First, a demon possessed woman follows them around
and harasses them all day long. Secondly, when Paul frees this demon possessed woman
all the business people in town get mad because she was the key to their fortunes. Next Paul and Silas were mistreated by the magistrates
and were stripped, beaten, and humiliated. Finally, they were cast into jail and placed in
stocks. That's what happens when a little success creates an even bigger
mess for a child of God.
At this point most Christians would be
questioning why all this was happening. Almost nothing had been a blessing, except the
salvation of one Gentile lady and her household and one demon possessed woman
who found deliverance. I will guarantee you that most Christians
would have questioned God more than they would have praised Him.
Some would say maybe God didn’t give them
the Macedonian vision.
Some would say they didn't consider all the options when they delivered the demon possessed woman.
Some would say there must be hidden sin in
their lives because no matter what they did their situation got worse by the moment.
I've heard all kinds of things said when people start having success in the ministry and their church starts to grow. We are skeptical today about spiritual success because so many people follow a personality rather than a deity. They will follow a man from place to place, but they don't give everything to God because he expects loyalty to Him and His church rather than a personality. Seeing a church grow by attrition rather than new converts only circumvents the whole idea of harvest by just showing increase at some other church's expense. In other words if I only grow a church from other churches members I'm not really doing much. Some will say, "Well, at least we're keeping them in the denomination!", but my question is, did God have them in the first place or was it their carnal attraction to a personality?
We always assume when God gives us a vision to do something it will always be smooth and fruitful by numerical standards, financial status, or turn out exactly as we dream it in our own minds and understanding, but it doesn’t always work out that way. The trouble is rarely the vision, but it is usually how people view the vision against the reality of the situation they are involved in. If Paul and Silas had given up on the vision, then one of the greatest churches in the New Testament would not have come into existence. In fact, since this was a change from taking the Gospel from the east to the west, we today might have seen the whole western world exist in pagan isolation while the East would have been Christianized throughout the middle ages had it not been for their vision.
It’s like the guy who stopped at a full service gas station while on a trip with his wife. After the attendant cleaned his windshield he got mad and told the guy, “It’s still dirty, wash it again!” The attendant politely obliged, after washing it again however the man was still angry and said, “It’s still dirty, don’t you know how to wash a windshield?” Just then the man’s wife reached over and took his glasses off his face and cleaned them with a tissue, and then put them back on his face again, and suddenly he noticed the windshield was sparkling clear! The problem wasn’t the windshield or the attendant; it was the man’s own perspective from his glasses that were the problem-he was the problem.
Yes, a little success can create a big mess when you confront the devil's kingdom. You may face incarceration or become an outcast because you obey the Lord and teach and do what's right. In the end it's not about a personality or individual that drew a crowd, but about someone who saw a vision and did the work that was needed to accomplish it.
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