Jesus answered, “You faithless and crooked generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Then Jesus spoke harshly to the demon. And it came out of the child, who was healed from that time on.
Matthew 17:17-18
In the passage above, Jesus is addressing his disciples. They had failed to drive out a demon from a young boy who was suffering from epileptic seizures.
There was a time — most of my life, in fact — when I would just brush over a passage like that with a ‘that was then, this is now’ kind of thinking. However, since I recently was delivered from a spirit of python (demon of divination), this passage is what stood out to me from the DAB reading this morning.
As I was praying along with pastor Vlad Savchuk in his Deliverance Prayers e-course a couple of weeks ago, Vlad was addressing the spirit of python harshly. He addressed the spirit not in his own authority but in the authority of Jesus Christ. And the demon had to obey.
Vlad clearly had faith larger than a mustard seed. And the fact that we were praying across time and space made no difference whatsoever. God’s grace knows no limits. You can watch a brief video testimony below about how that deliverance changed the course of my life forever.
One third vs two thirds
Not only do we stand on the authority of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ when we cast out evil spirits, but we also fight on the side of the angels. And here’s the killer, only one-third of the angels fell together with Lucifer. Yes, wicked spirits under Satan’s rule have the run of the world (for now) but they are not more powerful, nor are there more of them. And they are bound to obey the Son of God when we act on faith. How good is that?!
All we need is faith.
So what will you do to nurture faith today?
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