ONE LITTLE GIRL IN PHILIPPI
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Acts 16:16-18, "And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour."
Here was a young girl, probably barely in her teens if she was that old. But she isn’t in a comfortable home with loving parents. This girl was on the streets, trying to get by the best way she could. May she had gotten into trouble and ran away from home, or maybe her parents were taken away or killed somehow. Nothing is ever said about them. Even if they were around, they had very little impact upon her life.
The point is that she had no one who really cared. There was no one that she could lean on in times of pain. No one was there to hear her cry in the night. I wonder how many nights she would lie awake and cry out for help? No one heard her, no one cared, - no one but God!
It is obvious that this girl was abandoned by her family, but she was demon possessed and was also a slave to the merchants who used her for their own gain.
I look at how many of our youth today are wandering the streets, out on their own. Some who I have talked to have been on their own since they became teenagers. Mom and Dad don’t have time for them anymore. No one cares where they are or what they are doing. The sad thing is that these kids become prime targets for the devil to use them.
They are searching for answers; searching for someone to care, someone who will just show them a little love. When the church fails, and family fails – the door swings wide open and that’s when the devil walks in.
We live in a society that has by-in-large abandoned its children to the wiles of the devil. Most parents don’t care what their kids watch on TV, or see on the Internet, or who they are running with, as long as they don’t bother the parents. It seems that many parents don’t care at all what their kids are into until they are suddenly interrupted in their daily routine by a phone call from the law, or the hospital. We live in a world that is totally focused on self, and people simply through caution to the wind and live only for the moment with no thought of the consequences of their actions.
There is a story of a young woman who brought seven little boys into the doctor’s office. They ranged in age from 3 to 10 years old. When the nurse asked their names for the records she discovered that they were all named John. The nurse asked their mother, "Doesn’t that cause some confusion for you?" The mother said, “No, that it was actually very convenient because all I have to do when it’s supper time is just call for John and they all come at the same time.” The nurse asked, "But what do you do if you only want one of them to come for something? How do you tell them apart?" The mother said, "Oh, that’s real easy, they all have different last names…"
Sometimes you wonder if some people just are too dumb to figure out why babies come along. They certainly don’t use good judgment. I’m not against large families but I am saying that we need to be responsible for them too.
A little boy asked, "Mom, marriage makes you have babies, doesn’t it?" The mom hesitantly answered, "Well, not necessarily. Just because you are married doesn’t mean that you will have children." The boy continued with a question that most parents dread to hear. "Then how do you get babies”, he asked. His mama was a little embarrassed and not sure what to say next. She said, "Well, kind of hard to explain." At this, the boy thought for a moment, then he tilted his head a little to the side as he looked his mother straight in the eyes and said, "You really don’t know how it works, do you, Mom?"
I have sometimes wanted to ask that of some parents. Do you know what causes babies? If you are going to have them, then love them, care for them and be responsible to raise them. Either that, or just stop having them.
Sadly, that’s not the way it is. People keep on bringing babies into the world with no thought of the responsibility that is involved and those poor kids end up on the streets, abandoned to their own devices by parents who don’t care at all. Many are even murdered and dumped into a trash can, or left on the streets to die alone. And then we wonder why we have gangs that roam the streets in nearly every city, town and hamlet in America, stealing, doing drugs, and selling their bodies for a fix, and often becoming demon possessed.
This little girl in Philippi was just a child but she was demon possessed. She had a demon, or perhaps multiple demons that gave her the ability and power to tell the future and to be a fortune teller for anyone who was willing to pay a price to hear what she had to say. No doubt she was good at what she did because there were men who used her to make a lot of money. People were willing to lay down their money to get the answers to their questions and problems from this demon possessed little girl.
There was a demon inside of her that gave her special knowledge about many things. She was possessed by a familiar spirit, and would often seem to call up people from the dead. Those “people who came up” were nothing more than familiar spirits themselves, sent from hell to deceive the minds and hearts of foolish men who would believe anything.
She was right most of the time. She often told accurate forecasts of the future, or correctly revealed the facts of past events. It was this fact that she was often good at what she did that made her even more dangerous to those who sought her advice. They never understood that they were listening to the voice of a demon, a liar straight out of the pits of hell, who told them only enough truth to get them on the hook and then deceived them into believing in witchcraft, the occult and that always results in losing your soul.
Just a few days ago someone was asking me about psychics and mediums on the TV. There questions were: 1) Is that real? Can someone really do what they claim to do to? And 2) If they are right, and they are helping to solve crimes, and helping people to know what to do about something in their future to make their lives better, then how can that be so wrong?”
Let me say that just because someone that you don’t know can tell you your name, address and what you are having problems with, doesn’t make them a man or woman of God. Satan has the power to duplicate a lot of what we look at miracles. He is a wise devil and he knows the heart of men and its tendency to sin. He knows what to say to deceive us, and he uses our own natural evil nature to get to us and destroy us.
Demons can, and will, use anyone they can to deceive men and discredit God. I’ve seen little kids that could describe crimes that they never saw. I’ve seen people who had the ability to solve crimes and who work with the police on a regular basis, especially in homicide cases. I’ve seen psychics find lost items or claim to speak to people from beyond the grave.
Some kids seem to be born with this psychic ability. Have you ever wondered why? I can’t help but believe its because their parents were experimenting with witchcraft and the occult and their sins have been visited upon their children. In fact, some of these kids have a familiar spirit that helps them to describe details of events that happened long before they were ever born.
Some people take these things to support their belief in reincarnation. The fact is that all of it is nothing less than demon possession and familiar spirits operating through possessed human souls. If you pray over them and cast the devils out in the name of Jesus all that activity would cease immediately. No man has the power within his own mind to do those kinds of things unless he is empowered by a demonic power.
Some foolish Christians think that its okay to consult a psychic. Let me remind you of a story from the Old Testament found in 1 Samuel 28:7-11, "Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and enquire of her. And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor. And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and he went, and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night: and he said, I pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me him up, whom I shall name unto thee. And the woman said unto him, Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath cut off those that have familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land: wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die? And Saul sware to her by the LORD, saying, As the LORD liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing. Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said, Bring me up Samuel."
Saul consulted the witch at Endor and lost his soul, lost his kingdom and had to face the wrath of God.
Paul warns us to stay away from such things in the Book of Galatians 5:19-21, "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."
The problem with the Little girl at Philippi was that she wasn’t loved as a real person, no one cared at all for her, except for what they could get out of her. She was nothing more than a possession, a tool, for her owners to use to get rich. Doesn’t that still happen today? Most of the drug addicts are only tools in the eyes of the dealers to make money. There’s no real love, no compassion, no concern for what the drugs, alcohol, cigarettes and such things are doing to people in our society. Those who produce such things only see people as tools to get more money. If you want to find the real criminal, just follow the money trail to where it stops.
If you look at many of the homes in America today you will see parents who only think of their kids as possessions. Many of the parents are only using their kids as tools to live out their own fantasies. The kids end up being sexually and physically abused, or pushed beyond reasonable limits to succeed at something that the parents wanted but couldn’t get on their own.
Kids are being pushed to excel at sports because mom or dad always wanted to be a champion but never could. Winning is everything to these parents.
I watched a show with Dr. Phil some time ago where several mothers were pushing their daughters to be the greatest singers and performers so that the mothers could brag about how great their daughters were and how the kids would make them rich. It wasn’t about the kids at all. They were simply tools being used to get what the parents wanted at all costs. Those were only a few of many thousands who are doing so today.
What good is a baseball trophy when your son or daughter acts like the devil incarnate around other people? What good is a dance trophy if your kid develops an attitude where no one can stand to be around them? And what good is any trophy if that kid grows up to hate you for pushing them so hard and you lose them forever? Why can’t we just let kids be kids anymore? Why do we insist that they grow up so fast.
I watched a movie by the title, “Uncle Buck” several years ago. In that movie the principal of an elementary school called to complain of a 5 or 6 year old girl who would just “fritter away her time” or only act as a “silly heart”. I like what Uncle Buck had to say. What’s wrong with a little girl having a silly heart, or frittering away her time. Let her enjoy being a child. Maturity and responsibility will come soon enough. Let kids be kids. Teach them to be responsible yes, but give them time to grow too.
There are untold numbers of people in our society who only have kids because of their love of money. They think of their kids as only another source of income and very little of it is given to the kids.
Some are more interested in child support than in what is best for their children. They don’t intend to raise the child, they just don’t want to pay child support. They get custody, so they can get the check and then turn the child over to grand parents to be raised. They don’t care who are how the child is raised, just as long as they don’t have to pay child support.
Others draw child support and never use it on the kids. They love child support money more than little girls and boys whose lives and future are in their hands!
Some are more interested in a welfare check than in raising a family. They have more and more welfare babies so that they can collect the kid’s welfare checks. Then after the checks are collected, they put them out on the streets. The kids join gangs to survive while mom sits home with a fat welfare check.
They love welfare checks more than little girls and boys. Don’t bother me kid, just give me your check and hit the road. I don’t have time for you.
Now that’s not the only ones who love money more than their kids. Some people abandon their children in order to make more money on the job. They live only to work, so they can have money to buy what they want, never mind what the kids need. They love money more than little kids!
THESE MERCHANTS in Philippi MADE MERCHANDISE OF this little girl. If you ever want to make a businessman mad, mess with his business. That’s what happens when we start messing with those who deal in drugs and such.
But they are making merchandise of our children and deserve to have their business shut down.
Those who sell child pornography need to have someone messing up their business.
No doubt this little girl had cried out for help many times, but no one heard and no one cared. But God heard her cry.
SHE NEEDED Deliverance and REDEMPTION
PAUL SPOKE TO THE SPIRIT INSIDE OF HER
We need to speak to the spirit inside of those daddies that are neglecting their kids.
We need to speak to the spirits inside those mothers that are neglecting their children.
We need to speak to the spirits inside those aunts and uncles and relatives that are abusing little children. God give us the opportunity to speak to those devils that possess so many people in our land today. I believe that you can’t drive a mile down any highway without running across a demon possessed mom or dad. How many kids are being abused; how many kids are being used by the drug dealers; how many kids are going to be bed hungry, scared and crying tonight within just few miles of this church? Somehow I pray that God will use us to reach out to them and deliver them.
The name of Jesus is all we need. His precious blood bought back that little girl in Philippi and the demons were cast out. Sure it made her owners mad, but she was free at last.
Lord, help us to be used to set the captive free. Help us to be used to cast out demons and to see little boys and girls, and moms and dad, brought to the foot of the cross where they will find salvation and deliverance.
Let us tell others that Jesus paid the price and that they can be free. If you did it for a little girl at Philippi, you can do it today.
