Text: Matthew 17:14-21
Memory text:
“However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.””
Matthew 17:21 NKJV
Many psychiatrists encourage individuals struggling with addiction to engage with a “higher power.” This approach is rooted in the belief that addiction is not just a physical and psychological struggle but also a spiritual one.
How can you explain why an addict continues to use substance even when they consciously know it is harming them. It is often due to the powerful grip of addiction on the brain. Thus, addiction is not just considered a lack of willpower but a chronic disease.
If you study the healing ministry of Jesus, you will discover that while He simply laid His hands or commanded healing for some, for others, He first cast out the spirit of affliction before He healed them. For example, in the case of the woman who was bent over for eighteen years and in the temple, Jesus recognized that her problem was deeper than physical or medical. He saw the spirit of infirmity behind it, and He cast it out. “… “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.”” (Luke 13:12). Thereafter, He laid His hands and healed her. “And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.” (Luke 13:13). There would have been a relapse if she was healed without the spirit being cast out.
According to our text, aside from the reason of unbelief, Jesus taught His disciples that they couldn’t heal the epileptic boy for their lack of spiritual intelligence to recognize its demonic dimension. They were only ministering healing but ignored deliverance. They needed to engage God’s higher power to deal with such condition and to cast out the demon behind the affliction. Thus, Jesus addressed the demonic spirit behind the epilepsy and that was all (Matt 17:18).
Most often, addiction, oppression, and demonic influence have demonic undertones. Prayer and fasting are key to gaining access into the realms of the supernatural and drawing greater power to address such problems (Matt 17:21).
Friends, attempting to deal with stubborn problems without dealing with their spiritual roots, will be like attempting to kill a tree by cutting out its stem but not uprooting it! You need spiritual intelligence to operate the healing and deliverance ministry.
Prayer points
1. Father, please equip me with spiritual intelligence to be able to know the spiritual dimensions of problems in Jesus’ name.
2. Father, please, strengthen me in the place of prayer and fasting, in Jesus’ name.
Today’s declarations
1. I engage the tool of prayer and fasting to draw supernatural power to break the power of addiction, oppression, and evil influences.
2. Through spiritual intelligence, I am able to diagnose spiritual problems in the healing process.
Contact: pastor@thf.org.ng