Prayer and Fasting

Mark 9: 28 And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out? 29 And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.

Many manuscripts to not include the “and fasting” part.  But given the subject of this post and our current situation, I think it is better to be safe than sorry.  You will get my meaning shortly.

The Status of the Globalist Agenda Has Been Escalated from "Confused" to "Chaotic", by Andrew Anglin

Everyone wants to talk about how the World Economic Forum is running a conspiracy to make everyone poor, and how inflation fits into this. This is all obvious. They are clearly doing this on purpose in order to make everyone poor.

I agree.  Everyone will be poor except the handful of those who are making the rest of us poor.

However – this simply does not make any sense within the context of remaining international competition. Why would you want to completely destroy your country’s economic power while you are still trying to fight wars against Russia and China?

And in this, you get a sense of the rest of his piece: why are those who want to make everyone poor destroying the one country that a) has shown complete willingness to be for this agenda, and b) is the country most capable in executing a global vision via global power?  On a rational basis, it really is unexplainable.

Is there anyone reading this who believes that the United States isn’t purposely being destroyed?  I really don’t want to spend words writing out a list.

Now, one can argue that both China and Russia are in on this game as well.  I don’t think so.  Regarding Russia, any moves post-Soviet Russia made toward the West were rebuffed.  Any possibility of rapprochement is clearly gone at this point.

As for China…people who believe that they are the oldest and most sophisticated culture on earth are going to submit themselves to [fill in your favorite global leader, ethnic group, whatever] voluntarily?  No chance.  A much better chance is that China is pulling a Sun-Tzu move on the West, knowing that the West is in more trouble than China is.

The Great War has been labeled the suicide of the West by Jacques Barzun.  That strikes me as right – and given the breadth and depth of Barzun’s knowledge, I really wouldn’t want to argue with him anyway.

But a culture as deep and strong as Western culture doesn’t die quickly – even if the wounds are all self-inflicted.  But…but…but…this doesn’t explain why western leaders are acting in every way conceivable to accelerate the process.

Sure, they have seen over the last several years (Brexit, Trump, various conservative-right movements in Europe) that many of the citizens are waking up, deciding that they don’t want to go along on this accelerated ride to death.  So, perhaps those who are driving the car off of the cliff believe they must get to the ledge quicker.

But…what is motivating them.  Why such…what’s the word?  Evil.  Demonic, Satanic, evil?  I have been writing in such terms for some time.  I am certain I am not the first (certainly someone will post quotes from Chesterton, Belloc, and Lewis in the comments below, demonstrating their awareness many decades ago of where this train was headed). 

But many are now catching on regarding the only way to describe our current situation:

Dear Friends, Sorry to Announce a Genocide, by Dr. Naomi Wolf

·         I must conclude that we are looking into an abyss of evil not seen since 1945. 

·         It is a time of ha-Satan — Satan — “going to and fro in the earth…”

·         It is a time of demons sauntering around in human spaces, though they look human enough themselves, smug in their Italian suits on panels at the World Economic Forum. 

·         …and that to this day Pfizer, the FDA and other demonic “public health” entities…

Why Is Everything Broken?, by Edward Curtin

·         Many can feel it rumbling beneath the surface of world events. It’s a rumbling in the bowels. It’s unspoken. It’s something very dark, sinister, and satanic. 

·         It seems to be a form of systemic evil almost with a will of its own that is sweeping the world.

·         …we are in the grip of evil forces so depraved that fiction writers couldn’t imagine such reality.

·         These documents reveal evil so depraved that words would fail her if not for her moral conscience and her growing awareness – that I share – that we are dealing with a phenomenon that demands an analysis that is theological, not sociological. 

·         This, while they assume the mantle of the evil one. 

·         …the grasp the demonic has on our world today. 

·         I think it would be a serious mistake to dismiss the demonic nature of the forces at work in our world today. 

·         …our world is in satanic hands… 

Whose Footsteps Are We Following?, by Dr. Igor Shepherd

·         …are part of the evil plan to depopulate and mass murder the Western populations.

In the last couple of weeks, I have seen a dozen or more such pieces.  Read the essays and you will find that the authors are clearly speaking of evil in the very real, Christian sense.

Ephesians 6: 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

I think I should just include this verse in every post I write….

Do we think these principalities and powers are merely floating in the aether?  Or are they working through real human beings, here on earth, walking among us?  I am quite certain it is the latter.

The Apostle Paul offers as defense against these principalities and powers the full armor of God.  Among many other weapons of war, this armor does include prayer.

But it doesn’t include fasting.  And given the battle we are in, perhaps we should take the words of Jesus – that some demons are so powerful, that only prayer and fasting will suffice.  This is what I mean, when I said it is better to be safe than sorry and include the “fasting” part, even though it isn’t in all manuscripts.

Conclusion

I was raised in a tradition that offered prayer – as every Christian tradition / denomination does (although I don’t pray enough).  But I didn’t grow up with the concept of fasting, or of giving anything up for Lent, etc.  I have never even done a juice cleanse….

But, perhaps, it is time to heed Jesus’s words.