Then [Jesus] asked him, “What is your name?” And he answered, saying, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” Mark 5:9
Recommended Reading: Mark 5:6-9 “6 But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him,7 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.8 For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.9 And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.”
COMMENTS: The demoniac described in the above scripture was possessed by a band of demons calling themselves “legion”. During the time when this scripture was written, the Roman Empire ruled with an army organized into groups of soldiers. The largest group was the “legion” which comprised 6000 soldiers. Legions were divided into 10 “cohorts” of 600 soldiers each and those into 6 centuries of 100 soldiers each.
We don’t know how many demons possessed this man. Is it possible there were 6000 demons in this man and that is the reason legion was their name? Is it possible to be possessed by 6000 demons? We simply don’t know because scripture doesn’t tell us, but there was many. So why were many in that man? I don’t know. Yet, when read this account in Mark, we discover Jesus had authority to command all the demons out of him. The many were not strong enough together to outflank or overpower Jesus. It was no contest. Romans had great power and authority to overpower and rule over their subject by the way they were organized. Large numbers of soldiers working together were almost irresistible. Satan does the same resulting in ability to overpower those who resist him. Where resistance is greater, he responds with greater force either by more demons or stronger demons.
But satan’s powers and abilities, even though far greater than ours, are held to strict limits set by God Himself. Christ died and took our sins so we would have Himself as resource to fight and overcome satan. His Holy Spirit came so access to Himself would be instantly and always available.
Do you know those who fight sin and never seem to get victory? The harder they fight, the weaker and more discouraged they get. Well, the strongest addictions involve both mental and physical and chemical addiction. Drugs are among the many examples. Yet why do some gain victory more quickly and successfully than others?
God gives each of us a unique and incredibly complex body. He made each of us unique but similar. Satan knows this and uses our weaknesses and vulnerabilities to gain control of us and pull us away from having a meaningful relationship with God. Satan knows our name and knows our weaknesses.
BUT GOD ALSO KNOWS OUR NAME AND KNOWS US FAR BETTER THAN WE KNOW OURSELVES AND BETTER THAN SATAN KNOWS US.
He knew us before He created us and even before He began creating. Satan doesn’t love us, but He loves us far more and more deeply than anyone else. But the only reason satan tempts us and the only reason he succeeds in drawing us into sin and harmful addictions and habits is God allows us to choose good or evil. He allows us to choose wisely or foolishly. When we choose wisely, we allow Him to draw closer to us and us into a deeper fellowship with Him. When we choose foolishly, we move away from him and toward satan and his demons and their influence. God is still there and continues to limit satan’s influence. God continues to provide opportunities to repent and turn back to Him. Consider those times you and I have chose foolishly and take note of ways God put up roadblocks in the form of people or circumstances or reminders or good books or scriptures or ??? to draw us back. My experience has been that He would do so early and quickly persuading me to turn back before greater damage was done. Yet sin and temptation are a lifelong battle. The closer I get to Him, the more I realize the “harmless sins” and many things I never thought were sinful, simply are sinful and need to be removed and thrown away. Things that consume time and energy. Things that distract me from greater focus and energy invested into my relationship with Him and in serving Him. Things that only last a short while instead of things that make an eternal difference in me and those whose lives I impact. You see, the closer we get to Him, the more we discover how perfect and good He is and we aren’t. Grey may look white next to black, but grey looks terrible next to white. White looks grey and we see purer white. That is how we see ourselves as we get close to Christ. That sounds depressing and self-defeating, but it is really wonderful news. It is not self-condemning or self-defeating but self-motivating to go to the source capable of showing and making us more like Himself. We never were intended to face satan alone nor to be satisfied with how good we are. We were designed to be in relationship with our Creator and to grow to become more like our Creator.
Children become either more like their parents (good or bad). If they wonder away from or rebel against their parents, then they become more like (good or bad) those they gravitate to and follow. Who do you want to be like? That is who you will spend time with and become like. If you don’t desire to draw close to God, that can only mean you simply don’t know Him. If you don’t like who you are or do, consider who you are closer to and see if you are more like them.
Where there is life, there is still time and opportunity to change direction. Christ and the Holy Spirit are still near and ready to respond if invited. If you don’t see them or feel their presence, TURN AROUND and talk to them. Satan has his loud music and voice shouting to you, so you can’t hear Christ’s voice softly saying “Come to me”. If you believe and understand that, ask God for help and then demand satan to turn down the volume. We can’t face satan alone, but need to ask for Christ’s help first and put your hand in His before facing Him. Some battles Christ will fight for us. Others He will fight with us. The choice is His since He knows which battles we need to fight with Him to make us stronger and which battles we simply are not prepared or able to fight. Such wonderful Good News. What a wonderful God we serve. HE KNOWS OUR NAME BUT HE KNOWS US FAR BETTER THAN JUST THAT AND STILL LOVES US DEARLY! AMEN? AMEN!
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 279 blog posts I have made plus a link to my devotional journal material archives from 2013 to present. You may also access my Facebook page and request to be my friend and automatically receive my daily journal publications daily. My Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/Dondevotionals/ Many thanks to a pastor and dear brother in Christ in Nepal who set up the above Facebook page to help and encourage and give opportunity for more to explore and use my devotional blog materials.
My hope and prayer are, my blog and devotional materials will become a source of encouragement and tools in ministry for you.
Published by donsdevotions
Don McDaniel - Who am I?
Hello everyone and welcome to my devotional journal blog. In order to get acquainted and help you get to know me a bit better before considering following my blog, let me give you some background. I am a 74-year-old male and a retired engineer. I worked for a major supplier of underground mining equipment for nearly 40 years before retiring in 2012. Arlene and I have been happily married since April 1978 and have two grown – married children, one granddaughter and 2 step grandsons. I joined the local United Methodist church at age 12 after accepting Christ as my Savior at age 10 during revival services in that same church in 1961, so I have been a “Born Again” Christian all my teen years and adult life. Christ has helped and guided me all that time. He guided me in choosing my wife and life’s career. My life journey has included regrets and failures, but God has picked me up and protected and spared me from life threatening consequences and dangers more times than I can recall or count. But many I do recall and encourage and motivate me to trust and follow Christ with more passion than ever.
Christmas 2011 our daughter gave Arlene and I each a devotional journal. Journals were books with devotion for each day and space to give personal impressions and thoughts related to each devotion. Her desire was to have a lasting legacy she could refer back to and share with her children and grandchildren especially after we are gone. I was touched by that gesture. My parents and Arlene’s were devout Christians, so we would have greatly treasured having that from them, so we felt a sense of urgency to honor her request. I finished my journal first and returned it to our daughter the following Christmas. I’m glad I did it then because Parkinson’s has caused my hand writing to deteriorate since then. The exercise was such a blessing for me. Discipline of keeping journal helped me gain a deeper walk with Christ and greater discipline in honoring my time of prayer and devotion with Him each day. So, I decided to continue the practice but since I could not find a paper journal I liked, I decided to create my own. I had already been receiving electronic devotions by email every day from several sources, my favorite being “Turning Point” from Dr. David Jeremiah. What I decided to do was to include devotional scripture but add my own thoughts and comments only so there would be no issue of copyright infringement. Creating and maintaining journal by computer also addressed my deteriorating handwriting ability. I started an electronic devotion journal January 1, 2013 and have been faithful to that practice every day since. I prayed about method and level of distribution. My initial intent was to only share it with my two children by email, but quickly discovered others in my family, my church, and friends from work (both retired and still working) who knew me and wanted to be included in distribution when they learned what I was doing. I now distribute by email my daily journal at the beginning of each month to over 150 friends and relatives. God has richly blessed and encouraged me.
I am concerned with the state of our church and nation, and world for that matter, believing we are living in the end times the prophets of old and Christ have talked about in scripture, so time is short. I desire to be true to my Savior and a witness to help others come to a saving knowledge of Him and equipped to share His Good News too. If my journal can encourage and help others, I believe God wants me to share it. I struggled, for a time at first, because I know many others keep similar journals but only for their own edification and do not want to share them because they are private.
However, Christ has stirred my heart to share it as a witness tool.
Our son and daughter have a long-time friend who grew up with them who we also befriended nearly 25 years ago. He had a lot of family problems, so would gravitate to our family as a refuge and eventually thought of us as his adopted parents and he as our adopted son. We lost contact with him for some time when he grew up and left home. He traveled around the U.S. and eventually ended up in Ukraine where he resided for next 10 years. He had to return to the US to renew his visa and took opportunity to recommend I begin a blog of my devotions and helped me set it up. He is also an active blogger and has been an email subscriber to my journal for several months, so he has been suggesting I expand my distribution by starting a blog to get broader exposure. After reflection and prayer, I concluded God was in this, so he is helping me set up my blog site. This brief autobiography is my first entry.
He returned to Ukraine, then resided there until circumstanced made him decide to move back to US with his young son. This biography was my first post February 29, 2016 .
I have published 600 posts from 2016-2023 automatically sent to all my Facebook friends, published on WordPress to be accessible to anyone curious or seeking a deeper walk with God. I decided to take a sebatical to prepare for a new chapter. In 2014 I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease which affects patient ability to walk, drive, do physical work, and eventually talk. By mid 2023 it became evident our home for last 42 years (previously owned by my parents for previous 44 years and by my mother's grandparents for 39 years before that) would eventually not meet my needs so we decided to sell it and move into 1st floor of a duplex we also owned that was the town school from 1855-1913. Likewise, the property was requiring more maintenance that I was no longer able to keep up with. 2023 involved selling our home and moving into apartment next door and then in early 2025 an opportunity to move closer to our daughter and granddaughter in Kentucky which was completed in May 2025. For a number of months I have been seeking direction seeking God's direction and timing to return to blogging as my journey with Parkinson's continues to unfold with God's guiding hand in mine.
I hope and pray my devotions will continue to be a blessing for you. God certainly has become closer and more real to me since started this blog in 2016. I have spent time with Him studying scripture and praying and listening and writing this journal. I will continue seeking God’s help and will welcome your input to make this site as meaningful as I can and true to God, who is motivating me to create and maintain it. I will also welcome input in order to make format more meaningful going forward.
Don & Arlene McDaniel
In His Service,
Email: mcdanieldonald769@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Don1951
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 600+ blog posts I have made plus a link to my devotional journal material archives from 2013 to present (https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com/2016/03/02/link-to-dons-devotional-journal-entries-2013/ )
You may also access my Facebook page and request to be my friend and automatically receive my daily journal publications daily. My Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/Dondevotionals/ Many thanks to a pastor and dear brother in Christ in Nepal who set up the above Facebook page to help and encourage and give opportunity for more to explore and use my devotional blog materials. View all posts by donsdevotions
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