The Struggle of Experience

The Struggle of Experience

Mark chapter nine holds some unique isights for us. So often we have been trained to look at scripture from the hyper faith side of life. We tend to look at what Jesus did and the miraculous power He worked with. We sometimes over look the more cerebral side of what happened in scripture. Mark nine can present us with this dilemma.

Mark nine within itself is an awesome chapter. Who wouldn’t want to live on the side of hyper faith with this event. A dad has come to the end of his rope with a demon possessed child (not up for debate – the child was possessed). The disciples tried and failed to cast the demon out. What an indictment against the church then and even now if the same were to hold true. Jesus over hears the arguing and sees the crowd gathering and inquires about it. The dad speaks up. He explains the issue to the Jesus. Jesus goes into action!

Jesus lays out this statement that is so “hyper faith” according to today’s standards of faith. Jesus says, “All things are possible to him who believes!” Botta-boom botta-bing! There it is! So simple. So true. So hard to get a hold of.


This dad has been struggling with this issue for many years. Since his son was small. The boys behavior was overwhelming, embarrassing, humiliating, unbelievably strong and down right violent at times. Every day this dad would wake up and wonder what events the day would bring to him because of his son’s “condition”. Everyday was filled with depression, oppression and possession. Not a lot of answers. When he thought he found an answer he witnessed failure on the disciples part (ie: the church). The church failed him. Didn’t “they” represent Jesus? Weren’t they ambassadors for Him? Hadn’t He given them authority to do this level of ministry?

Mr. Mark Nine speaks up again and opens himself up in a powerful and real way. He says to Jesus, “Lord, I believe, but there is part of me that can’t grab hold of this ‘“all things”’ issue!” This dad is being what we know as “rubber meets the road” honest with his feelings about the church and about God answering his prayer. He is being brutally honest with Jesus. Been there done that was possibly what was crossing his mind. Yeah right! Just believe! Have you been there?

Have you depended on the church only to be let down? Have you put your trust and confidence in other believers only to find they can’t come through for you? Have you been told the same thing that Jesus told this dad – “All things are possible if you will just have faith!” The only problem is that your faith has been violently attacked by false doctrine, false hope and false shepherding in the past. You have prayed and have been disappointed. You have sought God and have been terribly let down. You can’t help but be honest and say what Mr. Mark Nine said, “Lord I believe but help my unbelief.” You want to believe – but there is a struggle to catch all of what Jesus has promised.

Jesus gives you an assuring Word. He speaks to the issue you have brought to Him. He says, “Come out, go away and don’t ever come back.” Oh my! So simple! Right now you would expect everything to go to pure sunshine, no clouds, no overcast skies, quite and calm and soft symphonic music playing somewhere in heaven and finding its way to your hearing. Not so.

When Jesus spoke by His authority – pardon my expression, but all hell broke loose with this boy. Something that Mr. Mark Nine had seen so many times in the past was happening again – right in front of Jesus. Really? Couldn’t there have been at least an image of immediate deliverance? Really Lord? Did you have to let this boy go through this again? You call this deliverance? You call this healing? You call this an answer to prayer? Are you kidding?

This poor dad is standing there witnessing his son fight for survival again. The dad can’t see the fight will be the last one his son ever has with his assigned demon. All he can see is what has always happened, what has been a manifest curse in his home and what has broken his heart far too many times! The boy screams with sounds that only a demon can produce. He is violently thrown into convulsions. He suddenly stops and lays lifeless in front of Mr. Mark Nine. You could have heard a pin drop on the ground. The silence was so loud no one moved! He laid like a corpse in front of the crowd. Whispering starts among the people and before long what everyone was thinking is spoken out loud by someone who had the guts to do so – “He is dead!”

All Mr. Mark Nine has to go on at this point is what he can see. He sees his son in the position of death. What he asked God to do once again comes across as a failed attempt at hyper faith – someone’s hyper faith but not his. Mr. Mark Nine has something to learn here. While those around us see our predicament as being dead, lifeless and violently destroyed in spite of faith in Jesus – Jesus Himself sees what we and others cannot. He sees through eyes of faith. He reaches out to this lifeless body that images a corpse and takes it by the hand. He presents Mr. Mark Nine Jr. to Mr. Mark Nine. What a day for this family to remember!

He then explains to his dumb-founded disciples who just can’t understand what happened that this kind of event can only be secured by prayer. End of story.

Mr. Mark Nine struggled with experience.
– dissatisfaction with the church
– a demon possessed boy who he wrestled with for years
– broken promises from religious people
– his son laid seemingly dead after Jesus dealt with him
– at least before he had some semblance of life – now he looked too much like a corpse
– dealing with an ongoing problem with evil that no one seems to understand

The disciples struggled with experience.
– the lack of it to bring deliverance to this boy
– the lack of understanding as to how to go about spiritual warfare
– the humiliation of facing Jesus when they were not successful in ministry
– the humiliation of facing this dad who had so much confidence in them to begin with

Jesus struggled with experience.
– His own disciples lack of prayer to perform deliverance
– the dad’s lack of healthy experience with the church (disciples)
– proving deliverance to this dad when everything seemed to go from bad to worse
– a crowd that lived by sight and not by faith

All of us have been there from time to time. We have prayed prayers and clothed them with all the faith we could find in our heart. We released our issue to the Lord. Then all hades breaks lose and it looks like things have gotten worse (the boy imaging a corpse). We struggle with life and experience. We wonder sometimes silently to ourselves and sometimes out loud to family and friends. We can’t see what Jesus sees. He sees an act of deliverance while we see an act of violent possession that kills.

It’s at these moments we step into those quite moments just before Jesus takes our problem by the hand and gives divine life to it. We have a choice. Listen to the crowd or wait on Jesus to manifest His Word.

Hebrews says that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Where was the evidence that Mr. Mark Nine’s son had been healed? He couldn’t see it. Therein would lie the answer to his prayer – in what He couldn’t see but in what Jesus would present. Maybe we haven’t given Jesus enough time to walk over to our defeated problem and hand it to us personally. Just a thought!