Spirits can rob you of your speech

Bible text: Mark 9:17 to 29:

Dear brothers and sisters,

Loving greetings in the name of our lord Jesus Christ. I felt this recorded incident in the Gospel of Mark could serve as an eye opener to identify the areas we are speechless by the Spirit of Satan and then to improve the prayer life to become an intercessor and proclaimer of the truth for the lord Jesus Christ. I see three types of speechless people here mainly due to the cunning role played by the forces of darkness or Satan in this earth right now. First of all, there are people who were robbed of their physical ability to speak by Satan. Secondly, he makes most of the saints of God today speechless (prayerlessness) before God the Father by cleverly trapping them in their inner personal spiritual life with some sin or other. Thirdly he make many servants of God speechless before the sinners of this world by giving them fear and robbing them of the burden they must have for the perishing souls and the Holy Spirit. So the saints of God who are suppose to pray and intercede before God now could not stand as they should and they are speechless. So with a prayer to help and build one another's spiritual prayer life let us analyze these verses. A father brought his son to Jesus Christ our Lord. He would have had a great longing to see his son healed since he had an evil spirit, which robbed him of his speech. He is addressing our Lord as a Teacher not as a healer or saviour as in Mark 9:17, “A man in the crowd answered, "Teacher, I brought you my son , who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech.

The symptoms or the work of the evil spirit when it seizes that boy is as in Mark 9:18:

1. “Whenever it seizes him, - [that means it was not with him all the time and manifesting its deeds.]
2. It throws him to the ground. – [The evil spirit will throw him to the ground that he cannot stand on his own]
3. He foams at the mouth, - [forms will start coming out of his mouth not the words which people can understand as the evil spirit seizes him.]
4. Gnashes his teeth – [the boy will start gnashing his teethes so he cannot open it to speak as others when the evil spirit starts his manifestation in him.]
5. And becomes rigid.” – [finally the boy will become rigid like a dead person so he cannot act or be useful to others when the evil spirit manifest in him.]

The father wanted his son to get well so he first took him to the disciples of Jesus may be because it is easier to approach them as in Mark 9:18, “ I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not." Mark 9:19 "O unbelieving generation,"

Mark 9:21, “Jesus asked the boy's father, "How long has he been like this?" "From childhood,"

Mark 9:22 "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."

Mark 9:23, "Jesus said. " If you can believe? Everything is possible for him who believes."

Mark 9:24 Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, " I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"

The father of this boy is identifying another problem of his own namely his ‘ unbelief ' then he is asking the Lord Jesus Christ to help him to overcome his unbelief. Without faith he could have not brought to him to Jesus Christ now but as a human being he also had his own doubts because earlier when he took his son to the disciples of Jesus Christ they could not help him to get rid of that evil spirit.

What all Jesus did to drive that evil spirit out? as in Mark 9:25 When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene,

1. He rebuked the evil spirit. "You deaf and mute spirit," he said, - [Jesus addressed to the evil spirit by its actions and rebuked it.]
2. "I command you, come out of him – [he made it clear that he wanted the spirit to come out of that boys body.]
3. And never enter him again." – [Jesus wanted the boy to have a permanent cure from this evil spirit so he commanded them not to enter into him again.]

What all the reactions of the evil spirit to the commands of Jesus as in Mark 9:26:

1. The spirit shrieked,
2. Convulsed him violently
3. And came out.
4. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, " He's dead ."

Jesus helped the boy to stand to his feet as in Mark 9:27, “But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up. – [Now the boy was totally healed of the evil spirit.]

When the lord Jesus Christ was alone indoor, the disciples asked him to give them the reason why they could not successfully drive the evil spirit out of that boy as in Mark 9:28, “After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, "Why couldn't we drive it out?" – [it is always good to analyze ourselves and try to know the reason for all our failures. Unless we do it in our life we cannot come up in life.]

Mark 9:29 He replied, " This kind can come out only by prayer ." – [what here the lord meant is not rebuking or commanding on the evil spirit but you must have a prayer life. A prayer life is not possible to us unless we have a strong relationship with God the Father . To establish a good relationship with him we should be free from all our sin as in Isa 59:1 & 2, “Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. Vs.2, But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” To be free from our sin we must confess all our sin to the lord Jesus Christ and get the forgiveness of our sin from him as in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness .

Believers can become speechless (prayerlessness) before God by the spirits, which are at work in this world right now:

Are we coming down in our personal prayer life day by day? We must now get the alarms since it is a perfect indicator of our inner spiritual life right now. As you all know we must maintain a good, healthy and sound relationship with God the Father to enjoy a long prayer times. The relationship with God can be spoiled by any sin in our personal life. Some time even unforgiving attitudes against some one or as we get the love of money or get easily tangled ourselves with some secret sin in our personal lives. Unforgiving nature and keeping bitterness against any human beings can very easily spoil our relationship with God. As we forgive our debtors God is going to forgive us in the coming days as in Mat 6:12, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” We control through our actions of forgiving others our own spiritual life. Because as per our forgiving others God is going to forgive our sin as in Mat 6:14 & 15, ‘For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. Vs.15, But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. Many times we are confused in our lives with one problem that is how long shall we forgive them because each time when we forgive them we expect them to miraculously change their behavioral patterns immediately other wise we conclude they are not worth forgiving any more. But similar question in the life of apostle Peter in Mat 18:21, “Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” helps us greatly and settles the all our rational attitudes towards forgiving fellow human beings. Right in that reply of our Lord Jesus Christ to apostle Peter we are getting the answer of God an knowing the standard level of God about forgiving one another as in Mat 18:22, “Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” The Unforgiving nature or fixing the number of time we forgive others on our own in the believer's life can take them all the way back to the old state. By keeping some number in our mind and refuse to forgive others further as per our own calculations and limitation can bring the limitless God to limitation and He will very well reverse all the forgiveness that we have enjoyed so far from the hands of God and all will go in vain as it is narrated by the Lord Jesus Christ about the kingdom of heaven in Mat 18:23 to 35 : vs.33, “Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you? ' vs.34, In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. Vs.35, " This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart ."

Any type of sin in our inner spiritual life will make us speechless before God our Father and before all the evil spirits that is why when we command on them they are not effective over the devils. We feel we are powerless over the kingdom of Satan . Now, what we must do to regain our relationship with God the Father to call Him Abba Father is Again we have to go to the lord Jesus Christ our Saviour and pray for the healing of our heart from every sin.

Believers can become speechless before the world (in proclaiming the Gospel) by the evil spirits, which are at work now:

Our Lord Jesus Christ has commanded us to be a witness in this sinful world. For this purpose God has send the Holy Spirit also to enable us to be His witnesses through out this world as in Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." That is why before going to God the Father Jesus commanded all His disciples to wait and pray for the infilling of the Holy Spirit as in Acts 1:4 & 5, “On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. Vs.5, For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." When our heart is not properly filled with Holy Spirit of God we are in danger. Because the evil spirits of this world will give us some fear or other and make us to keep quiet even though we know the truth very clearly when we are not Holy Spirit filled.

Through fear Satan will control some people as in John 12:42 Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; John 12:43 for they loved praise from men more than praise from God. – [if we look for the praises of people all the time then we cannot do any thing useful to God or fulfill his great commission Mat 28:18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Mat 28:19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Mat 28:20 "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.”

2 Tim 1:7, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, But God has given us (1.), of power and (2.), of love and (3.), of a sound mind.”

Mat 10:18 On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. Mat 10:19 But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, Mat 10:20 for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

Mat 10:32 "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. Mat 10:33 But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.

But when you open your mouth to speak and testify for the Lord you are overcoming the Satan as in Rev 12:11 They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.

Yours in the kingdom of God's service,
Rev. Dr. T. Marcus Devasahayam.