O, Unbelieving Generation

About a week ago, I shared with you that I've been struggling with the faith to pray for others' healing. Today, I was led to Mark 9. This is what I read (this is from the Amplified version):

Jesus and three of His disciples had gone up to a mountain spot together and had a transforming encounter with the presence of God. On the way back down the mountain, they saw a crowd gathered near the other disciples. In the crowd was a man and his son, who was very ill.

Teacher, I brought my son to You, for he has a dumb spirit. And wherever it lays hold of him, it dashes him down and convulses him, and he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth, and he falls into a motionless stupor and is wasting away. And I asked Your disciples to drive it out, and they were not able to do it.

And He answered them, O unbelieving generation [without any faith]! How long shall I have to do with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to Me.

So they brought the boy to Him, and when the spirit saw Him, at once it completely convulsed the boy, and he fell to the ground and kept rolling about, foaming at the mouth.

And Jesus asked his father, How long has he had this? And he answered, From the time he was a little boy. And it has often thrown him both into fire and into water, intending to kill him. But if You can do anything, do have pity on us and help us.

And Jesus said, You say to Me, If You can do anything? Why, all things can be (are possible) to him who believes!

At once the father of the boy gave a cry with tears, and he said, Lord, I believe! Constantly help my weakness of faith!

But when Jesus noticed that a crowd of people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, You dumb and deaf spirit, I charge you to come out of him and never go into him again.

And after giving a shriek of anguish and convulsing him terribly, it came out; and the boy lay [pale and motionless] like a corpse, so that many of them said, He is dead.

But Jesus took a strong grip of his hand and began lifting him up, and he stood.

And when He had gone indoors, His disciples asked Him privately, Why could not we drive it out? And He replied to them, This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting.

Wow. That passage of scripture shed some light on my issue. For being no longer than it is, there are so many things that can be read from it, but a few things, in particular, stood out to me.

The very first thing - I can totally relate to the disciples. I can so easily see myself being one of those people who tried - gave it their best, really wanted to pray for the boy and see healing, did all they knew to do - but the boy's situation remained unchanged. In my mind as I was reading, I thought, 'That's me.'

But no sooner than I thought that thought, I read the next verse where Jesus lays into them a bit - 'O unbelieving generation without any faith!' In other words, When will you ever learn? If you could just get it through your thick skulls! Bring the boy to Me, I'll do it.' I sort of felt like I was living back at home with my mom, getting scolded because she has told me something 20, or maybe 100 times and I'm just not getting it! I'm being stubborn and bull-headed, and I'm just not listening. Those kind of talkin' to's were always out of love, always because she wanted something better for me, and maybe a bit out of frustration because she couldn't seem to get through to me. And I can tell you from my fair share of experience, they weren't pleasant to endure. Well, today, I felt the sting of getting that kind of 'talkin-to' from Jesus as I read that verse.

The next thing that occurred to me is the description of the boy's condition. If I were given that description today, I would assume it was a medical condition. Sounds like he has something physically wrong with him. But the father, and Jesus, both addressed the boy's problem as a spiritual condition. Then the verse in 2 Corinthians popped into my head, 'from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view' (2 Cor. 5:16). We need to learn to look beyond the physical and regard every person in the spiritual. So, does that mean cancer can be viewed as a spiritual condition? Diabetes? MS? All of our diseases that we're not born with but that come on us at some point during life? We treat them in the physical, but should we really be regarding them in the spiritual? This definitely calls for a different perspective in praying for someones 'physical' healing.

When the father pleads with Jesus to do something if He can, Jesus' reply cuts straight through me. 'You say to Me, If You can do anything? All things are possible to him who believes! ' I have heard this verse from the time I was very young, but I never knew the context of it. I never knew how very serious Jesus was. I guess I always just thought it sounded nice, but I never took it to heart. Today I think it got through to my heart. And I love the father's response: 'Lord, I believe! Help me overcome my unbelief!' What an honest, heartfelt, nothing held back, desperate plea to God. I believe in You! Help me when I struggle with my faith. I think we all struggle with doubt. I know I do. I'd say probably every day the enemy puts shades of doubt into my head, and I have to decide what I choose to believe, and stand firm on that. Sometimes my doubt gets the better of me and I really struggle to bring it under control. But this man's response models the perfect response. God, I believe You. I choose to believe in You. Help me when doubt comes.
Finally, Jesus' response to the disciples. When they finally get alone with Him, they ask, 'Lord, why couldn't we heal the boy?' I know I've had similar conversations with Him myself, when I've prayed for my children to be healed from illness, etc. What's the deal, God, why didn't that work? His answer is very matter-of-fact. 'That kind won't come out without prayer and fasting.' In other words, to really operate in the supernatural, and to see healing come about in the lives of others, it requires more than a standard attempt, which is generally accompanied with some shade of doubt (no matter how great or small the doubt is). It requires a solid, genuine, whole-hearted belief. And it requires a personal commitment - to God - to prayer and fasting - which means it requires personal sacrifice and one-on-one face time with God.