Concealed and Nagging Shame Can Point to the Bondage of a Lying Spirit

[Study Posted July 31, 2022]

Shame is frequently a result of one’s moral virtues being broken. Many Christian Babylonians, with much prayer, have moral integrity and overcome drug, alcohol and other addictions and sins through various programs with acclaimed success. Why do we in the Body of Christ sometimes experience a painful thorn of a particular sin in our side seemingly forever?

Acknowledgement of guilt is good. Guilt is an acknowledgment of wrongdoing. It’s hopefully a learned lesson not to be repeated. Shame, on the other hand, is less about a specific behaviour or a specific action and more about a deep-seated feeling. Shame etches deeper than an immediate embarrassment, and as Adam and Eve graphically experienced, it deeply rasps our conscience that some unidentified matter is wrong.

This study highlights one possible oversight dedicated to “shame” to hopefully inspire any number of Saints battling entrenched sins to overcome spirits in their high places. It is not meant to be the elixir Job’s miserable friends hoped to deliver ~ but at the Lord’s hand, it could.

Joh 3:27 John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven, [and sometimes only revealed to him alone, as similarly,] 

Dan 10:7 And I Daniel [the individual’s name] alone saw the vision: for the men that were with me saw not the vision; but a great quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves. 

Shame, as does fear, causes us to run and hide, but the one whose eyes are opened sees with clarity of vision for change.

Optimistically, this study will stimulate the audience’s spiritual minds for personal breakthroughs, from grinding struggles to freedom from a particularly dogged sin.

For the Elect and Babylonians alike, there are enormously powerful emotions intrinsic to sin where the feeling of intense shame frequently supersedes and disguises the underlying forbidden action. Overwhelmingly in scripture, shame is an essential and elementary agent to motivate change, yet, it can be an obstacle to repentance that carnality is drawn for possibly unwitting blindness.

Rev 16:15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.

Mat 18:2 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, 
Mat 18:3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Mat 18:4  Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Young children almost always burst into tears with sorrow for their guilt. Adults, on the other hand, become more ingenious than children at hiding and covering shame rather than calmly and unreservedly identifying the contentious issue by simply learning to acknowledge a sin with the authentic joy of a more “converted” spirit.

If the shame isn’t quickly expressed and forgiveness asked, it can become a crippling emotion. Shame induces hiding, and when covering becomes a habit, it consolidates the sin with layers of scarring for a seared conscience.

Jas 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

Pro 28:13  He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.

Jer 3:13 Only [simply and from the heart] acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways [both good and bad seed] to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.

One would think that those three simple verses are the key to repentance, which is found in authentically acknowledging your iniquity ~ and it is!  However, many artful nuances of sinful flesh find ways to mitigate or even avoid the simplicity in that foundation. One such possible nuance is the deeply etched emotion of “shame”.

Covering one’s sin is the first impulse. With a truthfully contrite heart, confessing our sins to Christ is the most liberating experience.

Joy for recovering from sin comes in the morning when we appreciate the spiritual reality of change more than the grinding shame. It is only through the practice of recovering from disobeying our Lord that inward grovelling shame is more joyfully cast aside. The approach of quickly and authentically acknowledging our sins brings immense joy and privilege to leave behind those servile elements which keep us submerged in the “deep”.

Psa 30:2 O LORD my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me. 
Psa 30:3 O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit. 
Psa 30:4 Sing unto the LORD, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. 
Psa 30:5 For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

Those verses succinctly order the flow of guilt. In our spiritual immaturity, as do children, we feel more humiliation from being caught in our sin than the broken law. After a night of restless reflection, in the morning we acknowledge our transgression meekly.

The Bride should not be shocked by her nudity before herself, in the Body of Christ or before her Husband! It is a ridiculous notion that she is appalled by her nudity while she searches for spiritual spots and wrinkles. We cry out in alarming shame for being “caught with our pants down”, a classic adage for unintentional nudity and its consternation, first experienced by Adam and Eve, rather than composedly recognising our nakedness and serenely covering up. It takes many years of humiliation to attain, by the Lord’s strength, to cover up with Christ’s righteous clothing and move on decorously.

The Body of Christ reverently notices his brother or sister’s nakedness of sin without voyeuristic intentions, as we all, from time to time, inadvertently do in our physical families. For our learning, Ham capitalised on the fortuitous occasion of his Father Noah’s nakedness, for heightened ridicule by engaging his brothers. His brothers saw their Father’s nudity and respectfully covered it. Ham’s chance to amplify the humiliation by including his brothers backfired as they didn’t buy into the violation.

Righteous shame is excellent for motivating repentance, yet, frequently, the exaggerated sensitivities of the unfortunate one caught physically naked exacerbate his disgrace to be identified as the sin rather than the underlying transgression. As is our bias, Adam and Eve, born of the flesh, primarily recognised the emotional consternation of shame that their uncovered privy parts evoked as the sin more than disobedience to the Lord.

Joh 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.

2Co 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

Our scarred memory of seemingly endless humiliations causes us to run and hide the object that causes immense emotional pain that, by God’s design for all but a few, soundly hides its purpose.

As always, the spirit quickens understanding, not the underlying shadow that points to the spiritual and is more frequently identified as the object to be avoided. As such, we default to making our clothing cover the seat of disgrace when it should be Christ’s spiritual clothing that glorifies Him. Over and over, we beat ourselves up to try harder to overcome and thus quench the strength of Christ.

Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

The classic example of shame is Christ hanging naked on the cross, yet he despised the physical shame for his Elect to see their spiritual shame of their nudity progressively. It is oh so stressful to get to that joyful, comfortable place of being spiritually naked in the fire before Christ and His Christs where one doesn’t feel ridiculed as did Noah by his son, Ham, who sought to dramatise the humiliation by believing his brothers would automatically find pleasure in the opportunity to disgrace their dad.

Upon realising our sin, like Cain, we can become sullen and bitter and identify the colossal shame as the greater evil than receiving chastisement with joy.

Gen 4:13 And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear.

King David is a timeless example of hiding from his shame following his affair with Bathsheba that cascaded to greater depths of humiliation. The prophet Nathan exposed David’s sin and amplified his immense embarrassment before all of Israel. We much prefer hiding our shame (as did David) for months or even years rather than quickly exposing our spiritual nudity.

To their enduring frustration, some openly state their sins and are bewildered by the sometimes years it takes to be free, not remembering that we are the Lord’s workmanship for Him to indulge His good pleasure ~ the creation of the Bride is not a rushed work. We are His workmanship of a long firing in the furnace for perfection. Through much pain and suffering, we possess Christ, the promised inheritance through patience.

Luk 21:19 In your patience possess ye your souls, [and during the often years of the same old grinding sin if our utter dependence is on Christ,]

Luk 21:18 But there shall not an hair of your head perish.

Joh 16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

Num 32:22 And the land be subdued before the LORD: then afterward ye shall return, and be guiltless before the LORD, and before Israel; and this land shall be your possession before the LORD.
Num 32:23 But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out.

Mankind to this day is physically and spiritually nude like Adam and Eve, our God-given natural state and the nudity are symbolic of sin. Flaunting that nudity is sometimes us being the Corinthian fornicator in shameless pride of self-righteousness and “be sure your sin will find you out.”

1Jn 4:17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness [and joy] in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. 
1Jn 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. 
1Jn 4:19 We love him, because he first loved us.

Shame is the most destructive of all the feelings that holds us back, keeps us down, and quenches our spiritual growth. We fail to see that fear is often a cover, a protective layer to keep us from feeling shame; the more significant worry should be for disobedience, not the torment of disgrace.

Upon Goliath’s slaying, the soon-to-be King David portrayed a positive side of unintentionally displaying our privy parts and despising the shame. With his toga twirling and writhing, David energetically danced moves that would inspire modern-day rap dancers while being semi-conscious yet mostly uncaring for possibly exposing his pudenda. His and his men’s joy at re-establishing the power of God in Israel superseded the puerility of Ham-like voyeuristic opportunists ~ except for Michal, his wife. She self-righteously identified more with the shadow of shame than the reality and joy of the coming powerful and righteous leadership. The greater shame was her unconsciously attempting to rule her husband by her prissy evaluations of David’s indiscreet gyrations and repressing virtuous leadership in Israel.

If we fear the physical humiliations and identify them mainly as the objects of shame to be eradicated, our love is not perfect; their spiritual applications quickeneth and not the emotions of the flesh that causes us to hide in shame from our Lord and brethren.

Rom 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

We are without excuse if we have known the heavenly gift of spiritual discernment and go back to the weak and beggarly elements of serving the flesh more than God.

Rom 1:21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 
Rom 1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 
Rom 1:23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. 
Rom 1:24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
Rom 1:25 Who changed the truth [the spirit] of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

In all of its genuinely natural glory, the creation points to the spiritual, the Beast that we are, and without God’s spirit, we default to its worship. To which entity does our devotion belong? Are we attempting to serve two masters – the creature and the Creator?

Consider that the shame of any seemingly hopelessly entrenched sin can serve the creature more than the Creator. Shame induces hiding and throws away the key to the shackles of slavery.

In confusion, Adam unconsciously blamed his sin on his genitalia. His overall nakedness caused him to focus on his exposed privates and how vulnerable he felt when the other living being in the Garden, Christ, was clothed.

Adam and Eve were made in the likeness or outward form of the Lord, and it is natural for humans to want to belong to their kin and not the beasts of the field. The latter unconsciously and blithely procreated before all and sundry whilst chewing their cud without a hint of shame at being unclothed.

Gen 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Gen 3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, [Christ] and eat, and live for ever:

Gen 2:20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.

Now the object of immense shame, his exposed genitalia skewed his focus from the colossal sin of overall nakedness ~ for seven thousand years! He was intensely focused on covering the physical seat of his shame rather than the unwitting hidden reality of the entirety of his spiritual nakedness, his unrighteous endemic nature. Unconsciously, his kin, the Lord, having the same outward image and likeness, was his spiritual mentor to eventually gain equality with God. Adam and Eve’s shame wasn’t so much their disobedience to God for taking from the forbidden tree; more willingly, it was their feelings of awkwardness for not being clothed like their spiritual father; they eagerly desired identity, dressed indistinguishably in both righteous and unrighteous clothing. The more significant and hidden shame was their God-given blindness that takes a seven thousand-year experience of evil to identify the Christ and be clothed in his purity.

Gen 3:9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? 
Gen 3:10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. 
Gen 3:11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

Nobody told Adam and Eve they were naked! Nakedness was a God-induced spirit of shame that directly caused Adam and Eve to identify the difference between the only similar kin in the Garden and them.

Had the Lord not been clothed and without shame, strolled in the nude with hypothetical genitalia, Adam and Eve would have felt normal and accepted. Although the Lord was dressed in incorruptible spiritual clothing, Satan to Adam and Eve appeared indistinguishable; in fact, a lot more intriguingly dressed with knowledge, the Lord refused them!

2Co 11:14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

Satan was clothed with apparel of light; to Adam and Eve’s eyes, identical; in fact, experimentally better than the Lord’s.

Adam and Eve desperately wanted to feel a kinship with someone, even with the temporary pleasures of the mind which the fascinating Tree of the knowledge of good and evil incited. A new, unidentified, devastating emotion of shame emerged, and they both knew they wanted to evade the torture associated with nudity. Their child-like nature was to hide from the tormenting inescapable spirit of the mind by physically running away ~ but they couldn’t elude their mental distress; it followed them everywhere! The reason for their anguish was that they (the old Adam within) were not given to recognising their spiritual nakedness. Their spiritually immature reasoning caused their minds to go into overdrive to fathom, for now, the spiritually unfathomable, eclipsed by shame; confusion began to reign as the cornerstone for the tower of Babylon was laid in their hearts.

Adam and Eve’s physical nudity was the difference between them and their nearest kin; they now were compelled to do anything to change the contrasting shame ~ fig leaves were the immediate option.

Except for the Elect of God and seven thousand years, Adam’s warped focus and reaction is on the shame of his physical nudity rather than the aionian-unfathomable spiritual reality for disobedience.

Since that first devastatingly etched and new emotion of shame, man has been intent on justifying his nudity to rid himself of its disfiguring psychological scars. “How dare God eternally condemn the beautiful pudenda that give us the epitome of joy!” And so, mankind celebrates sex at every opportunity. Well, it is the very first of many strong delusions. God didn’t condemn our privy parts; He merely used them to highlight our intrinsic nakedness of sinful flesh that is highly prone to celebrating, even worshiping our most sensual members.

Gen 3:8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.

Adam and Eve effectively worshiped themselves, “the creature more than the Creator” by unconsciously honouring their shame rather than a composed acknowledgement of their direct violation of the Lord’s command not to touch the tree being the knowledge of good and evil. Their shame results in an arduous seven thousand-year worship of the creature, the Beast, more than their Creator.

Gen 3:7  And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

To hide the devastating new emotion of shame now directly identified with their genitals rather than the more crucial disobedience to God. The endearing natural humility of a little child, unashamedly being naked for the short term before our Husband and the Christs, is precious as we learn to acknowledge our transgression with joy and receive white linen.

Rev 19:8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

We should be joyful for our spiritual nudity being exposed and not give power to the emotion of shame once it has done its hopefully short work that points us to the healing power of Christ and Him fighting for us.

Wits’ End

“I have done all the above by acknowledging my sin yet remain enslaved.”

Purely for its quote and not necessarily a recommended work, C. S. Lewis, with his essay, “Startled into Hiding,” speaks on the subject of shame and says, “Over time, we learn to retreat behind walls and clenched fists of control. We resort to hiding without seeking, surviving without exploring; the body constricts and goes numb in a desperate attempt to deflect attention and disappear”.

Shame should always be a positive vehicle that leads to swiftly acknowledging the guilt of sin. However, it is common for folk to confess their sins before Christ, his family and the Body of Christ and distressingly remain entrenched in a vice. The condition can go on for years, even the best of a lifetime, taking a heavy toll on the person’s worth before the Lord.

Whether the sin is an annoying “child”, a “giant”, or a giant with deep roots and one is riddled with guilt and shame, be of some cheer; that shame is beautiful!

Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 
Rom 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

What further steps can be taken to be free from a particularly stubborn or addictive sin when we have genuinely and fearlessly acknowledged our sin before the Lord and even the Saints and remain shackled in despair? We mostly every day ask the Lord for help; our Elders, family and friends give sound counsel and endless supplications; we have cut loose from the physical devices that promote access to the particular sin, and the fiendish condition remains entrenched! Some people end their wretchedness in suicide, only to face the same circumstances in the Great White Throne Judgment now with two problems: taking your life and the original matter. It is best to have the sense of easier torture before the Lord and his Angels today than the more profound torture in the GWTJ, where the more immeasurable shame is felt before our brothers and sisters with whom we once shared holy communion.

Rev 14:10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

To you, that suppurating carcass chained around your neck is an abomination, yet learn to love your enemy since you are guaranteed to win over “him”. It is a beautiful thing to learn to be of good cheer in your patience for the work the Lord is doing with that oppressive sin with His timing for release.

Ecc 3:1 To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

Ecc 3:10 I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
Ecc 3:11 He hath made everything beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world [1Jn 2:16] in their heart so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.

1Co 3:21 Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours.

“Everything” and “all things” means the totality of everything, including the negative of our evil “beautiful” trials.

2Co 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is [becoming and is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

The Lord gives his perfectly evil servant, Satan, the nod to test us but not beyond our endurance ~ how good is that! So whatever entrenched sin is being fought, it will be easily or tortuously conquered; not necessarily twenty years ago or today, but with the Lord’s measures, you will rule over it.

Gen 4:6  And the LORD said unto Cain, [replace with your name] Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? [Why do we feel so utterly dejected, even unto death, for the giant in our land?]
Gen 4:7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

So, what additional measures can a person review to hopefully escape a deep-rooted sin when he has done all that is required for repentance?

Well, it could be the simple measure of patiently waiting on the Lord. In the meantime, search the heart for the nagging shame of a lying spirit.

Ahab, a King of Israel, elegantly portrays a lying spirit (2Ch 18:1-34, well documented in IWWB studies) who wanted Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, to join him in picking a war with Syria at Ramothgilead.

The Lord always requires us, as budding Kings and Priests, to ask Him to go before us into battle; if we attempt to fight a foe on our terms, we will, in all likelihood, be defeated. If we are not beaten in battle, the idol of our heart for our works begins to establish a hardened heart that can entrench the underlying sin.

Ahab itched to fight at Ramothgilead, and he knew that if he asked Micaiah, the Lord’s prophet of the time, for His blessing in victory, he would be denied the action. Ahab hated Micaiah’s righteousness as it always opposed what Ahab wanted to achieve. Ahab secretly sought kinship with a prophet outside the Lord’s prophets to get the answer he coveted. Ham, too, attempted to garner support by including his brothers to deride their Father. For us, that support is almost always hidden within our scheming hearts that make us appear righteous, yet the reality is a lying spirit driving that intention. It is spiritually known as an idol of the heart.

By all intents and purposes, we can lie to ourselves, our family and the Body of Christ when we have boldly confessed our sin, acknowledged it before Christ, and appear righteously at our wits’ end ~ how can it be a lie?

Ham, Ahab, and we worship the Beast and his image when we hear the trumpet blast for impending war within and refuse the nagging shame to authentically ask the Lord for Him to go before us to battle. Our heart is to rely on the false prophet within to concur with our heart. We consistently lose the fight by not genuinely desiring the Lord’s truth over our desire; to all family and peers, we are in right standing with God, and they put our struggles and wits’ end down to having to wait on the Lord for release from the chains ~ when in fact, the root problem is not worshiping the Lord with all your authentic heart in action and not a forked tongue.

Jer 29:13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

Eze 33:2 Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When [not if] I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman: 
Eze 33:3 If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people;
Eze 33:4 Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, [within for the slavery] and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.
Eze 33:5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.
Eze 33:6 But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand. 
Eze 33:7 So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me. 

Rev 14:9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, 
Rev 14:10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: 
Rev 14:11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

If not checked by the trumpet warning of the still small voice from within, corruption continually cascades in steps, beginning with a lustful thought.

Eph 2:3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

Jas 1:14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
Jas 1:15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

At the Lord’s hand, we, the Ahab within, curse ourselves in many ways. None is more damnable than the unclean spirit of worshiping ourselves, the Beast; and when initially tempted, not quickly, and from the heart, asking the chief prophet in Israel above, Christ, for him to go before us into battle. Unrighteous lust always comes from the ruling thought of going near the harlot’s door or any sin, by testing one’s imagined robust resistance to indulge just a little of the titillation rather than immediately exhilarating the Lord to lavish His power of resistance. The foundational problem is unbelief by refusing to heed the trumpet.

Unbelief is not believing with all of your heart. It stems from our indifferent eye for our fiancé’s (Christ’s) ardent desire for us, just as a harlot naturally has dull eyes for her renter. By prayer and fasting, we must consistently crave strong meat by being where the eagles are daily gathered at the carcass.

In Mark 9:14-29, the apostles were perplexed by their inability to cast out the dumb spirit inflicting the boy. Christ says:

Mar 9:19 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.

Mar 9:23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.

Mar 9:25 When Jesus 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.

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

Jer 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Jer 29:12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. 
Jer 29:13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

At the Lord’s hand, Adam and Eve’s terrifying new emotion of shame shackled them to their unwitting father, Satan, for hiding a series of unfamiliar evil experiences of equal alarm for which they soon grew accustomed ~ for seven thousand years, life became wonderfully rich in Babylon.

Jdg 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes. 

From the outset, the hidden King from Eden steadily revealed himself and his Father to a few in this age, showing them how to identify the bondage of a spirit that relies on one’s own strength by the stealth and nagging shame of a lying spirit.

Isa 58:6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?

Amen.