Mountain-moving Faith (3)
“Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting”-Matt 27:19-21
Our focus today will be on the highlighted part of the Scripture above.Have you noticed that verse 21 is not in many newer Bible translations(NIV,ASV,ESV etc). Some translators actually omitted it and put it in the footnote.Such a powerful verse…I don’t know whatever reason that would have warranted the omission.Anyway,let’s leave that for the theologians to explain.
Jesus,having told the disciples why they couldn’t drive out the evil spirit out of the boy,went ahead to give more explanations:
“However, this kind(Greek:/genos/ ) does not go out except by prayer and fasting”.
There is a faith that moves mountains.It makes mountains to skip(Read more about this here).Such was the faith the disciples should have exhibited but there was a problem! What was the problem?
This kind(genos) of mountain was different and consequently required additional virtues to the mountain-moving faith.What is the meaning of ‘genos’?
/Genos/: It is translated ‘genus’ in English language which means a class, kind, category or group marked by common characteristic(s).
It can be concluded that there are different categories of mountains with specific requirement of what it takes to move them.The disciples were meeting this kind( genos ) for the first time.The earlier deliverances they conducted were different from this kind.
For us to understand this concept,I will like us to look at the Mark’s version of the story.He gave a more specific account of it than Matthew.Unlike Matthew that just said that the child had seizures(used to fall inside water and fire in the process) and an evil spirit,Mark told us more specific presenting complaints : The child was made mute by a spirit and the seizures were characterized by excessive salivation,falls and loss of consciousness:
“Teacher, I brought You my son, possessed with a spirit which makes him mute; 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.” -Mark 9:17b-18
Jesus Christ(The Greatest Physician),having listened to these complaints,asked a question every doctor asks when a patient comes with a complaint in the clinic: How long have you been having the headache? How long have you been coughing? How long have you been diagnosed of diabetes?
“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. And He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood”-Mark 9:20-21
The duration of an ailment is important to know the level of severity or whether an illness is acute or chronic.
“And he said, “From childhood”
I hope you are getting to understand this /genos/ of mountain now? This kind was a chronic problem.This is not malaria fever caused by plasmodium falciparum species.This is not even an acute illness that just started few days ago.It was a chronic convulsion caused by an evil spirit!It was a mountain whose foundation was not natural unlike the Mount of Transfiguration,this mountain had an evil spirit at its roots.Hence Jesus told his disciples:
“This kind(Greek:/genos/ ) does not go out except by prayer and fasting”
It was a category of mountains that required more than a mustard-like faith…It is what I call: Faith ‘+’ (Nigerians will understand the plus+ sign better!)
The plus ‘+’ (additional) requirements to move this kind of mountain are prayer and fasting… I will dedicate a post for it probably next Wednesday.
Meanwhile,let’s continue with Mark’s account:
“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.” 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!” But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him; and he got up”-Mark 9:25-28
You see,the evil spirit used to come and go and whenever they arrived they would come with more wicked spirits such that the convulsions of the boy became more violent and terrible over the years…I will tell you how I knew this: Read the above Scripture again and see what Jesus said:“I command you, come out of him and do not enter him again.” Jesus uprooted this mountain and ordered it to move out of the boy to the desert permanently…that is mountain skipping! But how did I know it was sent to a desert? Jesus himself said:
“When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none. Then it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’ So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before. That will be the experience of this evil generation”– Matt 12:43-45
So you can see why Jesus had to tell that evil spirit not to come back to the boy’s body.However, I have a concern about the last part of the verse above(the highlighted line).From it,I can tell you that this violent spirit is still in someone’s body as you are reading this post and the parents are running helter skelter taking the child from one place to another looking for a solution!This kind,I tell you won’t respond to orthodox medicine!There are kinds that medicine can cure but this kind…No way! Neither will it respond to alternative medicine and most importantly: This kind of mountain won’t move with faith alone.
The faith(pistis) must be combined with prayer and fasting for it to move certain categories of mountains.
Let’s meet here on Wednesday for the continuation of this teaching.
Shalom