When Prayers Fail

This morning I thought I should read Matthew 17:14-20 NIV:

[14]"When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. [15] “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. [16] I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.”

[17] “You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” [18] Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment.

[19] Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn't we drive it out?”

[20] He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”  (some manuscripts add the following - “This kind can come out only by prayer. ” - Mk 9:29)

I like these verses for a couple of reasons.  First, this is the only time we see the disciples failing at healing someone (that I remember anyway).  It is good to know that in their ministry they saw failure.  I am not wishing failure on anyone, but only saying that their lack of success should help us to realize that when we pray and people don't get healed that is part of the learning process.

Second, Jesus points to the reason the boy wasn't healed initially, and it is because they had little faith.  In Mark's version, Jesus calls it unbelief (Mk 9:19,23). Their initial failure was not the result of a lack of faith on the part of the person receiving prayer, nor was it a lack of power to heal in the Kingdom, nor was it because it wasn't God's will to heal this boy - all of which are commonly proclaimed as reasons people don't get healed when we pray.

Jesus laid the lack of power and faith/belief clearly on the people doing the praying and said it was due to their unbelief or little faith.  So let us correctly align our belief system with Jesus' demonstration and teaching here.  When people don't get healed when we pray it is due to those of us who are praying.  Also, we must not allow this failure to stop our ministering, but rather to drive us deeper into experience with the Lord, that our faith and belief would grow and  mature.

If we look at the addition that is from Mark 9, Jesus gives us the prescription for growing in faith and belief - more prayer.  Prayer is the relationship building communication that we are all needing.  The result of prayer is understanding God's heart and mind (as much as we can) and having a pathway for communication.  The more time we spend in prayer, actually communicating with the Lord rather than just rote recital of form prayers, the more we will be able to understand and discern His voice in all situations and circumstances.  The more intimacy we have with the Lord, the more we will walk in His authority and power. Jesus demonstrated that His level of authority, due to His intimacy with the Father, and power flowing through Him by the Holy Spirit was sufficient to vanquish the demonic source of this child's seizures.  Because Jesus did heal the boy we also know that it was the Father's will all along to heal the boy, just the authority and power to do so were missing in the disciples.

Additionally, one of the early manuscripts adds fasting to Jesus' explanation of what was needed to drive out this type of spirit.  So looking at Jesus description of the lack being in the disciples, we can see that fasting is to help us change, not change God's mind, or cause Him to do something.  Fasting is about getting things out of us and helping us to see ourselves more clearly.  One of my favorite teachers, Bill Johnson, says that he hates fasting because it always brings out the worst in him.  In other words, it is in fasting that he sees those things in him that are not of God, and understands more clearly the work that remains in his life as he endeavors to become like Christ.  Fasting, for us, should have the same focus, not some sort of super-prayer that causes God to notice us, but rather a refining and purifying of our own lives that enables us to be more in touch with God.

Lastly, it is important to not take Jesus' words in verse 17 personally.  It was to the teachers of the law (Pharisees) that Jesus was directing those words.  In Mark's Gospel, He reports that there was an argument that was going on between the teachers of the law and the remaining disciples (Mark 9:14).  They were clearly arguing about the disciple's inability to heal the boy, for that is what Jesus addresses and does.  It is in private, not in public, that He speaks to the disciples and gives them instruction (see verses 19&20 above) not a rebuke.  He was not rebuking the disciples for trying and failing, but rather the Pharisees for doubting.  Jesus ends His instruction of the disciples with this encouragement - "nothing will be impossible for you!"  Let us take heart in Jesus words and desire for us!  He doesn't want to see us fail, but rather desires that we all walk in the power and authority that He demonstrated.

Let us desire to grow in faith, belief and intimacy with the Lord.  He is the way the truth and the Life (John 14:6).  It is in Him that we will learn to walk in authority and power and nothing will be impossible for us as we walk in His will.  Let us pursue the Lord, and relationship with Him! He desires us to succeed, and see our prayers answered every time.

Amen!