Luke 9:41 Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and bear with you?”
Matthew 17:17 Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?”
Mark 9:19 He answered him and said, “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?”
Jesus was speaking to His disciples who were unable to heal a boy who was possessed by a demonic spirit. The disciples had been able to heal people of sickness and disease but were chastised by Jesus for not discerning that this boy was being plagued by a demonic spirit. Most of us would have been thrilled with the results of the disciples in the area of healing but Jesus was not.
Matthew 17:18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.
Jesus immediately discerned that there was a demon and knew He had authority over that demon. He cast the demon out of the boy and he was cured. This is the full Gospel. We must not be satisfied with some spotty results but we must expect complete success as power and authority from Above is imparted to us in these times. We should expect the best from FATHER so that we can deal with any matter coming before us. The disciples were puzzled by their inability to deal with the boy:
19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”
This is a critical question to be answered. Do we accept only partial success or do we look for complete success of our prayers? Those naysayers will also look toward failure to justify their current state and argue why they shouldn’t change their path toward death and destruction. Jesus already declared the disciples to be a faithless and perverse generation. Ouch! He responded:
20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.
21 However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.
We must press in and not be denied. As we pray and commune with FATHER, HE will speak to us in all situations and we will hear HIS Voice as we encounter those in need. Some will need healing by the laying on of hands whereas others will need a demon cast out. Our fruit in this area will be based on our maturity in hearing HIS Voice. The fruit of the SPIRIT begin with Love:
Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness (faith), 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
The fruit start with Love and end with self-control. Isn’t fasting a result of “self-control”? Think about it. The final fruit may be the most difficult to walk in. The Way which is the path Jesus urges us to walk keeps us from being perverse or on the wrong path. We must overcome “self” and the associated lusts to walk the correct path. We must “fast” or abstain from the way of self. We must get it under control! “Not my will but YOURS, FATHER!” must be our heartfelt declaration for us to come to the point of being able to discern if there is a spirit behind a situation such as was present with the boy.
The Gifts of the SPIRIT differ from the fruit of THE SPIRIT. Let us produce fruit so that we can be found worthy for the Gifts to operate in our lives. The Gifts are expressions of Love to those in need and FATHER is looking for good stewards to impart these Gifts. As we pursue a walk of Love directed by FATHER, we should expect to operate in the Gifts as Jesus did. During the Age of Pentecost, men were given none, one, or some. In the Age before us, we should expect to walk in a greater anointing but self-control must result in our lives and become a non-issue. Let us not be counted among the “faithless and perverse” generation.