“Why could we not drive it out?”

Matthew 17:10-27 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

And His disciples asked Him, “Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” ¹¹ And He answered and said, “Elijah is coming and will restore all things; ¹² but I say to you that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished. So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” ¹³ Then the disciples understood that He had spoken to them about John the Baptist.

¹⁴ When they came to the crowd, a man came up to Jesus, falling on his knees before Him and saying, ¹⁵ “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and is very ill; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. ¹⁶ I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.” ¹⁷ And Jesus answered and said, “You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.” ¹⁸ And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once.

¹⁹ Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not drive it out?” ²⁰ And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. ²¹ But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

²² And while they were gathering together in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men; ²³ and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day.” And they were deeply grieved.

²⁴ When they came to Capernaum, those who collected the two-drachma tax came to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the two-drachma tax?” ²⁵ He said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth collect customs or poll-tax, from their sons or from strangers?” ²⁶ When Peter said, “From strangers,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are exempt. ²⁷ However, so that we do not offend them, go to the sea and throw in a hook, and take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth, you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for you and Me.”

In today’s text it says:  When they came to the crowd, a man came up to Jesus, falling on his knees before Him and saying,  “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and is very ill; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.” And Jesus answered and said, “You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.” And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not drive it out?” And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”    Certainly there is a wealth of wisdom and revelation that we can glean and apply from just these few verses. First, let’s begin with what Jesus said last.  “…this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”   Prayer and fasting can be crucial to our seeing deliverance. I think though that from this account, we can learn that often we misunderstand the purpose or perhaps the method or reason for fasting. We often see a difficult situation or are faced with something that we need breakthrough for. Like the disciples, we have not seen the results we desire or expect; and so we determine that we should fast, as if by fasting we will be able to change God’s mind. The reason we fast though is not that we will change the mind or the will of God. So we should not fast expecting that our fast will bring about breakthrough. The reason we fast is to eliminate things that distract us from being aligned with God. Our fast is to change us, not to change God. Jesus said that this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting, yet He didn’t stop to fast. He didn’t call for prayer. Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out. 

In John 5:19 Jesus says:  “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.”  In John 8:28, He says:  “I do nothing on My own, but speak exactly what the Father has taught Me.”  In John 14:10, He says: “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words I say to you, I do not speak on My own. Instead, it is the Father dwelling in Me, performing His works.”   Jesus was one with the Father. All that He did and said were in line with the will and the works of God. He didn’t need to stop and fast. Scripture tells us that Jesus often went off to pray by Himself. These prayers of course are not recorded for us. But I believe that much of the time Jesus spent praying alone, was spent listening and not speaking. Jesus could do the will of the Father because He had already heard what the Father wanted to do. The reason we need to fast and pray is to become or remain aligned with the Father. It is not our prayers of petition that change the hardest circumstances we face. It is our listening in prayer; our gaining an understanding of what God is doing and saying. 1 John 5:14-15 says:  Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.  So, we fast to remove the distractions from our lives. We fast so that we become aligned with God’s will. We listen and we pray the very words He is speaking over the situations and circumstances we face. In Psalm 37:4 the psalmist says: Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart.  If we remain in Him, our will becomes aligned with His will and like Jesus, we can speak what God is saying in the circumstances we face. So we fast and we pray not to change the things we see, but rather that we become aligned with God’s will, that we see from His perspective and fulfill the prayer of Jesus, that: Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

In Mark 13:11 Jesus says:  “When they arrest you and hand you over, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but it is the Holy Spirit.”  The same thing is true when we face a situation that requires prayer. We do not need to worry about what to say. We have the Holy Spirit of God dwelling and abiding in us. God’s Spirit is always aligned with God’s will. We need to yield to the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:26-27 says:  The Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.   In John 14:26 Jesus says:  “The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”   It is good for us to read, to study and to meditate on God’s word so that we know what it says. Then the Holy Spirit can bring to our remembrance all that Jesus said. Even more though, the Holy Spirit will teach us, He will guide us, He will let us not only remember what Jesus said, but we will also know what He is saying.

The disciples asked:  “Why could we not drive it out?” And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.” In John 14:12-14 Jesus says: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”   If we want to do the works that Jesus did, if we don’t want to ask why could we not do it, we need to understand that it is not because of the amount of our faith, but rather it is that we must become fully aligned with His will. It is after all not we who will drive out the demons. It is not we who will open blind eyes or cause the lame to walk. Jesus says: “I will do it.”  When we speak what God is saying, He will do it.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit, may I truly become aligned with and fully submitted to You. May I delight in You so that the desires of my heart are Your desires. May I fast of all the things that would keep me from hearing You. May I learn to pray listening rather than speaking, so that like Jesus, I would do what You are doing and say what You are saying. When I am fully aligned with You, I know that You will do it. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.