ArthurRosh
Jul 12, 2016
John 1:1-3
John 1:1-3
I read world news from Drudge Report. He runs stories with themes over time. One of his favorite themes is demon possession. It is almost as if he tracks it. You can almost count one at least one story per week from somewhere in the world that he links to about someone having been possessed or about exorcism/exorcists.
I'm not sure why he does it. But, I do read the occasional article and they often sound as if right out of the Gadarene tombs.
Mark 16:15-18 New International Version (NIV)
15 He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”
..
...
...
The sword of the Spirit, the word of God, subdues and vanquishes evils and blasphemies. A single text well understood and rightly applied at once destroys the most formidable adversary.
Quote:"This kind can be cast out only by prayer and fasting."
This kind of demon or this kind of unbelief?
Jesus said it was their unbelief that resulted in their failure to cast out the demon that was manifesting in a scary fashion and quite frankly it scared the pants off of them. What they were seeing in the flesh countered what they knew to be true in the spirit and it paralyzed them.
Fasting teaches our flesh who is boss; prayer reminds us of the source of the true power in confronting a demon. In other words, prayer and fasting counters unbelief.
It almost has to be kind of demon not kind of unbelief. The Greek 1085 "ghenos" is the word "kind" and it looks to only be used as to persons and nationalities instead of mindsets and attitudes, etc. Made me look, though.
:)
...
How does a demon know if you have been praying and fasting?
I find it interesting that Jesus cited their unbelief, not there lack of prayer and fasting, as the reason they could not cast it out.
The "cast out" thing is the demon not the unbelief. BUT w/o prayer and fasting the believer is unlikely to be walking in the Spirit. If he walks after the flesh then it is tantamount to casting out by Beelzebub and that ain't happening either. So you are right Todd that unbelief is the issue. But the sentence itself refers to the demons as the "kind", not the unbelief.
...
...
Tim- gotcha. Another way of saying it is that fasting and praying casts out unbelief.
Arthur- just curious. Is anyone in these here parts saying that demonic activity is not real?
We saw a whole boatload of it the last week or so here in the USA.
Me thinks this is people acting out what demon possession is supposed to look like and really bad acting at that. One of them might have beed physically sick, the other two were performing.
This discussion is locked.