Many churches today have taken on a graceful rest.
Kinda like when you’ve been riding a bike, intentionally going somewhere, and you start slowing down and coasting. Not pedaling any longer. Just coasting.
Maybe you feel you deserve it. You’ve been going hard at this for a while, and you just want to coast. Take it easy. Ride the wave of your past efforts.
Not pursuing the prize.
Just coasting along.
But the Christian life was never meant to be lived by coasting. We are in a spiritual war, and spiritual warfare requires us to be awake, prepared, and willing to fight to keep our faith.
“Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” I Timothy 6:12 NKJV
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12 NKJV
I’ve written before about Mark 9:17–27 in When Love Isn’t Enough, looking at the story from the viewpoint of the father seeking help for his son. Now I want to look at this Scripture from the viewpoint of the disciples and Jesus, adding verses 28 and 29 of Mark 9.
The story is introduced in verse 17 when a desperate father brought his son to the disciples for healing. Jesus’ disciples tried but failed, so the father took his son to Jesus for help. Jesus rebuked the demon that had been trying to kill the boy since he was a small child, and the boy was delivered and healed.
This puzzled the disciples.
Privately, they asked Jesus why they couldn’t get the boy delivered and healed. I mean, they followed the plan and did what Jesus did.
Why didn’t it work?
Jesus didn’t reply by saying, “Good try,” or “Glad you turned to Me,” or “I’m just happy you prayed for him.”
No. Jesus rebuked them. “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to me.” Mark 9:19 NKJ
Wait, what just happened?
He rebuked them.
Why?
Jesus said they were faithless.
They may have thought, We followed the plan. We saw what You did, and we did the same thing. Why didn’t it work?
Jesus said, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting.*” NKJV
This kind only by prayer and fasting.
This kind was a demonic stronghold that was there for whatever reason. Normal prayers couldn’t make it budge. But why?
When the father asked the disciples to pray for his son, were they supposed to stop what they were doing and say, “Okay, we’re starting a fast and praying right now. Give us five or ten minutes of fasting, then we should be good…”?
Jesus was teaching something powerful. This kind cannot be driven out by anything (anything) but prayer and fasting.
Could it be that a lifestyle of prayer and fasting will bring more faith, or was Jesus just kidding? I’m persuaded He was very serious or He wouldn’t have said to His disciples, “O unbelieving generation…and then, “This kind CANNOT be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting.” AMP
Jesus said it.
Not me.
But many teach that you don’t have to do anything to “get Jesus to move.” But is that really what we are doing when we pray and fast?
Getting Jesus to move?
Think of it more like connecting to Him in an ongoing relationship. One that you are not doing all the talking but listening. A relationship that grows over time and by what Jesus said, prayer and fasting produces stronger results.
It is our turn to move because He has already done everything. He has provided healing and deliverance. His work is finished.
He has handed us the baton.
He tells us to heal the sick, cast out devils…through our relationship with Him. Knowing He has given us the keys.
He is showing us how to change ourselves into a force for Him.
And yes, it takes our effort.
Everything God gives us takes our effort. You can’t decide to believe in Jesus without effort. Your choice. He tells that if we seek Him, we will find Him. We are the ones who are told to believe. We are the ones who have been told what to do.
If we don’t, we don’t just suffer.
Others do too.
When was the last time we set aside time to pray and fast? Maybe for a specific reason or, more importantly, to grow closer to Him. It moves us closer. He has always been there.
Yes, I believe we pray during our day, making a lifestyle of prayer, but there are also times we need to intentionally set aside time to pray and fast.
When Jesus said, “this kind,” He meant some strongholds are just that, strong holds that don’t want to let go because, well, they are strong.
When the disciples brought the father and son to Him, Jesus didn’t stop and say, “Wait, I have to pray and fast first.”
He had already been doing that.
But He was Jesus, you say. Yes, but He walked as the Son of Man on the earth as our example.
It’s so easy to pray and walk away and say, “Well, if God wants to heal them, deliver them, or set them free, then He will. I’ve done my part.”
Have you?
Have I?
We want God to move. We want to see miracles.
It’s not the intensity of your prayer. I believe it’s the preparedness of your heart before that can matter.
But many of us don’t prepare. We go to church to be fed but don’t pick up our Bible during the week and sit and talk to Jesus. Can I be honest? I have gone through periods of doing just that and let me tell you, I will start feeling disjointed like something is wrong but not sure what it is. I am easily distracted in so many directions, but when I finally ask Jesus what is wrong with me, He says to me, “When was the last time you sat with Me? When was the last time you read my words?”
As soon as I finish saying a big, “DUHHHH,” I get back on track and immediately my heart is satisfied and peace returns.
Why do we wait?
Why do we coast?
We believe that when He wants to move, He will.
The problem with that is, He is waiting on us.
He’s calling our hearts to pursue.
Spend time pursuing God in prayer and fasting. Make it your goal. Prayer and fasting are part of preparing ourselves for spiritual warfare. He will fill you with more faith to help the people around you, and yourself, as you walk through your life’s journey.
Never forget: You must know what Jesus said.
You must spend time in the Bible so that when the “coasting religion” lures you to sleep and tells you that you don’t have to fight to keep your faith, you don’t have to pray, and you don’t have to fast, you’ll see it for what it is.
Coasting.
I believe we have things backward.
We rest.
We coast first.
Shouldn’t we battle first and then rest?
Then we would actually have something to rest from.
I must confess something again; I’ve coasted because the battle can be fierce at times. I’ve felt beaten up from the fight when I was just beaten up by the enemy.
I wasn’t fighting back with “It is written...” (like Jesus did) to keep my faith.
I was a victim, not a soldier.
Is there a time to rest?
Yes.
When you’ve DONE all you can do like it says in Ephesians 6:
Then stand. Don’t coast.
WHAT DOES STANDING LOOK LIKE?
Ephesians 6:10-18 doesn’t sound like coasting. Read it slowly. It is worth your time to meditate on and draw wisdom from:
10 In conclusion, be strong in the Lord [be empowered through your union with Him]; draw your strength from Him [that strength which His boundless might provides].
11 Put on God’s whole armor [the armor of a heavy-armed soldier which God supplies], that you may be able successfully to stand up against [all] the strategies and the deceits of the devil.
12 For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere.
13 Therefore put on God’s complete armor, that you may be able to resist and stand your ground on the evil day [of danger], and, having done all [the crisis demands], to stand [firmly in your place].
14 Stand therefore [hold your ground], having tightened the belt of truth around your loins and having put on the breastplate of integrity and of moral rectitude and right standing with God,
15 And having shod your feet in preparation [to face the enemy with the firm-footed stability, the promptness, and the readiness produced by the good news] of the Gospel of peace.
16 Lift up over all the [covering] shield of saving faith, upon which you can quench all the flaming missiles of the wicked [one].
17 And take the helmet of salvation and the sword that the Spirit wields, which is the Word of God.
18 Pray at all times (on every occasion, in every season) in the Spirit, with all [manner of] prayer and entreaty. To that end keep alert and watch with strong purpose and perseverance, interceding in behalf of all the saints (God’s consecrated people).
When you become a Christian, it’s easy to fall into the trap of just believing in Jesus and not going any further in your understanding. I don’t mean to minimize that at all. It’s the foundation of everything.
But we must go beyond that and grasp what Jesus told us to do. You know, “do what Jesus did.” He was our example. He often walked away to be alone with the Father. He fasted. He prayed.
He warned us that we are in a spiritual battle and our enemies are out to destroy us. He warned us that our prayers can be faithless.
Prayer and fasting are not works. We’re not earning our prayers to be answered. We’re being changed the more time we spend in relationship with Him and studying His Word that He left for us. He tells us how to walk in this life.
Only His words are life and truth.
Everything we hear from others, including me, should be weighed against what Jesus said.
The whole of what He said.
“We wrestle not against flesh and blood…” Ephesians 6:12.
Open your Bible and read it for yourself. Mark it up. Underline. Highlight it. Meditate on it.
Do all Jesus taught us to do, and then rest, or, better said, STAND, not coasting, knowing what Jesus said and knowing He said to have faith, pray, and fast.
Coasting eventually comes to a stop.
The final rest from the fight will be when our work on earth is done.
Until then, fight on, good soldier.
Fight on.
*Some modern Bible translations leave out “and fasting” in Mark 9:29 because the ancient Greek manuscripts differ at this point. Some of the earliest surviving manuscripts say only “prayer,” while the reading “prayer and fasting” (Greek: kai nēsteia) is preserved in the broad majority of Greek manuscript witnesses. That Greek word means fasting from food. Scholars themselves have disagreed over which reading should be considered original. This is exactly why I believe we need to pay attention to what our Bible translations include, and what they don’t. I follow the manuscript tradition that preserves Jesus’ words here as “prayer and fasting.”