A Prayer to Cast Out Satan and Demons - Part Deux

"But this kind of demon won’t leave unless you have prayed and gone without food.”  Matthew 17:21 TLB

After several very loving and compassionate people have drawn my attention to the importance of fasting together with prayer and what the Scripture says about this, I found it desperately necessary to write this addendum to the original blog post written years ago.  And while I wouldn't change the prayer, I find it essential to add the fasting.

Those of us living in Western culture find that there is a great deal of pride in affluence and not denying ourselves any pleasurable thing.  We have a very indulgent nature that views luxury as an entitlement for the socio-economic elite. With this in mind, it is little wonder that most in the West—including the Western church—rarely, if ever, practice fasting.  

What great evil this is!  And, should any of us be surprised at how rampant evil is in our culture?

We find throughout Scripture, whenever there was a matter of great seriousness, fasting and prayer always occurred together.  Examine the lives of Hannah, David, Nehemiah, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, the people of Nineveh, the Church at Antioch, and most important, Jesus.

It is somewhat embarrassing to openly confess that I have not made self-denial through fasting a priority in my life.  As Augustine so aptly stated, “Fasting is a Christian duty” (Earley 2008).  Matthew 16:24 reads, “Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me’” (ESV).  How could we not prove this most basic of commitments to the Christian life—self-denial—when Jesus clearly commanded it?  Further, in Matthew 17:21 we read, “But this kind never comes out except by prayer and fasting” (ESV).  This very critical verse is merely a footnote in the ESV and other versions, and as a result I have honestly made it a footnote in my own life, as well.  I am grateful to God for opening my blinded eyes.  

Learning this, two prayer partners and I decided to fast and pray boldly over the past Pentecost weekend that the Holy Spirit would move in power across the nations.  I can think of no bolder or more powerful answer than what occurred in Iran on Pentecost Sunday.  

As we seek the power of God in casting out the devil and his demons, let us come boldly before God's throne and pray as He has taught us, and let us deny ourselves through fasting as an act of contrition and a demonstration of our urgent need of the Savior's help.

Goodnight, Runners.