Prayer and Fasting- 5- Healing

 Prayer and Fasting -5- Healing

January 9, 2026

Mark 9:17-19 (NKJV) 

17 Then one of the crowd answered and said, “Teacher, I brought You my son, who hasa mute spirit. 18 “And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not.” 19 He answered him and said, “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me.”

Mark 9:23-29 (NKJV) 23 Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things [are] possible to him who believes.” 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” 25 When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it: “Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!”

26 Then [the spirit] cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him. And he becameas one dead, so that many said, “He is dead.” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. 28 And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” 29 So He said to them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.”

This story of Jesus healing the epileptic boy tells a lesson on faith, prayer and fasting. Jesus has already given the disciples the authority to heal and cast out demons (Luke 9:1-6), so why were the disciples not having success in praying for the boy? Jesus seemed a little put out  by this; “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you?” He also told the father “If you can believe, all things [are] possible to him who believes.”    Jesus emphasized that having faith is a key to healing. So how do we increase out faith. The disciples asked Jesus directly why they could not cast out the demon and Jesus answered, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.”

One lesson from this story is that we can increase our faith by prayer and fasting. There is something about denying yourself by fasting that reduces your dependence on yourself and increases your dependence on God. Jesus has given us authority to heal all diseases and cast out demons, but we need to have faith that it is His power at work and not our own efforts. With sufficient faith we can move mountains so let us build up our faith by prayer and fasting. “All things are possible to him who believes.”