"I will refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people’; And each one will say, ‘The Lord is my God.'"-Zechariah 13:9.

Showing posts with label demons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label demons. Show all posts

Monday, April 3, 2017

Who Is Jesus Christ (Part 3)? The Lord


“Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11).

I must confess something embarrassing. For many years I had read the above passage and thought to myself that Jesus was the name above all names. But when paired with Acts 4:12 (“Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”), I often wondered if it was blasphemous for anyone else to have the name “Jesus”. What about all the Mexican men named “Jesus” (pronounced “Hey Zeus!”)? Should they have the name Jesus? Can they possess the name that is above all the others? What on earth were their parents thinking to name their child with a name that is only reserved for Jesus (not “Hey Zeus!”)? However, if you read the context of Philippians 2:9-11, it isn’t “Jesus” that is the name above all others. It isn’t “Jesus” that no other name shall be given in which we shall be saved by. No. Although it is true that His name is Jesus, it is His name in verse 11 that is the name above all others that no one else shall possess: “Lord”.

I would seriously hope that no one claims to be “Lord”, even if his name is “Hey Zeus!” However, for Jesus it is more than a name, it is who He is, and as we see above in Philippians 2, that every knee shall bow. This includes those in Heaven (the saints who have gone before us and angels), those on earth (the redeemed believers), and those below (the demons and Satan. Yes. I said “the demons and Satan”). Let’s take a moment to explore these three groups.

First is the group that is in Heaven. In Revelation 6:9-10 it says “I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?’” These martyred believers stand before Jesus, calling Him “Lord”. Also in Revelation it says “The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!’” (4:8). Aside from these four creatures, we also see the angels proclaiming the lordship of Jesus Christ: “Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!’ (Revelation 11:15). And I heard the angel of the waters saying: ‘You are righteous, O Lord, The One who is and who was and who is to be, Because You have judged these things.’” {16:5). These angels not only proclaim that Jesus is Lord, but also backup those claims by the evidence that Jesus is Lord and King of the earth, but also Judge.

Second is the group that is below the earth. You may be wondering how I come to the conclusion that the demons and Satan acknowledge Jesus as Lord. In Luke 4:41 it reads “And demons also came out of many, crying out and saying, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of God!’ And He, rebuking them, did not allow them to speak, for they knew that He was the Christ.”. Also “When [the man who was demon possessed, Legion,] saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before Him, and with a loud voice said, ‘What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me’ For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man.” (Luke 8:28-29). James 2:19 says “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!”. The demons recognize who Jesus is in that He is more than man, but also Lord. He holds command over the demons. They wreak havoc until Christ arrives and tells them to get lost. One should note that in the scriptures men failed to always cast out demons (Mark 9:17-29), but the demons had no choice but to obey Jesus every time. Also, regarding Satan, we read in Job 1:6-12 a conversation where Satan had to get permission in order to smite Job. He was allowed to bring about great destruction, but God would not allow him to destroy Job. As you can see, the demons and Satan recognize the Lordship of Jesus and know that they are under His authority.

Third is the group that walks upon the earth. Mankind will all eventually bow before Jesus and confess that He is Lord. For believers this happens now in their lifetime. Romans 10:9-10 states “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” The Greek word used for “Lord” in this passage is kyrios, which means “he to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has power of deciding; master, lord”. Essentially what this passage is saying is that you agree and believe that Jesus is master and that you choose to make Him master of your life. It is a conscious choosing of faith and obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. A life that has made this choice of confession to the lordship of Jesus goes something like this: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:1-2). Of course there are many other passages that we could explore, but for the sake of our attention spans we will avoid them. However, regarding the unbelievers, they will bow before Christ as well. But unfortunately for them it will be too late as they had chosen to reject Christ in this lifetime and will bow in the afterlife. “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:11-15). All of humanity will stand in Heaven before Christ, but is your name in the Book of Life? Will you bow to Christ now and make Him Lord of your life, or will you wait until you realize that He is indeed real and that He is indeed Lord as He sits upon His throne judging you before casting you into the lake of fire?

Jesus left His throne in Heaven as God the Son (or Son of God) and came to earth as the Son of Man. In doing this He experienced what we experience in life, all the way down to being formed within the womb of Mary. He experienced all that any man can experience here on earth. In doing so He is able to intercede on our behalf to the Father as the High Priest who offered up the perfect and final sacrifice to atone for our sins-Himself. In Hebrews 1:2 it states “[God] has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things…” an in Colossians 1:15 it says “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.” The word usually translated “firstborn” does not mean that Jesus was the first created being, but that He was given the rights of the firstborn heir. In Colossians 1:18 it says “And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.” He may have preeminence over all things. Why?

Because He is Lord!

In Christ Alone.

 

Monday, March 13, 2017

Who Is Jesus Christ (Part 1)? The Son of God.

It isn’t a coincidence that I have followed up a series about the decay of morality in our modern society, as well as a decay within the walls of our modern church, with a series about Jesus Christ. After all, I did say that the hope for both to turn around was to set their eyes upon The Christ. But, in order to effectively set our eyes upon Jesus, we need to understand who Jesus is. Notice that I didn’t say who “was” Jesus. To use the term “was” would imply that the person in question had existed and ceased to exist. This would apply to many historical figures such as Abraham Lincoln and Elvis, but it does not apply to Jesus, who sits at God’s mighty right hand and lives through the Holy Spirit. As the old hymn says, “You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart.” But to grasp Jesus, we need to focus on His various attributes. He called Himself the “Son of Man”, but He also was the “Son of God” and He also possessed the “name above all names”. This week I would like to focus on His divinity as the Son of God.

It seems almost as an idea to scoff at. A mere mortal man who walked the earth was also the Son of God. But not just the “Son” of God, but also God incarnate, or the second person of the Trinity, God the Son. Jesus Himself proclaimed to be God. In John 10:30 He said “I and My Father are one.” He also said “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.” (John 5:17), this after healing on the Sabbath. The response from the Jews? “Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.” (v. 18). Not just did Jesus (here and in other various places) claim to be God, but even His disciples understood it. “But Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’” (John 6:68-69). “[Jesus] said to [the disciples], ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered and said, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’” (Matthew 16:15-16). The demons understood that He was the Son of God. “And suddenly [the demons] cried out, saying, ‘What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?’” (Matthew 8:29). Even Satan knew that Jesus was the Son of God when he tempted him in the wilderness in Matthew 4 when he constantly tried to trick Jesus into sinning by saying “If You are the Son of God…” To claim that Jesus was indeed God is a bold proclamation and a hard pill to swallow for many who do not understand Christianity and God’s Word. In John 6 many of the people who were following Jesus turned away because they found His teaching on His divinity as being hard to take. Is Jesus truly God?

In Hebrews 1 the author writes “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.” (Vv. 1-4). The author not just states that Jesus is heir of all things, that He created everything and upholds that creation, and that He is above the angels, but that Jesus is the “express image” of God. The Greek word that is being used here is charaktēr, which denotes that something is the exact reproduction in every aspect to something else. Jesus isn’t like God or possesses some of God’s characteristics, but He is God in every aspect. He even said “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?” (John 14:9-10). He also said in John 17 “that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.” (V. 21). It should be noted that Jesus confirmed that He and God are one by simply using one word…”us”.

Jesus and various New Testament writers may have proclaimed that Jesus is the “Son of God”, or in actuality “God”, but is there truth to that statement or is it just lunacy? Jesus had mentioned in John 14 “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.” (Vv. 10-11). One of the things that verified Christ’s divinity and backed up His claims are the various works that He performed. He did what no one had done before Him and no one after Him has been able to do (although heretic Kenneth Copeland once claimed to have stopped a tornado by simply telling it to go away). Jesus had the power over the elements when He turned water into wine, the power over nature when He calmed the sea and walked on water, the power over infirmities when He made the blind, deaf, dumb, and lame whole again, and the power over death when He called Lazarus out of the grave. However, there is no clearer evidence to Jesus’ divine claim as to His power over His own life and death. In John 10 He says “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.  No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”(Vv. 17-18). That is a bold proclamation! That one can actually decide when to die and when to come back to life is a ridiculous notion. How many people do we know had actually made the choice as to which breath was going to be their last? We see later in John’s gospel, as Jesus was hanging on the cross, it says “So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished!’ And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.” (John 19:30). The Greek term for the phrase “gave up” is paradidōmi. This term denotes giving, delivering, and permitting or allowing. It means that the one who had something (in this case Jesus’ spirit) had given it over or allowed it to be taken. Can any mortal man give his life away or even give death permission to come and take his life away? Who do we know that walks as flesh and blood actually has the power over death to allow it to stop our hearts from beating? Who do we know that walks as flesh and blood that has to give permission to death in order for it to stop us from breathing? As far as I know no one has that kind of power over life and death. But Jesus…. Jesus had that power. He always had as He created, and He always will as He sustains as the heir to all things. Jesus is the “Son of God”, which is more than just being begotten offspring. As the Jews had determined, it makes Him equal with God.

I could go on and on about this. Just ask my former professors. My 5-8 page assignments turned into a 15 page assignment. I just can’t stop talking about how great is our God. But that leaves an important question. If I have succeeded in briefly describing Jesus’ evidence of divinity and convincing you of such, then why on earth would God the Son leave His throne and the glories of Heaven to come to this filthy and wretched place in order to suffer like the rest of us? Even to the point of being mocked, beaten, tortured, and suffering a criminal’s death upon a cross? We will see next time when we explore the “Son of Man” and the Lamb who was slain.

             

Sunday, February 12, 2017

Decay Pt. 3: The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste


I don’t recall the TV show or the movie that I had seen, but the scenario went something like this: There was a boy who decided to start smoking and was hiding it from his parents. Eventually they had caught on to what he was doing and decided to punish him. What was the punishment? They made the boy smoke an entire pack of cigarettes at one time. Of course in doing so the boy got extremely sick. This experience was not a favorable one for the boy and he decided that his lesson was learned and he would not smoke another cigarette. I don’t particularly agree with this method, however it had its desired effect. It kind of reminds me of the golden calf incident in Exodus. As Moses descended down the mountain he was appalled as to what Israel had done. They had cried out for an idol to worship, and so Aaron fashioned for them a golden calf. However, “then [Moses] took the calf which they had made, burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder; and he scattered it on the water and made the children of Israel drink it.” (Exodus 32:20). They wanted an idol. They got their idol. They were forced to taste their vile desires, and just like an entire pack of cigarettes in one sitting, I’m sure that the end result was bitter.

            As you may recall from part 2 that I had mentioned that in Romans 1 God had abandoned man because man had abandoned God. “We don’t want God” they say. Fine! May your wish be granted. However, in order to fulfill the inward desire for man to have a god, man has elevated himself to the position of god. Man’s current desires become the idol, no matter how vile. Every man does what is right in his own eyes (Judges 17:6). Every man for himself! This is why there is so much fighting. Because each man, void of the one true God, has become his own god and expects everyone else to bow down to him. Have you noticed why people can no longer have a civil debate over their differences of opinion or politics? It at least seems that way. One god (man) and one way of thinking. This is called “tolerance”?

            I had mentioned that man has become his own god in part 2 from Romans 1:19-23. The problem is that without God’s gracious restraint, man decides what is right and wrong. Left to his own carnal hunger, man spirals into a pit so depraved that right becomes wrong and vice versa. This is why you have men stand one day and say “I feel like a woman”, and then everyone agrees and refers to him as “her” from that point on. If a white woman says “I feel like a black woman”, then everyone says “That you are! Black lives matter” and she is therefore an African American. If someone says that they are a cat, hey, let’s give them some cat food and see if they can purr. Sin is no longer sin in this world and if you say otherwise then you are the evil one. Darkness is embraced and has become the bride of this world.

            The things that are being accepted as normal behavior these days would have gotten you locked up in the looney bin 25 years ago. Yet, the things that were once irrational have become rational. The secularists would call this “progress”, as if mankind’s way of thinking for thousands of years had been wrong this entire time and now we have finally found the “truth”. Mankind has become so confused that one of the big controversies in 2016 was which bathroom men and women should use. But how has man become so confused that his mind has become darkened to logic and truth? “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting” (Romans 1:28).

            Because man had suppressed the truth of God (v.18), and chose instead to worship vain things and idols (v.25), and rejected God (v.28), he was left to himself as God had left him alone. God had given man over to himself. The result was that man was left alone with his debased mind. What does the word “debased” mean you ask? It doesn’t matter which Bible translation you may use for this word, but it basically means “worthless”. Ouch! Can you imagine God testing your mind and then saying that it is of no worth? It can no longer function properly. It is broken. This explains the upside down way of thinking that our modern godless man possesses. Without God, you are nothing.

            Paul goes on to illustrate what this debased mind looks like: For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due (Romans 1:26-27). I am going to stop right here for a moment. As I had mentioned in part 2, people tend to flock to this passage as a justification for homosexuality being a sin. I would like to illustrate that in ancient Jewish culture homosexuality was viewed as the last resort for a depraved person. In other words in regards to depravity it was as low as you could go when you turned what was natural between a man and a woman upside down. Ironically, 2000 years later, if you disagree with homosexuality then you are considered as low as you could go. You may recall in Genesis 19 that the men of Sodom sought to have sexual relations with the angels that had come to Lot. We can assume that like every town and society that homosexuality was not the only sin that the people of Sodom were committing. However the issue of homosexuality was illustrated in order to show just how low and vile that Sodom had become. The men were burning so much for these angels that instead of running like a bunch of wounded dogs once they were struck blind (like normal people would do), they stayed and continued to try to get into Lot’s home. Never mind the blindness, we want those men!

            Paul singled out homosexuality here to not illustrate that it was the greater sin, but that it was the greater evidence of man’s fall into the dark abyss of his own debased mind. He goes on to say “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.” (vv. 28-32). Sound familiar?

            Have we not become a society full of children who dishonor their parents? People who hate God and His people? People who want the newest things and will stop at nothing to acquire them? People who verbally destroy each other? People who gossip and slander? I could go on forever and ever, but I don’t have to because you know that I am right and this secular godless nation, as well as any other nation that has rejected God, is as guilty as the sin that they celebrate. When a person thinks that they can change genders simply by speaking it, demands that boys and girls share the same restroom based on the feelings of one’s gender, has sexual relations in all sorts of unnatural ways as God had not intended, verbally attacks those who think on the other side of the fence, sees no value to human life but their own, says that only one particular race’s life is more important that another’s, believes that unborn babies are not human, sees the value of a wild animal as being greater than the value of a child (Oh, so many people who are pro-choice, but want to save the whales) and, to top it all off, has no problem with murdering unborn children in the womb even at the end of being full term…my friend…THAT IS WHAT A DEBASED AND WORTHLESS MIND LOOKS LIKE. A mind that lacks an understanding of God and does not possess His gracious restraint within their conscience is nothing more but a waste. Such a mind is a dangerous mind and sadly, with the help of our secular government and the media, these dangerous minds have brought this whole nation down into the pit of God’s judgement. The judgement of abandonment.

But, there is hope…



We are past the halfway point of this series. Hang in there! But I will warn you now… part 4 will shock you to your core.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Legion And The Woman

They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. And crying out with a loud voice, he said, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me." For he was saying to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!" And Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" He replied, "My name is Legion, for we are many." And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him, saying, "Send us to the pigs; let us enter them." So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out, and entered the pigs, and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and were drowned in the sea. The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid (Mark 5:1-15).

And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, "If I touch even his garments, I will be made well." And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, "Who touched my garments?" And his disciples said to him, "You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, 'Who touched me?'" And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease." (Mark 5:24-34).

Who is your “Legion”? Who are your demons and monsters? Do they have names like Sickness, Hopelessness, Despair, Depression, Addiction, etc.? Have you tried everything to kill the beast? Let me tell you about two people in the Bible who were beaten by Sickness to the point that no one could do anything else for them and there was no hope left. Those two people are Legion and the woman who touched Christ’s garment.

How often do we hear of people who are so far lost in the halls of their minds, that they no longer know joy, reality, themselves, etc.? People who rely on medication to escape their torments and/or invest in psychologists to help solve their problems. Maybe a shelf on their bookcase has bowed from the weight of all the self-help books. Some people are so far lost that they physically cut themselves, as Legion did. Some simply have low self- esteem and create storms in their lives, doing things such as fornication, drinking, and abusing drugs. The darkness of their hearts and minds have swallowed them whole, and they have fallen so deep into the pit that it seems that no one can find them, not even themselves.

Let’s look at Legion for just a moment. Here we have a man who is so drenched in darkness, that he lives among the tombs. The air of death does him no discomfort. It matters not that he spies people mourning around the bend from time to time. His heart has no sympathy, just apathy. Even chains cannot bind his tormenting demons. He is so enthralled with demons, that he grabs stones and slices himself open. We hear about this all the time, don’t we? Teens who are so depressed that they inflict wounds on themselves. Maybe its anyone who is lacerating their soul with the stones in life? The emotions are ravaged. The spirit is six feet under. The soul is dead. It seems no one can help them anymore. Enter Jesus.

Before any formal introduction, Christ knew what Legion was all about, and likewise. There they stood toe to toe and eye to eye. I can see the disciples standing behind Christ, shaking in their sandals. Maybe they said to each other “What is He going to do? Doesn’t He know who that man is? No one could ever help him.” And in one simple “Go” from the lips of our Savior, Legion left the man and entered into a herd of pigs, which then became pork chops for the sharks. All that was left was a man who was sitting, not living, among death. Sane, not cutting, screaming, or writhing. It was a done deal.

There is Dependency upon medication, alcohol, fornication, drugs, anything else to cope and escape whatever it is that ails us. Both physically and emotionally. Sounds familiar? When it seems like you are being visited by Hopelessness and Despair and there is no solution, then what? Is Sickness knocking at your door? Is Addiction calling? Did you get that e-mail from Depression? No one could help the woman who spent years with Hemorrhage. She had been to countless doctors. Everything from “Take this”, “Try this”, “Do this”, and “Maybe you should stop doing that” to herbs and old wives tales filled her daily regiment. She had grown exhausted and hopeless. She spent many nights crying herself to sleep, and many more where she did without it. She may have even had frequent visits with Depression. Then Jesus walked by.

All it took was a touch that day from the Physician. And Hemorrhage left her alone, along with Depression and it’s child, Hopelessness.

What was it that she and Legion both had that healed them, other than being with Jesus? They had faith. Legion had it when he knew who Jesus was, and what He could do for him. So he asked Jesus to deliver the demons from him, and it was granted. The woman knew that a simple touch to Christ’s garment would heal her. So she reached out to Him, and was healed. It was their faith in knowing that Christ could do for them what no one else could do when they were at the end of their rope.

Are you at the end of your rope? Do you not know where to turn or what else to do? Have you tried everything to put away your monsters? Have you tried falling on your knees and crying out to Jesus? Come to the throne and ask for deliverance. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened (Matthew 7:8). Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours (Mark 11:24). And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith (Matthew 21:22).

Tell Him what your monster’s name is. Ask Him to rid you of your never ending bleeding and suffering. Ask Him to take away your Legion. Have faith and trust in Him that He can do this for you. Ask Him to restore the joy in your heart and clear the dark clouds. After all…you are at the end of your rope, aren’t you? You have tried all that man can do and nothing seems to work. Right? Lean on the everlasting arms! Pray without ceasing and do not let go of God. As Jacob said: "I will not let you go unless you bless me." (Genesis 32:26).

Love In Christ!