Commanding Evil

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

COMMANDING EVIL

Acts 16:16-18

16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved." 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!" At that moment the spirit left her.

NIV

There is more to this narrative as a result of the actions taken by Paul regarding this slave girl. However, the action itself has some merit to consider. Evil was and seems it has always been and will always be among us. Evil was there in heaven and was cast down to earth and began its earthly career in the Garden of Eden. This girl in and of herself was not evil, however, an evil spirit was influencing, or we would say possessed her. Of course, being one of the angels that were cast down alone with Lucifer, or at were his followers, knew exactly who Jesus was. This evil spirit knew exactly who Jesus was because it had once been in heaven with Jesus. What we do not understand is why Paul became troubled over this spirit shouting the truth about who Paul, Silas, and the others were. It must have been that Paul was troubled because everyone knew this girl was demon-possessed and she was hanging around with them, which might have been seen as belonging to their group. We just do not know why he was troubled, but it does serve us with an insight into how we should be alert to the workings of evil and as with Paul, we should be troubled at any presence of evil. If we say there is no evil around us, we deceive ourselves, because evil is always roaming about looking for someone to devour. Although we know that because we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within and it is impossible for an evil spirit to co-exist with the Holy Spirit, it does not preclude evil from attempting to influence our mind and our thinking. This was the method he used against Eve in the garden, tempting her mind or her thinking. Granted, Eve did not have the Holy Spirit, but she did have the Lord God who came and walked and talked with them in the cool of the day. What we learn here is that evil is always there, and at times it makes its plea with our minds. For us to confess we never, ever, have an evil thought, or at least an ungodly thought, we would be lying, and the truth is not in us. Temptations are always there, and any temptation that is not from God is evil. God tempts us to do good, to think about that which is holy, pure, right, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. Evil tempts us to think more about self and how the self can be lifted up and at the very least, to think about what satisfies us, as the pleasures of the flesh. It is not that we should not consider our circumstances or have needs of the flesh. We need food, clothing, housing, and transportation, along with our social needs, a life partner, friends, etc.  God designed us with the capacity to do good or evil by giving us the choice. We want to always be thinking about Godly things, but there are times our minds might wander, and thoughts of self-satisfaction creep in. Let us turn to those thoughts that might in some way have evil implications and cast them out, for as children of God we can command evil.