GREATER THINGSSample

DAY 4: POWERED BY PRAYER

There are some miracles you’ll never see if you don’t develop spiritual disciplines. A greater life begins with your prayer life. The disciples learned this truth the hard way.

As they reflected on what Jesus had spoken over them — that they would do even greater things — the disciples probably couldn’t help but recall that one demon-possessed boy.

Peter, James, and John were coming down from a mountaintop experience with Jesus (Matthew 17:1-9) when a desperate father came to them and asked them to heal his demon-possessed son. Since they had just heard the audible voice of God on the mountain, they probably felt confident they could handle this situation without Jesus’ help.

The boy was in a terrible state. Scars stretched across almost every inch of his skin. Second degree burns covered his hands. The dad told the disciples that whatever demon was inside of him led him to hurt himself repeatedly. And if that wasn’t hard enough, he also suffered from seizures.

The disciples thought they had this one in the bag. They stretched out their arms and told the dad not to worry; they would handle it.

We don’t know exactly what they tried to do to heal the boy. We only know that it didn’t work. The father was forced to bypass the disciples and go straight to Jesus.

How many times are we desperate for something, but don’t actually ask Jesus for help? We talk about it with other people. We even go to church. But we stop short of bringing the thing that’s weighing us down directly to Jesus through prayer. We don’t get the miracle because we never actually make it to the miracle worker.

Jesus spoke to the demon inside the boy, and immediately, the child was healed. The disciples were shook. What had they done wrong? What did they miss? They had tried so hard! They pulled Jesus aside and whispered, “Hey, umm… Why couldn’t we do that?”

Jesus gave them a mini Ted Talk on faith, then said, “Oh, by the way, that demon wasn’t going anywhere without prayer and fasting.” (Again, we’re left to wonder… What were the disciples doing if they weren’t praying it out? Maybe they were trying to scare it away.)

Now, don’t get it twisted. Prayer isn’t a magic trick, and fasting isn’t a way to manipulate God into giving you what you want. The purpose of prayer isn’t to get our wishlist to God, but to get more of His Spirit in us.

It doesn’t matter how strong you are — you can’t orchestrate a miracle in your own strength. While God loves to work miracles through us, the power always comes from Him alone. That’s why prayer is so important; it’s what keeps us connected to our power source.