“A PROPHECY TO GAD“

Gene 49:19  Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last.

Mark 5:1-15  And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, Who had [his] dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains: Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any [man] tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones. But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, [thou] Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not. For he said unto him, Come out of the man, [thou] unclean spirit. And he asked him, What [is] thy name? And he answered, saying, My name [is] Legion: for we are many. And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea. And they that fed the swine fled, and told [it] in the city, and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done. And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.

Gad and the demoniac of Gadara have much in common.

• Gad’s name means TROOP, and he was foretold to be overcome by a troop, but that at the end he shall overcome that troop.
• GADARENES means “reward at the end.”

The beginning state of Gad’s prophecy was being overcome.

• And a troop would overcome him.
• When Jesus met the demoniac, the man was overcome by a troop.
• He was a man possessed of demons
• And when Jesus asked the demons what their name was, the spirit replied “Legion, for we are many.”

Legion

• a legion, a body of soldiers whose number differed at different times, and in the time of Augustus seems to have consisted of 6826 men (i.e. 6100 foot soldiers, and 726 horsemen)

We know the man had thousands of demons in him because when Jesus cast them out of the man, they went into “two thousand swine.”

Mark 5:13  And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea.

Legion is the name of a TROOP of soldiers.

• This Legion of the devil overcame the man and captured him and possessed him as a military troop would capture a, enemy and make him prisoner.

Thank God that a prophecy came forth long ago to Gad.

• Though a troop would overcome him, he would overcome in the end!
• The demoniac was set free from that prison of demon possession, and his nakedness was covered with clothing and he was set in his right mind.

Not only was the demoniac captured by a troop, as Gad was foretold to experience, but the region where the demoniac lived was called the country of the “Gadarenes.”

• Gadarenes means “Reward at the end.”

So here you have a prophecy given to Gad that a troop would overcome him, but he would overcome at the last, and a demon possessed man overcome by an army of devils called legion, in a region called “Reward at the end”, who was set free from devils and overcame their bondage in the end of his story.

We all have a story.

• No matter how bound our lives are, and no matter how much we are overcome, we can overcome in the end!
• How did this man overcome?
• Jesus came to Him, and through Jesus Christ, the man overcame.

At least two thousand demons were in that man.

• A troop that large affords quite a bit of security that guarantees that the prisoner is simply not going to be escape.
• But np matter how much the odds stack up against us, if we meet Jesus, and fall down before Him in worship, we will receive help and we will overcome.

He gives us strength to overcome!

The demoniac of Gadara dwelt among the mountains and tombs.

• Nobody lived in mountains and tombs.
• Mountains speak of hard living, and obstacles.
• Jesus spoke of speaking to a mountain in faith and commanding it to be removed.
• Some always bump up against a wall.
• Hardships.
• And living in tombs is contradictory.
• People are dead in tombs, and do not live in tombs.
• But such lives are living deaths.
• No life is in the tombs.
• Jesus said the religious Pharisees were like white sepulchers.
• They were outwardly clean and white like the tombs the graveyard caretakers kept neat and tidy, but inside there was rottenness and corruption and bones.
• Just because people go to “church” does not mean they are happy.
• You have to inwardly get hold of Jesus Christ.
• Inside you have to worship Him and give your life to Him.
• I saw people go to church and treat people awfully, as an indication to me that they were not happy with themselves.
• People who are happy within treat people wonderfully.

Isai 65:2-5  I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way [that was] not good, after their own thoughts; A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face; that sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of brick; Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine’s flesh, and broth of abominable [things is in] their vessels; Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou. These [are] a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day.

Notice that in Isaiah 65, God said he stretched out his hand to a people who were rebels.

• He said they remained among the graves .

Verse 7 says:

Isai 65:7  Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the LORD, which have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.

Graves and mountains.

• Like the demoniac.
• And notice their independence.

Isai 65:5  Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou. These [are] a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day.

They are isolated, and actually feel better than other people.

• But in reality they are isolated in a prison, and people do not live in mountains like that or in graveyards and tombs.

Matt 8:28  And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.

It was the devils causing nobody to come that way.

• The people of Isaiah 65 were actually controlled by the enemy and their perspective was an illusion that they were better than others.
• They felt they were “holier than thou”.

Holiness is not a “better than thou” attitude.

• That is a twisted corruption of the true holiness of God.
• God wanted man to be filled with Life and for that life to come forth out of his life.

Satan knew God’s plan:

• God is a Spirit.
• God creates a physical realm apart from the spiritual realm.
• God dwells in the spiritual realm.
• Man is created in the image of God and man is physical.
• God wants man to put His Life inside himself.
• The point?
• Simple.
• God wants to indwell physical man and reach out to touch the physical world through man.

So Satan seeks to confound that.

• He causes Eve to concern herself with self.

Gene 3:4-6  And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree [was] good for food, and that it [was] pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make [one] wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

Notice the self-centeredness.

• This was like the people of Isaiah 65.
• “God does not want you to be as smart as Him.”
• The devil made God’s intentions look wrong.
• Satan takes God’s potential vessels and isolates them so they cannot influence others, and drives them into pits of sin.
• Inside they steam and boil with past regrets.
• The devil gets them to think negatively, like He did with Eve.
• She never thought negatively until the serpent came.
• Even her thoughts of God became negative.
• Her thoughts of the one who created her in total love for her.
• Questioning God’s ways critically, like “Why did He take my loved one,” as though He was cruel.
• Such folks have been lied to by silent whispers of hatred from the devil.
• Genesis 3 all over again.
• And likely because God wanted to use that person and Satan saw it and found his chance to hinder that and distracted that by such vile thoughts against God that it made the vessel contaminated with an evil inside.

In Isaiah 65, Israel dwelt in graves and mountains.

• Their situation involved the occult.
• The graves were their places where they spoke to the dead, and the mountains were high places where they worshipped stars and forecast their horoscopes, all practices forbidden as demonic in the Bible.
• Notice where Satan drove them:  Mountains and graves.
• Places where people do not live.

God wanted to use Israel, by making them holy so that He could flow through Israel in a world of heathen nations.

• Satan twisted that thought: kept it there, but distorted it so that the opposite would occur.
• And they began feeling holier than all else, and felt none else should come near them.
• God does not make us holy to separate us as though others cannot come near us!
• He makes us holy to use us to reach others!!

Dani 4:4-16  I Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in mine house, and flourishing in my palace: I saw a dream which made me afraid, and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions of my head troubled me. Therefore made I a decree to bring in all the wise [men] of Babylon before me, that they might make known unto me the interpretation of the dream. Then came in the magicians, the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers: and I told the dream before them; but they did not make known unto me the interpretation thereof. But at the last Daniel came in before me, whose name [was] Belteshazzar, according to the name of my god, and in whom [is] the spirit of the holy gods: and before him I told the dream, [saying], O Belteshazzar, master of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the holy gods [is] in thee, and no secret troubleth thee, tell me the visions of my dream that I have seen, and the interpretation thereof. Thus [were] the visions of mine head in my bed; I saw, and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof [was] great. The tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth: The leaves thereof [were] fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it [was] meat for all: the beasts of the field had shadow under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof, and all flesh was fed of it. I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed, and, behold, a watcher and an holy one came down from heaven; He cried aloud, and said thus, Hew down the tree, and cut off his branches, shake off his leaves, and scatter his fruit: let the beasts get away from under it, and the fowls from his branches: Nevertheless leave the stump of his roots in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field; and let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and [let] his portion [be] with the beasts in the grass of the earth: Let his heart be changed from man’s, and let a beast’s heart be given unto him; and let seven times pass over him.
Daniel told the king that the dream spoke of him as the tree.

• The king’s influence was spread far and wide as the branches of the tree over the land.
• And for seven years the king would go mad and would be driven by demons away from the kingdom to eat grass like an animal.
• Note the term “they” in reference to demon spirits.
• And note what it was the king said that attracted the devils to him and drove him as they did.

Dani 4:30-33  The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty? While the word [was] in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, [saying], O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee. And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling [shall be] with the beasts of the field: they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will. The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles’ [feathers], and his nails like birds’ [claws].

Nebuchadnezzar became demon possessed.

• It began with a proud statement concerning himself and the kingdom he built for his name.
• Satan is attracted to the proud.
• Those in pride who consider themselves better, find they are driven to isolate themselves from others.
• Spirits of hell come to them like iron to a magnet.

The demoniac was driven from the populous into the mountains and tombs.

• The prodigal son was driven by self-desire and lusts away from the godly house of his father.
• The prodigal wound up in the pig pen eating husks with the animals as Nebuchadnezzar ate grass like an ox.

Isai 65:11  But ye [are] they that forsake the LORD, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop, and that furnish the drink offering unto that number.

Notice the point about preparing a table for that troop, and furnishing drink for that number.

• These people were giving themselves as food to the devils.
• Spirits feast on the chance to manifest their desires in people who begin to manifest these same desires.
• The spirits invade the person and the person becomes worse in those desires and lusts.
• The name of the devils possessing the demoniac of the Gadarenes was LEGION.
• “Legion” in one single word describes both a military troop and a number of soldiers in that troop.
• And this was the note pointed out in Isaiah 65:11 referring to Israel who were isolated in pride and in the tombs and mountains.
• Israel became a feast for devils.

But God looked deep into the hearts of these rebels.

• Even amongst them, God saw what He could do.

Isai 65:8  Thus saith the LORD, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and [one] saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing [is] in it: so will I do for my servants’ sakes, that I may not destroy them all.

New wine is in the cluster.

• Do not destroy the entire cluster.
• Wine is what grapes can become.
• God sees not always what we are now, but what we can become.
• God would work.

Isai 65:16  That he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes.

God can take a life bound by sin and forgive those sins and forget the former troubles.

Isai 65:17  For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind

I believe there is literally going to be a new heaven and new earth one day, but right now, immediately after God forgives our troubles and remembers them no more, it is a new heaven and a new earth for that person!

• The former is not remembered.
• What lives we once lived are never considered again by God since He forgets all about them when He saves us.

Mark 5:15  And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.

The man was changed.

• He was so different, perhaps they thought Jesus was a sorcerer in league with evil and was able to control the man as the spirits did.
• But Jesus told the man to go and tell others what happened to him.
• And though they sent Jesus away due to fear, the same countrymen awaited his return once the delivered man gave his testimony!
• Our testimonies are powerful!!

Yes, the demoniac overcame in the end.

• Gad was told a troop would overcome him, but in the end he would overcome.
• How did the demoniac overcome?
• Through Jesus.
• No matter how bad your life is overcome with sin, or how bad you were, Jesus Christ can cause you to overcome it all and be delivered!

Satan knows God’s purpose and seeks to isolate potential vessels for the Lord.

I ministered to you today some truths to show you the PURPOSE of God putting you in a world in which you can be used by God to bless people.

A prophecy to Gad!