“And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: 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. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.” (Acts 16:16-18)
Many people vividly know the story of Paul and Silas in prison in Acts 16:25-26, but few know the reason they were in prison. This woman, who was possessed by a spirit of divination, followed them around everywhere they went, crying out for all to hear; “These men are the servants of the Most High God, which show unto us the way of salvation.” Was she telling the truth? Yes. That is not the question. The question is, what were her motivations behind telling the truth? Why would the evil spirit possess her to say such truth?
The purpose was to discredit the message of the Apostles by making the people think that they were in league with demon spirits, who were, making this announcement, through a demon possessed medium. The reason being was that people would think that Paul and Silas were doing miracles by the devil. But Paul discerned this, turned and said to the woman, “In the name of Jesus, get out of her now!” And by doing so, he proved once and for all that they were of God and not of the devil.
This woman following them around, making such a fuss, was possessed with a spirit of divination. In the Greek, this can literally be translated “the spirit of Python.” Let me explain further. The New Testament was written in Greek originally. And much of the New Testament writings centered around customs, practices, and yes, even beliefs of Greece. During the New Testament era, Pytho was, according to fable, a huge serpent. (Do you see anything similar here to Satan?) that had an oracle on Mount Parnassus, famous for predicting future events. Apollo slew the serpent and was called Pythius, who became celebrated as the foreteller of events. It was believed that all who claimed to foretell events were influenced by the spirit of Apollo Pythius.
In studying the word divination itself, we even see more clearly the meaning of it all. The original Greek word is pulon, which means a gateway. So, what does that tell us? It tells us that the spirit of Python must have a gateway to use in order to spew out its demonic lies. So what gateway are we talking about here? Human beings. Just as God uses men and women to proclaim his words of life, satan uses men and women to spread his words of lies and death.
I believe wholeheartedly that the spirit of Python is at work in our day. I believe that it is now openly working throughout our nation and even the world. When reading 1 Timothy 4:1, we can truly see that it is talking about our times. “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.” Sadly, we are now seeing doctrines of demons being spewed out of the pits of darkness from both the secular and religious worlds. Whether we are talking about the spirit of Python moving in the New Age movement, or sorcery, magic, hypnotism, palmistry, astral travel, ESP, astrology, visualization, meditation, channeling, necromancy, fortunetelling, reincarnation, horoscopes, occult practices, satanism, witchcraft, psychics, and even nature worship, it is all part of the spirit of Python at work in our age.
The Bible says that anyone who dabbles in or practices these types of sin is evil. They are forbidden! Look at what Deuteronomy 18:9-12 (NIV) tells us: “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you.”
The spirit of Python may be at work in our day, but I know a Spirit that is greater. And His name is the Holy Spirit! Paul and Silas knew about the Holy Spirit while they were in their jail cell. For at midnight they prayed, and they praised their God, and the power of the Holy Spirit rocked their jail cell. We need the power of God in our lives today, that we as spiritual warriors may defeat the powers of darkness, that we could send the spirit of Python scurrying back into the depths of darkness. We need to be endued with power from on high.