"if you believe"

A reflection from Mark 9: 17-27 - Jesus heals the epileptic.

This miracle took place right after Jesus’ transfiguration experience on the mountain top. Gospel of Mark records this as the last miracle in the Gospel. The story tells us that a man brought his son who was epilepsy due to demon possession to Jesus’ disciples to be delivered. But unfortunately, the boy was not delivered, thus the case was brought to Jesus.

1. The disciples were not able to cast out the demon in this boy because the boys father did not have enough faith. Vs. 19 tells us Jesus’ response to the father’s plea. Here when Jesus said you faithless generation, He was making reference to the boys father as well as the crowd.
In receiving God’s miraculous touch, what matter the most is the faith of the potential recipient than the servant of God who is administrating the healing. This was what exactly happened in this story. Even Jesus did not perform the miracle until the man believed.
Vs. 22 tells us the attitude of this man’s heart. His unbelief in belief. He said “if you are able”……… His unbelief / lack of faith annoyed the Lord (vs. 23). Jesus reinstates here that “All things can be done for the one who believe”. Interestingly, Jesus did not say “all things WILL be done, but instead He said, all things CAN be done”. What does this means. It simply means when we truly believe (100% without doubt) in the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, than everything is possible or CAN be done for us. Our faith simply moves the hands of the Lord to perform miracle for us.

E.M Bounds in his book entitled “Power in Prayer” says, ‘that the prayer of righteous will move the hands of the Lord’ .

Friends if we claim that we belief in God, we better belief in His power 100% - because God can not work in the midst of our unbelief. Vs. 24 tells us the repentance of this man, he became totally dependent on the Lord and completely believed and subsequently the miracle took place in his son's life (vs. 25).

There are TWO things that I want to draw of from the text:-

Firstly, most of the times, our unbelief or lack of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ hinders us to receive healing and other forms of blessings in our lives. Sometimes, we claim that we belief in the Lord, but than we also have other alternate things to believe in that undermines our 100% belief in the Lord. So, we fail to receive from the Lord what is due to us. Unbelief will cripple a believer’s life. But FAITH makes all things possible for us (Mark 11: 22-24). The Bible tells us that without faith we can not please God (Hebrews 11:6), So, FAITH is essential not only to receive healing/blessings from the Lord but it is also essential for us to PLEASE God.

Secondly, I want to draw our attention back to Mark 9: 23. Jesus did not say “all things WILL be done, but instead He said, all things CAN be done”. What does this mean? Though faith is the trigger point for God to work miracle in our lives but remember the Bible tells us that it CAN be done and Not WILL be done. Which means it is still under God’s prerogative whether to do it or not. Healing or blessings that we ask or plead of God is still subject to His Will. I am very much convinced that we should at all times ask God with Faith. Because our faith determines God’s answer. However, I will not twist the arms of the Lord since ultimately it is all according to His WILL and not ours. We can only ask and belief. God has the ultimate power to decide whether to give/heal or otherwise. A good Christian is a person who will have 100% faith when he prays but at the same time he /she will be submissive to the WILL of God. Just as Jesus submitted to the WILL of the Father in the garden of Gethsemane, “Not my will but yours be done”.

So, friends lets us achieve and receive great things in life by completely trusting or having faith in Jesus in all our undertakings. At the same time, let us also learn to submit ourselves to the perfect WILL