“You can’t do this without prayer.”

Last time I wrote about prayer, I brought up the story of Jesus curing a demonized boy. When Jesus comes upon the scene, his students had been trying to exorcise the boy, with no success. Whereas when Jesus gets involved, this happens:

Mark 9.25-27 GNT

25Jesus noticed that the crowd was closing in on them, so he gave a command to the evil spirit. “Deaf and dumb spirit,” he said, “I order you to come out of the boy and never go into him again!”

26The spirit screamed, threw the boy into a bad fit, and came out. The boy looked like a corpse, and everyone said, “He is dead!” 27But Jesus took the boy by the hand and helped him rise, and he stood up.

We don’t know how long the evil spirit pitched its fit—a few seconds or a few minutes; certainly not the hours and hours we see in bad movies. But it obeyed Jesus and came out of the boy. Jesus cured him.

A bit later Jesus’s students had a question for their master:

Mark 9.28-29 GNT

28After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn't we drive the spirit out?”

29“Only prayer can drive this kind out,” answered Jesus; “nothing else can.”

The Textus Receptus has Jesus say “This kind cannot come out except by prayer and fasting,” Mk 9.29 MEV adding the word νηστείᾳ/nisteía, “fasting,” as is found in a few fourth-century New Testaments. A lot of ancient Christians saw fasting as evidence of devotion: A wishy-washy Christian didn’t fast regularly, but a hardcore Christian did. And prayed regularly. And only hardcore Christians were formidable enough to throw out such evil spirits.

Which… is probably quite accurate. And probably just what Jesus meant when he said this. He wasn’t trying to teach his kids, “Okay, whenever you find yourself dealing when an especially ornery demon, pray. Right then. Really hard. Oh, and start fasting—don’t eat anything while you’re trying to perform an exorcism.” The more we imagine Jesus teaching such a thing to his students, the more ridiculous it sounds. That’s how we know Jesus wasn’t talking about just then, in the moment, taking up prayer and fasting. There should already be prayer—and, optionally, fasting—in the Christian’s life, before that Christian is ready to face off against evil spirits.

Wasn’t there prayer and fasting in Jesus’s students lives? Maybe a little. Certainly not enough. Pharisees had already noticed they didn’t fast, and complained to Jesus about it, and Jesus’s response was they really didn’t need to. (This is why I’m inclined to say fasting is optional, and likely not part of the original text of Mark.) As for prayer, I’ve no doubt they prayed, but none of them were at Jesus’s level; not yet. They’d get there.

How about us? Are we trying to get there? Hope so.

Facing down evil spirits with prayer.

You’re gonna find a lot of Christians use this story to talk about spiritual warfare, and claim this is a good example of it. Better by prayed up, lest you find yourself facing off against an evil spirit! ’Cause they’re everywhere. Not necessarily infesting kids and making them throw themselves into fire and water, Mk 9.22 but tempting people to misbehave, backing up evil people who might wanna do us ill, and otherwise strive, through willing human assistants, to prevent God’s kingdom from advancing.

Humans are creatures of extremes, and I agree with C.S. Lewis that people are either too dismissive of evil spirits, or too obsessed with them. They exist, but the Holy Spirit can easily shove ’em out of our way. Like Jesus said, some of them won’t move except by prayer: We need to be Christians in the regular habit of prayer, and if we’re not, we shouldn’t be surprised when these spirits identify us as weaklings and fools who don’t know what we’re doing, and push back.

Acts 19.13-16 GNT

13Some Jews who traveled around and drove out evil spirits also tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus to do this. They said to the evil spirits, “I command you in the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches.” 14Seven brothers, who were the sons of a Jewish High Priest named Sceva, were doing this.

15But the evil spirit said to them, “I know Jesus, and I know about Paul; but you—who are you?”

16The man who had the evil spirit in him attacked them with such violence that he overpowered them all. They ran away from his house, wounded and with their clothes torn off.

Betcha they weren’t prayed up. Otherwise they wouldn’t be trying to use Jesus’s name as a magic spell; the Holy Spirit would make ’em realize one can’t battle evil spirits in Jesus’s name unless Jesus is a big deal.

So we have to be prayed up. We have to have a solid connection with God. After all, he’s the one whose power is really driving these evil spirits back. A human on our own can’t stop them, any more than we can take down a human bully who knows kung fu. Yell at any kung fu bully, “The power of Christ compels you!” and they’re still gonna laughingly kick the tar out of you—unless God supernaturally intervenes. It’s the very same way with evil spirits. You want God to make ’em go away? You’d better have a solid prayer life.

Facing down everything else with prayer.

Evil spirits aren’t behind every form of opposition we Christians might face. Sometimes we deal with unsympathetic people. Or antagonistic people. Or downright hostile people. Sometimes because they don’t like Christians… though in my experience too many Christians act like spoiled rich kids who constantly say, “Just give me what I want; aren’t you aware of who my father is?”

These fruitless attitudes are an obvious sign these Christians do not have a solid prayer life. If they did, they’d act more like Jesus. They’d be kind like Jesus. They’d be courteous and helpful and grateful. Even when dealing with ill-behaved people; they wouldn’t figure, “Well if you’re gonna be a jerk, I’ll be one too”—they’ll know better than to take the low road.

Prayer prepares us for dealing with every form of difficulty, including the many forms which have no evil spirits involved in them at all. Regular contact with the Holy Spirit conditions us to adopt his good attitudes, i.e. good fruit. We’re gonna deal with problems with an attitude of patience, kindness, thanksgiving, and optimism. We’re not gonna descend into blaming, anger, revenge, or the many other petty things people do when they don’t get their way.

Prayer isn’t just gonna grant us good attitudes. God can of course answer our requests, get us what we ask for despite the most serious opposition we might get from others, and make it blatantly obvious he’s helping us out and granting us favor. If we have a solid prayer life, we’re gonna see him intervene far more often than if we have a pathetic prayer life, or even no prayer life at all. So, again, be prayed up.