Matthew 17.14-21 Mark 9.14-29 Luke 9.37-42
Daemon possession is a reality that Jesus was confronted
with on a repeated basis. It was also an
issue that Jesus gave His disciples authority to deal with when He sent them
out as ministers. It continues to be an
issue in the world today especially in areas, as of yet, unreached by the
Gospel. We certainly have more questions
then we have answer about this problem.
Most believers in first world countries have never been personally
confronted with this but those who are advancing the Gospel to places where it
has never gone before are confronted with daemon possession much more often. The Bible does not give us a manual as to how
we should deal with this but we do see how Jesus confronted the problem and
what He taught His disciples. The
principles learned from this confrontation can be helpful to us whether or not
we ever face someone who is daemon possessed.
THE DESPERATION OF A FATHER: When Jesus and the three
disciples come down from the mountain they are met by a large group of people
who have come with a desperate father that is looking for help for his
son. This poor child had been tormented
by a daemon from infancy. The daemon
attacks the boy on occasion causing him to convulse, foam at the mouth, fall on
the ground and sometimes even throwing him into fire or water. Picture if this was happening to your child
or a member of your family and you will get a small taste of what this
desperate father and his son were facing.
We have no idea why this daemon chose to torment this boy. Sometimes when people are possessed by a
daemon we can find that they participated in some sort of activity the left
them open to daemonic influence or a relative dedicated them to Satan as a
child. However, there are other times
when we simply don’t know why or how this kind of activity started. We may not understand why daemons do what
they do or how they choose their victims.
We do know that they are evil and cruel and are out to destroy human
life in any way they can. God created
men in His image and gave them the ability and responsibility of worshiping
Him. Satan is out to destroy the image
of God on the face of the earth. He
sends out his daemons to torture and even kill people. He tries to infest the world with disease,
poverty and misery so that people will die young and therefore have fewer
bearers of the image of God on the planet.
However, that is not the only way Satan works. He also uses the false idols of wealth, power,
pleasure and comfort to distract people from worshiping God so they will
worship these idols that our hearts so readily fabricate. Satan uses destruction and distraction in
order to create desperation in the hearts of men and keep them from the joy of
worshiping and serving God as we were created to do.
THE DISAPPOINTMENT OF JESUS: When the man expresses that he
brought his son to the disciples but they were not able to help him; Jesus
responds in a surprisingly harsh manner.
He calls them an unbelieving and perverted generation and questions how
long He will have to put up with them.
It seems that the disciples were fearful, intimidated and confused by
the confrontation. It could be that Jesus
was disappointed by the way His disciples performed in this situation. There were also religious leaders who were in
the crowd and were arguing with the disciples about the whole situation and
were likely saying that Jesus had no ability to deal with this situation. It could be that Jesus was disappointed with
the crown of faithless people who were once again gathering in order to see a
healing but had no interest in worshiping Him as Messiah. Whomever this disappointment was directed at,
we know that what disappointed Him was the lack of faith and the perversion of
the generation. God wants people to
trust and obey Him. It really is as
simple as that. When we face difficult
situations or when life is just going by at a normal pace God is glorified when
we trust Him. We demonstrate that we
trust Him by not becoming anxious, angry or fearful about the circumstance of
life. We demonstrate that we trust Him
by obeying His Word no matter what situation we are facing in life. When we trust and obey God we will experience
peace and joy and be able to face whatever crisis might come our way with
confidence in His strength. It is
impossible to please God without faith.
If we are ever confronted by someone who has a daemon that is tormenting
them; our first response must simply be to trust God and have faith in His
ability to set the person free and enable us to know how to help. Jesus cast the daemon out, returned the boy
to his father and all was well. He has
the power to deal with the forces of darkness.
Whatever we do, we must not think that we are able in our own strength
to set people free from sin or Satan.
Any authority we have comes from God and it is in His power that we can
do anything.
THE DISCIPLINES OF A DISCIPLE: When the disciples asked
Jesus why they were unable to cast out the daemon Jesus told them that is was
because they had small faith. It appears
that the smallness of their faith was due to their lack of fasting and
prayer. In other words, it seems like
our ability to be victorious over sin and Satan is proportional to the strength
of our relationship with God. As
believers, we must absolutely learn the fact that we are dependent upon
God. Our strength comes from Him. We simply must trust Him. The way that we demonstrate our dependence on
and trust in God is through prayer. We
pray because we recognize that He has what we don’t have. We cannot save people from sin, be victorious
over temptation or face the difficult circumstances of life in a way that
honors God without His supernatural intervention. That is why we pray. We pray not because He needs us, but because
we desperately need Him. Fasting is
another way that we deepen our relationship with God and remind ourselves of
our dependence upon Him. When we don’t
eat, we have more time we can dedicate to prayer, reading of Scripture and
reflection. We also become physically
weak when we don’t eat. This is yet
another reminder of the fact that we need Him and another way to declare of
dependence on Him. All of the success
and joys that we will experience in the Christian life will come about as a
result of a relationship and communion with God. Prayer and fasting are two vital disciplines
that promote dependence on and intimacy with God. These are the keys of being able to deal with
daemons or any issue we might face in life.
APPLICATION: Our hearts should break over the misery that
Satan inflicts on the world and our own lives through destruction and
distraction. We must do all we can to
serve those who suffer under these realities and protect our own hearts from
these dangers. Trust God and obey Him in
every circumstance that we face. Pray
and spend time fasting in order to build a life of dependency on God and grow
in our intimacy with God.
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