Recognizing Divine Encounters

 Read Acts 16.

Unless one is in solitude, we meet and interact with other people multiple times a day.  Every person has value to God.  Every person is on this earth for a God-ordained reason.  Every person will spend eternity somewhere.  Every person is in need of the Savior.  Every person is carrying a burden.  Every person is in need of encouragement to fulfill their God-given purpose.

This chapter begins the account of the second missionary journey.  Barnabas took his relative John Mark to revisit Cyprus.  Paul teamed with Silas to revisit the churches of Galatia and to move into new territory.  First, he went right back to the very place where he had been stoned and left for dead.  Those new believers needed to hear the Council's decisions (Acts 15) and they could use more of his teaching and encouragement.  But along the way, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Luke recorded a few of those Divine encounters that forever changed lives.  These four examples provide some reminders for us all.

1. What we see in people. (vv.1-5)
Obviously, Timothy was a fine young believer and eager to serve.  Paul saw ministry and leadership potential in him and desired to take Timothy on the rest of the trip.  This mentoring relationship allowed Paul to pour his life into a future pastor.  Paul treated him as a son (2 Timothy 2:1) and, later, Paul wrote two pastoral letters to Timothy.  There is no mention of his Greek father.  Only his Jewish mother is mentioned in verse 1.  But, both his mother and grandmother are named in 2 Timothy 1:5 as godly women who passed on their faith to him.

2. Where we find people. (vv.6-15)
Paul traveled west through Asia Minor, being led by the Spirit, until he could go no further.  The vision of a man calling for help from Macedonia resulted in the Gospel being taken into Europe.  At Philippi, unexpectedly, the man in the vision turned out to be a godly woman named Lydia.  Paul immediately recognized this as a Divine encounter.  She, along with the other praying women, became the nucleus of the church there.  Later, Paul would write to the Philippians to further encourage their faith and Christian behaviors.

3. What hurting people need. (vv.16-25)
She was demon-possessed, and her owners used her as a so-called fortune-teller.  For days, as Paul and Silas endeavored to present the good news of Jesus, the demon kept up a loud harassment.  This was raw spiritual war.  Paul did not respond to her at first, but he reached a point where he had had enough.  When he exorcised the demon, the harassing stopped.  There is no mention of anyone being glad at the deliverance of this young girl.  Her owners, having lost their income from her, caused Paul and Silas to be arrested and imprisoned.  He did the right thing in this Divine encounter and suffered for it.

4. How we unexpectedly treat people. (vv.26-40)
This unnamed jailer was simply doing his job.  Paul and Silas did not bemoan the ill treatment but prayed and sang.  This was an unusual response from inmates.  Previously in Acts, an angel miraculously led Peter out of jail and the jailers paid for it with their lives.  Here, the cell doors were all opened and no one left.  Realizing that his life had been spared, God got this man's full attention.  His question remains classic: "What must I do to be saved?"  The simple answer remains the same as well: "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved."  He and his entire family came to faith in Christ.  Ironically, when Paul wrote his letter to the Philippians it was from another prison cell.

A person on mission is always praying and looking for opportunities that fulfill the purpose of the mission.  Divine encounters are everywhere, all the time.