After his conversion and fourteen years of preparation, the Apostle Paul was now in the midst of his calling- to preach the Word of GOD to the Gentiles. He had already made his first missionary trip from Antioch to Cyprus then southern Asia Minor. As mentioned in a previous blog, Paul dealt with Elymas the sorcerer.
In Acts 16, Paul is given a vision:
9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A (certain) man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”
The Holy Spirit had already prevented Paul from preaching in Asia and Bithynia:
6 … they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. 7 After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Holy Spirit did not permit them. It was ordained that Paul go to Macedonia to preach and Our Heavenly Father placed roadblocks in front of Paul when he had attempted to go elsewhere. When doors are closed to us, we must conclude that Our Heavenly Father will open other doors for us to enter through. Paul was attempting to carry out his broad mandate to preach the Gospel but he had not been given the directive to specifically go to Asia or Bithynia. Many of us tend to go and do before we receive the Word of Our Heavenly Father. On the other hand, Jesus only proceeded as He was directed by Our Heavenly Father and He only spoke the words of Our Heavenly Father. He was fully led by The Spirit.
Paul, Timothy, and Silas headed to Macedonia to preach the Gospel. That seemed simple enough. At Philippi:
14 Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.
15 And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” So she persuaded us.
The Lord will open our hearts as HE did to Lydia, to hear the Gospel thus we should pray that HE further open our hearts to hear the fullness of Love and other mysteries that have been held until this specific time in history. Lydia immediately wanted to serve the team by extending them hospitality.
Now things get a little dicey:
16 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. 17 This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” 18 And this she did for many days.
Paul has been called to preach in Macedonia and this slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination is now proclaiming a truth. On the surface, we ought to be excited. However this is an example of distraction and misdirection. "She did this for many days." Here we have a vessel of dishonor apparently going before the Disciples and proclaiming a truth. She was a fortune teller by trade and generated much profit for her masters. She was actually perpetuating her trade by using Paul’s anointing. She was using the Gospel to make money.
This girl had the spirit of Python. In Greek mythology the name of the Pythian serpent or dragon that dwelt in the region of Pytho at the foot of Parnassus in Phocis, and was said to have guarded the oracle at Delphi and been slain by Apollo.
This spirit was actually there to discredit Paul by foretelling. Stephen Jones wrote the following concerning his encounter with Python (the red dragon):
"The Dragon Wars really began as early as July of 1996, immediately following our decision to move from Seattle to Minneapolis. Our final decision was made on July 5, 1996, and we physically left Seattle on August 5. But before we left, we made a special trip to Sidney, on Vancouver Island (British Columbia), to visit Margaret Price, whose name means "Pearl of Great Price." She called on July 11, and we made arrangements to visit her and have a short vacation before leaving the area.
We arrived in Sidney on July 15 and returned the 17th. After she had called to invite us, and before we arrived, she was attacked spiritually in her feet by the spirit of Python (Acts 16:16, puthon, "divination"). We only learned of this after arriving there. We immediately went on high alert, because we recognized that we were up against a major spiritual power, which is pictured in constellation Draco, the dragon, who seeks to devour the Manchild. Gen. 3:15 spoke of the dragon (serpent) being bruised on the head, while in turn inflicting a bruise on the heel. Thus, Margaret’s feet were attacked."
Stephen was called by Our Heavenly Father to do battle with Python. Our Heavenly Father uses HIS "secret" agents to deal with the evil spirits that plague mankind and attempt to undermine the Gospel. Python wants to consume the Pearl of Great Price.
Further, Stephen wrote in The Dragon Wars:
We set the boundary on Padre Island on August 21 (1997), and then spent the night in Corpus Christi. The next day we drove to Victoria, Texas, where Bob Henley performed a New Covenant wedding ceremony for Darla and me, with Bill and Joan Thorpe as witnesses. This fulfilled the word about us coming into true unity.
In his first encounter with Python, Stephen was given a gold coin by Margaret as a token of appreciation and Love for dealing with Python. This gold coin represented authority over Python. Since China is known as the land of the dragon, we must conclude that Python is given authority as a Principality over that country. That gold coin became the symbol of "economic" authority over the Red Dragon. Our Heavenly Father led Stephen to present me with that gold coin as an act of Love for conducting the New Covenant wedding ceremony. Immediately Our Heavenly Father spoke to me and told me to carry the coin with me everywhere I went.
Just as Paul had to deal with Python in Acts 16, we too must deal with this principality. The economic power of China has been dramatically increasing and China has become the major lender to the US. However, Our Heavenly Father utilizes HIS human agents to bring forth HIS plan. These agents operate in the Spiritual realm and access the Divine Court and lawfulness to bring forth HIS plan. Paul went through a fourteen year preparation before he was fully commissioned to bring forth the Gospel. This was a time of cleansing and preparation to bring forth the spiritual perfection of Love.
Stephen and Darla initiated the move to unity in 1997. Fourteen years later, unity153 was begun with the proclamation "Now is the time!"
More on the gold coin in a later blog…