“When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time, this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs” (Luke 8:27).
Here is a picture of how powerlessness tracks alongside ‘time’ to destroy hope, potential, value, perseverance, plans, potential, etc. Time is sentient, a catalyst (something that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without itself undergoing any permanent change). Simply put, it wears you out with cyclic actions that go nowhere -repeatedly. Some have called this the definition of insanity, ‘doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome.’
The Gadarene demoniac shows us a vivid model of the results of such a curse.
This powerlessness aligns with what is called the Philistine curse which is a setup to derail any and all plans and intents of God within a person’s life. In this verse in Luke, the curse was well established and embedded to the point that the man no longer wore clothes or lived in a house. He was caught in the matrix of the enemy.
In comes Jesus.
Coming in the opposite spirit, Jesus saw the marker of the enemy and removed it. The result was that Gadarene came to his senses, was clothed with a new mission, and went on to impact his entire city who then sought for themselves to hear what Jesus was up to the next time He came into town.
Practice Application Challenge
If you are experiencing a season of powerlessness, I challenge you to take steps against powerlessness with the following daily practices for the next 30 days. Then, write us and let us know what changes.
Add words of blessings, praise, courage, fortitude, joy, or a short prayer to your daily routine, as a catalyst. Each one of these is a valid weapon created by God to defeat powerlessness when applied as an activation agent alongside the 24 hours you have been given, called a day.