Pastor Edgar Mayer; Living Grace Community Lutheran Church; Message Series on Healing – 4 Healing by Power; Date: 20 July 2008

For more sermons and other writings check out pastor’s homepage: http://www.geocities.com/mayeredgar

Why Not

The disciples had a question. What did just happen? A sick boy remained sick even though previously the disciples had such a good track-record of getting results – Mark 6:13 – I read from the Bible: “They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them” (cf. Mark 3:14-15). Why was it not working now? The boy’s dad told Jesus – Mark 9:18: “I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.” To them – this was confusing and therefore the Bible records – Mark 9:28: “After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, ‘Why couldn’t we drive it out?’”

Good question! “Why couldn’t we, Jesus? Why couldn’t we heal the boy? Why were we lacking in power?” The disciples were humbled and in need of answers – but – (and I want to submit this) we do not immediately relate to them. When a sick boy fails to be healed among us, we don’t seem to worry about our own spiritual aptitude. We don’t seem to be troubled by any apparent lack of power. Why is that?

The problem is not new. Charles Finney already wrote in the 1800s. I quote: “It is amazing to witness the extent to which the Church has practically lost sight of the necessity of this endowment of power. Much is said of our dependence upon the Holy Spirit by almost everybody; but how little is this dependence realized. Christians and even ministers go to work without it. I mourn to be obliged to say that the ranks of the ministry seem to be filling up with those who do not possess it. May the Lord have mercy upon us! Will this last remark be thought uncharitable? If so, let the report of the Home Missionary Society, for example, be heard upon this subject. Surely, something is wrong. An average of five souls won to Christ by each missionary of that Society in a year’s toil certainly indicates a most alarming weakness in the ministry. Have all or even a majority of these ministers been endued with the power which Christ promised? If not, why not? But, if they have, is this all that Christ intended by His promise? In a former article I have said that the reception of this endowment of power is instantaneous. I do not mean to assert that in every instance the recipient was aware of the precise time at which the power commenced to work mightily within him. It may have commenced like the dew and increased to a shower. I have alluded to the report of the Home Missionary Society. Not that I suppose that the brethren employed by that Society are exceptionally weak in faith and power as laborers for God. On the contrary, from my acquaintance with some of them, I regard them as among our most devoted and self-denying laborers in the cause of God. This fact illustrates the alarming weakness that pervades every branch of the Church, both clergy and laity. Are we not weak? Are we not criminally weak? It has been suggested that by writing thus I should offend the ministry and the Church. I cannot believe that the statement of so palpable a fact will be regarded as an offense. The fact is, there is something sadly defective in the education of the ministry and of the Church.

The ministry is weak, because the Church is weak. And then, again, the Church is kept weak by the weakness of the ministry. Oh for a conviction of the necessity of this endowment of power and faith in the promise of Christ” (Charles Finney: Power From God, New Kensington: Whitaker House 1996, 40-42).[1]

In his time Charles Finney hoped in vain. The church was offended. You and I – we – may choose to be offended at his words. The suggestion that five converts per year are not enough – not in line with God’s good intentions – but a sure sign of weakness – criminal weakness – does not go down well in our current church climate – in many sections of the Western church – where converts and and also healings seem to be so rare. How many of us here in this room can celebrate the conversion of five people in the last year? Have we failed in the face of Jesus’ promise – John 15:5-8: “If a person remains in me … he will bear much fruit … if you remain in me … ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit … “?

Charles Finney continued to say that “ … the want of an endowment of power from on high should be deemed a disqualification for a pastor, a deacon or elder, a Sabbath school superintendent, a professor in a Christian college, and especially for a professor in a theological seminary. Is this a hard saying? Is this an uncharitable saying? Is it unjust? Is it unreasonable? Is it unscriptural” (Charles Finney: Power From God, New Kensington: Whitaker House 1996, 45).

Charles Finney was blunt – and his words even seem brutal – offensive – but his frustration was understandable. Why wasn’t the church worried about her weakness? When the disciples couldn’t heal the sick boy from before, at least they were asking the question: “Jesus, why were we lacking in power?” The church – many a time in history – became blind and accomodating to her ineffectiveness.

Moreover, the challenge of Finney and others – including Jesus’ own exasperate words in the face of the disciples’ weakness – when he said (Matthew 17:17): “O unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me” – these challenges to our effectiveness are not only ignored but aggressively contradicted. We say: “Who dares to question us and our traditions? Don’t make us feel bad!”

In 1992 a book was published with the title: “Power Religion. The Selling Out Of The Evangelical Church?”[2] This book was not aggressive but numerous contributors to the book betrayed an uneasiness about focusing too much on power because this may divert from truth. In our own denomination – in my own denomination – the same uneasiness persists and also a certain helplessness because: how come that despite the truth of our correct liturgies and correct sermons – despite safe-guarding sound sermons – we do decline in numbers which is not necessarily a sign of strength? God promised in the Bible – Isaiah 55:10-11 – and to this we cling – I quote: “ … my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return empty … “ Yet, why then does so much of institutional church life feel empty? Have we missed something about the power of God’s word?

Many church seminaries – and church programs – sought to mature Christians by educating them with lots of class-room teaching on the Bible but something was not working – and may still not be working – also for you. In 2003 Peter Wagner wrote the book “7 Power Principles I Learned After Seminary” asserting that his training failed to teach much on the operational role of the Holy Spirit, warfare worship, prophecy, miraculous healing, demonic deliverance, powerful prayer, etc. In the same vein the former missionary and current lecturer Charles Kraft published a book in 2002 which bore the title “Confronting Powerless Christianity. Evangelicals And The Missing Dimension” and in it he wrote: “ … I have changed. Not my evangelicalism. Not my commitment to Jesus Christ. Not my commitment to biblical Christianity. What has changed is my understanding and experience of what biblical Christianity is intended to be. The only kind of Christianity in the New Testament is a Christianity with power – a Christianity quite different from what I experienced during those first 38 years. What I am experiencing now is a Christianity with power. And that is what I am writing about … “[3]

Do we need books such as these?[4] Yes – maybe – because – as I suggested in the beginning – when the disciples could not heal the sick boy, they were at least asking the right question: “Jesus, why were we lacking in power?” We often don’t ask the question and thus may be the people of whom Charles Kraft writes: “ … For several generations we in the West have not known what to do about spiritual power. And even now, when the issue has become one of wide-ranging discussion, most evangelicals continue to be uncomfortable with the subject.”[5]

Perhaps one of the reasons why we struggle with the power question is that we struggle with an even deeper root problem: that is Christian experience. How can power be measured if not by experience? Only the whole concept of experiencing God does not seem to be prominent in our church – in your church? – even resisted. Again, it is Charles Finney who is unpacking the problem. He said: “I find many people trying to grasp with their intellect, and settle as theory, questions of pure experience. They are puzzling themselves by trying to comprehend with the mind what is to be received as a conscious experience through faith” (Charles Finney: Power From God, New Kensington: Whitaker House 1996, 48-49). “Students are pressed almost beyond endurance with study and developing the intellect, while scarcely an hour in a day is given to instruction in Christian experience … But religion is an experience. It is a consciousness. Personal fellowship with God is the secret of the whole of it … real heart-union with God … “ (Charles Finney: Power From God, New Kensington: Whitaker House 1996, 51).

Charles Finney becomes even more challenging in the following words – I quote: “I have met with this erroneous notion of the nature of Christian faith almost everywhere since I was first licensed to preach. Especially in my early ministry I found that great stress was laid on believing ‘the articles of faith,’ and it was held that faith consisted in believing with an unwavering conviction the doctrines about Christ. Hence, an acceptance of the doctrines, the doctrines, the DOCTRINES of the Gospel was very much insisted upon as constituting faith. [But] these doctrines I had been brought to accept intellectually and firmly before I was converted. And, when told to believe, I replied that I did believe, and no argument or assertion could convince me that I did not believe the Gospel. And up to the very moment of my conversion I was not and could not be convinced of my error.

At the moment of my conversion, or when I first exercised faith, I saw my ruinous error. I found that faith consisted not in an intellectual conviction that the things affirmed in the Bible about Christ are true, but in the heart’s trust in the person of Christ. I learned that God’s testimony concerning Christ was designed to lead me to trust Christ, to confide in His person as my Savior; that to stop short in merely believing about Christ was a fatal mistake and inevitably left me in my sins … ” (Charles Finney: Power From God, New Kensington: Whitaker House 1996, 140).[6]

This is not a popular word. At first, Finney – when he accepted Bible doctrines with his mind only – at that time he was certain that he was a Christian – he could not be convinced otherwise – but then he saw his error – which could also in some degree be our error.

In another place he spells it out even more clearly – I quote him again: “ … From personal conversation with hundreds and I may say thousands of Christian people, I have been struck [that] … they stopped short in the Scriptures … They read and perhaps search the Scriptures to learn their duty and to learn about Christ. They intellectually believe all that they understand the Scriptures to say about Him; but when Christ is thus commended to their confidence, they do not by an act of personal loving trust in and committal to Him so join their souls to Him as to receive from Him the influx of His life, and light and love. They do not by a simple act of personal loving trust in His person receive the current of His divine life and power into their own souls. They do not thus take hold of His strength and interlock their being with His. In other words, they do not truly believe. Hence, they are not saved … ” (Charles Finney: Power From God, New Kensington: Whitaker House 1996, 143-145).[7]

Believing with our brains only is not enough and does not save us. Faith in God is trusting God and is – according to Charles Finney – an experience of receiving from him: life, light, love and power. If we have no awareness of that – if as a church we can no longer even talk about that – then we are in trouble because the Bible agrees with Finney and others – including Luther.[8] There is no faith without experiencing God.

You may quote the Bible and say that according to 2 Corinthians 5:7: “We live by faith, not by sight” – but two verses earlier the same Bible passage confirms that we do indeed experience God – I quote – 2 Corinthians 5:5: “ … God … has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” Yes – there is much that we do not yet understand – there is much that we do not yet see (not by sight) – and there is plenty of frustration in our mortal bodies – there is the cross of discipleship – but – as Christians – we are not without an experience of God. We experience the deposit of the Holy Spirit who is guaranteeing what is to come.

The Bible makes the same point over and over again – Romans 8:14: “ . those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.” Romans 8:16: “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” Galatians 4:6: “ … God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’ … “ 1 John 4:24: “ … this is how we know that Jesus Christ lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.”[9]

These quotes may now bring us to a further field of neglect: the Holy Spirit – the baptism with the Holy Spirit –fillings and refillings with the Holy Spirit – and this is not surprising because any failure to understand spiritual power and experience can be traced back to a failure of understanding the Holy Spirit.

Hear a testimony from the evangelist Dwight Moody: “There was no disputing that Moody was empty in his soul … Two women in his congregation noticed this … while Moody preached they prayed in an obvious manner. ‘We have been praying for you,’ they said afterwards. This nettled him. ‘Why don’t you pray for the people?’ ‘Because you need the power of the Spirit.’ ‘I need the power?’ And Moody puffed. He had not a chance. ‘No opportunity was lost after that in urging upon him his great need.’ … he hid from them … but they set him thinking. [He said:] ‘I asked them to come and talk with me, and they poured out their hearts in prayer that I might receive the infilling with the Holy Spirit. There came a great hunger into my soul. I did not know what it was. I began to cry out as I never did before. I really felt that I did not want to live if I could not have this power for service.’ [But] it would not come: because he refused [his call to preach all over the land] … [One Friday] ‘Mr Moody’s agony was so great that he rolled on the floor and in the midst of many tears and groans cried to God to be baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire.’ Rolling on the floor in prayer was un-Moodylike … at that time Moody had been ‘continually burdened and crying to God for more power. He was always wanting to get a few praying ones together for half a day of prayer and would groan and weep before God for the baptism of the Spirit.’ The heavens remained brassy … For Moody would not place himself on the altar [not yield to God in his determination to stay in Chicago] … Moody began to pace New York streets at night, wrestling, panting for a Pentecost. In broad daylight he walked down one of the busiest streets … while crowds thrust by … The last chain snapped. Quietly, without a struggle, he surrendered. Immediately, an overpowering sense of the presence of God flooded his soul. ‘God Almighty, seemed to come very near. I felt I must be alone.’ He hurried to the house of a friend … ‘I want to be alone. Let me have a room where I can lock myself in.’ His host thought best to humour him. Moody locked the door and sat on the sofa. The room seemed ablaze with God. He dropped to the floor and lay bathing his soul in the Divine. Of this Communion, this mount of transfiguration, ‘I can only say that God revealed Himself to me, and I had such an experience of His love that I had to ask Him to stay His hand.’ … The dead, dry days were gone … Moody became . the man of God” (John Pollock: Moody Without Sankey, Fearn: Christian Focus Publications 1995, p94-101).

Moody was not impressed when two women suggested to him that he needed prayer for the baptism with the Holy Spirit and power. After all he had already been in the ministry for years. Likewise, we may not be impressed by the suggestion that – as seasoned Christians – we – nevertheless – need more of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Hear another testimony from a missionary: “John Hyde set sail for India after graduation in October, 1892, with mixed ambitions. To be sure, he wished to rescue the perishing among India’s millions, but he also hoped to make a name for himself, to so master the languages necessary that eventually he would become a missionary of fame. When he went to his cabin, he found a letter addressed to him in a familiar handwriting. It was that of a ministerial friend of his father, one whom the young man greatly admired for the depth of his spiritual life. As he read, he was startled. ‘I shall not cease praying for you, dear John, until you are filled with the Holy Spirit.’ Clearly the implication was that he was not so filled. ‘My pride was touched,’ he confessed later, ‘and I felt exceedingly angry, crushed the letter, threw it into a corner of the cabin and went up on deck. I loved the writer, I knew the holy life he lived. And down in my heart was the conviction that he was right and I was not fitted to be a missionary.’

Back to the cabin John went. ‘In despair, I asked the Lord to fill me with the Holy Spirit,’ he said, ‘and the moment I did this the whole atmosphere was cleared up. I began to see myself and what a selfish ambition I had. It was a struggle almost to the end of the voyage, but I was determined long before the port was reached that, whatever the cost, I would be really filled with the Spirit.’ When he arrived in India, he attended a meeting where, in no uncertain way, the fact was emphasized that Jesus Christ is able to save from all sin. When one of the listeners, at the close of the service, approached the speaker with the pointed question, ‘Is that your personal experience?’ John was extremely thankful that he had not been thus questioned. He acknowledged to himself that, although he had been preaching such a Gospel, experimentally he was a stranger to its power. Plainly there was no side-stepping the spiritual issue now confronting him. Without the baptism of the Holy Spirit experienced by the 120 at Pentecost in the upper room in Jerusalem, he was a complete failure. He retired to his room, saying to God, ‘Either Thou must give me victory over all my sin, or I shall return to America to seek there for some other work. I am unable to preach the Gospel until I can testify to its power in my own life.’

John was now where God wanted him. In simple faith, he looked to Christ for the deliverance from sin for which his heart was craving. He said later, ‘He did deliver me, and I have not had a doubt of this since. I can now stand up without hesitation to testify that He has given me victory’” (http://www.pawcreek.org/articles/testimonials/JohnHyde.htm).

John Hyde – like Dwight Moody – was not impressed when he received a note, saying: “I shall not cease praying for you, dear John, until you are filled with the Holy Spirit.” Both men – like many Western Christians today – had no idea that they were lacking more from the Holy Spirit. They did not understand the Bible on this matter and therefore they did not have the faith by which to receive the baptism with the Spirit. Furthermore, their incomplete repentance – their professional pride or resistance to surrender completely to God – delayed the infilling with the Holy Spirit.[10] Yet, when God finally answered their prayers, they experienced him. Moody needed to ask God to stay his hand because he had such an experience of his love. And then there was power in their ministry.

Jesus promised – all of us – power and subsequent experiences of the same by way of the Holy Spirit. He said – Acts 1:4-8: “ … you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit … you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; then you will be my witnesses … “ Jesus promised that we will do mission work – Romans 15:19: “by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit … “ What the apostle Paul explained also applies to us – 1 Corinthians 2:4-5: “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration [an experience] of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.”

The Bible is insistent on this – 1 Corinthians 4:20: “ . the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.” Ephesians 1:18-23: “ … you may know … his incomparable great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead … “ Ephesians 3:20: “ … able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power … “ 1 Thessalonians 1:5: “ … our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction … “ 2 Timothy 3:5: “[People that are] having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.”

We can finally return to the disciples who asked Jesus – Mark 9:28: “ … Why couldn’t we drive out the demon from the sick boy?” They were right to question their lack of power and Jesus answered them – Mark 9:29: “This kind can come out only by prayer and fasting.”[11]

“This [more powerful] kind can come out only by prayer and fasting.” When I recently gave a book on healing to a pastor friend, he glanced at it and then disapproved of what he read – saying to me: “The author is making such a strong point that the gift of healing is to be sought and prayed for with persistence but I think that a gift from God shouldn’t require so much effort on our part.” There are many in the church like him. Yet, listen to Jesus. He said: “This kind can come out only by prayer and fasting.” Therefore, do make an effort. Do step up. Do pray and do fast. Follow the advice of John the Baptism who declared – John 3:30: “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Be aggressive in decreasing. Power – ongoing power for healing – can be pursued and developed and nevertheless – at the same time – remain a gift from God because what child earns the provisions of his dad by keeping up the petitions? This is humanly speaking but even the nagging of a child does not earn him the new bicycle.

Jesus modeled what we are to do. The Bible records in Luke 5:16: “ . Jesus often withdrew [fasted from the world] to lonely places and prayed” – with the result that one Bible verse later – Luke 5:17: “ … the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick.”[12]

You and I – pray and fast. Jesus promised – all of us – power and subsequent experiences of the same by way of the Holy Spirit. Any kind of sickness will come out and be healed. Amen.

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[1] Cf. Charles Finney’s book Power From On High as a pdf file on the internet.

[2] Michael Scott Horton, ed.: Power Religion. The Selling Out Of The Evangelical Church? Vereeniging: Moody Press 1992.

[3] Charles Kraft: Confronting Powerless Christianity. Evangelicals And The Missing Dimenson, Grand Rapids: Chosen Book 2002, p7-8.

[4] Cf. Gary Greig & Kevin Springer, eds.: The Kingdom And The Power. Are Healing And The Spiritual Gifts Used By Jesus And The Early Church Meant For The Church Today? Ventura: Regal Books 1993.

[5] Charles Kraft: Confronting Powerless Christianity. Evangelicals And The Missing Dimenson, Grand Rapids: Chosen Book 2002, p17.

[6] The quote continues thus: “When I had intellectually accepted the testimony concerning him with an unwavering belief, the next and the indispensable thing would be a voluntary act of trust or confidence in his person, a committal of my life to him, and his sovereign treatment in the cure of my disease. Now this illustrates the true nature or psychology of faith as it actually exists in consciousness. It does not consist in any degree of intellectual knowledge, or acceptance of the doctrines of the Bible. The firmest possible persuasion that every word said in the Bible respecting God and Christ is true, is not faith. These truths and doctrines reveal God in Christ only so far as they point to God in Christ, and teach the soul how to find Him by an act of trust in His person.

When we firmly trust in His person, and commit our souls to Him by an unwavering act of confidence in Him for all that He is affirmed to be to us in the Bible, this is faith. We trust Him upon the testimony of God. We trust Him for what the doctrines and facts of the Bible declare Him to be to us. This act of trust unites our spirit to Him in a union so close that we directly receive from Him a current of eternal life. Faith, in consciousness, seems to complete the divine galvanic circle, and the life of God is instantly imparted to our souls. God's life, and light, and love, and peace, and joy seem to flow to us as naturally and spontaneously as the galvanic current from the battery. We then for the first time understand what Christ meant by our being united to Him by faith, as the branch is united to the vine. Christ is then and thus revealed to us as God. We are conscious of direct communion with Him, and know Him as we know ourselves, by His direct activity within us. We then know directly, in consciousness, that He is our life, and that we receive from Him, moment by moment, as it were, an impartation of eternal life” (Charles Finney: Power From God, New Kensington: Whitaker House 1996, 140-142).

[7] The importance of understanding the Word of God and accepting the truth by faith is emphasized in another quote from Charles Finney: “With some the mind is comparatively dark, and the faith, therefore, comparatively weak in its first exercise. They may hold a great breadth of opinion, and yet intellectually believe but little with a realizing conviction. Hence, their trust in Him will be as narrow as their realizing convictions. When faith is weak, the current of the divine life will flow so mildly that we are scarcely conscious of it. But when faith is strong and all-embracing, it lets a current of the divine life of love into our souls so strong that it seems to permeate both soul and body. We then know in consciousness what it is to have Christ's Spirit within us as a power to save us from sin and stay up our feet in the path of loving obedience” (Charles Finney: Power From God, New Kensington: Whitaker House 1996, 142).

[8] Martin Luther: “No one can correctly understand God or His Word unless he has received such understanding immediately from the Holy Spirit. But no one can receive it from the Holy Spirit without experiencing, proving, and feeling it. In such experience the Holy Spirit instructs us as in His own school, outside of which nothing is learned but empty words and prattle” (W. VII, 546, 24ff; LW 21, 299).

Martin Luther’s Preface to the Epistle to the Romans: “ … ‘Faith’ is not the human notion and dream which some regard as faith. When they see that it is not followed by an improvement of life nor by good works, while they are, nevertheless, able to hear and talk much of faith, they fall into the error of saying: Faith is not sufficient; we must do works if we want to become godly and be saved. The reason is because, when hearing the Gospel, they go to work and by their own power frame up a thought in their heart which says: I believe. That they regard as genuine faith. But, inasmuch as it is a human figment and thought of which the inmost heart is not sensible, it accomplishes nothing and is not accompanied by any improvement.

On the contrary, faith is a divine work in us, which transforms us, gives us a new birth out of God, John 1:13, slays the old Adam, makes us altogether different men in heart, affections, mind, and all powers, and brings Martin Luther’s Preface to the Epistle to the Romans with it the Holy Spirit. Oh, it is a living, energetic, active,mighty thing, this faith. It cannot but do good unceasingly. There is no question asked whether good works are to be done, but before the question is asked the works have been done, and there is a continuous doing of them. But any person not doing such works is without faith. He is groping in the dark, looking for faith and good works, and knows neither what faith is nor what good works are, although he indulges in a lot of twaddle and flummery concerning faith and good works.

Faith is a living, daring confidence in the grace of God, of such assurance that it would risk a thousand deaths. This confidence and knowledge of divine grace makes a person happy, bold, and full of gladness in his relation to God and all creatures. The Holy Ghost is doing this in the believer. Hence it is that a person, without constraint, becomes willing and enthusiastic to do good to everybody, to serve everybody, to suffer all manner of afflictions, from love of God and to the praise of Him who has extended such grace to him.

Accordingly, it is impossible to separate works from faith, just as impossible as it is to separate the power to burn and shine from fire. Accordingly, beware of your own false thoughts and of idle talkers, who pretend great wisdom for discerning faith and good works and yet are the greatest fools. Pray God that He may create faith in you; otherwise you will be without faith for ever and aye, no matter what you may plan and do … “

[9] Jesus also experience power in the following instance: “Somebody touched me, for I perceived power going out from me” (Luke 8:46).

[10] Cf. Acts 2:38: “ … Repent and … you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

[11] “Fasting” is not included in important manuscripts of the Greek New Testament but the power principle of fasting is attested in the Bible.

[12] Cf. After Jesus spent prayer time on the Mt of Transfiguration, power descended on Jesus with the result that “as soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were were overwhelmed with wonder … “ (Mark 9:15) and “when the Spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into convulsion … “ (Mark 9:20).