In Mark 5, Jesus encounters a man being tormented by demons.
“When Jesus climbed out of the boat, a man possessed by an evil spirit came out from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the burial caves and could no longer be restrained, even with a chain. Whenever he was put into chains and shackles—as he often was—he snapped the chains from his wrists and smashed the shackles. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Day and night he wandered among the burial caves and in the hills, howling and cutting himself with sharp stones. When Jesus was some distance away, the man saw him, ran to meet him, and bowed low before him. With a shriek, he screamed, “Why are you interfering with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In the name of God, I beg you, don’t torture me!”
Mark 5:1-7
When Jesus asked him “What is your name?”
“Legion and we are many.”
That response is chilling. A legion in the Roman army was considered the largest unit consisting of 3000-6000 soldiers. So this man was possessed by many many demons. Often, when people think of demonic possession, we may picture what we have seen in horror movies, green eyes, projectile vomit, spinning heads, and dramatic manifestations. Yet Scripture shows something different. The enemy is often far more subtle than that. “His goal is to steal, kill, and destroy” (John 10:10), and he frequently works through lies, temptation, fear and anything that distorts and destroys our relationship with God.
Not every struggle or illness is spiritual in origin, but every believer will encounter some type of spiritual battle. The enemy delights in anything that perverts our view of God. He weakens our trust in him by using our suffering to whisper lies about God’s character. He loves when he can fill us with fear, confusion, hopelessness, or temptation and then convince us that God is the one to blame.
How many people have turned away from God because they believed He caused what the enemy used for destruction?
But, God is always able to redeem what the enemy intends for evil.
If you let him.
“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Genesis 50:20
That is why it is so important to know Jesus for ourselves. Get into His Word. Learn His character. Learn His voice. The more we know the Shepherd, the easier it becomes to recognize the voice of a stranger. The enemy’s greatest weapon is deception, but deception loses its power when it is exposed to the truth of Christ. That truth can only be found in learning it for yourself.
In the course I’m taking, we were asked to name our pain and write a letter to it. Immediately the name “Legion” came to mind, not because I believe my illnesses are caused by demons, but because this journey has become a battlefield where the enemy continually tries to pull my heart away from Jesus through pain, fear, discouragement, exhaustion, and despair.
When I was growing up, we had a toy called Stretch Armstrong. He was made of squishy rubber that could stretch several feet. My brothers would each grab an arm or a leg and pull as hard as they possibly could until the weaker side finally let go. Whoever held on the longest got to keep him. That is what living with this illness and Graves’ disease feels like. On one side is the relentless physical battle: the pain, weakness, strange sensations, uncertainty, and exhaustion. It takes everything I have just to endure the flare in front of me.
On the other side are the thoughts that try to crush my hope: There is no approved treatment. Only 5% make a full recovery. FIVE. If I move too much I could become severe. I could end up needing a feeding tube. It looks grim. It feels terrifying.
But, that’s the enemy.
He takes real fears and tries to convince me they are the end of my story. He piles this fear on top of pain so all I can see is darkness.
I told ya he doesn’t look like a scary monster that you can see coming.
So, I do all I know how, I pray, I worship, I read Gods word and fill my mind with HIS promises. HIS truth. I tune out the enemy noise no matter how bad it gets. He does make me cry that’s for sure but thats when I wipe my tears and I tighten my grip on Christ and pull harder, I pray louder.
All I have left is Faith and this is how I Fight my battles.
The enemy would love nothing more than for me to give up on God, to actually believe that HE would intentionally inflict suffering on me, for me to be weak enough to let go and abandon my Father.
But what he forgets is this-
Chronic illness is not for the weak and being a Saved Follower of Christ is also not for the weak.
So, when my grip feels weak, Jesus’ grip on me never is and I’m so grateful he never lets me go.
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Strength from Thorns 