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Acts 16:16-20 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.
And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers,
And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city,

As revealed by the Holy Spirit, Apostle Benson Enakhena senior pastor of El-Shaddai Salvation Family Ministry (ESFM) explains how we can be spiritually ready to handle situations and be battle ready with an explanation titled “Be Battle Ready”.

Below is the explanation:

From the above text☝🏼, we can glean many useful tips that will enable us to be properly engaged in spiritual warfare. The first point I will highlight is that, generally, things are not as they appear to be. From Paul’s perspective, all he saw was an innocent young lady who was possessed by a spirit of divination and needed to be delivered from that yoke and bondage. But unknown to him, she was probably part of a ring of young girls who had been trained and raised by the master to foretell the future through divination. From the text, we know that she brought her master’s much gain by soothsaying”, so we can infer that she was most likely part of a thriving and established enterprise. However, Paul was oblivious to this fact because he did not have the privilege of foresight as we have when reading the text. Unfortunately for him, when he cast the spirit out of the girl, he unwittingly started a feud with powerful individuals, referred to as THE MASTERS, who, seeing that their source of income was lost, arrested Paul and Silas, took them to the market place and presented them to the rulers and the magistrates because the duo had become a threat to the continued existence of their business.

Today, the market place, rulers and magistrate can be likened to the economy, government and judiciary respectively. The masters had control over these three systems, and they influenced them to work against Paul and Silas, which resulted in the apostles being jailed. Because this text is one of the most popular stories in the bible and we already know that God delivered them, when we read it, we don’t fully comprehend what Paul and Silas went through when they were arrested to the moment of their deliverance. They must have felt discouraged and possibly wished they had minded their business and not confronted the young lady. However, because Paul Silas had built their spiritual capacity to handle any kind of situation, whether expected or unexpected, they were able to deal with it. Now, what action or decision are you about to take that can land you in JAIL? It is important to note that “JAIL” may not be a jail in the literal sense, it may mean a period when you don’t make progress with your life, purpose and destiny. What decision are you about to make that, unknown to you, it will grind your life to a halt? Are you about to sign off a business partnership that will see the end of your business? Are you stuck in a dead end job where your boss has refused to promote you because he or she doesn’t like you? Are you about to help an innocent young girl like the one in our text or start a new friendship that, unknown to you, will cause problems to your marriage? Are you about to embark on a journey that will result in an accident? It is important to take out time to prayerfully seek God before making decisions asking Him for the spirit of discernment so that we can discern the possible outcomes. This will help us make the right decisions. If the right decision still lead to a set back, we will be spiritually ready to handle the situation, just like Paul and Silas, who God supernaturally delivered from prison.

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PRAYER

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Father, I ask for the spirit of discernment to empower me to make the right decisions that are inline with your purpose in my life in Jesus name. I ask for the grace to seek you consistently so that I remain sensitive to your promptings and completely aligned with your purpose for my life in Jesus name.