The power of fasting - Day of fast 2/21

 BY Argie Simonis

"However, this kind goes not out but by prayer and fasting." Matt. 17:21

In this story (Matt. 17:14-21), Jesus does not tell us that there is a special class of demons that are cast out only through prayer and fasting. There is no demon, not even satan himself, that does not respond to the name of Jesus and do not believe in His name:

"You believe that there is one God; you do well: the devils also believe, and tremble." James 2:19

If the name of Jesus was not enough to cast out every evil spirit, then we would be in real trouble:

"That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Phil. 2:10-11

Jesus here is not referring to the specific demon He cast out of the child, but to the kind of unbelief that prevented His disciples from casting it out.

It was not their lack of faith, because His disciples had cast out demons again. This time they couldn't. Remember Peter who had enough faith to walk on water, but as soon as he took his eyes off Jesus he almost drowned.

What we need to understand is that faith and doubt/unbelief can coexist within us.

Unbelief can be divided into three main categories: Unbelief due to ignorance, unbelief due to misinformation, and simply physical unbelief.

Unbelief due to ignorance or misinformation is dealt with by receiving the truth from God's word:

"So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Rom. 10:17

However, the unbelief that hindered the disciples in this case was not about whether God was able to bring deliverance, but it was a human nature of unbelief/doubt that hardened their hearts and they were more sensitive to what they saw and not in what they really believed. Now see what they were looking at and imagine yourself there with them:

"And they brought him to Him: and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming." Mark 9:20

It is important to remember that prayer and fasting affect our own heart and not God's. It has great power and it doesn't just cast out a certain category of demons but Jesus was saying that fasting and prayer are the only ways to cast out this kind of unbelief, the doubt that is created in us when we focus more on what we see than on what we really believe.

So we continue to stick to the fasting and prayer we started, with the assurance that the Lord will reward our faithfulness with revelations and answers to our prayers.

Amen 🙏