The Demon-Possessed Man Healed (Part Three)

He leads me …

We read in Mark 5:1-20 (NKJV) 

A Demon-Possessed Man’s Testimony

Then they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gadarenes. And when He had come out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no one could bind him, not even with chains, because he had often been bound with shackles and chains. And the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces; neither could anyone tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones.

When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him. And he cried out with a loud voice and said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God that You do not torment me.”

For He said to him, “Come out of the man, unclean spirit!” Then He asked him, “What is your name?”

And he answered, saying, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” Also he begged Him earnestly that He would not send them out of the country.

Now a large herd of swine was feeding there near the mountains. So all the demons begged Him, saying, “Send us to the swine, that we may enter them.” And at once Jesus gave them permission. Then the unclean spirits went out and entered the swine (there were about two thousand); and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and drowned in the sea.

And when He got into the boat, he who had been demon-possessed begged Him that he might be with Him. However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, “Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.” And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled.

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The section that we will focus on is this last paragraph where the demon possessed man begged Jesus to let him go back across the lake with Him and the disciples.

Interestingly, Jesus challenged him to see his own people and his own town as his mission field and he invited him to do one basic thing – to tell everyone his story of what the Lord had done for him.

If we compare this account with the Woman at the Well in John 4:3-42 we see that a similar thing happened when Jesus met a woman at a well in Samaria. When the Lord was able to tell her that she had five husbands, and that the man that she currently had was not her husband, she went back and told the people in her town about it.

In both cases the person that Jesus ministered to went and told others what He had done. This resulted in the people of the town coming and seeing Jesus for themselves. Then the Lord was able to minister to a larger number of people.

Like the demoniac, and the woman at the well, there will be times when the Lord will minister to us personally in a special way too. It might be at a church conference, or at our own church. God is also good at ministering in all sorts of other places too.

God loves it when we tell others about these special times – especially when He gets the glory. Testimonies are so powerful because no one can argue against them. People can disagree with Biblical interpretation, but only the person who experienced what God did in their life knows what really happened.

The Bible knows how powerful a personal testimony is too. In Revelation 12:10 – 11 we read –

Then I heard a loud voice shouting across the heavens, “It has happened at last! God’s salvation and the power and the rule, and the authority of his Christ are finally here; for the Accuser of our brothers has been thrown down from heaven onto earth—he accused them day and night before our God. They defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony; for they did not love their lives but laid them down for him. Revelation 12:10-11 (TLB)

No one can argue the power of your testimony, and you don’t need to be a theologian to share it. There is a story in John chapter 9 of a man born blind who was healed by Jesus on the Sabbath. When called before the Pharisees to explain his healing, his response was both simple and profound—“One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.”

What would happen to us as a church, if each week we were committed to telling at least one other person outside church, what God has done for us? Bear in mind that it would best coming as a leading from the Holy Spirit, and not from others telling us that we must do it.

Quietly trust yourself to Christ your Lord, and if anybody asks why you believe as you do, be ready to tell him, and do it in a gentle and respectful way. (1 Peter 3:15 TLB)