Dwelling in dead places

Many of us don’t even like to drive by a cemetery at night, many of us don’t even like to attend funerals in the day. None of us in our right mind would live in the cemetery in the natural nor just go there to hang out because there is nothing left to do. But I say to you Saints, its time to get away from dead things and LIVE as God wills. Jesus Himself said that He came that we would have life and have it more abundantly. So, in the corridors of our minds, why are we living in the cemetery, making idols of the dead things of our yesterday? The demoniac of Gadera dwelled among the tombs. There is much historical significance regarding the tribe of Gad for which Gadera is named.

Mark 5

1And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.

2And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,

3Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains:

4Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him.

5And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.

6But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him,

7And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.

8For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.

9And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.

10And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country.

11Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding.

12And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.

13And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea.

14And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done.

15And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.

16And they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning the swine.

17And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts.

See Saints, when we look at the text, we see that this man was bound up living among the dead. He was living in tombs and came out to meet Jesus. We see in the verses 3-4 of this text that no man could bind him, even with chains, because every time that they bound him, he broke the chains and fetters, we see that man had tried to tame him, you know that taming is just restraint. Have you ever seen a person, come out from among the dead in the world---come out of their past, yet people will try to bind him or her up in religion or better yet, people try to bind them to their past, what they USED to do, when what that person TRULY needs is deliverance? They need a real encounter with God, not religion.

Now in the text of Mark 5, we see a progression to this man’s bondage:

First, he came out of the tombs to meet Jesus,

Next, we learn that people had OFTEN tried to bind him with chains and fetters, but he himself would break them, we see that people tried to TAME him (we all know or should know that taming is just restraining),

Then we see his moving from the mountain to the tombs crying and cutting himself with stones.

We see in verse 5 that the man was in the mountains, which is your Greek oros, which translates to rise or rear and the tombs, which is your Greek mnēma which translates , sepulchre or tomb. Even when we do what the Lord tells us and really search out the matter, we go to the root of mnema and find that it is mnaomai which translates (through the idea of fixture in the mind or of mental grasp); to bear in mind, that is, recollect; by implication to reward or punish: - be mindful, remember, come (have) in remembrance

Basically that we make a memorial to perpetuate the memory of a person or thing. This is what happens when we see a person today and they are doing okay and when we see them tomorroHe sat in the mountains and tombs crying and cutting himself with stones. Now if we research the area that was once Gadera, we will note that the stones were limestone, which was soft. However, today, we see children and adults sitting in mental institutions cutting themselves with whatever sharp object they can get their hands on. Many call them crazy, but I say it’s a spirit.

See, Saints we can see people in the church in the church that are stuck in a hurt, because the enemy is doing work on their minds, yet while they come to church with a smile on their faces, we cannot see, because their wounds are not external, they are emotional, and as we can see in the text, people are crying out and emotional hurts can get a person to place where they are hopeless and a spirit of suicide comes in to try to take over. Yet we bind them up in our religious ideas and stress the external holiness when their heart is hurting and the healing and the sanctification must come from the power of the Holy Spirit--that could be the power of the Holy Spirit working in that believer or working in US, but it is the power of the Holy Spirit nonetheless. Binding the list of do’s and do not’s to a believer is not God’s heart on the matter. We must build each other up, which is what the word edify means. Saints, that is what we are called to do. We can bind up another believer with our words, making us tools of the enemy and we think that we are walking in the will of God.

It reminds me of John 11:44 and Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead and Lazarus coming forth out of the tomb bound with grave clothes and Jesus said to those surrounding Lazarus to loose him and let him go. Jesus raised him from the dead, but told those around him to loose him and let him go.

This man was alone with his thoughts and the more he thought, the more demons were invited to his solo party, there were so many demons attached to this man that they called themselves Legion. That Legion of demons ruled this man’s life for an unknown period of time until he met Jesus. See, a real encounter with God is one that will cause us to run, fall down and worship. A real encounter with God is not one that will exalt the religious ideas, but will bring the deliverance that only the power of the Holy Spirit can do. Just as this man met Jesus in Gadera and Jesus delivered him so completely (who could ever accuse God of doing a half baked job) that when the people came to Jesus and saw him that was possessed sitting, clothed and in his right mind, they became afraid. Why? Do you think that maybe the people, for all of their attempts to restrain him, for all of their attempts to bind him up, for all that they were content to do by leaving him in the tombs, were afraid of the power of God? See, it’s the power of God that will deliver a person in the spirit of their mind, it is the power of God that will deliver a person from their past, it is the power of God that will do a work in us that will make man afraid. Even some people in the church who have placed God in a box, when they see the power of God, it makes them afraid. So afraid, Saints, that they will put their agenda ahead of what God is doing by the power of His Spirit. Have you ever been in a service where the Holy Spirit has been quenched? Hmmmm. Have you ever been in a service where God is ready and willing to manifest His glory in the healing and deliverance of His Saints, yet because what God wants to do doesn’t line up with the doctrines of devils that have been in operation in that place for years, the people won’t allow God to do what He wants to do for the hearts that are truly seeking Him? Matter of fact, have you ever been in a place that man has put God in a box and have determined the who, what, when, where and how God is going to move? I believe that Paul called it having a form of Godliness but denying the power thereof. He tells us from such, turn AWAY. I believe that God is getting ready a people who will not restrain Him and will do and move where He wants them to do and move.

Saints, are we willing to stop binding people with our words and leaving people in a place that they are damaged, emotionally torn, hurting and yet smiling, but in the spirit of their mind, they are messed up. What are we willing to do with the spiritual Gadarenes that we encounter? Are we willing to speak the words of edification, are we willing to fast and pray for those people? Are we willing to fight for those that are so disturbed that they can’t fight for themselves? Or are we going to cross to the other side like we read in Luke 10

Luke 10:29 But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbor?

When we read the verses 25-37 of the 10th chapter of the book of Luke, we see that Jesus had just finished telling the Pharisees about both vertical and horizontal relationships and the young lawyer, sought to justify himself asked the Lord the question in the verse noted above. The Lord went on to the parable of the good Samaritan. Mind you, there are a lot of good messages that can be preached from this text, to include Jesus stepping down to save us-those that are fallen and pouring into us salvation (the wine) and the Holy Spirit (the oil), but I want to look at this as love---one to another. Jesus tells us that a young man went down to Jericho from Jerusalem and fell among thieves who stripped him of his raiment. The Jericho Road is the seventeen mile road that connects Jerusalem to Jericho. That road drops 3600 feet in those seventeen miles. It is a steep, winding, descending, remote road that for centuries has been a place of robberies. The man was naked, wounded and left for dead. The first to come by was a Priest, who though he saw the young man, he crossed to the other side. He was absolutely indifferent. It reminds me of those who like to watch car accidents and as an adjuster, I have had to adjust claims of those that were telling me of the many people who saw the incident, saw the injuries but didn’t want to get involved. Maybe pride in who he was as a Priest, maybe he didn’t want to dirty up his clothes, maybe he just didn’t have anything in him that would allow him to reach out--maybe he saw himself as a servant to only Jehovah. The next steps he heard were those of a Levite, who came with all of his ordinances and also passed by on the other side. These two are indicative of religion. Religion doesn’t want to humble itself and do anything but what it is doing to continue its journey for self. The last steps he heard were that of a Samaritan. The Samaritans were a people who were of a different religion and typically the Jews had nothing to do with them according to John 4 and further insight on how the Samaritans got there is revealed when we study the Old Testament, which reveals that the Samaritans were idolaters. Yet this Samaritan got down off of his beast and helped this young man. Not only did he help him at the scene by binding up the wounds and pouring in the oil and the wine, he put the young man on his beast and took him to a place of rest so that he could recover and took the expense upon himself. We must understand that he has been wounded to the point of an open wound because if not, the Samaritan would not have had to pour in the oil and wine and bind up these wounds. It is clear to me that if God did not send someone to help him, he would have died. Saints, when we walk this walk, we must realize that its gonna cost us something. The Holy Spirit writes to us in

Rom 15:1 We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.

Rom 15:2 Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification.

Are we doing that? Are we bearing the infirmities of the weak? Again I ask, are we willing to turn down our plates for a brother or sister who is going through? Are we willing to travail in the spirit with that brother or sister until they break through? What are we willing to do, Saints as led by the Spirit of God? Now I am not talking about travailing for the spiritual leeches that satan has planted among the wheat in the church. Are we willing to reach out to that brother or sister that God has placed in our path to help them along the way? To gently encourage them and untie them. Are we willing to be led by the Spirit of God and be called Sons of God or are we going to sit next to a brother or sister and look at the mess that the enemy is trying to make of that life and shake our heads like so many?