This kind
Jesus, at the foot of the mountain
Jesus came down from the mountain of transfiguration into a scene of failure. A father had brought his tormented son to the disciples, and they had tried to drive out the spirit and could not. A crowd had gathered to watch them fail. The disciples were baffled — they had cast out demons before; why had their usual approach hit a wall?
When they asked Jesus privately why they could not, his answer named a dimension they had skipped. This kind, he said, can come out by nothing except by prayer and fasting. Some strongholds do not yield to a quick attempt or a borrowed technique. There is a depth of resistance that only meets its match in a depth of dependence — the kind cultivated over time, in prayer that has been seasoned by fasting.
The disciples had assumed the power was in the method and were surprised when the method failed. Jesus relocates the power entirely. It was never in their technique; it was in a life of deep, fasting-fed communion with God — the kind of spiritual depth that cannot be summoned on the spot but must be built quietly, beforehand, in seasons no crowd ever sees.
“This kind can come out by nothing, except by prayer and fasting.”
— Jesus, to his disciples — Mark 9:29 (WEB)
Build, in ordinary days, the depth of prayer and fasting that some battles will only ever yield to — a dependence cultivated long before the crisis.
“We have no might against this great company that comes against us; neither know we what to do, but our eyes are on you.”
We meet entrenched strongholds with quick attempts and borrowed techniques, then grow discouraged when the wall will not move, because we located the power in the method. The interior work is to relocate it where Jesus does — in a life of deep, fasting-fed communion with God — and to cultivate that depth quietly beforehand, since spiritual power cannot be summoned in the emergency if it was not built in the ordinary days.
Name one entrenched thing you have tried to move with quick attempts. This week, begin meeting it with depth instead — sustained, repeated prayer joined to fasting — building dependence over time rather than expecting a single try to break it.
We reach for technique and the quick attempt, then grow discouraged when the deep stronghold will not budge and quietly give up the fight. But some walls only yield to a dependence built long beforehand, in prayer fed by fasting — and the depth you cannot summon in the emergency is the very thing the ordinary days were meant to forge.
There are some battles in life and in the soul that do not yield to a hurried prayer or a borrowed technique — entrenched habits, generational patterns, oppressions that have grown deep roots. We tend to meet them the way the disciples did, with our usual methods, and are surprised and discouraged when the wall does not move. Jesus tells us why: this kind requires a depth we cannot manufacture on the spot.
That depth is built quietly, ahead of time, in prayer fed by fasting — in a sustained dependence on God cultivated long before the crisis arrives. You cannot summon spiritual power in the emergency that you did not build in the ordinary days. So the question turns from the immovable wall back to the life behind it: what depth of prayer and fasting is being built in you now, before the kind that only it can move ever appears?
- What wall have I met with quick attempts and watched fail?
- Have I located spiritual power in technique rather than in deep dependence?
- What depth of prayer and fasting is being built in me now, before the crisis?
Lord, I have met deep things with shallow methods and wondered why they would not move. Build in me now, in the ordinary days, a depth of prayer and fasting — a dependence on you that even the hardest kind cannot resist. My eyes are on you. Amen.