Mark 4:14-19
“And when He came to the disciples, he saw a great multitude around them, and scribes disputing with them. Immediately, when they saw Him, all the people were greatly amazed, and running to Him, greeted Him. And He asked the scribes, ‘What are you discussing with them?’ Then one of the crowd answered and said, ’Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit. And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not.’ He answered him and said, ‘O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? bring him to Me.’"
In this passage we see Jesus coming up on a situation where his disciples are talking with the scribes and evidently there’s a large crowd around them. The word disputing and the word discussing, are actually the same word in the original Greek. This word only means that the scribes were seeking an answer from the disciples. Basically they were interrogating them. When Jesus came on the scene he asked the scribes what they were asking them but notice the scribes were not who responded. Who responded was the father of the boy who had the demon.
One item of interest that is not the topic of our discussion today is that the father says he brought the boy to him meaning to Jesus. The reason that I’m speaking about this is to call your attention to something that we do in our hearts. When we hear of a particular pastor or a particular profit or particular evangelist or a particular healer that goes around doing things for the body of Christ and we have a need that that particular ministry can meet we generally will go to that particular person. What do I mean? Let me illustrate with an example. There is a man in the body of Christ named Kenneth Copeland. Kenneth Copeland is very well known and renowned for his strides in the kingdom of God. Let us say that you needed some particular revelation and you had read some of Kenneth Copeland‘s books and listen to some of his teaching. You found out he was going to be in your area so you decided that you would go and have him pray over you so that you could receive the revelation that you need it. Let us say then that you go to the conference and when they offer for prayer you stand up and get in line except that the line is so long you will not reach Kenneth Copeland. So what happens is that people who work with and for Kenneth Copeland they will begin to pray for most of the people. The problem with this is that Kenneth Copeland can’t physically pray for everybody, but everybody wants Kenneth Copeland to pray for them. You are in this group and so when you are slated to have an understudy pray for you immediately your heart is filled with a little bit of regret. Usually people want the speaker to pray over them or to speak to them personally in these types of situations, and this is exactly what the father and the situation was going through. It’s very important that you understand however you decide that you’re going to receive from God that is how you receive from God. This is the point I’m making: if you decide that only one person can pray for you and only one person can give you a word so that you know what to do then You have bound yourself to only receiving from God from that person or in that specific situation. And what the devil will do which is exactly what he did in this case was to cause an impediment. So the first lesson in our email today is do not put God in a box saying that you can only receive from him in this way or that way or this person Hass to pray over you were that person has to pray over you or whatever. It’s very dangerous and it’s an open invitation for the enemy to come in and steal your blessing.
The next point I want to make is the fact that there was strife right before Jesus came down from the mount of Transfiguration. You see the scribes were discussing with the disciples something - we don’t actually know what. In fact they never actually tell us what they were questioning the disciples about. But it got the disciples into such a frenzy that they could not cast out the demon. Now remember prior to this they had been sent out by our Lord Jesus Christ and had come back so excited because the demons were subject to them in the name of Jesus remember? So here the same disciples can’t cast a demon out of this boy. Now we know the rest of the story that the demon gets cast out of the boy and that Jesus said to the disciples the reason you couldn’t cast him out was because of your unbelief. But I’m trying to elicit an understanding in your heart that when you are given authority or a mandate by God to do something you can bet that the devil is going to try to disrupt this mandate anyway he can. In this particular case he sent people to question the disciples. This action had the desired effect upon the disciples because strife caused them to be in unbelief which in turn caused them not to be able to manifest the kingdom of heaven in this moment. The Bible says where envying and striving are, there is confusion and every evil work. So the devil sent confusion so that evil could have its work. Let this be a lesson to you that if you are attempting to do something that God has told you to do fully expect strife and blow back, fully expect people to question you to question your motives to question your authority and also fully expect that Jesus Christ is the one who sent you and he’s also the one who backs you up. Don’t get into unbelief just because the devil tempts you with strife but be rather, like the father in the story and repent to the Lord saying “Lord I believe help my unbelief.“
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