Text: Matthew 17:14-21
Memory text:
“However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.””
Matthew 17:21 NKJV
As believers, we don’t just fast primarily because of the physical benefits of fasting. We fast to seek the face of God through prayer. Fasting that does not involve prayer and the word of God and does not focus on God is limited in its achievements to the natural. However, as believers, while we pray and fast, we still draw the natural benefits of abstaining from foods and pleasures. Just as we can still derive the benefits in bodily exercise while we practice godliness (1 Tim 4:8).
Natural health methods include the use of natural means such as proper diet, adequate rest, intermittent fasting, and so forth. Medical application involves the use of proven scientific methods, such as medications, surgery, psychotherapy, chemotherapy, etc. While these have been known to be effective in reversing some health conditions, yet they are still limited in addressing many cases. These are cases not controlled by natural, scientific, or medical laws and can’t be addressed by them except by the divine.
According to our text, Jesus knew that the epilepsy or seizure the boy had was not a neurological condition or a sudden brain damage but a demonic attack. So, He ordered the demon out, and it was out, gone, and he was restored. Prayer brings the divine to rule over the natural and the physical. When there is a divine intervention, the Almighty God reveals His true nature and acts upon His provision in the atonement of Christ by healing a person and making him whole body, soul, and spirit.
Using fasting as a natural remedy without prayer, won’t cure spiritual sickness and demonic conditions. Healing from spiritual sickness can only come by repenting of one’s sin and accepting Jesus Christ (Psa 107:17-20; John 5:14). Conditions with demonic roots can only be cured by renouncing the devil and yielding oneself for deliverance or by the touch of the anointing. Until the demon behind the sickness is cast out, every natural and medical remedy will yield no result (Luke 13:12; Mark 5:29).
Friends, when you seek God through prayer and fasting, you invoke divine intervention to address conditions of the body, soul, and spirit, making you whole.
Prayer points
1. Father, as I seek You through prayer and fasting, please intervene in my case and reverse the irreversible in Jesus’ name.
2. Father, set aside all unfavorable natural and medical laws to make me whole, in Jesus’ name.
Today’s declarations
1. Fasting without prayer has no power over spiritual and demonic conditions.
2. Prayer and fasting bring divine intervention into my case, and I become whole.
Contact: pastor@thf.org.ng