Discover how the supernatural powers of darkness manifest in our world as Rabbi Schneider shares the fascinating story of the demon-possessed man living among the tombstones. This episode sheds light on the cultural and spiritual contexts of these ancient encounters, showing how faith and the power of Jesus can liberate and transform. Learn about the signs and wonders that corroborate gospel truths and the importance of seeking divine protection in a spiritually charged world.
People that are filled with darkness are attracted to death. It’s not surprising that this man that was filled with a legion of demons was living amongst the tombstones. Supernatural power of darkness is real.
SPEAKER 01 :
When Jesus encountered the demon-possessed man living among the tombstones, it wasn’t a coincidence that he dwelt in a graveyard. You see, today on Discovering the Jewish Jesus, Rabbi Schneider is going to share some real truth that the supernatural powers of darkness are real and they manifest in ways that draw people to death. rather than life. And now here’s Rabbi Schneider with an exciting and eye-opening message from our series, Stories from the Sea of Galilee. Rabbi.
SPEAKER 03 :
Last time, we talked about how Yeshua stilled the storm. But today, we’re gonna look about the encounter Yeshua had off a city close to here with a demon. Actually, the demon identified itself as a legion of demons. So we’re going today to the book of Mark, chapter five, and I’m just gonna begin to read, The Word of God Abides Forever. They came to the other side of the sea into the country of the Gerasenes. When he got out of the boat, and so we’re talking about he got out of the boat off of this sea that we’re in right now. When he got out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. Now we wonder, did that really happen? That there was a man with an unclean spirit that lived in a graveyard and that this man was so supernaturally strong that he broke the chains that they were holding him in? So I want you just to put this in perspective a bit. First of all, I think you can resonate with this truth. People that are filled with darkness are attracted to death. I mean, you look at people that are filled with darkness and how do they dress? They dress in all black, a lot of times in Gothic clothing. They listen to heavy metal, acoustic music. So the first thing to understand is this might seem strange to you that there was a man that enjoyed or lived in a graveyard amongst the tombs, but we can see this same spiritual phenomenon happening right now when we observe certain people around us that are filled with darkness they’re attracted to death they love halloween they love scary movies many of them dress in gothic clothing they wear black lipstick they paint their fingernails black they’re attracted to darkness. Satan and demons dwell in darkness. So this man, it’s not surprising that this man that was filled with the legion of demons was living amongst the tombstones. So let’s continue on. And his dwelling was among the tombs and no one was able to bind him anymore, even with the chain. So this guy was so oppressed, he was so tormented, he had a demonic supernatural strength. Well, let me tell you what I’ve seen in Africa. I’ve seen people in Africa that were so possessed by demons, they were convulsing, and it took four, five people to hold them down while we cast demons out of them. I mean, supernatural strength. You see, you’ve probably seen videos before You can look it up online if you’ve never seen it, of men that can lift up a car with their bare hands. Check it out online. Check it out on YouTube. Man lifting up car with his bare hands. Supernatural strength. This man was demonically energized. It really happened just as the scripture says it did. And it says the chains were unable to hold him anymore, again, even with a chain, because he had often been bound with shackles and chains and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces and no one was strong enough to subdue him so as i said i’ve literally seen demonstrations like this especially in countries that i travel to where the root religion’s been witchcraft and voodooism people have opened up their lives to demons they get possessed by the supernatural energy and if you listen to people that have been in the occult they’ll tell you that they’ve observed supernatural things happening That’s what got them attracted to the occult. Maybe they went to a fortune teller or maybe they went to someone that supposedly channeled spirits and gave them correct information and they got drawn in. Why? Because this supernatural power of darkness is real. It’s obviously, it’s defiled, it pollutes and it will lead people to hell, but it’s real. And there’s a strength behind it that’s beyond the natural world. So continuing on, constantly night and day, this man was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains and gnashing himself with stones. So you think about that, okay, is this really happening? Am I seeing this? I’ve seen it before, this woman. It was such a sad and tormented situation. She was in a nursing home and she just couldn’t stop gnashing her teeth and screaming in agony and shrieking in pain, literally tormented day and night by the realm of darkness. And listen to this next part. Not only was this individual that met Yeshua screaming continually in torment, but listen to what happened next. And this one was gnashing himself with stones. He was trying to hurt himself. He was dashing himself with stones. I mean, have you heard of people that are today cutting themselves with razor blades or knives? They’re hurting themselves. It’s happening all the time. Why are even young people hurting themselves? Why are they slicing open their skin with knives? Why are they inflicting pain upon themselves? For the same reason, beloved one, that this man that Jesus met in the gospels is doing. It’s because they’re possessed and being led and filled with the spirit of darkness. And so continuing on, verse number six, seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before him and shouting with a loud voice, he said, what business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High? I implore you by God, do not torment me. And so when demons, when darkness comes into the realm of light, the darkness is tormented, the darkness begins to shrink. We see this happen, especially in third world countries. As soon as I begin to minister in the spirit, people start shrieking, people start convulsing, people start foaming at the mouth, they start rolling on the ground, demons are coming out. We had one situation in Africa where people began to manifest demons. And I asked one of the ushers, actually several of the ushers, to carry this one woman up to the platform where I was ministering to cast the demon out of her. And I wanted everybody in the crowd to see it because God confirms his word. by signs and wonders. That’s why you read so much in the book of Acts that when the gospel was preached, God confirmed it with signs and wonders. Paul’s ministry was confirmed with signs and wonders. You can argue with somebody until you’re blue in the face and they may not believe you. But when they see a notable miracle that’s undeniable, the argument stops right there. And so the Lord confirms his word oftentimes with miracles, with signs and wonders to shut people’s mouth and show them that the word that’s being proclaimed is real and it’s true. And so once again, oftentimes when we’re in third world countries, and again, the reason is, is because these third world countries weren’t based like America is, whose constitution is based on godly principles, whose coins say in God we trust, we have monuments in our cities with scriptures on them. These countries that I’m going to around the world, their religious bases are voodooism and ancestral religion. And I just got done reading a book about a missionary that went into the Amazon And his calling was to minister to unreached tribes. And so there was this particular tribe in the Amazon. It took him like days to get there. And it was actually through a group called YWAM, Youth With A Mission, powerful missionary organization that was supernaturally birthed. And the man had to fly into the Amazon. Then they had to take a boat down the Amazon River, down the tributary off the Amazon River, and then walk for days to get to this primitive tribe. The tribe, what they did, whenever something bad happened in the tribe, they would kill themselves. So for example, if there seemed to be bad luck in the family, the people would kill themselves. This is a terrible thing to say, and it is a terrible spirit, but you know, a lot of times people, they place more value on having a son than a daughter. To me, I have two daughters and no sons. I was thrilled with both my daughters and never regretted any time not having a son. I’m thankful now that I’ve got five grandsons, but I was so happy with my daughters. I don’t think I could have handled a son. I think that’s why the Lord didn’t give me one. But at any rate, in some cultures, it’s like they place more value on having a son than a daughter. So in this primitive tribe in the Amazon, this woman had had three babies, they were all daughters, and the tribe began to look askance at her because they valued the sons. The sons hunted, the sons were able to go out and provide by hunting. And so when the woman had another daughter, she killed herself. And this wasn’t like a one-off, this was all, it was a constant pattern of suicide. And so I’m just talking about some of these things that we read about in the scriptures. These are real things that are happening today. And so this man was hurting himself. He was cutting himself with the stones. And I see this type of phenomenon happening all over the world. And we hear it happening a lot in the States with people that are diagnosed with psychiatric problems. They begin to cut themselves. But it’s more than just psychological problems. They’re being tormented by the same type of spirits that this man was tormented in in the
SPEAKER 01 :
You’re listening to Discovering the Jewish Jesus with Rabbi Schneider. He’s going to be right back. But first, I want to let you know that you can watch full episodes of Discovering the Jewish Jesus on Roku television. We have episodes that are filmed in the Holy Land and outreach events from Nigeria and Gulu, Uganda, all sorts of places. Every episode is available to help deepen your understanding of scripture and the Jewish roots of your faith. So search for Discovering the Jewish Jesus on Roku today. Thank you for remembering that Discovering the Jewish Jesus is a listener-supported ministry. Rabbi Schneider’s teachings are made possible through the generous gifts from people like you who understand the importance of sharing the good news of Jesus’ return. Because of you, we are changing lives all over the world. Give online by visiting discoveringthejewishjesus.com or call 800-777-7835. That’s 800-777-7835. And now let’s get back to Rabbi’s message.
SPEAKER 03 :
And so we continue on. This man saw Jesus from a distance. He said, what do I have to do with you? And then in verse number eight, it says, for he had been saying to him, come out of the man, you unclean spirit. Yeshua began to rebuke the spirit. Come out of him, you unclean spirit. And he was asking him, what is your name? It’s interesting here that In this particular case, which is unusual, Jesus didn’t just cast out the spirit with the word one time because it says he had been saying to him. So this man’s deliverance was a process. It took some time in this particular case. And then Yeshua asked him, what is your name? And he said to him, my name is Legion for we are many. And he began to implore him earnestly not to send them out of the country. So the demons didn’t want to go out of the geographical place where they were. Now there was a large herd of swine feeding nearby in the mountain. The demons implored him saying, send us into the swine so that we may enter them. I want you to get an important principle here. These demons were terrified that Yeshua would cast them out of this man’s, listen now, mortal flesh. Demons seek to dwell in flesh and blood. They were terrified and being just cast out of no body. So they were begging Jesus to send them into the pigs because demons dwell in flesh and blood. They look for flesh and blood to inhabit. The Bible says the devil is a roaring lion looking to and fro for someone to devour. So he’s looking for the weak one. This is why it’s important for us to understand that we need to be strong in the Lord. And we need to learn how to resist evil. And we need to recognize evil spirits when they’re seeking to enter our heart through our attitude or through our thoughts. We need to recognize them and shut the door because they’re seeking to gain deeper and deeper entrance. And if we let them in, remember the demons are knocking. The demons are seeking to get in. But the Lord is saying, seize my word. And do not let anything else in. The demons are looking to inhabit flesh and blood. So again, Jesus is commanding the demons to leave the man’s body. They’re terrified that they’re just going to be sent out into a wasteland. And so they begged Jesus to go into the pigs. So Jesus, in verse number 13, And Jesus gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about 2,000 of them, and they were drowned in water. the sea. Their herdsmen ran away and reported in the city and in the country. And the people came to see what it was that happened. They came to Jesus and observed the man who had been demon-possessed sitting down, clothed and in his right mind, the very man that had the legion. And they became frightened. Those who had seen it described to them how it happened to the demon-possessed man and about the swine. They began to implore Jesus to leave their region. Really interesting how when we don’t understand something sometimes, the enemy gets in and drives us deeper into the darkness because we’re afraid of what we’re seeing. And oftentimes people, for example, when they observe the gifts of the Spirit operating in the church, they don’t understand it. They’ve been taught against it. And so what do they do? They command those that operate in the gifts of the Spirit to get out of their congregations. So for example, I remember when I was in Bible school, I was taught that speaking in tongues was demonic. And I actually listened to a tape of a man that was casting demons out of people. I actually listened to the cassette tape. This is going back now into the 1980s, the early mid 1980s. And I heard the demons coming out And then the man that had the deliverance ministry said, a lot of these demons that I’m casting out of these people that you’re hearing, the demons got in when those people sought to receive the gift of tongues. So I became terrified of the gifted tongues. And what’s interesting, I had been very open to the supernatural to that point because I was saved in 1978 through a supernatural vision of the night when Jesus appeared to me, a Jewish man in my bedroom, knowing nothing about him, having never even really heard of him other than knowing that he’s the God of the Gentiles or something. He was so foreign to me. So I was saved supernaturally. So I was open to the supernatural. But when I got to Bible school, they began to make me afraid of the supernatural. And particularly they focused on the gift of tongues. And so I kept that thing away from me with a 10 foot pole. And I remember there was just a few people at that Bible school that were charismatic, that did speak in tongues. And one of this guy’s names was Robbie. And I was really attracted to this guy because there was something special about him. He had an anointing on him that was different than 90 plus percent of the student body. I mean, he had a life in him and an attractiveness of the spirit that very, very few people had there. So I was friends with them. And Cynthia and I went over his house one night. He was a bit younger than I. He and his wife, Marie. Just a really cute couple. They had not been married long. I’m going back again now to the early 1980s. And we had a nice dinner together, good fellowship. And again, he was only one of the few charismatics in the Bible school. And after dinner, Robbie and I sat down in one of the rooms and Cynthia and Robbie’s wife were in the other room. And Robbie starts talking to me. He starts talking to me about tongues. And as he’s talking to me about the gift of tongues, I felt so clearly the witness of the Holy Spirit. telling me, I could feel it, that what he was telling me was true. And Robbie stopped right in the middle of what he was telling me about the gift of tongues. And he said, what are you feeling right now? He knew that the Holy Spirit was bearing witness to my spirit. You know, the prophetic gift was working, another gift of the spirit. And I said, nothing. I lied, straight out lied. I mean, forgive me, forgive me, forgive me, Lord, which I’ve asked for forgiveness on. But it was like, I was not going to let that thing touch me. And it wasn’t until years later that I realized I was speaking in tongues and didn’t even know it. I was pastoring a church. I’d be up on my study. Whenever I was really burdened about something, especially when it had to do with a relationship, I just started speaking out in tongues. And I didn’t even know what I was doing. And I started thinking, is this tongues? I started speaking in tongues without even knowing I was speaking in tongues. But the point that I’m making, beloved, is that I was afraid of that gift. I was afraid of the supernatural before the Lord drew me into it and began to teach me about it and took away my fear. And many people, even Christians, are afraid of the supernatural. God wants to bless them with a greater anointing and greater fullness of the Spirit, but they’ve been taught to fear the gifts of the Spirit, to fear the supernatural, to fear deliverance ministry. being afraid that they’re going to get exposed or possessed by a demon by being part of an environment like that. This is similar, I guess, to what happened in the book of Mark when Jesus cast these demons out of this man. The people around saw it. They were terrified of the power and they implored Jesus to leave their region. So maybe I’m talking to somebody right now. And God’s wanting to draw you into a deeper realm of walking in the Spirit, but you’re afraid. You’re afraid of opening yourself up to God. You’re afraid of opening yourself up to a demon. But you know what Yeshua said? If you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, How much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those that ask? If you ask him for a fish, Yeshua said, he’s not gonna give you a scorpion. Don’t be afraid of God. Don’t be afraid of what he wants to do in your life. Don’t be afraid of the gifts of the Spirit. Don’t be afraid of the supernatural ministry of Jesus, because God, by definition, is supernatural. And if you and I want to walk with Him and know Him, we too, beloved, have to walk with a supernatural God and be in fellowship with the supernatural God. The same Jesus that drove those demons out all those years ago, he’s still at work today, beloved, delivering his people from every evil, from every sin, and from every devilement. And that includes you and me. There’s a portion in God’s Word that I’ve really been putting myself under, asking the Lord to shepherd me into perfect obedience. It’s the story of the rich young ruler that came to Jesus in Matthew 19. It’s also repeated in Mark and Luke. And the rich young ruler says to Jesus, good teacher. Jesus says, why do you call me good? Only God’s good. And then the rich young ruler said to Jesus, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Yeshua said, keep all the commandments. rich young ruler said i’ve done all the commandments from my youth he was a moral man then yeshua said to him now go and sell everything you have and you will inherit the kingdom of god and the bible says the rich young ruler went away sad because he wasn’t able to surrender his possessions to the lord and the disciples were really like wow who can inherit the kingdom of god jesus said what’s impossible with man is possible with god Beloved, we don’t have to earn our salvation, but Jesus is calling for us to surrender. Will you surrender your finances to him?
SPEAKER 01 :
Amen. And you can give a financial gift of any amount to Discovering the Jewish Jesus. Just visit us online. Our website is discoveringthejewishjesus.com. And if it’s easier for you, then you can give us a call at 800-777-7835. You can also send your donation in the mail as well. Our address is discoveringthejewishjesus.com. PO Box 777, Blissfield, Michigan 49228. And as a token of our appreciation for your generosity, we wanna make sure that you receive our latest newsletter in the mail. Each issue, it’ll give you additional insights straight from Rabbi. Plus, you’ll also be able to see the impact that your giving is making through the testimonies of our listeners. We place them in every single newsletter, and it’s really special. And I also want to remind you today about an exciting offer that we’ve got right now. It’s a complimentary resource package and it explores the transformative wisdom of the Aaronic Blessing. And this gift is absolutely free and it includes a detailed PDF guide that examines each element of this blessing, along with a special eye-opening audio MP3 message that offers a fresh perspective on applying the Aaronic Blessing to your life today, so you can learn more about God’s covenant name, Yahweh, and how that connects to protection over your life. It’s absolutely free, and it’s available at MyFreeGift.com forward slash peace. And right now, let’s turn things back over again to Rabbi. He’s going to send us off with God’s sacred and special blessing.
SPEAKER 03 :
In the Old Testament book of Numbers, we find a blessing God speaks over his children through Moses and Aaron. It carries the idea of favor and expression. Open your heart to the Spirit and the Word today and receive Father’s goodness into your life with confidence.
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up with his countenance. And the Lord give you, beloved one, his peace. God bless you and shalom.
SPEAKER 01 :
This program is produced and sponsored by Discovering the Jewish Jesus and I’m Dustin Roberts. Join us again tomorrow when Rabbi Schneider shares what to do when God’s instructions don’t make sense. That’s Thursday on Discovering the Jewish Jesus.
