As He was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed was imploring Him that he might accompany Him. And Jesus did not let him, but He said to him, “Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you.” And he went away and began to proclaim in Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed. Mark 5:18-20.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
To live days of Heaven on earth you must be walking in the Spirit. Without the anointing the gifts cannot be flowing. If My Spirit is not in you, there is no way you can access My Kingdom, for through Jesus you have access to Me by the One Spirit. Ephesians 2:18. Receiving Jesus as your Lord is the way you come to Me by being regenerated by the Holy Spirit into a new creation in Christ. My Spirit then dwells in you to give you a direct line to Me to receive mercy and grace just when you need it. Without being born again from above in Jesus, you cannot enter, let alone even see, the Kingdom of Heaven.
My Word is anointed for it is Spirit breathed from My innermost being and revealed to you upon the earth. You have My written Word, which is sure and gives you the guidance, wisdom and understanding for life, but you also have the leading and inner witness of the Spirit within you, your direct line to hearing My voice. For just as in hearing Jesus, you hear Me, also in hearing My Spirit you hear Me. We are One.
To live days of Heaven on earth you must walk in the flow of the Kingdom, which is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. When you took Jesus as your Lord you became righteousness before Me by believing in your heart I raised Him from the dead with all your sins taken from you. Jesus gave you who are His followers His peace as a gift at the Passover meal the night He was betrayed and when I raised Him from the dead and He revealed Himself to His followers in the upper room, He confirmed it again and breathed the Spirit into them in new birth. And when the feast of Pentecost was fulfilled, My Son poured out the promise of the Holy Spirit upon the believers and promised the same gift to all who believe. And that is the anointing of joy. So I have provided you with all you need for life and godliness to enjoy days of Heaven on earth in Jesus.
But just as Jesus told you when He gave you the gift of His peace, you have a part in guarding that peace by refusing to allow fear and anxiety into your heart. These are unclean spirits from Satan and I did not give you these spirits of fear and anxiety but a Spirit of power, love and a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7. You must submit to My Words, resist the devil and he will flee from you. You must resist these unclean spirits by answering them with the truth of My Word and declaring what you do have. And cast those unclean spirits out in the Name of Jesus. And My joy is your strength so that is power. Joy gives you power.
If you let Satan into your life and do not check him, he will load you with more and more demons until he takes away your peace, your health, and your mind. And that is what happened to a man of Gadara that Jesus met and healed. Satan tries to reduce you to a grotesque caricature of what I made you to be. But one encounter with Jesus, with My Word of life, can change it all to a new creation in Christ. And that is what happened. All you have to do is come to Him.
Today in our Life Lessons of living days on Heaven on earth we continue looking at the miracles of Jesus to see how you too can bring the flow of the Kingdom into the earth through the working of miracles by the power of the Spirit. And we come to the next miracle in the gospel according to Matthew which is the healing of the possessed man of Gadara in the area of the Decapolis. This area of Israel was beyond the Jordan and was the portion allotted to the half-tribe of Manasseh by Moses and Joshua. At the time Jesus walked the earth as one like you, many Greeks had moved into that area and had brought their customs in and ignored My laws. Hence, they were raising swine, which are unclean animals for human consumption, and My people had ignored My laws and were participating and working with the unbelievers in raising swine for meat and other uses, which was a lucrative business. This was forbidden in My Law and was open disobedience on their part.
And Satan and his demons had established a stronghold in that area and did not want to let loose of any territory. But one person filled with My Word and faith can rout more than a thousand demons. So do not fear unclean spirits. You will see in this miracle that they are in fear of you who are in Christ. Terrible fear. But it does not stop them from trying to oppress you if you let their leader into your life. But the weak should not be oppressing the strong. It is time to walk worthy of the calling you have received.
Today we will look at the most complete narrative of this miracle which is in the gospel according to Mark. If you recall this will continue from yesterday’s teaching when the disciples and Jesus, in traveling to this area across the Sea of Galilee from Capernaum, were met with a fierce storm that Satan blew upon the lake to try to thwart their arrival at his stronghold. But he could not stop Jesus when I had told Jesus to go there. And nothing should stop you from obeying My Word either, for it is sure.
So, once Jesus had calmed the storm, “they came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes. When Jesus got out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met Him, and he had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain; because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him. Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and gashing himself with stones.” Mark 5:1-6.
This man had allowed himself to become completely possessed by demons. It gave him superhuman strength, not natural strength, and drove him to isolate himself from any possible help. Never allow Satan to pull you into isolation. It is not good for you to be alone. Jesus called twelve disciples to be constantly with Him and to go and preach, and when Peter and the other apostles gathered with the first believers they lived in common and took their meals together, prayed together, and studied the Word together. And they worked miracles together and received them as well. And when persecution began, they stood strong for one another.
“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” Hebrews 10:23-25.
The devil and the unclean spirits that took over this man’s life made him absolutely miserable and he so despised the way he had become he was cutting himself with stones and screaming out in torment. It all began when he became offended and angry and began isolating himself and it finally became full blown possession by evil in every part of his being. And he loathed his life. But there seemed to way to freedom. And then a boat pulled up on the shore and the demons knew who it was, and the man beneath that weight of oppression sensed holiness when Jesus arrived and he ran for Him and bowed in worship, for the demons in him also had to bow at the presence of the one with the Name above every other name. Every knee must bow.
“Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him; and shouting with a loud voice, he said, “What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!” For He had been saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” And He was asking him, “What is your name?” And he said to Him, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” And he began to implore Him earnestly not to send them out of the country.” Mark 5:6-10.
The demons were talking, not the man, and they were loud. What I want you to see here is they were in great fear of Jesus. They cannot overpower a believer who knows his or her authority in Christ. And they did not want to go out of that country, they had a stronghold there and had been terrorizing the people of that region through the possessed man. And they had taken over others too in like manner. Matthew’s account also tells you of the second man that was there in the tombs in like manner. And there were many unbelievers in that area that were flagrantly disobedient to My Words and the Jewish people there were taking on their ways rather than vice versa. There was darkness, fear, anger, and sin filling that area.
But the Light of the world had stepped in and that area was about to have a huge revival. And guess who led it, preaching in all the ten cities of all Jesus had done to set him free? I will show you in the next part of the story.
“Now there was a large herd of swine feeding nearby on the mountain. The demons implored Him, saying, “Send us into the swine so that we may enter them.” Jesus gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand of them; and they were drowned in the sea.” Mark 5:10-13.
You may be thinking this was the most unusual casting out of demons in Jesus’ ministry. Normally, He would not permit the demons to speak, but silenced them, and cast them out. And that was it. He did not talk with them or send them where they requested. Here, however, He requested the name of the demon, and it turned out there was a leader who called himself “Legion” because he, in the demonic hierarchy was over a legion of lesser demons. And you get an idea of how many there were in this man by the number of pigs they entered.
What Jesus was doing was trying to get down under the demons to pull up the man’s soul to express himself so Jesus could get to the man that was still there but was completely taken over by the demons, but even at that point, if He could just get to the man’s ear and catch a bit of faith He could free him.
“Therefore, thus says the Lord (Adonai) LORD (Yahweh), ‘An enemy, even one surrounding the land, will pull down your strength from you and your citadels will be looted.’ Thus says the LORD, “Just as the shepherd snatches from the lion’s mouth a couple of legs or a piece of an ear, So will the sons of Israel dwelling in Samaria be snatched away.” Amos 3:11-12.
Even a person who seems hopelessly lost, fully given to the evil one, swallowed up for destruction, if you can just get a piece of his ear so he can hear the good news of salvation, you can pull him out. Never underestimate the power of speaking the Word, even to one that seems too far gone to hear.
And as Jesus rid that area of the enemy’s stronghold in the man it was fitting that He also cleansed that area of the disobedience of My people in giving themselves over to raising swine with the unbelievers who openly defied Me. The unbelievers living among them were Greek people and if you recall the Maccabee family and the revolt they led to purge the land of the unclean domination of the Greek empire that had convinced many of My people to abandon Me for the unclean practices of the pagans and be one people with them, that being one together was the loving thing to do in “modern” society, but it actually was Satan’s way of getting everyone over worshipping idols and not Me, and they did this by forcing them to eat pork and if they would not do so they put them to death. Just read the history of the Maccabees and the origin of the festival of Hanukah and you will see that the martyrdom of My people who were faithful to Me was done by trying to force them to eat pork or die. And after so many people had given their lives not to partake of that and had finally overthrown that powerful opponent, which seemed impossible, by My fighting for them, those who had fought so hard now had their descendants raising and eating pork to be like the Greeks who lived with them in that area. It was time for revival.
The herdsman had lost their pigs and feared repercussion from the owners thereof so, “Their herdsmen ran away and reported it in the city and in the country. And the people came to see what it was that had happened. They came to Jesus and observed the man who had been demon-possessed sitting down, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the “legion”; and they became frightened. Those who had seen it described to them how it had happened to the demon-possessed man, and all about the swine. And they began to implore Him to leave their region. As He was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed was imploring Him that he might accompany Him. And Jesus did not let him, but He said to him, “Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you.” And he went away and began to proclaim in Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed. Mark 5:14-20.
The people came primarily to see what had happened to the swine, for this was a large herd they had lost in one fell blow, so to speak. They found the man that had tormented everyone, that no one could imprison or chain, was sitting perfectly calm, sitting down, clothed (the devil, as he did with Adam and Eve, will try to strip those who let him naked), and in his right mind. He had his right mind back. And no matter how tormented someone has been, they can still get their right mind back if they will come to Jesus.
“Just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” Ephesians 4:21-24.
And the people were frightened by the supernatural events that had taken place. The man had intimidated them before when he was possessed and everyone stayed away from him, but to see so drastic a change and have it happen because demons had come out and entered swine was beyond their comprehension at that time and they just wanted it to be back in the status quo that they had learned to live with. Something so exciting and new scared them. They asked Jesus to leave and let them just be the way there were, but things had had a paradigm shift. Satan had lost a stronghold and the man now rose up as a fearless preacher of the good news of Jesus.
The man who had been demon-possessed implored Jesus to let him remain with Him and follow Him but Jesus only did My Will and He did not let him, I had an assignment for him and it was to bring that whole region back to Me, and particularly to Me through Jesus. So Jesus gave him his assignment and he ran with it, “Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you.” And he went away and he did not just stick to his town of Gadara and go only to the family where he first let the devil begin to take over his life through his anger and offense, he started there and then he went to all the ten cities of the area preaching the good news of the Kingdom. And all were amazed. And a personal testimony is powerful, Jesus had a great number of followers in the Decapolis. The man now in his right mind had put a great number of people back in their right minds too. One witness can change a whole region depending upon the amount of gratitude and love they have for Me. And this man was overwhelmed with gratitude to be free of the demons that had led him to live among the tombs and scream and cut himself with stones. He never let even one come in again.
I love you. You know the truth; it is time you set the captives free. Jesus was anointed to do that and so are you. Greater works will you do. He is with you.
And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD.” And He closed the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke 4:17-20.