"Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting."
Which kind is He speaking of and how come only by prayer and fasting.
I say
First you need to understand who Matthew is Speaking to ---He speaks to a Jewish audience so the Jewish audience is going to be familiar with the scriptures on Prayer and Fasting ----
Fasting in the Old Testament was done to get God to move in ones life it accompanied Prayer ----Fasting and prayer was used to get healing in the Old Testament ------
This is the Scripture you speak of
Matthew 17:14-21
New Matthew Bible
14 And when they had come to the people, a certain man came to Jesus and kneeled down to him and said,
15 Master, have mercy on my son,
for he is delirious, and is sorely vexed. And often he falls into the fire, and often into the water.
16 And I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.
17 Jesus answered and said, O generation faithless and perverse, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him here to me.
18 And Jesus rebuked the devil, and he came out of him. And the child was healed even at that same hour.
19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and asked, Why could we not cast him out?
20 Jesus said to them, Because of your unbelief. For I say truly to you, if you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, Move over there, and it would move; neither should anything be impossible for you to do.
21 However, this kind does not go out but by prayer and fasting
So to answer your Quote here
Which kind is He speaking of and how come only by prayer and fasting.[/QUOTE]
I say ----
Some demons are more powerful than others ----and this that was in the Boy had been there for a long time --as this same Scripture is in Mark 9 and tells you the demon was in him since he was young boy ---so the demon had taken root there -----so the Disciples I think were probably scared of this wicked demon and their belief in their own ability wavered and they were unable to extract this demon ----this needed strong Faith and Like I said the fasting was used in the Old Testament to Get God to move ----so the 2 prayer and fasting was needed to get this demon out ------this demon was pretty brutal and cause this boy a lot of harm
Jesus said this to His Disciples -----verse 20 ---so scripture will always answer scripture -----you just need to know where to look ---
20
Jesus said to them, Because of your unbelief. For I say truly to you,
if you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, Move over there, and it would move; neither should anything be impossible for you to do.