Prayed Up?

So they arrived at the other side of the lake, in the region of the Gerasenes. 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. [Mark 5.1-5]

Yeah, the guy Jesus encountered here in this passage was a tough one, right?

The first point I wish to make here is that this story gives every evidence that this guy was the only reason Jesus crossed the lake. I say this because after this encounter, Jesus got right back into the boat and went back across the lake.

I might point out here that Jesus and His disciples faced certain death in their encounter with a violent storm on the journey to get to this demon-possessed man. Of course, Jesus simply spoke to the storm and scolded His disciples that they did not come up with the same solution of faith.

Another point I wish to make is that, although there is sufficient evidence above to determine that Jesus specifically went to encounter the demon-possessed man (the obvious result of much prayer), there is also sufficient evidence that the demon-possessed man had some idea that Jesus was coming (no doubt having been revealed to him through his obsession with the dead, howling and cutting himself)! The demon-possessed man knew Who Jesus was!

There was something spiritual going on there! It is worth noting that just because there was something spiritual does not mean that that "spiritual" was all good. Obviously, for Jesus, the journey was a spiritual one led by the Holy Spirit. But for the demon-possessed man, it was also spiritual, but not so much led by the Holy Spirit!

What this means is that, although we may feed strongly led by the Holy Spirit to do any certain "Kingdom" task, we must be well aware that we have an enemy, who also operates in the realm of the spirit, who will oppose us on every turn. Remember the storm?

Kingdom life is not dull. It is dangerous. However, it reaches people at their point of need tapping into resources of supernatural value. There is no doubt that Jesus had prayed His way into this whole situation with this man, including the storm encountered in transit to him. One should not underestimate the amount of prayer that preceded this event! Jesus knew this man was there and went specifically to him. So confident was Jesus of this that the storm encountered on the way was just "word play" to Jesus.

Can you say, "prayed up?"

Father, I want to always pray with Your purposes in mind. Forgive me for praying for my purposes...