Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.
This kind of demon can be confronted, overcome, and driven out only through prayer and fasting. This kind of evil spirit goes out by no other means, and meeting this kind of demonic power requires that preparation. The disciples failed in this case because of unbelief and carelessness in their sacred work, since they had not prepared themselves through prayer and fasting. Their self-focused discouragement had left them without the deeper dependence on God the work required.
Prayer and fasting, joined with humility and persevering faith, strengthen faith and express entire reliance on God. Joined also with self-denial and self-sacrificing consecration and full consecration to the work, with humble dependence on Him, they prepare people to receive strength and power from God for victory over Satan. In the conflict with evil powers they prepare people to receive the Holy Spirit's aid.
To gain victory over the power of darkness believers must stay close to Jesus, and when victory is not otherwise gained they must fast and pray for it. So doing, as God's people rising never to fall again, they bear fruit and work for God's glory and are not cut off and purged out of the camp of Israel. The verse's words were once applied by Mrs. C. while refusing a meal, and her refusal prompted a rebuke identifying an evil spirit in her and expressing hope that it would go out.
This kind of demon can be confronted, overcome, and driven out only through prayer and fasting. This kind of evil spirit goes out by no other means, and meeting this kind of demonic power requires that preparation. The disciples failed in this case because of unbelief and carelessness in their sacred work, since they had not prepared themselves through prayer and fasting. Their self-focused discouragement had left them without the deeper dependence on God the work required.
Prayer and fasting, joined with humility and persevering faith, strengthen faith and express entire reliance on God. Joined also with self-denial and self-sacrificing consecration and full consecration to the work, with humble dependence on Him, they prepare people to receive strength and power from God for victory over Satan. In the conflict with evil powers they prepare people to receive the Holy Spirit's aid.
To gain victory over the power of darkness believers must stay close to Jesus, and when victory is not otherwise gained they must fast and pray for it. So doing, as God's people rising never to fall again, they bear fruit and work for God's glory and are not cut off and purged out of the camp of Israel. The verse's words were once applied by Mrs. C. while refusing a meal, and her refusal prompted a rebuke identifying an evil spirit in her and expressing hope that it would go out.