The Power of Prophetic Insight

Acts 16:16-21; 1 Chron. 12:32

Acts 16: (AMP): 16 It happened that as we were on our way to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave-girl who had [a]a spirit of divination [that is, a demonic spirit claiming to foretell the future and discover hidden knowledge], and she brought her owners a good profit by fortune-telling. 17 She followed after Paul and us and kept screaming and shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God! They are proclaiming to you the way of salvation!” 18 She continued doing this for several days. Then Paul, being greatly annoyed and worn out, turned and said to the spirit [inside her], “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ [as His representative] to come out of her!” And it came out at that very moment.

19 But when her owners saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them before the authorities in the market place [where trials were held], 20 and when they had brought them before the chief magistrates, they said, “These men, who are Jews, are throwing our city into confusion and causing trouble. 21 They are publicly teaching customs which are unlawful for us, as Romans, to accept or observe.”

1 Chron. 12:32: 32 Of the tribe of Issachar, men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do, two hundred chiefs; and all their relatives were at their command;

INSIGHT: an instance of apprehending the true nature of a thing, especially through intuitive understanding:

penetrating mental vision or discernment; faculty of seeing into inner character or underlying truth.

The young lady in Acts needed 3 things:

Healing: she needed to be healed spiritually and mentally from the demonic influence of the spirit of divination Deliverance: she required deliverance from the oppressive spirit and perhaps nurturing in the Godly sanctification of a prophetic gifting (divination is a demonic counterfeit of the true spirit of prophecy) Freed: She was being exploited by her masters

Where does prophetic insight come into play? Scripture records that the young lady vexed them “for many days”. What was occurring in those many days? We can infer from the account that Paul, acting like the men of Issachar, sensed something was off. We might also infer that Paul and the team were praying for divine insight as to what was occurring with this young girl. Notice that Paul and the others didn’t immediately begin interacting with the young lady. When you have prophetic insight, it will cause you to push past the tendency to rush in to a situation headlong without information. We do much damage to folks lives ( and our own growth) by operating in this rushed manner. When you lack prophetic insight, you are only able to “minister” to surface level issues when God desires to get at the root of the issue in folks lives. This is often why folks will come down for prayer and leave only half delivered, if at all. Failure to wait on the prophetic instructions from the throne room of Heaven will do much damage in folks lives. Prophetic insight will cause you to be spurred to “dig behind the wall” (Ez. 8:8) so you can see the great abominations that the Lord wants to speak to.

Notice in the account in Ezekiel, he had to be in the spirit to be able to behold what was really going on. So it is with Paul. He understood that even though what the girl was saying sounded

right and sounded true, that he had to understand from which spirit it was coming from.

How Do you obtain prophetic insight? Insight is not reserved merely for the prophetic types in your midst. Any believer can gain prophetic insight.

What is required is humility. Look at Paul’s actions here. He didn’t immediately speak or engage with the girl. He didn’t list his list of educational accomplishments. Humility in situations requires we lay aside everything that would hinder us from gaining insight. Our natural talents, our education, our titles, etc.

He was “grieved”- We must begin to be grieved by the situations that the enemy has trapped people in. A heart of compassion is necessary to gain God’s heart on the situation. We read this text and assume Paul’s nerves were frayed, but I posit it was his heart.

Resting prayer- This looks different than our normal prayer devotions. This type of prayer is “many days”. Where you aren’t rushing to God with your agenda, dropping it in His lap and walking off. This type of prayer means you recognize something is off in the spirit realm, you give it to God in prayer, and you WAIT on His plan for that situation. It means you risk being derided by the towns folk while you’re waiting. It means the rest of your team will have to endure with you. This type of prayer rids the church of immature and often false prophets who can only speak men, money and mansions!

Boldness to Act: In vs. 18 we see Paul’s response. He finally takes action. notice the wording of the text. He said “to the spirit inside her”. He did not speak to the girl, knowing that it was not her speaking. He didn’t bother with the surface, as we often time do, but went directly to the root.