Acts 14:1 In Iconium the same thing happened — they went into the synagogue and spoke in such a way that a large number of both Jews and Greeks came to trust. 2 But the Jews who would not be persuaded stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. 3 Therefore, Sha’ul and Bar-Nabba remained for a long time, speaking boldly about the Lord, who bore witness to the message about his love and kindness by enabling them to perform signs and miracles. 4 However, the people of the city were divided — some sided with the unbelieving Jews, others with the emissaries.
5 Eventually the unbelievers, both Jews and Gentiles, together with their leaders, made a move to mistreat the emissaries, even to stone them; 6 but they learned of it and escaped to Lystra and Derbe, towns in Lycaonia, and to the surrounding country, 7 where they continued proclaiming the Good News.
8 There was a man living in Lystra who could not use his feet — crippled from birth, he had never walked. 9 This man listened to Sha’ul speaking. Sha’ul, looking at him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed, 10 said with a loud voice, “Stand up on your feet!” He jumped up and began to walk. 11 When the crowds saw what Sha’ul had done, they began to shout in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in the form of men!” 12 They began calling Bar-Nabba “Zeus” and Sha’ul “Hermes,” since he did most of the talking; 13 and the priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates, intending to offer a sacrifice to them with the people.
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Acts 16:11 Sailing from Troas, we made a straight run to Samothrace; the next day we went to Neapolis; 12 and from there, we went on to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that part of Macedonia. We spent a few days in this city; 13 then on Shabbat, we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we understood a minyan met. We sat down and began speaking to the women who had gathered there. 14 One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in fine purple cloth. She was already a “God-fearer,” and the Lord opened up her heart to respond to what Sha’ul was saying. 15 After she and the members of her household had been immersed, she gave us this invitation: “If you consider me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay in my house.” And she insisted till we went.
16 Once, when we were going to the place where the minyan gathered, we were met by a slave girl who had in her a snake-spirit that enabled her to predict the future. She earned a lot of money for her owners by telling fortunes. 17 This girl followed behind Sha’ul and the rest of us and kept screaming, “These men are servants of God Ha‘Elyon! They’re telling you how to be saved!” 18 She kept this up day after day, until Sha’ul, greatly disturbed, turned and said to the spirit, “In the name of Yeshua the Messiah, I order you to come out of her!” And the spirit did come out, at that very moment.
19 But when her owners saw that what had come out was any further prospect of profit for them, they seized Sha’ul and Sila and dragged them to the market square to face the authorities. 20 Bringing them to the judges, they said, “These men are causing a lot of trouble in our city, since they are Jews. 21 What they are doing is advocating customs that are against the law for us to accept or practice, since we are Romans.” 22 The mob joined in the attack against them, and the judges tore their clothes off them and ordered that they be flogged. 23 After giving them a severe beating, they threw them in prison, charging the jailer to guard them securely. 24 Upon receiving such an order, he threw them into the inner cell and clamped their feet securely between heavy blocks of wood.
This man listened to Sha’ul speaking. Sha’ul, looking at him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed,
Do you have enough discernment to know who is genuinely interested in getting healed? I don’t.
We tend to believe people’s words over their actions so that makes discernment very difficult for us. We don't want to assume they are lying (which they may not be) and we don’t want to judge them either. We want to be “good Christians” and trust, right?
What if they really don’t want to be healed, though?
Have you ever attached yourself to someone that claimed to be “all-in” only to find out later they weren’t really “in” at all? It’s a bit deflating that you invested so much into them only to have them walk away as if nothing ever happened. It makes you question a lot of what you yourself have invested in. You start to wonder if you want to take the time to invest in anyone ever again. A part of you is now gone, never to be reclaimed again. But that isn’t entirely true. In fact, it may be one of the best things to happen to you.
What does someone with faith look like? I’m of the personal opinion that you need to get burned a few times to know. A great life lesson is to understand how not to cast pearls before swine and what better way to learn than by doing it.
There are some people that have an innate ability to drain your attention if you allow it. They take and take, and you want so badly for them to “just get it” that you keep on giving. Any relationship where the giving and taking is in one direction only will eventually kill you. Maybe not dead-killed, but most certainly life-killed.
Having your life taken from you causes you to value your life just a little bit more. Do it again, and maybe one more time, then you really start to pay attention to the deception that lies (seemingly) around every corner. Instead of giving in to anyone that shows the slightest interest, you now look intently as Paul did upon this crippled man.
Taking a moment to discern whether there is sincerity or a smokescreen can save you much heartache. You can’t want healing for someone more than they want it for themselves. They have to want it. And their words are never going to be a good enough testimony.
Learning to look intently upon someone is paramount to them getting to the place of healing. And once you feel they have the faith to be healed, waste no time in calling it forth:
Learn to say with a loud voice, “Stand up on your feet!”
Then watch to see if they jump up and begin to walk.
In our second episode of “Paul and Friends”, we find Paul traveling with Silas into Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that part of Macedonia.
As they were heading to a gathering of believers:
17 This girl followed behind Sha’ul and the rest of us and kept screaming, “These men are servants of God Ha‘Elyon! They’re telling you how to be saved!”
Ah, yes! Finally, we have someone willing to shout the truth from the rooftops. But it seems Paul and Silas didn’t need (or want) a marketing department:
18 She kept this up day after day, until Sha’ul, greatly disturbed, turned and said to the spirit, “In the name of Yeshua the Messiah, I order you to come out of her!”
Have you ever met someone like this? Going on and on about God in a very edgy (and perhaps annoying) manner. But then you find out they are entertaining demonic spirits. All of a sudden, you realize their voice is not in support of Abba but actually against Him. It’s almost as if the job of the spirit is to make the idea of God be irritating.
(Seriously, do you know someone like this? It’s not that person in the mirror, is it?)
Ok, let’s pull back from the hyper-annoying case and look at it in a more personal way.
Do you know of anyone that is secretly entertaining one of these spirits and comes around saying all of the right things but is ineffectual (or borderline annoying)?
Huh, that may actually be me. Am I really that annoying?
Spiritually speaking, there are two types of annoying people:
The question at any given time is: which one are you?
I think we teeter at times between each of these. Sometimes flowing in the Spirit and grating people with the flow of truth like Stephen did to the Pharisees, and other times being called to repentance by someone else. You know the feeling of both, right? When you are connected to God’s Spirit, it seems you can’t say anything wrong. That’s because it isn’t you talking.
When it is you, however, you are like this little snake-spirit spewing over everyone and just flat out getting on people’s nerves. But when you surrender and let Him speak, it’s amazing for everyone. Well, mostly everyone. Those believers that oppose His spirit will inevitably be annoyed at minimum, and downright hateful (read: murderous) at their worst. It’s sad that two people that should be sharing the one thing Abba has for us both (His Spirit) can be at war with one another over something as ridiculous as church doctrine.
Of course, for us, we are locked in on the idea that it is us with His Spirit and the other person is the one with the problem. But what if Abba is using this other person to get at the spirits you’re entertaining. If that’s the case, we are likely dealing with conviction (and none of us want to be convicted -- at least not by anyone else). We are content (and super-spiritual) when we have His Spirit talking with us and convicting us through our own internal dialog, but let it come from someone else and watch the bullets fly.
The punchline is that we need both of these in order to push us down the path to righteousness. We need to surrender to Him so that truth can flow out from deep within our being, but we need to be wise enough to recognize it when that truth is flowing towards us, as well.
Final warning: Be very, very careful in calling the snake-spirit the Holy Spirit.