At Lystra Paul found Timothy, son of a believing Jewish woman and a Greek father, well reported of by the brothers, and took him along. As they delivered the decisions of the apostles and elders, the assemblies were strengthened in the faith and increased in number daily. The Holy Spirit forbade them to speak the word in Asia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them into Bithynia. At Troas a vision of a man of Macedonia pleading for help led them to conclude that God had called them to preach there.
At Philippi, a Roman colony, they went on the Sabbath to a riverside place of prayer. Lydia of Thyatira, a seller of purple who worshiped God, listened, and the Lord opened her heart. After she and her household were baptized, she urged them to stay in her house.
A slave girl with a spirit of divination followed them for many days, crying out that they were servants of the Most High God. Paul, greatly annoyed, commanded the spirit in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her, and it came out that very hour. Seeing their hope of gain gone, her masters dragged Paul and Silas before the magistrates, who had them beaten with rods and thrown into the inner prison, their feet secured in the stocks.
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God while the prisoners listened. A great earthquake shook the foundations, the doors opened, and every bond was loosed. The jailer, supposing the prisoners had escaped, was about to kill himself, but Paul cried, "Don't harm yourself, for we are all here!" Trembling, the jailer asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" They answered, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household." That same hour he washed their stripes and was baptized with all his household, then set food before them, rejoicing. In the morning Paul, a Roman citizen, insisted that the magistrates themselves bring them out.