There aint No Ifs...All Things Are possible
17–18 A man out of the crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought my mute son, made speechless by a demon, to you. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and goes stiff as a board. I told your disciples, hoping they could deliver him, but they couldn’t.”
The spirit is called dumb (or mute) because the boy whom it possessed was mute (and deaf, as well, v. 25), presumably as a result of being possessed by the unclean spirit
Dumb spirit would be rendered in many languages ‘a spirit which makes him dumb,’ ‘a demon which keeps him from speaking’ or ‘a spirit which makes him so that he cannot speak.’ In some languages, however, dumb is rendered by an idiomatic phrase, e.g. ‘his heart is closed’ (Tzeltal), in which case it would be the spirit which causes this condition
Jesus said, “What a generation! No sense of God! How many times do I have to go over these things? How much longer do I have to put up with this? Bring the boy here.”
So the followers brought him to Jesus. As soon as the evil spirit saw Jesus, it made the boy lose control of himself, and he fell down and rolled on the ground, foaming at the mouth.
Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has this been happening?”
The father answered, “Since he was very young. The spirit often throws him into a fire or into water to kill him.
If you can do anything, do it. Have a heart and help us!”
23 Jesus said, “If? There are no ‘ifs’ among believers. Anything can happen.”
1. pistós, which is attested first, means a. “trusting” (also with the nuance of “obedient”) and b. “trustworthy,” i.e., faithful, reliable.
2. ápistos means a. “distrustful” and b. “untrustworthy,” “unreliable.”
3. pístis has the sense of a. “confidence,” “certainty,” “trust,” then b. “trustworthiness,” and c. “guarantee” or “assurance”
11 Now faith is the ||substance of things hoped for, athe evidence of bthings not seen. 2 For cby it dthe elders eobtained a good report. 3 Through faith we understand that fthe worlds were gframed by hthe word of God, so that things which are seen iwere not made of things which do appear.
strength, power, wealth’
6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for rhe that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is sa rewarder of them that tdiligently seek him.
23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth
25–27 Seeing that the crowd was forming fast, Jesus gave the vile spirit its marching orders: “Dumb and deaf spirit, I command you—Out of him, and stay out!” Screaming, and with much thrashing about, it left. The boy was pale as a corpse, so people started saying, “He’s dead.”
But Jesus, taking his hand, raised him. The boy stood up.
28 After arriving back home, his disciples cornered Jesus and asked, “Why couldn’t we throw the demon out?”
29 He answered, “There is no way to get rid of this kind of demon except by prayer.”