PYTHON SPIRITS AND THE SPIRIT OF DIVINATION
Have you ever been accused of not being a good Christian? It could
be a python spirit. The Bible tells us that our enemies are not people, but
evil spirits that work in people, many times through the words they speak. We
learn about python spirits and divination spirits in Acts 16.
Paul and other disciples went to Philippi and “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. 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” (vv. 16-18a).
This doesn’t sound like such a bad thing, right? “But Paul, being grieved,
turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to
come out of her” (v. 18b). Why did this woman’s words grieve Paul so much?
Paul could see that the spirit of divination was working with its
companion spirit, the python spirit, in this woman. The purpose of those
spirits was to strangle, like a python, Paul’s ways of ministering, and promote
her master’s religious ways instead, which included fortune-telling for
financial profit.
This woman’s income depended on keeping things as they were.
If people believed in this new unreligious message that Paul was spreading
about Jesus, she would be out of a job, and her owners would be at a loss. Her
mission was to speak up loud and long, bringing as much negative attention and
criticism to Paul and the disciples as she could.
Many good Christians are walking by the Spirit but have been
attacked and accused in the same way Paul was. It is not by coincidence. It is
by design to knock spiritual people down, make them feel bad, doubt themselves
and their abilities, and just give up. Python spirits belittle people, trying
to weaken them and squeeze the last drop of spiritual life blood out of them. Then
the companion spirits of divination come in make obedient slaves of good people,
re-directing them away from the truths they knew, and toward the ones who
preach for financial gain or celebrity instead. It’s a very insidious and
sneaky maneuver!
Evil people don’t like it when we don’t fit their ideas of how a
Christian should talk and act. The men who were making money off the woman in
Acts 16 were so angry at Paul that they riled up the city leaders, saying:
“These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, and teach customs,
which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe” (vv.20-21). The
merchants got Paul and Silas thrown into prison. Isn’t prison what it feels
like when people criticize you and try to make you fit into their own ideas of
how you should be acting? You feel like you’re being squished and blocked from
what God’s called you to do or say. That’s the python spirit wrapping its body
around you so you feel you don’t have the freedom to move spiritually.
Someone once told me I wasn’t “friendly enough.” Other times I’ve
been accused of being too negative when I was only speaking the truth. How many
good Christians have been told by an abusive spouse that they are not being
loving enough? Or how about this one: “You’re a Christian. Aren’t you supposed
to be more forgiving”? These statements could easily be the words of python
spirits. Think about it.
A python is a snake that wraps itself around its prey and squeezes
the life out of it. Python spirits try to constrict us and make us conform to
religious rules that aren’t necessarily the Biblical truth for the situation.
They squeeze and squeeze, trying to wear us down. They want us to be quiet,
while they spout off in any way they want to. Like the serpent in the Garden of
Eden, they are talking spirits and say ridiculous things like: “You shouldn’t
raise your voice; Be nice; Just ignore the problem; Don’t offend anyone.”
Jesus offended people all the time with truth versus religion. He
broke religious rules and chose to commune with God instead of being moved by
what others would think or say.
The Lord shows us spiritual matters so that in
our everyday life we are not ignorant, and demons can’t take advantage of us.
Second Corinthians 2:11 tells us: “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us:
for we are not ignorant of his devices.” One of the devil’s devices is to use
the python spirit to accuse us.
But we know those snakes, and we resist them.
James 4:7: “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the
devil, and he will flee from you.” And we rebuke them. Isaiah 54:17: “No weapon
that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every
tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their
righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.”
We continue to walk by the spirit, boldly. Romans
8:14: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they
are the sons of God.” Philippians 2:13: “For it
is God which worketh in you both to will and to
do of his good pleasure. Luke 9:1: “He gave them power and authority
over all devils.”
We cut off serpents’ heads; That’s what we do.
Love, Carolyn
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