Prayer and Fasting

Concerning the healing of a child troubled by a dumb and deaf spirit, Jesus said: "This kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting." (Mark 9:29)

Before the Prophet Daniel was gifted with a visit by the Angel Gabriel, he "set his face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes".

We can pray without fasting and receive answers which many of us have seen. In addition, there is prayer with fasting that generate the type of answer that would have never been seen without the combination of prayer and fasting.

May we all grow in this practice and experience.

If I where the adversary one truth that I would want to steal from the church is the effectiveness of prayer with fasting.

KJV (Mark 9:29)
And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.

NIV (Mark 9:29)
29 He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer(??)

KJV (Matthew 17:21) Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting

NIV (Matthew 17:21) ???

1 Corinthians 7:5 (KJV)
Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to (fasting) and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.

1 Corinthians 7:5 (NIV)
5 Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer.(???) Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

We have a fasting deprived culture

Jesus said to beware of the scribes!

Modern day scribes believe that Gnostics and monastics inserted fasting into Matthew and Mark in the fifth century.

the accuracy of the NIV by kenneth L. Barker (1996 baker books) p.57
/// Where is the verse in the NIV?? It is the footnote. Ralph Earl explains: To answer that question we should first turn to Mark 9:29..."and fasting" is not found in our two fourth-century manuscripts(cf.niv). It apparently was added in the fifth century, when much emphasis was being given to Gnostic asceticism and to monasticism. Then the whole of Mark 9:29 was inserted in Matthew.But Matthew 17:21 is not found in our two earliest manuscripts.///

So if it is not in the Vaticanus and Sinaiticus we throw it out, We also would need to throw out 'the Pericope De Adultera, John ch 7:53-8:11'

and should we also include the Epistle of Barnabas and the The Shepherd of Hermas to our canon because they are included in the sinaiticus??

Prayer and Fasting is a mystery. Jesus himself had to fast for 40 days to get power for his ministry and to overcome the temptation of the devil in wilderness. How much more we need to Fast.

Jesus gave the fasting as an indirect command in New Covenant. He said my disciples will fast, which means it is expected for a disciple to fast.

Matthew 9-15:-
And Jesus said to them, “The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.