Deepening your faith through prayer and fasting

Mark 9:29 (The Message)

He answered, "There is no way to get rid of this kind of demon except by prayer."

Jesus was asked why they could not cast out the evil spirit in the convulsing boy.  This was His answer.  Some translations add at the end, “….and fasting”.

The story of the curing of the convulsing boy teaches on the development of true faith.  The boy’s father admitted that he had some faith, but not enough (Mark 9:24).  Apparently at that time, the disciplines faith was not that strong and powerful either.  Real faith results from your determination to

1.   immerse your mind in God’s Word (Romans 10:17)

2.   act on God’s Word (James 2:26), and

3.   pray to God and listen for His answer (Mark 9:29). 

It takes all three of these disciplines.  You likely will never have to pray for an evil spirit to be removed from a loved one or a friend in your life, but you will always have satanic-like attacks in your own life and the only way you can remove them is through the discipline of practicing these three disciplines. 

Satan attacks you in many different ways.  He attacks you through your flesh such that you feel strong lusts of some kind or another.  He attacks you through worldly desires such as materialism and putting what the world values ahead of what God values.  And, perhaps the most long-lasting and potentially devastating attack, you lose the sense of self-worth, you experience depression over such realities as aging, loss, and loneliness, and you sense that your faith is not as strong as it used to be.  Note that these attacks involve your body, your mind, and your spirit, respectively. 

When you feel attacked like this, you must react by (1) quoting Scripture as Jesus did when He was tempted in the desert in Matthew 4, (2) make sure that you are doing all you can to be involved with others’ lives so that you are not so focused on yourself only, and (3) you are to pray and ask for God’s help. 

Keep in mind, too, when you are praying for God’s help in overcoming satanic attacks, especially depression that is not clinically-related, that there is nothing in your life that might be hindering your prayers.  These include unconfessed sin (Isa 59:2, Psalm 66:18), family problems that you have not corrected (I Peter 3:7, Matt 5:23-24), wrong motives (James 4:2-3) and doubt (James 1:6-8). 

Fasting is a lost discipline that Jesus teaches that His followers should practice (Matt 6:16-18).  You will be amazed how much more effective your prayers seem to be if you skip a meal and pray while hungry.  That’s because fasting enables you to focus on God where you are relying on His strength, provision and wisdom.  Someone once said that when you pray and fast that you see right and wrong more clearly and you understand better the difference between God’s commandments and man’s commandments.   Basically you discern better the good and evil in your life and can do something about keeping in the good and kicking out the evil.   

What are demons in your life where now you know that they can be removed through prayer and fasting?  May you experience success and may your faith deepen even more.