Mark 5:24- 34 commentary: Christ's power to heal

5:24 And Jesus went with him; and much people followed him, and thronged him. 25 And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, 26 And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, 27 When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. 28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. 29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. 30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? 31 And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? 32 And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. 33 But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. 34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.

This woman didn’t even seek God’s attention. She just believed that if she drew near to Him and touched Him she would be healed. She had already tried every temporal way to be healed and had spent all of her money. She came to Christ and drew near to Him to be healed of her sickness.

There are two types of Christians in type in this passage in Mark. One, Jairus, pleads with God to come to him and he wants to journey with God. The other just, in their misery, draws near to Him. Both will get, by faith, what they desired. I am sure there are many more examples that can come from these events.

Twelve is an important number in the scriptures. Twelve tribes of Israel, twelve apostles, 2 x 12 elders sitting around the throne of God, 12 baskets of food left over after feeding the 5,000, twelve years Sodom and its allies served the king of Elam, twelve princes from Ishmael, etc. etc.

Twelve years this woman suffered before she was healed. Like people who follow a false religion she suffered many things at the hands of physicians before finding true healing in Christ. They will give all their money and time to false preachers who twist the Bible into knots to justify their own delusions of grandeur and then when all is said and done nothing is accomplished but to leave the sinner still bent over and bleeding, but now broke and more hopeless than ever until they turn, not to men, but to the Saviour.

5:28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. 29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.

Jesus, unlike a physician or human religion, heals instantaneously and completely, not just temporarily.

5:30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?

Jesus is aware that He has been touched and that a sinner is healed.

Luke 6:18 And they that were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed. 19 And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all.

Virtue is inherent power harnessed to do good. It is the power of God to do His will in the world which we as believers are given.

Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

2Peter 1:3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

2Peter 1:5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;

Virtue is moral courage, moral power. The fictional character, Tom, in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin conquered his final foe with moral power, refusing to do evil unto death and even converting his two murderers to Christ before his death. The evil Simon Legree is left a shattered shell to finish out his life and enter Hell in abject misery.

The real-life William Kiffin was a Baptist minister in England. He once obtained the release from prison of a judge who had sent him there previously. He was a man incapable of revenge and totally dependent upon God. He did good to those who hurt him and lived his life in such a way that even a wicked king, Charles II, refused to believe any bad intent on Kiffin’s part. He refused to accept another wicked king, James II’s, declaration of liberty of conscience for he knew it was a fraud. He watched sons die and grandsons be executed but his character and Christian humility was beyond belief as he taught Baptist principles and doctrines in a country that executed men for doing so. He had moral courage, moral power, and virtue his entire life as a Christian and nothing said against him could stick because his most ardent enemies knew he would do no wrong..

There are people today who try to pretend that they are the conduit through which Christ heals.

Proverbs 25:14 Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift is like clouds and wind without rain.

They are fakers and frauds. Come to Christ and draw near to Him to be healed. Ask Him to come to you and with you to be healed. You don’t need an intermediary.

5:31 And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?

The disciples, particularly Peter, are incredulous that He asks them, in this crowd, who touched Him.

Luke 8:45 And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?

5:32 And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. 33 But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.

Here is another point of how the word, all, is used. All can be without exception as in all men are sinners and all can be without distinction as in what she said was the truth, or as part of my analogy, all men can be saved or it is God’s desire that all men be saved.

5:34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.

This was a clear, physical healing. Let’s look at the type for us. Like in salvation, God responds to our faith by making us whole and healing us from our sin. Now, she would still have been healed if she didn’t make this public profession she made in verse 33 but it would have been different. We are called to make a public profession and, in my understanding in the New Testament church, your baptism was the public profession of faith. Your faith, or more completely, God’s response to your faith, will make you whole.

Latest Reading

Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin or Life Among the Lowly

This is a classic must-read for anyone interested in slavery or Christianity. Uncle Tom is the singlemost Christ-like figure in modern literature. His spiritual victory over the vicious Simon Legree is a classic.

Mark 5:21-23 commentary; Jesus alone can save

21 ¶ And when Jesus was passed over again by ship unto the other side, much people gathered unto him: and he was nigh unto the sea. 22 And, behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name; and when he saw him, he fell at his feet, 23 And besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live.

We’re going to have two examples, two types, of the Christian who gets saved in these gospel passages. This man believes in faith that if Jesus will just touch his sick daughter she will be healed. Now, we must remember that Jesus is physically present on this earth in a human body, which He has not been in that regard since His ascension. His Spirit resides in millions of human bodies today but He in His ministry of physical care for the Jewish people is not in evidence. The typology here is to our salvation, not physical healing. God can heal anyone He chooses to without anyone laying hands on them but a doctor or perhaps no one at all, but through prayer and humility.

We do not live in the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry nor do we live in the age of the Apostles. But, thinking of Jesus’ physical healing of the Jewish people and contrasting it with our salvation we can make several appropriate points. Jairus had faith that Jesus was enough. He, a man of responsibility and authority, believed that Jesus alone could make his daughter well. He is an example of a parent today who prays mightily and persistently for his child to be saved.

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

Acts 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Now, with regard to the physical body, we live in a fallen world in fallen bodies, dying every moment, slowly aging or deteriorating from disease. We await the adoption, the redemption of the body but it is not here yet.

Romans 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

There are some Christian groups who insist that if you just have enough faith you can be healed of any deadly disease. This is also humanism, the have faith in your faith crowd. They will proceed to the gospels written under the Law to Jews with a physical Jesus healing physical sicknesses in a foreshadowing of healing the spirit. Or they will thumb through Acts looking for the signs of the Apostles who are all gone now, and maybe wander on over to the book of James speaking doctrinally to Jewish believers in the Tribulation and anoint dying people with oil in a desperate hope that they will be healed. When their demands on God are not met because what they want is not Biblical, not of God, their faith is destroyed. There is no promise in the current church age that you will automatically be healed of a physical sickness just because you demand it.

Christians are funny folks. A young man who seeks a mate in bars and nightclubs will say, “well, I guess it’s not God’s will that I meet a nice girl.” God isn’t even in his search for a suitable partner but suddenly its God’s will that he be single. A person will clean up their act temporarily assuming that the sickness a loved one faces is a punishment for the lifestyle of someone else, something not even mentioned in the part of the Bible given to him or her. When their “reform” fails to heal the loved one they revert to their former self but in a magnified wickedness because they are now mad at God for not doing something He didn’t promise to do.

In like manner you might have a loved one who is enchained by the bondage of wicked pornography, destroying his or her family and self-worth. You might have a loved one wrapped in the arms of the mistress, alcohol. We shudder to think that like Israel who had gone to Assyria rather than God for help, then gave up their material worth to Assyria to obtain that help and then lost their own bodies and nation to Assyria, our loved ones have looked to an evil for comfort, something other than God, not of God, an evil which will take everything they have and then take them as well. We pray for deliverance to Christ. We plead with Jesus for help. We believe that Jesus is enough. We often don’t consider the willfulness of the person for whom we are praying in resisting God’s will.

Now, let’s look at Jairus’ daughter. She is helpless. She can’t heal herself. She is unable to resist healing or to resist death. Jairus himself is helpless. There is nothing he can do to save his daughter. He can only seek Jesus. That is all we can do, knowing that Jesus alone is sufficient to save our child. All his daughter can do is to receive the healing that Christ alone can give. He comes to fall at Jesus’ feet, which is the physical act of worship.

Psalm 95:6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker. (see also Revelation 3:9; 19:10; & 22:8.)

Jairus acknowledged that only Christ could save his daughter. The only hope for your loved one is Christ. Pray that it be His will to overcome any resistance to that salvation because it is God’s will that every person be saved.

Matthew 18:14 Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.

1 Timothy 2:3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

Typologies always break down eventually. The comparison between Jairus and his daughter and you and your child’s salvation breaks down when it is realized that Jairus’ daughter is helpless and couldn’t resist being healed any more than she could resist dying. Your child can simply set his or her face against God and refuse to be healed spiritually, in spite of the protestations of the Calvinists to the contrary. Pray that Christ will break their will not to be saved or delivered from their chosen bondage. Pray fervently and without ceasing. Trust me, He hears you.

Mark 5:18-20 commentary: publish the great things Christ has done for you

18 And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him. 19 Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee. 20 And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel.

Decapolis, from the Greek words, Deka, for ten, and polis, for city, the ten cities, was a region on the eastern side of what is now Israel. Some of the cities would be in Jordan now, and the furthest north, Damascus, is in Syria. Most of them, except for Damascus, were founded between the death of Alexander the Great and the conquest of Palestine by the Romans. In their beginning, those cities founded by Greek conquerors had a Greek culture in sharp contrast to the surrounding Semitic people. The existence of a herd of pigs, forbidden to eat under the Law given to Moses, shows how much this was a Gentile dominated region. Until the emperor, Trajan, added Arabia to the official roster of Roman claimed territories, Decapolis would have been the frontier area for the empire in that particular part of the world.

Psalm 26:7 That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works.

This man who had been delivered of so much pain and anguish wanted desperately to go with Jesus but Jesus ordered him to publish, to let everyone know, what had been done for him in his home cities. There are many great preaching illustrations from these verses but one might be how as much as we might think it would wonderful to go home to be with the Lord as soon as we are saved we are told to stay here and publish what a marvelous thing Christ has done for us in our home city. Of course, there are Christians who are mighty witnesses for God down the road but who don’t even know their own neighbors much less publish what God has done for them to those folks.

How many of your neighbors have you visited? Handed a gospel tract to or helped in some way to show your love for them and Christ’s love for them? Does your family know your testimony? Do you have a sound witness to them and those who live around you? If the people closest to you in your family or neighborhood aren’t drawn by you having the fruit of the Spirit of God flowing from your life what makes you think God is going to give you the blessing of seeing people saved twenty miles away? It’s possible the only way that your neighbors and family know you’re a Christian is by your conspicuous absence on Sunday morning or Wednesday night.

In your day to day activities around the people you spend the most time with, at work, at home, in your neighborhood, at the local market, what is your testimony? Is it that of a person of character who is grateful to Christ for His mercy and loves other people or are you known as a pain in the neck who just likes to point attention to how different or weird they are? Maybe no one who lives around you even knows what you are?

Publish in (fill the town in which you live in the blank) how great things Christ has done for you.

Latest Reading

John Lewis Gaddis, The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, 1941-1947 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000). This is an outstanding study of the origins of the Cold War in all its complexity and confusion. A must read for anyone interested in the history of the era many of us were born in and spent a great deal of our lives under the the threat of its possibilities.

Mark 5:6-17 commentary: into the deep

5:6 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. 10 And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. 11 Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. 12 And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. 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. 14 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. 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. 16 And they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning the swine. 17 And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts.

It would appear that modern Bible translators don’t even need to defer to corrupt Alexandrian manuscripts to attempt to downplay the deity of Christ. In this verse, most of the apostate, counterfeit versions remove “worshipped” from the verse in favor of the weaker “fell on his knees” or “bowed down” which hardly carries with it the same power as the word translated 60 times in the KJV as worship or a form of that word. One more reason that if you think of an NIV or an NASV as the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17) you are actually holding a butter knife.

Devils know who Jesus is. This devil(s) runs to worship Christ. So, what good does merely acknowledging and worshipping Christ do? It didn’t do much for this devil(s).

James 2:19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

Now, think, Christian. The one who wants you to relish in your personal suffering and to even seek and be proud of how much you can torture yourself for Christ and make yourself uncomfortable is Satan. You have a devil if you are proud of the hour you spend on your knees praying and hurting. Just because you worship Christ acknowledging Him and His mastery over you means nothing if it is a source of pride. Judas even calls Him “master” over and over. But, devils never call Him “Lord”.

Mark only focuses on one man but in a similar account in Matthew there are two although there are some differences in the context. Either Matthew is speaking about a different event or Mark has simply narrowed the focus down to this one individual rather than the two. Whether Mark is merely focusing on one of two individuals or not historical accounts often vary in their focus. A book on the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War that focuses on the heroic actions of the 20th Maine on the slope of Little Round Top does not mean that there wasn’t a Wheatfield or a Peach Orchard or a Pickett’s Charge as well.

Matthew 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. 29 And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?

Gergesenes is another name for Gadarenes.

5:7 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.

The devils acknowledge who Jesus is and they know what time they have. The devils will go crazy on the world when it’s their time. You would go insane if you could see what is around you in the spiritual world.

5:8 For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.

Notice the singular again, “thou unclean spirit.”

5:9 And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.

There are many devils in this man that are also called an, singular, unclean spirit that calls itself by a singular pronoun, he. Many devils can make up one devil. One possibility can be that the Devil can manifest himself into many devils as the Holy Spirit can exist completely in millions of believers and yet still be one Holy Spirit.

5:10 And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country.

Luke gets specific about this and says the following;

Luke 8:31 And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep. 32 And there was there an herd of many swine feeding on the mountain: and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he suffered them. 33 Then went the devils out of the man, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and were choked.

We know that “the deep” is not the lake because they chose themselves to go into the lake and the devils were afraid to be sent far away. What is “the deep”? In this context it is not the water. Perhaps there are some hints in these verses.

Ephesians 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

Ephesians 6:12 For 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.

Job 38:30 The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen. 31 Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? 32 Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? 33 Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?

Reading the first few verses of Genesis carefully might imply to you that “the deep” is outer space.

Genesis 1:1 ¶ In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 ¶ And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. 6 ¶ And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

5:11 Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. 12 And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.

Devils crave a body and animals will do. Obviously, not only humans, but animals can be possessed by unclean spirits.

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.

There are possibly a thousand unclean spirits in a man or more.

5:14 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. 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.

Devils like nakedness. Contrast the shame that a Godly person feels about his or her public nakedness by the statements in Genesis 2 before the Fall and the understanding of good and evil. People who insist on displaying their nakedness to the world are not innocent little children who have no understanding. They are adults possessed by an unclean spirit which somewhat explains pornography and much of the activity at the beach, which, as I have heard, 95% of Americans live within an hour of.

Genesis 2:25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

5:16 And they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning the swine.

Devils make a person hurt themselves, they want a body to inhabit, and they are drawn to water.

5:17 And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts.

Often, when God’s power is manifest in a person’s life his family and friends want nothing more to do with him because they want Jesus to leave.

Mark 5:1-5 commentary: a picture of devil possession

5:1 ¶ And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. 2 And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, 3 Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains: 4 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. 5 And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.

Note the singular, an unclean spirit. An unclean spirit is a devil. There is a Devil who is over many devils and there are unclean spirits that do his work and his bidding.

An interesting contrast appears with this verse in Isaiah;

Isaiah 65:4 Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine’s flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels;

Devils are attracted to bodies and to graveyards and tombs.

5:3 Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains:

Devils are unusually strong.

5:4 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. 5 And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.

Here is an excellent study on demonic possession. Notice what the followers of Baal in the Old Testament did in an attempt to manifest their god before Elijah’s challenge.

1Kings 18:28 And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them.

Now, note the expressions of grief at the death of the emperor of Tang Dynasty China, T’ai-tsung from historical writer, Will Durant;

“When he died the grief of the people knew no bounds, and even the foreign envoys cut themselves with knives and lancets and sprinkled the dead emperor’s bier with their self shed blood.”

Devils encourage self abuse and self damage including religious processions in Iran (Shi’ite Muslims) and the Philippines (Catholic Christians) and the self cutting behavior of some young girls. There are numerous examples of self-mutilation in religious rituals from all over the world as well as in literature. Self-mutilation as a religious ritual is a common theme in mankind’s religions.

Christ does not call us to mutilate ourselves like the popular Christian philosopher, Origen, live on a platform in the desert high off the ground to mortify the body like the ancient monks, or to think that we please Him by deliberately making ourselves suffer as I have heard some modern Christians say. Such behavior is the work of devils.

For those of you who don’t believe in the importance of the Bible God has preserved for us I would warn you that if you believe you are saved because you have “chosen” Christ let me point out to you how to tell if you are merely devil-possessed. If your Christ encourages you to hurt yourself or allow others to hurt you as a sign of your sanctification. If you seek to be uncomfortable rather than simply denying your Self and selfishness, but actually look for ways to cause pain and suffering to yourself. If your Christ makes you feel that it’s okay to glorify yourself or mankind in general, your nation, your government, or to place anything above the God who created you. If you are constantly lamenting how your gender, your race, your culture, your country is mistreated and misunderstood. If you are always beating yourself with sins that are forgiven. If you are drawn to death, destruction, violence, graveyards, battlefields, or anywhere else where death is prominent out of morbid curiosity or entertainment RATHER than merely seeking understanding or to remember the fallen. If you love horror movies, war movies, action-adventure movies or anything else where scenes of gruesome death are reenacted with buckets of fake blood, screaming, and agony. If your religious practices require suffering rather than putting Christ first, which leads to self-will worship.

You might possibly be saved. But, you are most definitely infested with devils. I won’t argue with you about whether a Christian can be oppressed or possessed but only say that if a devil has got your eyes, your tongue, your hands, or your mind then whether you call that oppression or possession it makes no difference. You need the cleansing that is only found in God’s word.