0003 A Supernatural Conversation

In this episode of the Passages Podcast, Brittany and Eric continue their verse-by-verse exploration of Scripture by looking into Mark chapter 5, one of the most intense supernatural encounters recorded in the Gospels.

After crossing the Sea of Galilee and surviving a violent storm, Jesus and His disciples finally reach the other side. The moment Jesus steps onto the shore, He is immediately confronted by a man with an unclean spirit. 

This man is not just troubled—he is completely tormented. He lives among the tombs, breaks chains meant to restrain him, cries out day and night, and even cuts himself with stones. Society has abandoned him, labeling him untamable and beyond help.

Yet when this broken man sees Jesus from a distance, he runs toward Him and falls down in worship, saying, "what have I to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?" The next few moments of conversation report a powerful level of spiritual discernment which reveals something powerful about the unseen, spiritual realm.

As Brittany and Eric slow down and unpack the passage, they explore how this encounter exposes the depth of spiritual warfare, the importance of discernment, and the authority of Jesus over every force of darkness.

Notice how this story begins with the demons immediately recognizing Jesus' true identity —well before His own followers. The spirits haunting this man cry out, calling Him “Jesus, Son of the Most High God.” 

This moment raises a powerful question:

Why do the forces of darkness recognize Jesus so clearly while many people struggle to see Him for who He truly is?

As the conversation unfolds, Brittany and Eric also explore the significance of territory in the spiritual realm. When the demons beg Jesus not to send them away from the region, it reveals something deeper about how a spiritual opposition often works.

Sometimes the resistance we experience isn’t personal—it’s strategic.

Opposition often appears when someone is stepping into an assignment that threatens the enemy’s influence.

In this episode, Brittany and Eric discuss:

• Why spiritual opposition can appear immediately when you step into obedience
• What the demon-possessed man reveals about spiritual torment and isolation
• Why the demons recognized Jesus’ authority before many people did
• The significance of territory in spiritual warfare
• How chaos often resists the peace Jesus brings
• Why freedom sometimes begins when things feel most uncomfortable
• How believers can grow in spiritual discernment and maturity

Through this passage, listeners are reminded that Jesus never brought torment to the man—He brought freedom and peace.

But peace can feel unfamiliar to people who have only known chaos.

Sometimes the noise gets louder right before freedom arrives.

This conversation invites listeners to slow down, look deeper into Scripture, and develop greater spiritual awareness in everyday life.

Because when we begin to understand what is really happening beneath the surface of our circumstances, we can respond with greater wisdom, confidence, and faith.

Join Brittany and Eric as they explore how this powerful moment in Mark 5 reveals the authority of Jesus, the distraction caused by spiritual opposition, and the peace that comes when darkness is confronted by truth.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:20

Welcome to the Passages Podcast. Here we explore God's design, spiritual growth, and the strategies heaven gives us to live healed, free, and on purpose. On this podcast, we take a deep dive into scripture verse by verse, slowing down to hear what the Lord is really saying and how it applies to our lives today. I'm Brittany and I'm joined by my co-host Eric. How are you doing today, Eric?

SPEAKER_00 0:43

Good morning. Good to see you. Yeah, I'm eager to get into this new discussion.

SPEAKER_02 0:49

Yes. So in a recent episode, we talked about Jesus crossing over the Sea of Galilee. This was in Mark chapter four. We were shown how his compassion was tested. He rebuked the wind. He spoke peace to the sea. He reframed fear, which I think was a really interesting conversation between us. So if you'd like to check out that episode, please do so. But we're going to go jump ahead now to Mark chapter 5, and we're going to see this incredible spiritual event that's going to take place here. Let me go ahead and read Mark chapter 5. We're just going to read the first two verses we do read out of the New King James Version for anyone wondering. It says, Then they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gaterenes. And when he had come out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Yeah, I again thank you for just reading two verses because again, in my previous days, I would just keep reading and reading. And again, what am I looking for? The biblical drama. I want to see David beat Goliath, and I want to see this battle and this king overthrow another one. But uh that that was an early, more superficial version of me. And what I've learned to do is to pump the brakes and say to myself, Lord, if you put these words in this Bible, you did it for a reason. And if I want to grow in my maturity, uh, I'm gonna trust you that you have you're trying to say something to me and to this into the rest of the world. So then they came to the other side of the sea. So they've arrived now, they're goal at their goal, the storm is over, to the country of the Gadarenes. That's about 14 miles from north to south. And when he, that's Jesus, had come out of the boat, immediately, what's that word? Immediately. Wait a minute, how fast?

SPEAKER_02 2:46

I mean right when you step out.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Immediately, okay. And uh so there's no delay. I and I'm I'm looking at that because in a previous episode, you you kind of asked me about how do you know when you're operating at a spiritual level versus just a person-to-person level? You know, and we don't want to get all super spiritual if it's just person to person, hey, what's for dinner? You know, but but sometimes, in Jesus' case, especially, he woke up on the boat and he sensed immediately he was in a spiritual situation. He spoke he rebuked the wind, he spoke peace to the sea, and he challenged the faith of his companions because they were they were trying to challenge him on a compassion level, human empathy, but he raised the bar to a spiritual level. Why don't you have any faith? So now when he's getting off the boat immediately, I think that's a signal to me that I gotta be ready to move quickly at a spiritual level, not just at a conversational human-to-human level. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_02 3:51

Yes, we can't respond immediately. We need to look and see what's going on. But it just to me, it's like, wow, it's just coming. Like, just like the waves come, just like one after another. He doesn't even get the chance to get off and be like, hey, let me get something to eat, let me take a little break here. And I feel like life comes like that at us sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

Yes. And if if we want to operate, if we want to learn to operate, which you again you've asked me previously, how do we operate? How do we know if we're operating at a spiritual level versus a more day-to-day human level? This is a signal. If something's happened immediately, don't put your guard up, but put your spiritual acuity on. Fancy phrase, but you know, it's like get ready. They're met him out of the tombs. The tombs are like the caves that this guy was living on. A man with an unclean spirit. That's demons. Okay. So right away we we've got we're setting the stage, and Jesus is sharp enough, trust me, to be able to recognize that this guy is operating. And so right away, what we want us to realize is deal with the deceiver, not the deceived. I got an unclean spirit, and I'm sure that this man's been rejected and mistreated, everything, but he has got at least one demon, it sounds like so far. So um, so and so notice this who met him as soon as he got off the boat? Was it uh the elders from the local um synagogue? Was it the chamber of commerce? Was it a brass band? No, it was a guy with an unclean spirit.

unknown 5:30

Right.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

Now this is fascinating to me. So let's keep going, Mark three through five.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

Yes, so who had his dwelling among the tombs, and no one could bind him, not even with chains, because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces, neither could anyone tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones. That just hurts my heart.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Yeah, that's this is one man, this is a horrible condition this man's living in. And again, this is one of the reasons I like to my phrase, pump the brakes, slow down, don't hit the accelerator. I know so much in our culture today, Brittany, is people going fast, and even they speed up these podcasts. I've learned recently to talk at a one about a 1.25, you know, words. It's just um, wait a minute. Uh I think it were wise if we just slow down a little bit and look at this condition the condition. If we were watching a movie, we'd be seeing how this man is living. So he's demonically possessed, he's self-mutilating. We hear that about people today.

unknown 6:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Cave dwelling, tormented. He's fiercely strong because he's breaking these shackles. You imagine putting a guy in chains and he's breaking him. He's miserable and he's untamed. This is one isolated, lonely man who's got at least a demon one demon in him. But watch what happens. He's un he's he's an outcast, he's unfit for civil society. Uh, yet this is the man who immediately greets Jesus. Let's see what happens next.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

I love the next verses. When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshipped him. And he cried out with a loud voice and said, What have I to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore you by God that you do not torment me. The first couple times when I read that, I was so confused because I was like, Hold on, who is saying this? Is this the spirit saying this? Is this the man saying this? What is happening here?

SPEAKER_00 7:46

Great questions, important questions. So again, let's just look at it carefully. When he saw Jesus from how far? Was he up close?

unknown 7:55

No.

SPEAKER_02 7:56

From afar.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

From afar.

SPEAKER_02 7:58

He ran.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

So Jesus is getting off the boat that's on the shoreline. This guy sees Jesus and is running toward him, not away, from afar, and did what?

SPEAKER_02 8:10

Worshiped him.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

Worshiped him. I'm seeing a guy falling to his knees, uh begging, maybe grabbing Jesus' hand, worshiping him, showing honor, showing respect, uh, realizing this is this is a godly man. In fact, this is the son of God. And look what he says to you. So it says to him, he cried out with a loud voice. He wasn't shy and bashful about it. What have I to do with you, Jesus? He knows the man's name.

SPEAKER_02 8:41

He knew his identity.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

He knew, and what did he call him? Son of the Most High God. No one else, even the people who came with Jesus on the boat were doubting that. Okay, how do I know? Because they asked when Jesus stopped the wind and the sea, who is this man? You know, who are we with? Well, if they knew he was the Messiah, they wouldn't have asked that question. They would have said, Oh, look what a God does. This isn't this powerful. They would have said it with pro pride. No, they questioned it.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

This just brings to my mind that as we're going through this world, we all have a calling on our life, and these demons can see when we are supposed to be doing these big things for God, it feels like, and they know our identity, which is why they attack us. Because if a demon this far off can see something, how many demons can see us and what we're supposed to do? And this is why we're being attacked in our lives.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

Okay. That's that's a great way to start drawing conclusions from scripture. And we're only like four or five verses in, and we're beginning to paint a picture and seeing if it can happen here, it can happen with us, as you said. What have I to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? He has this this man and the demon behind him has is labeling Jesus' identity immediately. Even his own followers aren't that clear and certain about him. And then here he says, I implore you by God that you do not torment me. There's a lot here. So um, so this is, you know, those those disciples were not there when Jesus was born of a virgin. They were not there when John the Baptist uh baptized Jesus, and then a voice said, This is my beloved son. Okay. So they've come to know him afterwards, and they're just learning who he is. Is he a great moral teacher? Is he a new rabbi with tremendous teachings? Um is he the new king of Israel and he's gonna overthrow Rome from a political basis? They were just learning who he was. They didn't know yet that he was the Messiah, he was gonna die and be resurrected. Um we just have to enter into the story at the moment, is not what we wish, not what we know now, 2,000 years later. But we've got to empathize to use that word, empathize with the condition of the disciples who were there, and be able to see the different storylines that are going on simultaneously. Uh I just I just think this is um this fascinates me to be able to watch the Jesus storyline dealing with this demonically infested man and then these observers, these other people who are there, and it's gonna we're gonna learn this is the third group that's present, but we aren't there yet. So let's keep let's keep going. But there's an there is an insight that I'd like us to get. Um, what does it say when Satan's hordes, his demons, recognize and worship Jesus as a son of God, but mankind doesn't. We we treat Jesus just as again this great moral teacher or a rabbi. But do we really show the honor and the worship and the respect that we ought to?

SPEAKER_02 12:07

Right. Because even demons fall down and worship him.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

I'm telling you.

SPEAKER_02 12:11

I do find it interesting though, this do not torment me. I can't tell you how long that I was stuck on this one phrase because I was like, wait, who's talking about it? Why would you say this? What does torment look like? Because my immediate thought was when I read the verses before this, it was the physical torment. It's like, do not torment me. And I was like, well, Jesus wouldn't come to hurt you. So what are you talking about? And the more that I started to read and ask for knowledge, wisdom, understanding to for this passage, the more I realized these are the demons being scared of being exposed, of being evicted from where they were at and losing their territory. This was the fear of having peace.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

That's key. You just said something very important, losing their territory. We're gonna we're gonna get to that, but um, I just would love our listeners to um to kind of own that and say, wait a minute, territory? What's that got to do with it? Again, there's so many, there's multiple levels uh to this story, but again, they're redemptive, they're valuable, they're gonna help us all grow in our spiritual maturity. The more that we grasp this, the more that we see what's going on, the more that we begin to apply that in our own lives. Again, what did Solomon say? Wisdom is the principal thing, so get wisdom. But with all thy getting, get understanding, which is what? It's the practical application, it's the outworking. And so that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to get sharper in our ability to get wisdom, look at life through God's eyes, through his filters, and then to reach out into our day-to-day world and apply this very practical stuff. The Bible's a very practical uh manual, among other things. So go ahead, Mark 5, 8, and 9 says what?

SPEAKER_02 13:58

It says, For he said to him, Come out of the man, unclean spirit. Then he asked him, What is your name? Okay, and he answered saying My name is Legion Legion, for we are many.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

Whoa. Okay. Notice the singular come out of the man unclean spirits, not spirits plural. So we don't know yet how many are in there. Then he, Jesus, asked him, talking to the man, but talking past the man through the man to the demon, or more, what is your name? Not what are your names, plural, but what is your name? And he answered, again, this is the man answering, he's the one with a voice, but the demons are behind him or inside of him, saying, My name is Legion, for we are many. Now, back in the Roman days, a legion was a cohort of soldiers, and we're talking about these are battle-hardened, disciplined soldiers, usually five thousand armed men. Remember at his trial, Jesus said to Pontius Pilate, Don't you know that I simply have to ask my father and he will send me twelve legions of angels? Now, twelve times five thousand is sixty thousand. So Jesus is saying I could get sixty thousand supernatural angels, seven-foot warriors that are just with flaming swords and coming. Can you imagine how powerful that would be? It's just like an overwhelming show of force.

SPEAKER_02 15:46

You cannot imagine.

SPEAKER_00 15:47

And in here, yeah, but this is part of the drama. If we saw it in a movie, once again, if we were watching a TV show, we would be seeing this uh worked out on this uh in the show. And imagine, but we've got to use our imagination. This guy is saying our name is Legion. So this is it true? I mean, can we possibly believe there were 5,000 demons inside of this man? No wonder he was cutting himself and in shy breaking shackles and and living it just crazy scene. And so now Jesus is realizing the uh the level of what he's operating at. Um I'm not saying he didn't know before, but he's having this conversation as that and asking, you know, who are you? What's your name? Okay, so the demons are beginning to worship Jesus, but this is not just a prayer, it's more of a negotiation. Okay, so that because they're begging him, don't torment us. What does that mean? As you just said, it's it's more about they have so they have seem to have a reason to remain locally, even if they don't are no longer gonna be able to torment this man. So now our passage is gonna be uh Mark 5, 10 to 13, please.

SPEAKER_02 17:11

It says also he begged him earnestly that he would not send them out of the country. Now a large herd of swine was feeding there near the mountains. So all the demons begged him, saying, Send us to the swine that we may enter them. And at once Jesus gave them permission. Then the unclean spirits went out and entered the swine. There were about two thousand, and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the sea and drowned in the sea.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

Oh my goodness. What a picture. So he begged him, he, the demonic man, begged Jesus earnestly. There's a lot of animation going on in this. It's not just a pleasant conversation around a fireside. He begged him earnestly that he would not that he, Jesus, would not send them out of the country. Why? What is it about the countryside? As you said earlier, the territory. Something about territory matters in this kingdom of heaven versus the kingdom of darkness. So now let's go back to the story. A large herd of swine. Wait a minute. Do this is where we talked about, we said, let's go over to the other side. Who raises swine? Did Jewish people raise swine?

SPEAKER_02 18:35

No, they didn't touch them.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

Pigs were not a vile, rejected species. They were nowhere, they were nowhere, uh, they didn't come anywhere near them. But there's swine right here, and there's a large herd of swine feeding there near the mountain. So the demons begged him, all of them, send us into the swine, that we may enter them. So they're recognizing Jesus has the power to switch them out of the demonic man into the swine, and that once Jesus gave them permission, you see how fast this story goes? It immediately he was greeted. They have this conversation right away. It's a short conversation. They're asking, and and right away Jesus gave them permission. The unclean spirits went out and entered the swine. There were 2,000 of them. And they're they go berserk and they run down a hillside and drown themselves in the sea. Good grief. Okay. And by the way, let's do some math. There are 2,000 pigs, they're probably worth about$100 apiece in modern era. That's$200,000 worth of economic value drowned in the sea. Trust me, that had an impact on the local economy immediately. So there's something, there's deep stuff going on here because we're going to get into the further part of the story eventually. And so though. So this is just good. Go ahead. What do you want to say?

SPEAKER_02 20:04

I thought it was very interesting that they didn't fight, the demons didn't fight back more. It was like they didn't care about the man. They cared about their territory. And when I think that through, I'm like, wow, when all these adversities show up, it's not really caring about us. It's not worrying about how all these bad things impact our life. They're just like, stop doing what you're doing. We don't care about you. We'll go hurt somebody else if we need to. We'll go bother somebody else. We just need you to stop on the path that you're on. And that's their whole goal. It's just to stop your forward progress and your obedience.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

Yes. So what are we learning from this? That as you said earlier, uh and the and also in the previous episode, that when when we're assigned to go somewhere, as Jesus was assigned to go to the country of the Gatarenes, we can just go ahead and expect there's some sort of opposition coming to us. And the more clear we are about our assignment, the more we should expect some sort of opposition to come our way. So let's not be thrown by it or m or moved or feel persecuted or Jesus, you don't love me. You know, what don't you care that we're dying here on the boat? No, let's not be accusatory towards God. Let's go ahead and expect this. Let's anticipate it, and let's get prayed up and let's get the resources we need in anticipation of this. Just like Joseph in the in Egypt when he was given the dream uh uh and and given the interpretation of it. There's gonna be five years seven years of plenty and seven years of famine. So they stored up. They were it was in anticipation of the of the famine that was coming. And we can do that as well in uh in a modern era. So I uh uh this is just fascinating to me, this how When we take the time to unpack the story, let's not take this personally. We're we're being assigned, we're we we've got an embassy, we've got an we're an ambassador from the kingdom of God. That's what Paul calls us. Okay? And we so we have an assignment, we have a duty. And so again, expect that there's an enemy that's going to try to thwart God's plans for our life.

SPEAKER_02 22:24

And yeah, Jesus, thinking it through, Jesus came to give us peace. And to the opposing side, peace is not comfortable. They're comfortable in chaos and confusion and frustration. And Jesus never tormented the man like he said he was going to do, like he was saying, please don't. He gave him peace. Sometimes in our life, because we're so used to chaos and dysfunction and disorder. I know that was the correct thing for me. I was so confused in my life with growing up and having so much arguing and fighting. And if we weren't fighting, I was like, Well, you don't love me. What's going on here? And when you bring peace into my life, I was like, This feels very uncomfortable. I don't think I like this. And my first instinct was to like push back and be like, something's wrong with you if you're a peaceful person, because that's just not how it is.

SPEAKER_00 23:16

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 23:16

But Jesus comes to bring us that peace. And it may feel very uncomfortable when we first have it because we don't know what to do with it.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

It's fascinating. Yeah. Thank you for unpacking that and and even for your transparency. Um, so so there's lessons here. If things happen immediately when we are when we are um these um this man comes up again immediately, and he started and these worshiping words start coming out of him. Um this is how Jesus was attuned to the to the level that he was operating at. Uh, and he knew where he was going, but you know uh to to go to to go down to the gatherings and to get to see this man. So um anyway, that um that's pretty much what I wanted to talk about today. And anything that you'd like to add to it, and it'd be uh be terrific.

SPEAKER_02 24:12

Yeah, I feel my takeaways are kind of that Jesus doesn't bring chaos. Even if chaos feels normal to us, he brings peace, and peace doesn't coexist with what destroys us. So if we're doing things in our life that are not right, we're not going to have the peace, and we're going to be in opposition to that peace and to what he's trying to bring us. But sometimes things get louder before we get free.

SPEAKER_00 24:39

That's good.

SPEAKER_02 24:40

What are your takeaways?

SPEAKER_00 24:42

Um, my my takeaways are as we started that individual words and small little passages in the Bible, uh, I just have no right to ignore them. I need to slow down, I need to see what is the Lord trying to teach me here. How can I grow? How can I become more mature? And uh and and to do that by recognizing, Eric, don't simple oversimplify uh what's being said here in the Bible. Um there's a and Jesus said, Greater things than these you'll do in my name. Be thou therefore perfect, even as I am perfect. And it's like, wow, that's you're raising the bar. That's a very high level of of um analysis and and and um and behavior. And if I'm gonna get there, and he's the one that said it, not me, if I'm gonna get there, I've got to develop a discernment, an ability to understand what I'm facing and not um oversimplify it. So that's a that's a takeaway for me that uh I could have you know I could have landed on that shoreline and just had pity and been frightened by this man and run away and get back in the boat and let's get out of here, you know. Right. But no, Jesus stood his ground and asked, uh, you know, get out of this man and what is your name? Uh and so he he was asking to know who was he dealing with. And if it was just the man, say, well, my name is Joe, my name is Simon, Charlie Brown, uh, that's one thing. No, he got the name of the of the demons, and he recognized in the name how many he was dealing with. So that was that was some strong spiritual warfare that took place. So that's I'm taking out the ability to discern very quickly uh about the the actual situation you're in so that you can um identify it accurately. And uh that that's I think very important.

SPEAKER_02 26:50

Definitely. Well, thank you for taking the time to walk through Mark V here, and thank you to everyone listening with walking with us through the Passages podcast. We will see you next time.