“14 When they came to the disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and scribes disputing with them. 15 All of a sudden, when the whole crowd saw Him, they were amazed and ran to greet Him. 16 Then He asked them, “What are you arguing with them about?”

17 Out of the crowd, one man answered Him, “Teacher, I brought my son to You. He has a spirit that makes him unable to speak. 18 Wherever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I asked Your disciples to drive it out, but they couldn’t.”

19 He replied to them, “You unbelieving generation! How long will I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring him to Me.” 20 So they brought him to Him. When the spirit saw Him, it immediately convulsed the boy. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth. 21 “How long has this been happening to him?” Jesus asked his father.

“From childhood,” he said. 22 “And many times it has thrown him into fire or water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”

23 Then Jesus said to him, “If You can? Everything is possible to the one who believes.”

24 Immediately the father of the boy cried out, “I do believe! Help my unbelief.”

25 When Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly coming together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you: come out of him and never enter him again!”

26 Then it came out, shrieking and convulsing him violently. The boy became like a corpse, so that many said, Hes dead. 27 But Jesus, taking him by the hand, raised him, and he stood up.

28 After He went into a house, His disciples asked Him privately, “Why couldnt we drive it out?”

29 And He told them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer [and fasting].””

Mark 9:14-29

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We all deal and struggle with different things. We have weaknesses, and temptations that are more common to us. There may be times where we would like to think that an outside influence must be doing this to us, but in reality it is coming from our own flesh. On the other hand, there are those moments and situations where what a person experiences is undoubtedly beyond a simple temptation or personal struggle. 

There is a woman in my part of town who wanders the streets during the day. She has a home, but refuses to stay there. She has a very small frame, and is the definition of disheveled, sometimes wearing at shirt like a turban. She is unkempt and always has a blank stare on her face and a deadness in her eyes. I have spoken with her many times, and have occasionally heard a voice come from her that isn’t hers. The voice is not a manufactured voice, like she is trying to put on a show, but a voice that simply cannot come from her. It really caught me off guard the first time I heard it. I do believe she has a demon that has incapacitated her. 

There is a war going on around us, a struggle by a desperate, flailing army of the unclean. Grasping as time marches them toward their eternal torment, they have authority over nothing, yet contest God at every point. These fallen angels, demons, malevolent spirits, are still at work today, even if the world has given up belief in them. There are those wo attribute too much blame to them for their own actions and mistakes, and there are other times where their presence is plain, but a ‘rational’ world denies them. 

As we GoLove others in Jesus Name, we must realize that we are functioning in two realms at once, the seen and the spiritual. Our efforts are going to be contested by the sinful  hearts of men and by those demonic forces that would hold hearts captive, eat rot innocence and ruin lives. We must acknowledge both and operate against both as we carry the message of the Gospel to a world that is headed toward death & hell. We cannot afford to soften that message, though it is to be salted with grace and love. Demons and hell are for real, just as real as angels and heaven. And we must convey that truth along to those who need so badly to hear it. The prayer of the father in this account should be our own, “I do believe! Help me overcome my unbelief!”