Mark 9:1-50 (NLT)
1 Jesus went on to say, “I tell you the truth, some standing here right now will not die before they see the Kingdom of God arrive in great power!”
2 Six days later Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up a high mountain to be alone. As the men watched, Jesus’ appearance was transformed,
3 and his clothes became dazzling white, far whiter than any earthly bleach could ever make them.
4 Then Elijah and Moses appeared and began talking with Jesus.
5 Peter exclaimed, “Rabbi, it’s wonderful for us to be here! Let’s make three shelters as memorials—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
6 He said this because he didn’t really know what else to say, for they were all terrified.
7 Then a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my dearly loved Son. Listen to him.”
8 Suddenly, when they looked around, Moses and Elijah were gone, and they saw only Jesus with them.
9 As they went back down the mountain, he told them not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
10 So they kept it to themselves, but they often asked each other what he meant by “rising from the dead.”
11 Then they asked him, “Why do the teachers of religious law insist that Elijah must return before the Messiah comes?”
12 Jesus responded, “Elijah is indeed coming first to get everything ready. Yet why do the Scriptures say that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be treated with utter contempt?
13 But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they chose to abuse him, just as the Scriptures predicted.”
14 When they returned to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd surrounding them, and some teachers of religious law were arguing with them.
15 When the crowd saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with awe, and they ran to greet him.
16 “What is all this arguing about?” Jesus asked.
17 One of the men in the crowd spoke up and said, “Teacher, I brought my son so you could heal him. He is possessed by an evil spirit that won’t let him talk.
18 And whenever this spirit seizes him, it throws him violently to the ground. Then he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast out the evil spirit, but they couldn’t do it.”
19 Jesus said to them, “You faithless people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”
20 So they brought the boy. But when the evil spirit saw Jesus, it threw the child into a violent convulsion, and he fell to the ground, writhing and foaming at the mouth.
21 “How long has this been happening?” Jesus asked the boy’s father. He replied, “Since he was a little boy.
22 The spirit often throws him into the fire or into water, trying to kill him. Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.”
23 “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”
24 The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”
25 When Jesus saw that the crowd of onlookers was growing, he rebuked the evil spirit. “Listen, you spirit that makes this boy unable to hear and speak,” he said. “I command you to come out of this child and never enter him again!”
26 Then the spirit screamed and threw the boy into another violent convulsion and left him. The boy appeared to be dead. A murmur ran through the crowd as people said, “He’s dead.”
27 But Jesus took him by the hand and helped him to his feet, and he stood up.
28 Afterward, when Jesus was alone in the house with his disciples, they asked him, “Why couldn’t we cast out that evil spirit?”
29 Jesus replied, “This kind can be cast out only by prayer.”
30 Leaving that region, they traveled through Galilee. Jesus didn’t want anyone to know he was there,
31 for he wanted to spend more time with his disciples and teach them. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies. He will be killed, but three days later he will rise from the dead.”
32 They didn’t understand what he was saying, however, and they were afraid to ask him what he meant.
33 After they arrived at Capernaum and settled in a house, Jesus asked his disciples, “What were you discussing out on the road?”
34 But they didn’t answer, because they had been arguing about which of them was the greatest.
35 He sat down, called the twelve disciples over to him, and said, “Whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else.”
36 Then he put a little child among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them,
37 “Anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes not only me but also my Father who sent me.”
38 John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone using your name to cast out demons, but we told him to stop because he wasn’t in our group.”
39 “Don’t stop him!” Jesus said. “No one who performs a miracle in my name will soon be able to speak evil of me.
40 Anyone who is not against us is for us.
41 If anyone gives you even a cup of water because you belong to the Messiah, I tell you the truth, that person will surely be rewarded.
42 “But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone hung around your neck.
43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand than to go into the unquenchable fires of hell with two hands.
45 If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one foot than to be thrown into hell with two feet.
47 And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. It’s better to enter the Kingdom of God with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell,
48 ‘where the maggots never die and the fire never goes out.’
49 “For everyone will be tested with fire.
50 Salt is good for seasoning. But if it loses its flavor, how do you make it salty again? You must have the qualities of salt among yourselves and live in peace with each other.”
The realm our new creation has entered in Christ is not one that will be understood by our prior experience in the natural, physical, and material realm. We’ve been born again by the Spirit where our nature and power are developing on a level far above that of the visible world around us. Even though the disciples could experience the effects of where Jesus operated, there was still a great barrier for them when they observed Him conversing with Elijah and Moses, casting out the demon from the boy, talking about rising from the dead, servant leadership, the reality of hell, etc. Even though He had been teaching them and they had been living with Him for 2-3 years and yet they were baffled went attempting to understand this realm Jesus was flowing in easily.
Jesus indicated that we would receive the same authority, power, and understanding that He was flowing in. It was something He had been developing and growing in since childhood and was more real than the physical world He walked in. For these fishermen He had chosen as His replacements there would need to be an acceleration of this spiritual perception and understanding. In the reception of the Spirit there was this gift that would be that way from the limited natural to the unrestricted spiritual. Evidence of this transition would be the words that were spoken, no longer restricted by the mind’s vision and verbiage, but a release of a spiritual flood that was not of this world. With this gift would also be the way to spiritual perception that loses impression with the power of evil in its Spirit fulness. (Jesus addressed the demon as the one keeping the boy from hearing or speaking, not even acknowledging his dramatic forcing of convulsing that had shocked the disciples.)
This is what we’ve received, then, that, like a gift, has to become a familiar and well-used application for it to be fully functional, replacing the former go-to’s. This was surely not Jesus first “going to the mountain.” It was something that was a pattern of His gratification and necessity for life – going to the place where fixation in the spirit was given intentional focus to the exclusion of the world below. His ability to operate with unrestricted power came from this fully developed spiritual perception that saw the source and the motive of everything that was done, putting everything in its place as being either for the kingdom or dangerously for the world. In the cutting off of anything that would decide actions and motives, there was enabled following of Him by the Spirit to that realm where eternity squashes temporary in undefeated power and strength.
The Spirit we’ve received will be everything Jesus promised, but will not be understood or functional from a natural or worldly understanding. The light that enters with understanding by the Word will be given clarity and perception when there is ascension to the higher place in Him by the Spirit for moments of intentional fixation on Him, far above those meaningless notions of the worldly realm below. Spiritual dominance, and kingdom service will be enabled to operate unhindered by the dictates of flesh that has died so that Christ alone can live inside.