“Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” 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. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” (Matthew 17:19-21NKJV).
Personal revival is brooding when believers begin to interrogate their spiritual failures instead of rationalizing such experiences. Each of us has a long list of unanswered prayers which we never queried. Our normal responses in the face of such failures would be to blame God concluding that our prayers were not answered because they are not God’s will. Meanwhile, the scripture is replete with God’s promises to give us good things if we ask Him. For example, the Psalmist declared: “The LORD will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11). Our Lord Himself promised: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matthew7: 7-11). It is clear from Scriptures that God is committed by His word to answer the prayers of His children and bless them with good things. When this is not so, we should investigate the cause of our failure. Rather than blame God by concluding that it was not His will to answer us.
Interrogate your failure – it could be a spur for personal revival.
Our Lord promised His disciples that they could cast out demons in His name: “And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease” (Mattew10:1). On a number of occasions, they experienced success casting out demons from people. At one point, they returned with such glowing testimony exclaiming with evident ecstasy: “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” (LUKE10:17). When they experienced a failure as is the case in our text they considered it abnormal and sought to understand from our Lord what could be the possible reason for their failure? Their wisdom to question their failure by wanting to know why they could not cast out the demon afforded the master a great opportunity to unpack for us the secret of the power to effectively deal with the devil and checkmate his menacing interference in the lives of God’s people. – Faith, fortified with prayer and fasting will land a devastating blow on any demon and send him packing from their victims, our Lord unveiled. It is alright for you to question your failure when your expected result in a spiritual undertaking did not happen. Take for example, you preached in an evangelistic effort for which you have painstakingly prepared, but no soul was saved after all the efforts. It would be all right for you to find out from God what went wrong? What did you not do as you ought to have done? Taking the time to get a review of your effort from God and taking correction ca be a spur for personal revival.
The failure to interrogate your failure in spiritual endeavours could indicate a number of things in the first place, it could indicate indifference which presents you as someone who is really not interested in the positive outcome of the spiritual endeavour in question. A more fearful implication of not investigating your failures in spiritual efforts is that it connotes lack of trust in the integrity of the promise of God on which you based your effort in the first place. If you truly believe the Word God, then you should be concerned if you did not get the expected result of believing and claiming the promise of the word. Did not God affirm the infallibility of His word? Whenever it seems to have failed, we must take a second look because the word of God cannot return to Him void. It must accomplish its goal and bring God much glory in Jesus’ name.
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