Fasting for This Kind


Mark 9:29 (ESV) And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”

A demon possessed boy brought to Jesus' disciples by his father.  The disciples are powerless against the demon.  They cannot drive it out.  They are spiritual failures.  But Jesus, fresh from the Mount of Transfiguration drives it out with a few words.  

The reason He gives the disciples for failure?  There are some things that regular devotion to God will not get you over.  Jesus says, "This kind."  There are different spiritual enemies.  There are Goliaths, and there are others.

Jesus says their failure is because they haven't prayed (and some manuscripts add) and FASTED. There is no doubt, fasting is Biblical, commanded and practiced by Jesus, and essential to a life of supernatural power and influence.  

Why don't we do it?

Maybe because we have our wires crossed.  Many of us think the mountain top experience is where we get our power from God for the miraculous.  That's not what this story shows.  Jesus has just been to the mountain top.  Peter, James and John have just been there too.  It was an awesome revelation experience, it was most definitely emotional as Peter can't help but speak out even when he didn't know what to say.  

Consequently many Christians are seeking that "experience", that emotional moment of elation.  That other-worldly sense of anointing.  It's possible to feel and I don't discredit that at all.  But that's not always the answer.

The "experience" on the mountain didn't bring the effective power they needed for this kind of demon.  Jesus says we need prayer and fasting.  It's time to pray. Its time to fast.  Ask God for power and get serious.  Deny yourself and follow Jesus into the wilderness to trust the sustenance of God's Spirit rather than food.

Power is what we need.  
Fasting is where we will find it.

PRAYER:
Father, it's been a long time since I have fasted.  Help me to do it.  Help me to remember to do it.  Help me to commit to doing it.  Not so that I have power for me, but for those at the foot of the mountain who need your help.  In Jesus, Name.


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