*The name Yahshua used in this article is a more literal Hebrew translation of the English word Jesus, the name commonly used to refer to Christ.

Mark 5:2-13, 15(NKJV)
“And when He had come out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, 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.  When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped 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.’
“For He said to him, ‘Come out of the man, unclean spirit!’  Then He asked him, ‘What is your name?’
“And he answered, saying, ‘My name is Legion; for we are many.’  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.”

            In this passage, we read about a man whose mind was being controlled by thousands of demons.  He was crazy; he cut himself with stones and he lived among the tombs (a very unsanitary home).  He could not be restrained (he could break chains and shatter shackles) on the outside, but inside were unbreakable chains of demons and darkness that were controlling him.  They even controlled what he said.  They knew who Yahshua was.  Yahshua had ordered the unclean spirit to come out of the man, and he asked his name.  “Legion,” he had replied, “for we are many.”  The Bible says that when Yahshua gave them permission to go into the swine, there were about two thousand pigs.  For that many pigs to be affected there must have been a lot of demons.
            But this article is not just about this event in the Bible.  Today, although they don’t realize it, many people are chained in sin and worldliness, thinking they are free and are doing what they please.  They are not.  I was not.
             Looking back before I turned my life over to Yahshua, I realize that my mind was being motivated and tempted to do things that were mean and silly.  I don’t have any idea why I thought that was fun or why I did it.  It had all seemed fun at the moment, but later I realized that it was so immature, mean, thoughtless, and so disgusting.  The question remains: Why did I ever do or say that?  It was as insane as the demon-possessed man’s cutting himself with stones.  Romans 6:16 (NKJV) says, “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?”  Ever since we sinned, our mind was taken over with what we call “human nature.”  Since everybody on earth except Yahshua has sinned, all of us have human nature, the chains that hold and control us.  We are like the demon-possessed man in the Bible; we are bound by many unclean spirits of sin and unrighteousness that make us insane.  We are slaves to sin.  This does not mean we do not have a free will; it means we give in to so many of sin’s commands that we cannot control things and are like slaves to these temptations that hurt others and, often, ourselves.
            The Bible says in John 6:44 that no one can come to Yahshua except that the Father draws him.  Why?  Because unless the Father draws us, the chains of sin that control us make us think that nothing’s wrong, that we can solve it on our own, and that we are having “fun,” but when we accept forgiveness and ask Yahshua into our heart, we are free, given the power to resist the chains that control us.  Before, we could not break the chains of sin; now, if we have accepted Yahshua as our Savior, we are then in our right mind and are given the power to resist any temptation.  It’s that simple, but not at all easy.  And I didn’t say we will resist temptation; we often give in, because it is hard to resist the human nature.  Yahshua said in Luke 9:23 that if anyone would follow him, he must deny himself daily, pick up his cross, and follow him.  The chains of sin still tempt us, but we can and should resist.  The power that God gives us to resist temptation allows us to break anything the devil tries to restrain us with, and, in that way, we are no longer chained.

15“Then they came to Jesus, and saw the one who had been demon possessed and had the legion, sitting and clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid.”