Miracles on Miracles: From Familiarity to Faith

“Miracles on Miracles: From Familiarity to Faith”

By Pastor Kent Munsey

October 31, 2021

Jesus Heals a Boy Possessed by an Impure Spirit

When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them. As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him.

“What are you arguing with them about?” he asked.

A man in the crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.”

“You unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”

So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.

Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?”

“From childhood,” he answered. 22 “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”

‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.”

Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

Mark 9:14-24 (NIV)

In this scripture, a father is suffering because he sees his son tormented by an evil spirit. The father has lived in suffering by proximity. He is not suffering physically, but his son is suffering, and we know that this suffering has gone on for many years. He is in desperate need of a miracle. He is in desperate need of God to do for his son what he has been unable to do and others have not been able to do, freeing him from this suffering and pain.

In this text, we see a father getting honest. The father recognizes that there is something different about Jesus, but we don’t know what the father saw in Jesus. All we know is that he has been suffering because his son has been suffering for many years, and he is believing for a miracle. He is believing for a breakthrough.

We know that the Bible defines faith as the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. The father is hoping for healing, but the spirit of faith is that we believe, therefore we speak. The Bible says that out of the abundance of the heart, a man speaks. We either speak with the spirit of faith or speak out of our familiarity or experience. The father is seeking in faith a miracle, but when he is confronted with what he believes, he has to ask Jesus to help him with his unbelief.

If we are going to experience the miracle in our life that we are believing for, we have to do the necessary work of believing in faith. This may require us to take off the familiar lenses of our personal experience and put on the lens of faith. When we put on the lens of faith, we are putting on what we believe God is able to do.

The father believes that God can heal; that is why he is seeking the miracle. Many of us come to church because we know that God can save, heal, deliver, and provide, but when it comes to believing for ourselves, it can be a whole different story. The father believes, but when it comes to believing for himself or his son, he has difficulty looking through the lens of faith because he cannot get past the lens of familiarity.

The father had become familiar with temporary solutions. He had become familiar with band-aiding the pain. That’s what we sometimes do. We settle for quick fixes. We settle for just band-aiding the pain. Even though the father is there for Jesus to perform a miracle, his experience tells him that it probably is not going to happen. He will take whatever he can get.

Our God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we could ever ask, think, or imagine according to his power that works in us. God’s power is activated in our lives through faith. The father was limiting what Jesus could do because of his familiarity. Maybe some of us have lowered our expectations from God due to our personal experience and familiarity with the problem, pain, or suffering we have become accustomed to, but Jesus says that all things are possible for those who believe.

In order to move from familiarity to faith, we need to:

1. Put on the lens of faith. If we are going to move from familiar doubt to supernatural faith, we have to put on the lens of faith. Although we haven’t seen it, we have to believe that God can do it.

2. Submit to God’s process. Often, God needs to move us from where we are to where we need to be so that he can move supernaturally on our behalf. The father was not in faith; he was in fear, doubt and familiarity. God needs us to see where we are so that he can move us to a place of faith. Sometimes we need to ask God why he is allowing us to go through something.

3. The Right People in our Life. Jesus told the disciples when he cast the spirit out of the boy that some things can only be done through fasting and prayer. Righteous people are people of prayer. As powerful as prayer is, it is one of the most neglected disciplines in our faith.

Questions/Discussion Questions:

1. What miracle are you believing God for in your life?

2. Are you wearing the lens of faith, or are you looking at your problems with the lens of familiarity?

3. Do you have people in your life that you pray with regarding the obstacles you face?