Acts 16:16-18 (NKJV) 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. 17 This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” 18 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.
It is really awesome how Paul was led by the Holy Spirit in this passage. The Holy Spirit showed him that this girl had a spirit of divination, and because of that, he was able to help her to be set free. It is the same in our lives! Sometimes things might look good, but as we are sensitive to the Holy Spirit, He might tell us that things are not right.
In the passage, we see a slave girl saying over and over to Paul and the people, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation” (Acts 16:17). There is nothing wrong in what she was saying, but Paul waited until he knew what spirit this was coming from before he acted.
Too many times, we rush into something and make a mess of the situation. If we will take time to wait on the Holy Spirit and pray about the things that we are going through, God will give us the direction that we need. In this story, we see Paul waited many days until he knew that this was a spirit of fortune telling. Once Paul knew that, He commanded the spirit to leave in Jesus Name, and it had to obey.
So today, let us be led by the Holy Spirit in our lives. Let us take as much time as is needed to get the Word from God and the direction from Him for the situation. It might take a little longer in the long run, but we will sure be glad that we waited!
Confession: Today, I choose to be led by the Spirit of God and to listen to His still small voice speaking to my heart. I know that if I do my part, God will always do His.