Paul was in Philippi, a Roman colony which is where he met Lydia the seller of purple. She was a high class citizen of the city. Now we have Paul meeting a slave girl who was possessed with a demon. She was used for the marketing and advertisement to make money for her masters as a fortune teller.
Marketing is different for different generations. It has different meanings and different uses and methods for each generation. One generation used word of mouth, one generation used newspaper, one generation used TV and one generation uses internet to market. Each generation uses different methods to market and advertise their products or services.
We also have false marketing in this world. One example is like sticking $1.00 bills inside a $5.00 bill to make it look like more money is inside the money roll. The Bible text says the fortune teller was a demon possessed slave girl. When Paul commanded the demon to come out, she could not fortune tell anymore to make money for her owners. In the book of Ephesians we are told that we fight against demons, principalities and wickedness. Paul and his disciples were preaching the Word and this slave girl kept following them, crying out loud her false marketing through the demon inside her. Demon possession is real. Demons only possess those who are NOT filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus said people who are not filled can be possessed. As Christians, we can be influenced but not possessed because we have the Holy Spirit inside us.
In our text, Paul said to the demon, “In the name of Jesus get out”! The demon went out of the slave girl. In the book of Acts, it says the non-Christian sons of Sceva tried to cast out a demon and it possessed them instead. The slave girl was doing false marketing for Paul because it was the demon saying it and taking credit for it as a fortune teller. Paul put a stop to that by casting the demon out of the girl. Paul got the victory through Jesus when casting out the demon.
Now the owners, who couldn’t make profit anymore on the slave girl, had Paul and his disciples arrested. This is a pattern. Anytime you do the right thing, trouble will come to you. There are powers that come against us but we have the victory in the Name of Jesus!! We need to stand strong and stand firm. We need to know that when trouble comes after we have done something good, God and Jesus will be with us. They will NEVER abandon us! We got Power through the Name of Jesus, the Son of God!!
