Lovers of God

Jesus heals a boy with an unclean spirit

Mt 17:14-23 14 When they came to the crowd, a man came up to Jesus, falling on his knees before Him and saying, 15 "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and is very ill; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. 16 "I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him." 17 And Jesus answered and said, "You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me." 18 And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not drive it out?" 20 And He said to them, "Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. 21 ["But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting."] 22 And while they were gathering together in Galilee, Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men; 23 and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day." And they were deeply grieved.

Mk 9:14-29 14 When they came back to the disciples, they saw a large crowd around them, and some scribes arguing with them. 15 Immediately, when the entire crowd saw Him, they were amazed and began running up to greet Him. 16 And He asked them, "What are you discussing with them?" 17 And one of the crowd answered Him, "Teacher, I brought You my son, possessed with a spirit which makes him mute; 18 and whenever it seizes him, it slams him to the ground and he foams at the mouth, and grinds his teeth and stiffens out. I told Your disciples to cast it out, and they could not do it." 19 And He answered them and said, "O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to Me!" 20 They brought the boy to Him. When he saw Him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion, and falling to the ground, he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth. 21 And He asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?" And he said, "From childhood. 22 "It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!" 23 And Jesus said to him, " 'If You can?' All things are possible to him who believes." 24 Immediately the boy's father cried out and said, "I do believe; help my unbelief." 25 When Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "You deaf and mute spirit, I command you, come out of him and do not enter him again." 26 After crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions, it came out; and the boy became so much like a corpse that most of them said, "He is dead!" 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him; and he got up. 28 When He came into the house, His disciples began questioning Him privately, "Why could we not drive it out?" 29 And He said to them, "This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer."

Lk 9:37-43 37 On the next day, when they came down from the mountain, a large crowd met Him. 38 And a man from the crowd shouted, saying, "Teacher, I beg You to look at my son, for he is my only boy, 39 and a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly screams, and it throws him into a convulsion with foaming at the mouth; and only with difficulty does it leave him, mauling him as it leaves. 40 "I begged Your disciples to cast it out, and they could not." 41 And Jesus answered and said, "You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you and put up with you? Bring your son here." 42 While he was still approaching, the demon slammed him to the ground and threw him into a convulsion. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the boy and gave him back to his father. 43 And they were all amazed at the greatness of God. But while everyone was marveling at all that He was doing, He said to His disciples, 44 "Let these words sink into your ears; for the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men." 45 But they did not understand this statement, and it was concealed from them so that they would not perceive it; and they were afraid to ask Him about this statement.

Some demons only come out by prayer and fasting. Why? The spirit was deaf and mute. Being mute, it wouldn’t say anything through the boy, which is why you don’t see it speaking to identify Jesus, like some demons did on another occasion. Further, being deaf, it wouldn’t be able to hear what Jesus (or the disciples) were saying to it, and so it wouldn’t come out when commanded. That is why prayer was required – you had to request God to communicate to it to come out of the boy! To communicate with God, you have to be walking with God. God won’t hear your prayer if have unforgiven sin, or if there is anyone you have not forgiven.

Notice that for the benefit of the people, Jesus also spoke to the demon, asking it to come out and to not enter the boy again. But the real healing took place through His silent prayer to the Father.

Demons have a habit of returning to people they came out from, and so it is important to command them to not return to the person from whom you are casting it out from.

Demon possession is a picture of addiction. People are addicted to drugs, alcohol or smoking, or other things. These things can create havoc in a person’s life, and in the life of those around him, just like the demon in the story above terrorized that boy and his dad. Jesus can fix that.

Jesus was not happy when the man’s response was ‘if you can’. All things are possible for those who believe that Jesus can help them.

The father of the boy lacked faith but wanted to believe, and that was enough for Jesus to heal his son. When we come to Jesus for help overcoming addiction, we must believe that He will help us, and by faith we can move that mountain away.

The healer needs to have faith too, and some miracles don’t happen because of lack of faith on the part of the healer. The disciples could not cast out the demon, and they didn’t try to figure out why, and gave up. If they just believed that they could do it, and tried to figure out the missing piece, they would have realized that this was a deaf spirit and therefore they had to work indirectly, through prayer. Jesus reminded them that He was not going to be with them for long as His time had come; they needed to learn how to handle things when He was gone.

When we minister to others, if our ministry runs into issues, we shouldn’t give up. Rather, we should continue to believe what God has said, and figure out what we are doing wrong, and fix it. Sometimes, we may have misunderstood God; sometimes, we may have forgotten something else that God has said that balances what we are holding on to. Sometimes, our relationship with God may not be as solid as we think (perhaps because we haven’t forgiven some person). There are many possible gotchas, and we have to figure things out. God’s word doesn’t fail, and we have to hold on to that truth without wavering.