St Matthew, Chapter 17, verse: 20, Casting out by fasting and prayer.

Our paragraph topic is: (Why the disciples could not cure him) Part 5.

Christ taught them.  He instructed them.  He gave to them all that they would need to know for now.  For they could only bare so much.  Their understanding was limited and their hearts were weak.  So Christ had to give them a little at a time that they would not be overcome with the total truth of what was to come.  The sacrifice had not yet been made.  The gift had not been given.  And the justification was not yet made.  So he taught them as though they were little children.  He gave them what they needed now to continue on the journey that they were upon.

Why did they follow Christ?  Why did they sacrifice all?  Why did they seek to know without having the faith that all would be well?  Christ was the key.  He was the answer to all they sought.  He was the Messiah and they followed him because they had some belief in him.  But they were not sure.  They were not certain.  They did not yet have the spirit within them that they would know.  So he taught them and gave them what they needed to know for now.  He showed them the way to cast out demons and how to cast out this particular demon.  He told them:  "But this kind can be cast out only by prayer and fasting."

They did not have the faith of a mustard seed.  They did not have the faith of a grain of sand.  They did not have the faith to cast out the demon from the boy.  Yet they wanted to know why they could not cast it out.  They wanted to know how it could be done.  Christ had given them power to cast out demons before.  He had sent them to the towns and villages to perform miracles in his name.  But because of their little faith they could only cast out this demon by fasting and prayer.

Do we have demons today that need casting out?  Do we have addictions?  Do we have lust?  Do we have compulsions that control us and will not let go?  Do we over eat?  Are we compelled to over shop?  Do we gamble out of control?  Are we addicted to adrenalin?  Do we fear compulsively over everything?  Are we control junkies where we must control everything within our reach?  Do we have demons in our lives that cause us to do things that we do not want to do?  Some would say yes.  Some would say no.  Some would say that we are weak and lack control.  We are no longer possessed by demons but we have all the things in this world that make us subject to being controlled.

Christ came that we would have freedom.  Christ came that we would have choice.  Christ gave himself as sacrifice for our sins that we would have life and have it more abundantly.  But we have life already.  We live and breathe and see, and feel, and love, and want and desire and hate and fear and lust and kill and then we die.  Do we have spiritual life?  Do we have the life within us that Christ died for?  Do we have the light of his spirit within us that we know who we are and where we are from?  Do we know that we are spiritual beings and not physical beings?  Do we know that our spiritual life continues after our physical life ends? 

Come!  See the life that Christ has given you.  He told us how to find it.  He told us where to look.  He gave us instructions as to how to keep it from harm.  He wrote for us in his own words how we would preserve that which he has given us.  And he told us that he would be with us for all times.  He has even prepared a place for us in his father's house that we may live with him for all eternity.  And the Father has prepared great things for those who love him.  Come!  See the light that is within you and you will know the truth of who you are in Christ.  Follow the path before.  Read the words given you.  Open your heart to the truth.  And the Holy Spirit will come and reside with you.  May the peace of Christ be with you and the love of the Father be in your heart. 

Read the sign of the times! Read the Highlighted New Testament Bible and lift the scales from your eyes that you may see, that you may know, that you may find the truth of who you are in Christ. Read it as though you would read a good book, from cover to cover, and see for yourself. Do not study it in parts reading one passage and then skipping to another, but read it for understanding. Read it for knowledge. Read it for faith. Read it that your eyes may be opened, that your ears may hear, that your heart may be filled with the light of Christ. The Holy Spirit awaits you. Christ seeks to know you. Open the door and let him in. 

St Matthew, Chapter 17, verse: 19d, Impossible Faith.

Our paragraph topic is: (Why the disciples could not cure him) Part 4.  

Christ was teaching the apostles.  They had very little faith.  They practically had no faith because of their unbelief.  Even though they walked with him daily, eat with him, slept with him, breathed the same air with him, they still did not have the faith to carry on without him.  They were children growing up under the protection of their parent.  But the time was coming near when they would have to walk on their own.  The time was coming near when they would have to talk on their own.  The time was at hand when they had to stand on their own and they were only focused on being in his presence now and not on what was coming next.

They needed to believe.  They needed to know.  They needed to have certainty in their lives that they could depend on at all times.  Christ told them that they had little faith.  He told them that their faith was less than that of a mustard seed.  He wanted them to know that they needed to believe more.  He wanted them to have certainty.  He wanted them to be able to stand on their own and know that within was something more than just what they were able to see.  For with true faith comes certainty.  With true faith comes knowledge.  With true faith comes the truth of who they were and with that truth nothing would be impossible for them.  And he told them:
"If you have faith like a mustard seed....   And nothing will be impossible to you." 

Believe and you will achieve.  Such a famous motto, such a famous quote, such a strong foundation to build ones life upon.  Achieve the stars, the moon, achieve success or anything that the heart desires in this world.  For we must be focused.  We must have faith in what we want to achieve.  We must believe that it is possible and that we can achieve it through our efforts and our strengths.  Many a movie star or rock star, or sports star have professed it.  Many an executive has spoken it.  Many a Billionaire have used this as a their belief system and passed it on to others who would achieve the same goals.  Yet is this the meaning of what Christ spoke?  Is this the substance of his words? 

And nothing will be impossible to you, if only you have the faith of a mustard seed.  Humility is a virtue that not many practice.  Our world teaches us that we must be bold, we must be aggressive, we must be daring, unflinching, without fear, to achieve our goals.  There is no place for the humble in this world.  And yet Christ tells us that with faith nothing will be impossible to us.  For through our faith in Christ and through our faith in God our father, all things are possible.  Shall we achieve our goals for our own vanity, to prove that we are the best?  Or through our knowledge and our faith in Christ, believe with the faith of a mustard seed that all things are possible.   Why do we need to prove it?  Why do we need to show it?  Why do we need to demonstrate something that has been given to us through Christ.  If we believe even a tiny bit then we should know who we are in Christ.  And in Christ is the father and through the father nothing is impossible. 

Heavenly Father, we humbly ask that those who read these words may have their eyes opened, their hearing restored and their hearts filled with your spirit that you may grant to them the light of new life.  And it is through the Holy Spirit that they may know the truth of who they are in you.  Grant, Father, that they may know the gifts that you have already bestowed upon them so that they will know that nothing in this world can compare to what you have already given them.  We pray, Father, that for those who read these words, that they may know and see the light within and know the truth of their spiritual life.  Then will they realize the true nature of their being.  Come my brothers and sisters!  God our Father, is a god of love and it is through his love that these words are written.  The door is open.  The path is before you.  Christ loves you and the Holy Spirit awaits you.

Read the sign of the times! Read the Highlighted New Testament Bible and lift the scales from your eyes that you may see, that you may know, that you may find the truth of who you are in Christ. Read it as though you would read a good book, from cover to cover, and see for yourself. Do not study it in parts reading one passage and then skipping to another, but read it for understanding. Read it for knowledge. Read it for faith. Read it that your eyes may be opened, that your ears may hear, that your heart may be filled with the light of Christ. The Holy Spirit awaits you. Christ seeks to know you. Open the door and let him in. 

St Matthew, Chapter 17, verse: 19c, Faith to move Mountains.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Why the disciples could not cure him) Part 3.

Try as they might the disciples were not successful.  They were unable to remove the demon from the child.  The father begged them.  They tried all they knew.  They remembered that Christ had given them powers to cast out demons as they entered the towns and villages going before him.  But this was different and they did not understand why.  Christ had given them powers to do the work and now that the work was completed they did not have the power.  They could not cast out this demon.  What was different?

Did they not continue to have the power?  Was the power taken away?  Was the power only temporary?  What was happening?  They asked Christ why and he told them of their little faith.  He told them that even though he had given them the power to cast out demons in his name they lacked faith.  Their faith was so empty that it could be compared to that of a mustard seed.  Yet with only a small amount of faith, the size of a mustard seed even, they could move mountains.  He told them:  "You will say to this mountain,
'Remove from here'; and it will remove."

How do you say to a mountain 'Remove from here?'  How do you mentally speak something that mentally you know is impossible?  How do you begin to believe that such a thing is possible?  We dream, we fantasize, we create heroes and monsters in our minds and bring them to life in the movies and in books and magazines and they are capable of doing the impossible.  But all this, we know, is only fantasy, make believe, wishful thinking.  All those dreams and desires and impossible things that we would like to happen in our lives and in the world, are only ideas and thought within our heads.  We do not envision that we will ever have the power to do the things that we dream of.  Yet they are the desires of our hearts, things that we would like to do, powers that we would like to have. 

We have read the stories in the Bible where Moses parted the Red Sea to allow the Israelites to escape from the Egyptian armies.  We have read about the Manna from heaven.  We have read about the water that came from the rock.  Do we believe in the stories that we read about in the Bible or are they just fiction?  Our minds have sought to make sense of the miracles that we have read.  Even through scientific evidence, we have attempted to prove these things happened naturally without the intervention of God.  So we fall short of true belief, fall short of true faith, and have not the faith of a mustard seed because of what our physical belief tells us is impossible.

I have not tried to speak to a mountain to have it moved.  I have not tried to do things that would seem unnatural.  But I know that I have faith.  I know that I am loved.  I know that the spirit of Christ lives within me.  And I believe that through Him nothing is impossible.  Will I try to prove it?  Do I have to prove it to know that it is possible?  Do I have to see with my own eyes, to feel with my own body, to smell with my own sense of smell, to know that it is possible?  No!  But that does not stop me from knowing that I have the faith to believe with certainty, with the faith of a mustard seed, that all things are possible with God.  And there is the difference.  We seem to know through our physical being but we lack the certainty to believe within our spiritual being.  For it is through the spirit that we have certainty.  It is through the spirit that we see who we are.  It is through the spirit that we transform ourselves beyond the physical being to who we are in the spirit. 

We are created in the image and likeness of our father.  He gave us life.  He gave us breath.  And he gave us the physical, to experience who we are in him.  It is not through the physical that we are.  It is not through our arms and our legs, and our physical ability that we exist.  It is only through the spiritual being that is within the physical that we are.  Are you dead to the spirit?  Do you not know that you are a spiritual being and not a physical being?  Can you not see the spirit within, to know?  Do you not have the light of Christ within you that you might

see who you are?  Come!  Walk with me on this journey!  Experience the truth of who you are.  Know the true light that is within you and you will see for yourself that you too can have the power to say to mountains to remove from here and it will be done for you.  Christ loves you so much that to experience his love will overwhelm you.  He is our desire.  He is our fulfillment.  He is our love, our protection, our provision.  Open the door and let him in.  Follow the path set before you and see the light within. 

Read the sign of the times! Read the Highlighted New Testament Bible and lift the scales from your eyes that you may see, that you may know, that you may find the truth of who you are in Christ. Read it as though you would read a good book, from cover to cover, and see for yourself. Do not study it in parts reading one passage and then skipping to another, but read it for understanding. Read it for knowledge. Read it for faith. Read it that your eyes may be opened, that your ears may hear, that your heart may be filled with the light of Christ. The Holy Spirit awaits you. Christ seeks to know you. Open the door and let him in.