“The Power Of Prayer And Praise!”(Acts 16:16-34).
Prior to the coming of the missionaries to a certain Nigerian village, a seer had predicted that some people will come from far away to tell the people about God. In later days, her predictions came to pass. Yet one of Africa’s promising evangelical theologians, the late Byang Kato, considered that her prediction was antichrist.
Our doctrinal orientations often mislead us to understand God’s ways more than God himself. Kato saw more of pitfalls in the theologies of pioneering African theologians like E. Bolaji Idowu and John S. Mbiti, who were advocates of contextualization of the gospel.
Even so, in his published PhD. dissertation, he cites the poem of John G. Sarx, “The elephant and the six blind men.”
The conclusion of the poem is a humble submission that each perspective may be a truth, but it is only a partial truth that does not become the truth – each part of the elephant doesn’t become a full description of the elephant as each blind man insisted. “So, oft in theologic wars, the disputants, I ween, tread on in utter ignorance, of what each other mean, and prate about the elephant, not one of them has seen!”
The slave girl of our text may have been used by her owners to make money by fortune-telling, but her repeated message about Paul and Co was divine. “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” This was a divine message with nothing evil in it.
Paul became annoyed and commanded the spirit to come out of her, not because the spirit was evil, but because she was becoming a nuisance.
Paul’s action was the cause of putting them in prison after they had been severely flogged.
And here is the cruz of the pericope: “About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly, there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once, all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.”
The temptation would have been for all the inmates to run out of prison, but none of them escaped. The jailer who was sleeping woke up and would have committed suicide if Paul had not shouted to him, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!” What a relief!
The jailer asked the one question that should be asked: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” What an irony: a jailer asking the prisoners what he has to do in order to be saved!
Reply: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.”
This is how the jailer and “all his household were baptized. The jailer was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God – he and his whole household. “
Some lessons from this long text:
- God can use anyone – even fortune-tellers.
- Whatever happens to a faithful believer is in the plan of God. The imprisonment was the route by which the jailer and his entire household had to believe and be baptized.
- Children baptism is implied in the baptism of the entire household since it can’t be ruled out that children were within the jailer’s entire household or not.
- Lastly is the importance of prayer and praise! In whichever tight situation you find yourself, pray and sing hymns to God. No chain or stork is strong enough to hold you captive when you pray and sing hymns to the LORD! Your chains will fall off! Hallelujah!
Weekend prayer: Holy Spirit, guide me daily to leave myself to the LORD to use me in fulfilling his plans in Jesus’ name. Amen!
Have a blessed weekend! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.
09/05/2026.