Being Possessed

  

Mark 1: 21-28

The Man with an Unclean Spirit

²¹ They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. ²² They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. ²³ Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, ²⁴ and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” ²⁵ But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” ²⁶ And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. ²⁷ They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He^[a] commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” ²⁸ At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

Jesus astounded his "pupils" as he taught with authority, and confidence, knowing "the rest of the story", as Paul Harvey used to say. Even the unclean spirits heard rightly and recognized Jesus as the Holy One of God and followed his command to leave the possessed man.  Would that we would recognize Jesus and his activity in our daily lives and follow his commands and promptings as faithfully!  We don't need to be possessed by an unclean spirit in order to do so, but perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad idea to, in a sense, to give more elbow room in our lives to Jesus, to be "possessed" by him and in trust as well as obedience, "do whatever he tells us."

Bro. Rene

Bro. Rene