Mar 9:23 | KingComments | STEP | Before the Lord takes action, He asks the father how long this has been happening to the boy. He wants the father to find out when his son’s behavior started. We must seek out the origin of a need, discover its root. The father knows that his son has been plagued by a demon since childhood. Only now does he come to the Lord with it. All this time, he will have tried to persuade his son to behave in a controlled way, but to no avail. Parents who can no longer control their children can go to the Lord. However, it is important to find out whether the cause of their unruly behavior may lie in the way they dealt with their children in their youth. They will have to ask themselves what they have allowed into the house, possibly without having minded it themselves, but what has made their children a prey of evil. The father says what the boy went through and what he went through with him. Throwing him into the fire of trial and into the water of need will also happen with the remnant, and Christ will deliver them out of it ( ). The father is at his wit’s end and begs the Lord if He can do anything for the boy. He makes an insistent appeal to His mercy to help him and his son. The Lord Jesus responds to the father’s words “if You can do anything”. With this assumption, the father falls short of the possibilities the Lord has at His disposal. The father is not fully convinced that the Lord is capable of casting out the spirit. That is why He says, in a way that implies indignation: “What, “if You can?”” He means: “Of course I can, you don’t have to doubt that.” The problem lies with the father. If only he can believe He can do it, it is possible He heals his son. The Lord says, as it were: “The “if” is not on My side, but on your side. It’s not about whether I can do it, it’s about whether you can believe.” Changes in our family and in the local church as a family of God depend on our faith. Then the father speaks the words already spoken by countless believers as an expression of desire to believe and the difficulty they have in doing so. Many believers have faced great difficulties. They have brought those great problems to the Lord believing that He is powerful to solve those problems. At the same time, in the background there was still doubt about the extent of their faith, whether they have enough faith. Then that word may also be spoken in confidence, asking to help them to believe.

‏ Mark 9:23

The Father

Before the Lord takes action, He asks the father how long this has been happening to the boy. He wants the father to find out when his son’s behavior started. We must seek out the origin of a need, discover its root.

The father knows that his son has been plagued by a demon since childhood. Only now does he come to the Lord with it. All this time, he will have tried to persuade his son to behave in a controlled way, but to no avail. Parents who can no longer control their children can go to the Lord. However, it is important to find out whether the cause of their unruly behavior may lie in the way they dealt with their children in their youth. They will have to ask themselves what they have allowed into the house, possibly without having minded it themselves, but what has made their children a prey of evil.

The father says what the boy went through and what he went through with him. Throwing him into the fire of trial and into the water of need will also happen with the remnant, and Christ will deliver them out of it (Isa 43:2). The father is at his wit’s end and begs the Lord if He can do anything for the boy. He makes an insistent appeal to His mercy to help him and his son.

The Lord Jesus responds to the father’s words “if You can do anything”. With this assumption, the father falls short of the possibilities the Lord has at His disposal. The father is not fully convinced that the Lord is capable of casting out the spirit. That is why He says, in a way that implies indignation: “What, “if You can?”” He means: “Of course I can, you don’t have to doubt that.” The problem lies with the father. If only he can believe He can do it, it is possible He heals his son. The Lord says, as it were: “The “if” is not on My side, but on your side. It’s not about whether I can do it, it’s about whether you can believe.” Changes in our family and in the local church as a family of God depend on our faith.

Then the father speaks the words already spoken by countless believers as an expression of desire to believe and the difficulty they have in doing so. Many believers have faced great difficulties. They have brought those great problems to the Lord believing that He is powerful to solve those problems. At the same time, in the background there was still doubt about the extent of their faith, whether they have enough faith. Then that word may also be spoken in confidence, asking to help them to believe.