him should expel demons (Mark 16: 17). As soon as he saw that that was a demon which was trying to deceive him, the apostle gave a command for that spirit to get out in The Name of Jesus. The evil spirit went away and the young girl could not continue with her divination.

In Christ, with love,

R. R. Soares