Prayer, Fasting, and Faithfulness: The Orthodox Path to Casting Out Demons

Why Did the Disciples Fail? The Question at the Heart of Mark 9

There is a moment in the Gospel of Mark that has puzzled readers for centuries. A desperate father brings his tormented son to the disciples of Christ, and they cannot help him. When Jesus arrives and casts out the unclean spirit Himself, the disciples pull Him aside and ask the obvious question: "Why could we not cast it out?" (Mark 9:28). His answer is both simple and demanding: "This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting" (Mark 9:29).

That answer sounds almost too practical. We might expect Jesus to say, "Because your theology was wrong," or "Because you lacked a special gift." Instead, He points to a way of life. This article unpacks what the Orthodox Church has always understood that answer to mean - and why it matters profoundly for every baptized Christian today.

Understanding the Gospel Account (Mark 9:17–31)

A man in the crowd cries out to Jesus: his son has been afflicted from childhood by a spirit that throws him into fire and water, causes convulsions, and robs him of speech and hearing. The scene is harrowing. The boy foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and wastes away. This is not a vague spiritual malaise - it is vivid, violent, and real.

Jesus does not reframe the boy's condition as a medical problem to be managed. He addresses the spirit directly: "You deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again" (Mark 9:25). The Church Fathers consistently read this passage as a genuine encounter with demonic power, not a metaphor. St. John Chrysostom notes that Christ's authority over unclean spirits demonstrates His divine sovereignty over the entire invisible world.

Before the exorcism, the father utters one of the most honest prayers in all of Scripture: "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24). This cry has resonated across twenty centuries of Christian prayer precisely because it captures the human condition so perfectly - we are simultaneously reaching toward God and held back by our own weakness.

The Greek Word That Changes Everything: Pistis and Pisteuō

Much of the confusion in reading this passage comes from the way English translations handle a single Greek root. The words rendered as faith, belief, believe, and faithless in most English Bibles all derive from the same Greek family: the noun pistis and the verb pisteuō.

In classical Greek and in the Septuagint - the Greek Old Testament used by the early Church - pistis carries a rich meaning that includes trustworthiness, loyalty, and covenant fidelity, not merely intellectual assent to a proposition. When the Apostle Paul writes in Romans 1:17 that "the righteous shall live by faith," he is quoting Habakkuk 2:4, where the Hebrew word emunah means steadfast faithfulness and reliability.

Read through this lens, the exchange in Mark 9 becomes coherent in a new way:

• Jesus laments an unfaithful (apistos) generation - one that has broken covenant with God.
• He tells the father, "All things are possible to the one who is faithful" (pisteuonti).
• The father responds, "I am faithful - help my unfaithfulness!" (apistia).
• When the disciples ask why they failed, Jesus prescribes prayer and fasting - the concrete practices of faithfulness.

If the problem were simply insufficient intellectual belief, prayer and fasting would be a strange remedy. You do not fast your way into agreeing with a doctrine. But if the problem is a broken, inconsistent, half-hearted covenant relationship with God, then prayer and fasting make perfect sense: they are the very disciplines by which we re-orient our whole selves toward Him.

What the Church Fathers Teach About Demonic Influence

The Orthodox tradition has never been embarrassed by the reality of demonic activity. The Holy Fathers approach the subject with sobriety - neither sensationalism nor denial.

St. John Chrysostom

In his Homilies on Matthew, Chrysostom emphasizes that demonic power is real but strictly limited. Demons cannot compel a soul that cleaves to God. He writes that fasting is a weapon against the passions, and the passions are the doorway through which demonic influence enters. The disciplined Christian closes that door.

St. Basil the Great

St. Basil, in his homilies on fasting, connects bodily asceticism directly to spiritual warfare. He observes that the devil fell through pride and excess, and that the Christian defeats him through humility and self-restraint. Fasting is not punishment; it is the strategic posture of a soldier who knows his enemy.

St. John Climacus

The very saint whose memory the Church celebrates on the Fourth Sunday of Great Lent - the Sunday on which this Gospel is traditionally read - wrote the Ladder of Divine Ascent, a masterwork of Orthodox spirituality. St. John Climacus teaches that prayer and fasting together form a single ascetic unit. He writes: "Fasting is the violence done to nature... Prayer is the mother of virtues." Neither is complete without the other.

St. Athanasius the Great

In his Life of St. Anthony, Athanasius records how the great desert father combated demonic attack through unceasing prayer, strict fasting, and unwavering trust in Christ. Anthony's testimony is that demons are not defeated by clever arguments but by a life wholly surrendered to God.

Possession, Oppression, and the Ordinary Christian

The Orthodox Church distinguishes carefully between demonic possession (daimonizomai) - in which a demon exercises control over a person's body - and demonic oppression or influence, which is a far more common experience. Full possession is rare and typically involves some form of grave spiritual rupture: deep involvement in the occult, persistent grave sin, or a curse received through another person's malice.

But oppression - the experience of being harassed, tempted, confused, or spiritually dulled by demonic activity - is something every Christian faces. St. Peter warns: "Your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8). The Apostle Paul speaks of "the fiery darts of the wicked one" (Ephesians 6:16).

This is why the exorcism account in Mark 9 is not a curiosity from the ancient world. It is a mirror held up to every Christian life. We all need the power of Christ to drive out what does not belong - whether that is a demonic spirit in the extreme case, or the more ordinary but equally destructive grip of anger, lust, pride, despair, or addiction.

Baptism as the First Exorcism

In the Orthodox rite of Holy Baptism, the very first act is an exorcism. Before the catechumen enters the water, the priest breathes on him three times and prays prayers of exorcism, commanding every unclean spirit to depart. The candidate then faces west - the traditional direction of darkness - and renounces Satan, his angels, and all his works. Only then does he turn east and confess union with Christ.

This is not theatrical ceremony. It reflects the Church's sober conviction that every human soul, by virtue of living in a fallen world and participating in sin, has been touched by demonic influence. Baptism initiates the great reversal. But the reversal must be lived out daily.

As St. Cyril of Jerusalem explains in his Mystagogical Catecheses, the Christian life is a continuous extension of baptismal grace - a daily dying to the old self and rising in Christ. Prayer and fasting are the primary tools of that daily dying.

Prayer and Fasting as a Unified Spiritual Discipline

It is significant that Jesus does not say "prayer or fasting" but "prayer and fasting." The two belong together in Orthodox ascetic theology.

What Prayer Does

Prayer turns the whole person toward God. It is not merely reciting words; it is the orientation of the mind, heart, and will toward the divine Presence. The Jesus Prayer - "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner" - is perhaps the most concentrated expression of this in the Orthodox tradition. It combines confession, petition, and adoration in a single breath.

Regular prayer - the Divine Liturgy, Vespers, Matins, the Hours, and personal rule of prayer - structures time around God rather than around the self. This is itself an act of spiritual warfare, because the demons' primary strategy is to make us forget God.

What Fasting Does

Fasting disciplines the body so that the spirit may lead. When we deny the body its habitual satisfactions, we weaken the grip of the passions. The passions - disordered desires that have become compulsive - are precisely what demonic forces exploit. A person enslaved to gluttony, lust, or anger is far more vulnerable to demonic suggestion than one who has practiced self-mastery.

Orthodox fasting is not starvation or self-hatred. It is a loving re-ordering of the body's relationship to the soul. The Church prescribes fasting from meat, dairy, fish, oil, and wine on Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year, and more strictly during the four major fasting seasons - most intensely during Great Lent.

Together: A Way of Life

Prayer without fasting can become merely mental. Fasting without prayer can become mere dieting. Together, they constitute what the Orthodox tradition calls nepsis - watchful sobriety of the soul. This is the condition in which demonic influence loses its foothold.

Faithfulness Is Action, Not Feeling

One of the most pastorally important insights in this Gospel passage is that Christ does not ask us to manufacture a feeling of certainty. He does not say, "Believe harder." He prescribes a way of living.

Many Christians today suffer from what might be called a crisis of feeling: they do not feel close to God, they experience doubt, they struggle to pray with warmth or conviction. They conclude that they are failing at faith. But this misunderstands what pistis means in the Orthodox tradition.

Metropolitan Kallistos Ware writes in The Orthodox Way that faith is not primarily an intellectual act or an emotional experience but a personal relationship - a commitment of the whole self to the living God. Feelings will fluctuate. Doubts will arise. The question is not whether we feel certain, but whether we show up - to the Liturgy, to prayer, to fasting, to repentance, to acts of love.

The father in Mark 9 models this beautifully. He does not pretend to have perfect faith. He admits his unfaithfulness honestly. But he comes to Jesus anyway. He brings his son. He asks. That act of coming - despite doubt, despite weakness - is itself faithfulness.

Practical Orthodox Guidance for Spiritual Warfare

The tradition offers concrete, tested practices for those who sense demonic oppression or who struggle with sinful patterns they cannot seem to break:

• Confession and Holy Communion: The Mysteries of the Church are the primary means of grace. Regular confession removes the spiritual debris that gives demonic influence a foothold. Holy Communion unites us to the Body and Blood of Christ - the most powerful exorcism available to us.
• The Jesus Prayer: Practiced continuously, this prayer keeps the mind anchored in Christ and resistant to intrusive demonic thoughts.
• Keeping the fasting rule: Even partial observance of the Church's fasting calendar disciplines the passions and strengthens the will.
• Reading Scripture and the Fathers: The Word of God is itself a weapon. St. Paul calls it "the sword of the Spirit" (Ephesians 6:17). Daily reading nourishes the mind with divine truth.
• Holy water and blessed oil: The Church blesses water at Theophany and throughout the year. Orthodox Christians keep holy water in their homes and use it regularly. Blessed oil from a lampada or from holy unction is a means of grace for body and soul.
• Veneration of icons and the sign of the Cross: These are not superstitions but sacramental acts that invoke the presence of Christ and the saints and repel demonic influence.
• Obedience to a spiritual father: Pride is the demon's greatest ally. A trusted confessor or spiritual director provides the accountability and discernment that protect against both demonic deception and self-deception.

Great Lent as a School of Spiritual Warfare

The Orthodox Church assigns this Gospel reading to the Fourth Sunday of Great Lent - the Sunday of St. John Climacus - with deliberate wisdom. By the midpoint of the fast, many Christians feel the weight of the season. The initial enthusiasm of Clean Monday has faded. Fatigue sets in. Temptations intensify.

This intensification is not accidental. The tradition teaches that demonic opposition increases precisely when we are making spiritual progress. The desert fathers called this acedia - a spiritual torpor and restlessness that attacks the soul at its most vulnerable moments. St. John Climacus devotes an entire rung of his Ladder to this phenomenon.

The prescription is the same as Christ's: do not give up. Return to prayer. Return to fasting. Return to the Liturgy. The demons are not stronger than Christ. They are only stronger than a Christian who has abandoned the means of grace.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can an Orthodox Christian be possessed by a demon?

The Church teaches that a baptized Christian who lives faithfully in the sacramental life is protected from full demonic possession. However, grave and persistent sin, involvement in the occult, or abandonment of the sacraments can make a person vulnerable. This is one reason the Church takes confession, regular communion, and the fasting rule so seriously - they are not optional extras but the armor of the Christian life (cf. Ephesians 6:10–18).

Is the exorcism in Mark 9 relevant to people who are not possessed?

Absolutely. The Orthodox Church reads this passage as speaking to every Christian. We all have areas of our lives where sin has taken hold - anger, addiction, lust, despair. These are not full possession, but they are forms of demonic bondage. The remedy Christ prescribes - prayer and fasting, that is, faithful covenant living - applies to all of us.

What does "this kind" mean in Jesus' statement?

Patristic commentators, including St. John Chrysostom, understand "this kind" to refer to a particularly powerful class of demon - one that requires a more intense degree of spiritual preparation to overcome. This implies a hierarchy within the demonic world, a teaching consistent with St. Paul's reference to "principalities and powers" (Ephesians 6:12). It also implies that the disciples' failure was not due to a lack of authority in principle, but to a lack of the spiritual preparation that activates that authority.

Is fasting only about food?

No. Orthodox fasting encompasses abstinence from certain foods, but also from entertainment, idle conversation, sexual relations (by mutual consent, cf. 1 Corinthians 7:5), and any activity that dissipates spiritual attention. The goal is to free the whole person - body, mind, and soul - for greater attentiveness to God. Food fasting is the anchor of the practice, but it is meant to extend into every dimension of life.

Conclusion: Come to Christ Anyway

The Gospel of Mark 9 does not ask us to be spiritually perfect before we approach Christ. It asks us to come - with our tormented children, our broken families, our half-hearted prayers, our inconsistent fasting, our honest admissions of unfaithfulness. "Lord, I am faithful - help my unfaithfulness!" is not a prayer of failure. It is a prayer of extraordinary courage.

Christ does not turn away from that prayer. He heals the boy. He answers the disciples' question. He gives us the path forward: prayer and fasting - not as a magic formula, but as the shape of a faithful life oriented entirely toward God.

The demonic forces that harass us - through temptation, through passion, through despair, through the noise of the world - are real. But they are not ultimate. Christ holds all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). The life of prayer and fasting is the life lived under that authority, drawing on it daily, trusting it completely.

Do not give up. Return to the Liturgy. Return to the fast. Return to prayer. These things come out by nothing else - and by these, they most certainly do come out.

Further reading: Explore our articles on the Jesus Prayer, Orthodox fasting rules, and spiritual warfare during Great Lent to deepen your understanding of these essential Orthodox practices.