Mountain Moving Advice From Jesus

# 291 – We are continuing a series on fasting. As we have seen, this spiritual discipline is not just for Old Testament believers. Today, I want to continue to speak about moving mountains through fasting. Specifically looking at the account of the demon possessed boy in Mt 17:14-21, “ And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying,  15 "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water.  16 "So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him."  17 Then Jesus answered and said, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me."  18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.  19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out? "  20 So Jesus said to them, "Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.  21 "However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting." Look at this boy. He’s a mess! He is described here as one who experienced many seizures. He was subject to periods of crazy behavior. As we read on we see that this behavior was under control of  the demon that was residing in him.   Demons are under the control of the devil, and the devil is a murderer, and he was trying to kill this young boy by causing him to leap into fires and jumping into water. In  Mark’s account we find additional information, the boy was unable to speak, and was subject to convulsions, and evidently was unable to eat properly as he was described as wasting away.    So this family has been dealing with a suicidal child, with epileptic like symptoms, and an eating disorder. Not only that, but I tell you what. You jump into fires often enough and you are going to bear some scars.   This was the life of this father. Pulling his son out of the water and administering CPR, or taking him down to the burn center, or the eating disorder clinic, or another round with the plastic surgeons.  This was a huge mountain. A mountain that was removed by Jesus and He then passes along mountain removing advice to us. This kind only comes out by prayer and fasting.  It’s not about demanding that He fix the things in your life that are mountains. It’s about allowing Him to release His power through you as you believe His word concerning fasting. Work with Jesus ! Believe His words! Allow Him to remove the mountain or give you the strength to conquer it! Father thank You for the spiritual tool of fasting. Release Your power into lives that need it today.