A Pentecost Message
Scripture insights from the Coover family, 03/07/5767 (06/04/2006)
As we gathered for our evening Shavuot assembly, the Spirit began shedding some new light on a well known story. We would like to share these insights with you, in hopes that they will be a blessing to you, as they were to us.
Mark 9:14-17 - "And when Yahshua came to His disciples, He saw a great multitude about them, and the scribes questioning with them. And straightway all the people, when they beheld Him, were greatly amazed, and running to Him, saluted Him. And He asked the scribes, What question ye with them? And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto Thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit."
Now let's stop and ask ourselves the question: "What is a dumb spirit?" Around Pentecost time, we talk a lot about the Spirit of Yahweh. This Spirit is one of wisdom, enlightenment, and heavenly power. It is a Spirit of truth.
John 15:26 - "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me."
If Yahweh's Spirit is one of wisdom, proclaiming, speaking forth, and testifying the words of truth, then a dumb spirit would be the opposite of that. Nowadays, we think of the word "dumb" as meaning that one is not very intelligent. The Old English use of the word "dumb" refers to being speechless. The word "dumb" as used in Mark 9:17 is translated from Greek word # 216, and means, "mute, unable to speak". Thus we see that rather than proclaiming and testifying the truth of Yahshua, as the set-apart Spirit of Elohim does, this dumb spirit tries to hide or cover over the wisdom of the good news. It tries to mute the message of salvation, and it renders its captives unable to speak the words of the evangel. Which spirit are we talking about here? Which spirit tries to cover the truth and keep people from proclaiming the words of Life? Would not this be the evil spirit, the power of the prince of this world, the opposite of the Spirit of Yahweh?
Mark 9:17-20 - "And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto Thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit; and wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him, and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away: and I spake to Thy disciples, that they should cast him out, and they could not. He answereth him and saith, O faithless generation how long shall I be with you, how long shall I suffer you? Bring him unto Me. And they brought him unto Him, and when he saw Him, straightway the spirit tare him, and he fell on the ground, and wallowed, foaming."
So we behold a spirit which renders its captives helpless. It is opposed to the message of the truth, and it does all in its power to keep its prisoners from being touched by the Spirit of deliverance. This is the spirit of satan, the one who desires to keep all in bondage to him. When one is taken over by satan, and does not have the Spirit of Yahweh dwelling within him, he is helpless, and cannot do anything.
John 15:4-5 - "Abide in Me, and I in you: As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine: no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in Him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing."
We will continue on with the account in Mark.
Mark 9:21 - "And [Yahshua] asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child."
This is a very important part. This spirit that is opposing to Yahweh is something that we are all born with. None of us are born with a desire to please Yahweh. From the moment of birth, a child begins thinking of the flesh.
Psalm 51:5 - "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me."
Every time a new baby is born, satan steps in to strive to put his spirit there, the spirit which makes its subjects powerless, and which covers over the truth of joy and deliverance. What must we do? How can we counteract the power of satan?
Mark 9:22-24 - "And oft times it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if Thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us. Yahshua said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried out and said with tears, Master, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief."
In these verses it is made evident that if anyone is to be freed from the binding spirit of the devil, there must be a desire, a faith, and a spirit of dependance on the Father. For a newborn babe, he is not capable of having a desire. In that case, it must be his parents, just as it was in the Mark 9 account. The parents must have a desire that their child enter into the Spirit of Life, and if they have that desire and that faith, and that day-by-day dependance on Yahweh, they can lead that child away from the nature of the flesh and carnality, and into the glorious liberty of the Spirit of Yahweh. For an adult who is capable of making his own choices, if he is ever to be freed from this "dumb spirit" of the devil, he must have the desire, the faith, and the will power to turn things over to Elohim.
When this desperate father cried out, "I believe! Help Thou mine unbelief!", what did Yahshua do? Did He rebuke him? Did He say, "I cannot help you, because you don't have enough faith"? No. Because of the man's desire for healing and his heart that was seeking to believe, Yahshua had mercy, even though the man's faith may not have been very strong. Yahshua does not save us because we are good or deserving of salvation; He saves us because He has mercy on the hearts which truly desire something better.
Mark 9:25-26a - "When Yahshua saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee come out of him, and enter no more into him. And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him...."
Here we see that though the spirit of satan rends its captives powerless, before the great and almighty judge of all the earth, this spirit itself is helpless. Interesting to note is that though this spirit has the power to make its prisoner dumb, the spirit itself is dumb when confronted by the Spirit of the Almighty's Power: it can do nothing but cry out and obey the voice of its Commander.
Mark 9:26 - "And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him, and he was as one dead, insomuch that many said, He is dead."
This is exactly what Scripture says needs to happen. When one gives up the old spirit, he must die in a sense.
Colossians 3:3, 5a - "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Messiah in Elohim. Mortify (put to death) therefore your members which are upon the earth...."
Ephesians 4:22 - "That ye put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts"
Yahshua did not only take the old spirit out. When one is baptized, if he only goes down in the water (symbolic of dying to sin), that will be the end of him. So if one only dies to the flesh, he cannot function. He needs something new to fill the void.
Mark 9:27 - "But Yahshua took him by the hand, and lifted him up, and he arose."
This is explained more fully in the Book of Romans.
Romans 8:10-11 - "And if Messiah be in you, the body is dead because of sin: but the spirit is life, because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Yahshua from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Messiah from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies, by His Spirit that dwelleth in you."
He does not just leave us lying there dead: He breathes His Spirit into us, in place of the old spirit, and raises us up to walk in newness of life.
Romans 8:12-17 - "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of Elohim, they are the sons of Elohim. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage (that "dumb spirit", the spirit of satan) again to fear: but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of Elohim; and if children, then heirs, heirs of Elohim and joint heirs with Messiah: if so be that we suffer with Him (dying to the old spirit) that we may be also esteemed (raised up unto Yahweh's Spirit) together."
It is manifest that this account of Yahshua healing the man with the dumb spirit is the account of every person who is ransomed by the blood of Yahshua.
Now we will turn this study to an even more personal level. Most of you who are reading this are probably believers. As you are reading this, you may be thinking, "Yes, this is what Yahshua did to me. And this is what He can do to others. It is important that I help others to experience the same thing I have." That is what the disciples did. They were excited about what Yahshua was teaching them. They desired to free others from the spirit of satan. But they ran into a problem: They could not cast the dumb spirit out!
Mark 9:18b, 28 - "And I spake to thy disciples, that they should cast him out, and they could not. And when [Yahshua] was come into the house, His disciples asked Him, Why could not we cast him out?"
The answer to this question lay in their personal lives. They had not yet even received the Spirit. They had not yet fully died to the selfish and physical nature. They were still void of His Spirit dwelling in their lives. So how could they cast out the spirit of the devil when they themselves were not yet housing the Spirit of Yahweh?
Mark 9:29 - "And He said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting."
Did Yahshua pray and fast right on the spot when He saw someone in need of His help? No. That is not the way praying and fasting works. True believers do not wait for a crisis to look to Yahweh. They look to Yahweh all the time on a day-to-day basis. It is the atheist or the non-committed person who just flies into a religious fervor when he is in trouble. A genuine and constant believer is one who is prepared to meet life's situation because of a regular dependance on and crying out to Yahweh, a regular denying of self and seeking the Father's will. That is what Yahshua was telling the disciples. He was saying, "You are not yet ready to do things like this. You do not even have the set-apart Spirit dwelling in you yet. You need to pray and fast and grow in your own spiritual maturity before you try casting demons out of others."
Matthew 7:3-5 - "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye, and behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite! First cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."
That was what Yahshua was telling His disciples. He was saying, "You need to be fasting and praying and humbling yourself before My Father. You need to be afflicting yourselves and denying yourselves, so you can concentrate on the spiritual things. You need to come to the place where you feel the Spirit of Yahweh dwelling in yourselves, and where you can truly sense that He is your Father on a personal level. THEN you will be able to lead others to a Spirit-filled life." Or in other words, "Can the blind lead the blind? You need to have your own eyes opened before you try leading someone else."
This is something for each one of us to consider. As we keep the Feast of Pentecost, what are our priorities? Are we trying to speak in tongues and convert other peoples, while forgetting about being filled with the Spirit ourselves? If we are not allowing the Spirit of Yahweh to take active control of our own lives, we are still serving the flesh. In this case, we will be helpless and mute, unable to speak the words of truth and deliverance in a real and powerful way. Only once the dumb spirit has been cast out of each and every one of our lives will the Spirit of Yahweh be able to use us to cast that spirit out of others' lives. David voiced it well when he said:
Psalm 51:12-13 - "Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation, and uphold me (or raise me up; make me stand) with thy free Spirit. Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto Thee."
HalleluYah! May we all be able to say the same!