55. Captive Set Free
Today’s reading: “The Ministry of Healing” pp. 91, 92.
Key Words
- Authority
- Absolute Control
The first paragraph on p. 91 is easy to skip but essential to grasp because it gives us the true picture of what is really happening in the world; Christ has absolute control over nature and demons.
Jesus is boss!
Even over a man demon-possessed as a result of his partying, pleasure-seeking lifestyle. He tries church, but religion won’t remedy his remorse. He needs The Boss, the Authority (Mark 1:22)!
I wonder how many attend church today because they want to be free of their remorse.
By the authority of Jesus, the man was set free. Notice that freedom from demon-possession is self-possession. It isn't something like “Spirit-filled” or “servant of God” but self-possession. Interesting… (I do wonder about the last fruit of the Spirit though: Self-control (Gal 5:23). How can it be self-control when it comes from the Spirit?)
As much as there is a promise in the first paragraph, the last has a warning.
All who willfully depart from God’s commandments are placing themselves under the control of Satan.
Mmm, that is pretty straight. Wind, waves and demons obey Christ, do we? What about when we know something is right but don’t do it,.. repeatedly. Am I the only one with this problem?
I have put in a long quote here just to reinforce where much of what we see as disease or “insanity”, as mentioned today, actually comes from:
Sickness of the mind prevails everywhere. Nine tenths of the diseases from which men suffer have their foundation here. Perhaps some living home trouble is, like a canker, eating to the very soul and weakening the life-forces. Remorse for sin sometimes undermines the constitution and unbalances the mind. There are erroneous doctrines also, as that of an eternally burning hell and the endless torment of the wicked that, by giving exaggerated and distorted views of the character of God, have produced the same result upon sensitive minds. — Testimonies for the Church 5:444 (1885).
