Big Healing Book - Matthew 17:14-21

Matthew 17:14-21:

And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him and saying,
Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water.
And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him.
Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me.
And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.
Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could we not cast him out?
And Jesus answered and said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily, I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.

Notes on Matthew 17:14-21:

Today, people would have used the disciples’ failure to prove that God does not always want to heal. However, the problem was with the disciples. Jesus had already given them the authority to cast out all evil spirits (not just “little” ones), so there is no question that they had the authority to do it. However, they did not operate in faith based on that authority. Jesus came and did the job. This proves that someone can miss out on healing because the minister doing the praying fails to exercise his faith. The sick person can also miss out when he fails to exercise his own faith.

The prayer and fasting Jesus talked about would not have been directed toward that particular demon. Jesus had just found out about the situation; He could not have spent special time praying about the situation or trying to “fast out” that particular demon. He meant that you will not walk in the kind of faith that such a situation requires unless you have spent time praying and fasting before you encounter the situation. The prayer and fasting are things you do in your private life, not special responses once you find out about a particular need.

The second-to-last verse in the passage above actually reads differently in one Greek manuscript that is the basis for some translations. Instead of “Because of your unbelief,” the Greek, and the translated English, say “Because of your little faith.” This leaves us questioning which of these manuscripts we should go by. This matter is discussed in the article Must We Fast and Pray to Make Certain Demons Leave?.

The last verse in the passage above has been the center of some controversy – did Jesus mean “this kind” of demon, “this kind” of faith or “this kind” of unbelief? This matter is settled in the article Must We Fast and Pray to Make Certain Demons Leave?.