This morning I am reflecting on another occurrence recorded in Mark 9:17-18,20-24 NIV:
[17] "A man in the crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. [18] Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.”
[20] "So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth."
[21] Jesus asked the boy's father, “How long has he been like this?”
“From childhood,” he answered. [22] “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”
[23] “ 'If you can'?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.”
[24] "Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
I was going to turn past this story this morning, as I read through Mark 9 yesterday and was ready to move on, however verse 23 fairly jumped off the page as I glanced past it, so I figure there is something the Lord wants to encourage me about in this verse today.
Think about that statement for a few minutes - "everything is possible for one who believes"!
Other ways of saying this might be:
1) There is no box that can contain God!
2) There is no sickness that God can't heal!
3) There is no situation that is bigger than God, that He can't intervene and change!
4) NO person is too far gone for God to touch!
5) Even death is not impossible for God to overcome!
6) There is no situation that is too small for God to care about!
7) Our sin will not limit God's ability to act!
Those are just a few that pop into my head this morning. The point is that EVERYTHING is possible for one who believes.
So the question is how does belief factor into God's action? There are many times I have prayed for something that I thought I believed God could or would do, and many times I didn't see the answer to the prayer I prayed. So how does belief work?
We often want to create mathematic equations for prayer. If I believe, or have enough faith, and say the right words than God will do what I ask, every time. We want a sure thing, and we read passages like these and we think, there is the pattern I need to follow and it will work, just like in the Bible. So we ask God to have pity on us and help us (Verse 22). Then we pray (verse 24), Lord "I do believe, help me in my unbelief!" and we figure that God has to act because He did it this way in these verses. When it doesn't work that way we blame ourselves, blame someone else, think God doesn't care for them or love them, or maybe that He doesn't even exist after all, especially if it is a serious situation.
The fact is that all of these thoughts are generally wrong, especially the ones about God's ability, care or love, but also about our own limitations. I like to think of prayer for healing a bit like learning to ride a bike. The desire is there on my part, the belief is there on my part, the effort is even there on my part, but sometimes it takes time to learn. I still remember well the frustration of trying to ride a bike without training wheels as a kid. I saw others doing it, and just couldn't get my body to figure out how to do it. I had all the desire and belief I needed, but there needed to be some internal learning that I can't even describe to this day. Somehow my body learned how to balance on two wheels, for that was what was missing. I had balance for walking, running and jumping, but not for riding on two wheels. Somehow over the few days of trying my body learned how to balance on two wheels.
So what does this have to do with prayer? I think that we wrongly equate intellectual belief with internal belief. Just like I understood the riding of the bike and believed intellectually that I could do it, something internal hadn't caught up to my mind!
I love the story of John Wimber who was one of the founders of the Vineyard Church (Movement) and one who saw God move mightily in healing. He felt like God told him to preach about healing and pray for healing. He did so for a whole year before he saw the first person healed through prayer. His testimony about the first healing is quite hilarious, for by the end of that year, he was pretty much only praying for sick people out of obedience. He had started with all sorts of faith, but after a year of praying and seeing no healing had seen his faith dwindle to almost nothing. In this particular instance, He prayed a short prayer over a sick woman and immediately turned to the husband and started explaining why people don't get healed when we pray (Which doesn't sound like great faith to me). As he was explaining this, the man's eyes got all big and when John turned around the woman was hopping out of bed, where as before she was completely bed-ridden. He stared at her confused and asked her what in the world she was doing! :-) She exclaimed that she was completely healed! He couldn't believe it! Again, that certainly doesn't sound like He had much faith or belief and yet God healed her.
So, what is my point? My point is that belief and praying for healing is not a precise mathematical equation. My point is that God honors obedience, and repetition, and humility and desperation! My Point is that in spite of everything we read in scripture we still can't explain how and why God heals! My point is that just like no one could fully explain bike-riding to me, we struggle to be able to fully explain how to be successful at praying for healing. We can explain the methods we understand from Scripture, we can follow the prayer guides and have all the knowledge and still not see successful prayers. We can also tell children or new believers that they can pray for people and they will be healed, and then watch them pray and see people get healed the very first time they pray! It seems to make no sense!
In the particular case found here in Mark, the apostles and disciples had already tried praying for this child and been unsuccessful in prayer. That should encourage us greatly, even those men of faith and experience had failed. Jesus, however operating in greater intimacy and authority was able to cast out the demon that was causing these afflictions in the child. The apostles had faith, and belief and experience and still were not able to successfully pray for healing!
This may seem like I am giving a bunch of reasons on why we shouldn't bother to pray for healing, but that is completely not my point at all. In spite of all of this, I am fully convinced that God wants us to learn to pray for the sick and see them get well. We are encouraged over and over in scripture to follow the example of Jesus, to love others like He loved them, and one of the ways He demonstrated this was through healing the sick! A significant part of His ministry was to show us what we are capable of if we are joined to Him. Jesus even said the following (John 14:10-12 NIV): "Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. [11] Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. [12] Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father."!!!
I am encouraged this morning to press into Jesus, into relationship with the Father, into praying for healing, because Jesus promised that we would be able to do the works He did (healing and signs and wonders) and even greater things! I am encouraged to persevere and pray, even if it is just out of obedience! I am encouraged to pray, even if it takes a year or more of no results. I am encouraged to continue to pray, because I believe the Father wants me to learn how to pray for healing successfully. Just like my dad was there encouraging me in my first efforts to ride my bike, he was even running beside me telling me I could do it, I believe our Heavenly Father is just as encouraging and desirous of our learning to pray for healing.
I am encouraged this morning, in particular, to ask God for what seems impossible, when I am confronted by what seems impossible! I am encouraged by Jesus' words that "EVERYTHING is possible"! I am encouraged to continue to pray, regardless of any failed attempts, because I know that something inside me is changing and learning, and one of these days I will see the break-through I desire to see again. I have seen people healed of cancer, and blindness and severe injuries through my prayer before, but I want to see that happen again, with much greater frequency!! I am encouraged that God desires me to learn to pray for healing successfully and He isn't punishing me for not succeeding! He is just like my earthly Dad, encouraging me to keep going, keep trying and keep praying!
Lord come and help me, and help us all to step into believing and praying and pursuing all that You have for us! Everything is possible!
Amen and Amen!
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