Big Healing Book - Mark 9:17-29

Mark 9:17-29:

And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit;
And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him: and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away: and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not.
He answereth him, and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him unto me.
And they brought him unto him: and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming.
And he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child.
And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us.
Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief.
When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him.
And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead, insomuch that many said, He is dead.
But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up; and he arose.
And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out?
And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.

Notes on Mark 9:17-29:

The Notes on Matthew 17:14-21 cover most of the points you could make from this story. However, there is an additional exchange here that Matthew did not mention. Jesus told the man that it was up to what he could believe. It is not just what Jesus can do, it is what you believe that He can do. You have a part to play in your miracle – the believing part. Jesus had the power to heal everyone at Nazareth, but they did not believe in His anointing. They saw Him as a mere man, so He did no mighty work there.

One thing I admire about Jesus is how “cool” He was in difficult situations. Think about this passage for a minute – there is a boy on the ground being “torn” by a demon, foaming at the mouth, and Jesus just carries on a conversation with the boy’s father about how long this had been happening! Jesus is our example, and if He could be that calm and collected while a “screamin’ demon” was putting on a show, so can we. Jesus never “freaked out” because of what the devil was doing, and neither should you.

The man asked Jesus to help his unbelief. He was not asking Jesus to help his unbelief in the sense of increasing it, of course. (You can help your unbelief in that sense by buying the latest popular book about why God supposedly wouldn’t heal someone.) He meant, “I believe in my heart, but my head is giving me trouble! Help!” You are perfectly within your rights talking to God about such trouble. Realize, however, that it is with your heart that you believe, not your head. You can believe in your heart and still have a fight going on in your head. You can get your miracle anyway! The more you renew your mind with God’s Word, the less your head will give you trouble.

Jesus said plainly that all things are possible to him who believes. Because healing is a subset of all things, healing is possible to him who believes! The only limit is what you can believe God for! If healing were not specifically promised, the fact that all things are possible to him who believes would still mean that your faith could make you well.

Mark says that Jesus referred to a “faithless” generation, while Matthew and Luke add the fact that He also said that they were “perverse.”

Notice that the “deaf and dumb spirit” was one that caused the boy to be deaf and dumb. The spirit itself was obviously neither. It cried on the way out and it obviously heard Jesus!

Mark’s account leaves out part of the final conversation, which could lead the reader to believe that the disciples had to pray and fast specifically to make that demon leave. We see from Matthew’s account that Jesus answered the question “Why couldn’t we cast it out?” directly with the answer, “Because of your unbelief.” He didn’t say it was because the demon was so powerful; He had already given His disciples power over ALL demons. It was because of their unbelief, and their unbelief was the result of not having spent time praying and fasting.