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Your influence in this world is far greater than just the confines of your house, your yard and your little workspace at the office.

Actually, if the truth were known, the whole company where you work is dependent upon you, the whole neighborhood where you live is dependent upon you, even the entire nation needs you—if you are fearless and full of faith.

And the reason we can be so influential is because as believers, we are not in this by ourselves.

We are the Body of Christ. We are the Body of God's anointed ones. Therefore, we are joined together through our connection to Jesus' anointing.

What's more, Jesus gave us all authority and dominion in heaven and earth before He returned to the Father (Luke 9:1-2). And He is expecting us to take that authority and cause His enemies to be made His footstool (Heb. 10:13).

The problem is, we have not been using and enforcing that dominion to its fullest.

But that's all changing, now. And it must change.

A Tale of Two Cities
To give you a sense of the scope of authority you and I have, I want to tell you about two cities as they were back in the days when Jesus walked this earth. One city was run by fear, and the other by faith—they were as different as night and day.

In fact, the atmosphere in each city determined what Jesus could and could not do when he visited them. We read about the city of fear in Mark 5:1-8.

Jesus and His disciples had crossed the Sea of Galilee by boat, and when they arrived on the shore in the region called Decapolis, they were met by a demon-possessed man. We know him as the "madman of Gadera."

In this passage we learn that Jesus commanded the devil that possessed this man to come out of him. But notice what we discover in verse 9: "And [Jesus] asked [the devil], What is thy name? And he answered, saying, 'My name is Legion: for we are many.'"

Just how many is many?

Try 6,000.

Legion was a military term in those days that referred to 6,000 soldiers. So this one particular devil to whom Jesus was speaking revealed that there were actually 6,000 devils working in and through this madman's life—through his spirit, soul and body.

But what I especially want you to see is that these 6,000 devils were not necessarily in this man all at one time. The one devil that Jesus addressed face to face was really the higher-ranking devil of the bunch.

He was the one that had authority over the entire legion. That is, he was a high-ranking devil who commanded a troop of at least 6,000 devils.

Now at first glance that statement may seem strange. But not when you consider that the "legion" we see in Mark 5 is what the Apostle Paul referred to in Ephesians as "principalities...powers...rulers of the darkness of this world."

In fact Ephesians 6:12 gives us an understanding of the structure of the enemy's domain. It says, "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

The devil with whom Jesus had conversation—the one devil that actually possessed the madman of Gadera—was a ruler over the 6,000 "principalities and powers" that functioned under his command through the man. He was a "ruler of the darkness of this world."

We can see there is a rank and file throughout the entire kingdom of darkness. There are "low-level devils," and then there are evil spirits in different ranks or classes. There is a chain of command that even the enemy follows.

The City of Fear
Now getting back to the madman of Gadera...if you're like me, you've wondered, "Why are 6,000 devils and one commander hanging out with this guy?"

That seems like a lot of "fire power" for just one crazy man.

To get an answer to this question, let's take a look at how the citizens of that area responded to what happened between Jesus and their hometown madman (Mark 5:11-17).

Here is a man who has been running around naked, living in a graveyard and doing all sorts of bizarre and wicked things. Suddenly, he is gloriously delivered by the power of God. He is wearing clothes once again, and he is in his right mind.

Yet, instead of the townspeople being thrilled that he had been delivered, they were filled with fear. So much so that verse 17 says that the people "began to pray [Jesus] to depart out of their coasts."

In this passage, the word pray means to "earnestly, sincerely beg." So the people in and around these cities of Decapolis were actually begging Jesus to leave.

Why?

Luke 8 also recounts this incident and it tells us that "the whole multitude of the country of the Gadarenes round about besought [Jesus] to depart from them; for they were taken with great fear" (verse 37).

The people responded to Jesus' ministry of deliverance with great fear.

And there's our answer as to why they wanted Jesus to leave...fear.

Fear was what this legion of devils and their commander were all about. Over a period of time they had been able to build a stronghold of fear and control the whole coastal area.

Consequently the people of this city and surrounding areas constantly lived under fear. It dominated the heavenlies—the spiritual atmosphere—over that entire region.

It was fear that came running to meet Jesus when His boat landed. Fear wanted to know what He was up to. Fear ran to tell what Jesus had done to a herd of 2,000 swine. Fear wanted to know what He had done to the crazy man.

And, of course, it was fear that begged Jesus, "Oh...please, please, please get out of here!"

The City of Faith
In contrast to Decapolis, an area of fear, there was a coastal region over which I believe there was a stronghold of faith. We read about it in Mark 5:21-24.

Again Jesus had no sooner stepped out of the boat and onto the land, than a man was there to meet Him. This time, however, the man who met Jesus at the shore was not a man dominated and driven by fear. Rather, he was a man dominated and driven by faith. That man was Jairus, ruler of the synagogue.

Notice, too, that on the journey to this side of the Sea of Galilee, there was no storm. The atmosphere was completely different—there was a spirit of faith in this region. Jesus was actually welcomed instead of being asked to leave.

And the fact that Jairus welcomed Jesus and invited Him to his home was even more significant from the standpoint that Jairus was an important public figure. He was a leader, a pastor and president of the synagogue.

He was a man of great wealth and position in the community. Everyone knew him. And all eyes were sure to be on him—especially when he fell on his face before Jesus while "much people" were around. And the truth was, Jairus could have lost everything by simply associating with Jesus.

However Jairus was a man of faith. Had he been a man of fear, he never would have fallen down in front of Jesus in such a public display. Again faith was out there on the road that day, indicating there was an atmosphere of faith in that place, not fear and doubt.

In fact when someone from Jairus' house came with the news that his daughter had died, Jesus turned to Jairus and said, "Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole" (Luke 8:50).

In other words, the spirit of fear was trying to push its way into Jairus' mind, will and emotions. It was trying to gather up like a storm cloud of darkness and quench his faith.

But Jesus commanded him to remain in that place of faith, and that's exactly what Jairus did. And in the end, his daughter was raised up.

Jesus could only perform miracles where there was faith—an atmosphere and a spirit of faith. And as a man of God, Jairus' spirit of faith had great influence over that region.

This is the same principle we see at work when Adam and Eve sinned against God in the Garden of Eden. Fear caused them to run from God instead of to Him.

In fact, fear will always separate us from God. Why? Because fear is not of God, and fear and God never go together.

Deuteronomy 28:66 tells us that fear is under the curse. But Galatians 3:13 and Hebrews 2:14-15 assure us that we've been delivered from that curse of fear through the blood of Jesus—the same as we have been delivered from sickness, lack and hell itself.

There's no denying we live in a fear-based world but we can and must resist fear.

It's not enough just to be in the boat with Jesus. We have to resist every wave of fear that would come crashing against us.

Jesus gave us the power. He gave us the authority. Now, it's up to us.


Eagle Mountain International Church, Inc.
aka: Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Author Biography

Kenneth Copeland
Web site: Kenneth Copeland Ministries
 
For the last 50 years Kenneth and Gloria Copeland have been passionately teaching Christians all over the world how to apply the principles of faith found in God’s WORD to their lives.
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