Faith & Prayer
Blue v14-29 Ch 9 Mark
There's An Issue With Faith
Frustrated Jesus admits they have none (v19).
The father of a boy with a mute spirit admits he does believe
but needs help with his unbelief (v24).
How do you know if you have any faith? Well... if you have to use "if" at the beginning of your sentence it's a good sign you don't have any.
But if you can do anything have compassion on us and help us (v22).
Jesus said to him, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes." v23
The question wasn't "If" Jesus could do it.
The answer was "If" you could believe it.
This Is Jesus' Way of Rebuking
v25 ...He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it: "Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!"
It didn't work for the disciples when they tried to cast out the deaf and dumb spirit (v18), and were wondering why so had asked Jesus (v28). And Jesus reveals something about prayer that can be seen in His answer in v29 but you must take another look at v25 to get it. To see that prayer without ceasing (1 Thes 5:17) includes many methods or models of prayer and does not always include the traditional starting/ending words of 'Dear Heavenly Father......in Jesus Name, Amen" which brings out the realization that you are going to give an account for every idle word we speak (Matt 12:36), for then technically everything we say is a prayer by understanding the truth behind the power of life and death in the tongue (Pro 18:21).
v29 So Jesus said to them, "This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting."
~When you look at v25 it doesn't look like a prayer. It looks like confrontation, rebuke... stuff like that. And no where in the previous verse of this story are we told Jesus was fasting so Jesus mentioned it Himself.
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