And, behold, a man of the company cried out, saying, Master, I beseech thee, look upon my son: for he is mine only child. And, lo, a spirit taketh him, and he suddenly crieth out; and it teareth him that he foameth again, and bruising him hardly departeth from him. And I besought thy disciples to cast him out; and they could not. Luke 9:38-40

Here we see a boy possessed with a demon, and his father brought him to Jesus to be healed. Now from the details it’s clear that this is a demon possession. It’s described as the boy is screaming, convulsing, and foaming from the mouth. As you continue to read through the New Testament, its clear a spiritual battle was going on. There were many demon possessions and people being tormented by demons. So why would we think this is still not going on today? 

Another interesting note is the disciples were unable to exorcise the demon. It doesn’t give a reason why the disciples failed, perhaps its the same reason today many Christians fail to have power over demons. Perhaps its lack of true faith, or lack of understanding, whatever may be the reason they were powerless against the demons at this point

And Jesus answering said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you, and suffer you? Bring thy son hither. And as he was yet a coming, the devil threw him down, and tare him. And Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the child, and delivered him again to his father.  Luke 9:41-42

Jesus sounds really annoyed at this point, he said “You faithless and perverse generation, how long do I have to stay with you” Wow, so much for the watered down Jesus the liberals try to portray these days. Jesus was disgusted with the lack of faith and perversion of that generation. Imagine what Jesus must think of this generation? 

Jesus rebuked the demon and healed the child, demonstrating his deity as the Christ, the Son of God. But the disciples failed to do this even though Jesus gave them power and authority to perform this duty. Why did the disciples fail? Why do we the Church fail today?

Well since we know the power comes from Christ, then the answer is Christ. If we are failing to have power over demons, then we must examine our relationships with Christ and reveal where we are lacking. We don’t want to be the perverse and faithless generation, we want to be the well done servants generation Amen!