“The spirit often throws him into the fire or into the water, trying to kill him. Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.” “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.” The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”” Mark 9:22-24 NLT
Someone recently asked me in a private moment if I really believed that God has a plan and purpose for our congregation and the area we live in. I said yes without hesitation. Then I said that the enemies are many and the resistance in strong. These next few lines are a summarization of what I said next about the enemies and resistance I see.
Because the almighty dollar is not almighty, we’ve been duped into living with a poor man’s mentality for nearly 40 years. We’ve shown that knowledge is not power, as we continue to live stubbornly clinging to the past “glory days” while wondering why our present is not improving. In our little circles of friends we believe that people are basically good, which has led us to adopt a form of godliness but practice we deny the power of God. Because we’re not willing to take up our cross, we spend our days trying to be people to make up for hiding The Light we say we have as our world continues in darkness.
Many are like the father in my opening text. They’ve been looking for years for help from somewhere around them while the ruthless pounding abuse of evil has continued. They can’t control it or overcome it and seemingly no one has any power over it. So so there’s agreement that God can but we’re incapacitated to rest in the fact that deliverance is possible now. Later, when asked by his disciples why they could not deliver the father’s son, Jesus told them that the only way to manifest the overcoming power for deliverance is prayer.
Pastor Mark
Ps. 63:1