Moving in the Apostolic

Apostolic Authority

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in the book of Acts: people falling down dead, sorcerers smitten with blindness, leaders being eaten up by worms. This is not a pleasant picture, but the Lord will allow no man or woman to hinder the preaching of the gospel in these last days. 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. This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation." And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." And he came out that very hour (Acts 16:16-18). This is the only apostolic deliverance that is given in detail in the book of Acts. Why did the Holy Spirit choose to detail this deliverance for us to read? I believe this deliverance gives us some important truths concerning the apostolic anointing and what the Church will encounter in fulfilling the Great Commission. This damsel was possessed with a spirit of divination, another form of witchcraft. This is the third example in the book of Acts where the apostles dealt with witchcraft. The Greek word for witchcraft is python. A python is a large constrictor. Constrictors kill their prey by slowly squeezing the breath out of them. There are believers, churches and entire regions that are bound by python spirits, lifeless as a result of witchcraft, sorcery and divination. Breath represents spirit. The Greek word for both breath and spirit is pneuma. Python spirits attempt to squeeze the life out of the Church by stopping the flow of the Holy Spirit. There is no free flow of the Holy Spirit where python spirits are allowed to operate, therefore there are no manifestations of the Holy Spirit. When this happens there is no life in the Church, because the Holy Spirit is the Giver of spiritual life and must be free to move among and through His people. The apostolic anointing breaks the power and grip of python