A few days ago I set aside a day to cry out to God about an impossible situation. I am reading through the book of Mark, and that day I came upon four stories of Jesus that struck me deeply. They're found in Mark 4:35-5:43.

In each of these four stories, Jesus faces the absolutely impossible and demonstrates his authority over it.

In the first story, Jesus rebukes a storm and commands it to stop. He and his disciples are in a small boat crossing a lake and are in danger of being swamped by the waves and drowned. Instantly, at Jesus' command, the wind and the water are still. Jesus demonstrates his authority over the forces of nature.

In the second story, Jesus faces an incredibly demonized man, so oppressed "even his demons had demons", as a friend of mine puts it! As outcasts go, he was past it: he lived among graves, crying out and cutting himself ("self-harming", we'd call it). He had such supernatural strength from the demons that he couldn't even be bound by chains, because he'd rip them apart and run away again. No one could help him; he was a hopeless case. The best he could hope for nowadays would be to be sedated and locked in a secure psychiatric ward.

Yet with a word Jesus sends the demons to flight. The man is found by the curious townspeople wearing clothes and in his right mind. They're so terrified by this that they beg Jesus to leave (biggest mistake ever?) The man asks Jesus to allow him to follow him, but Jesus tells him to go home and tell his family what the Lord had done for him. What an incredible testimony! Can you imagine the scene when their son, brother, father arrives home, completely sane and full of joy, telling about this man Jesus who delivered him? So Jesus demonstrates his authority over demons.

The next two stories are intertwined. A synagogue ruler named Jairus begs Jesus to come and heal his daughter who is dying. As Jesus is on his way, crowds throng around him. A very ill woman is among them. She has suffered from a hemorrhage for twelve years and spent all she had on doctors, but the condition only gets worse.

Too shy to confront Jesus directly, she believes that if only she can touch the edge of his cloak, she will be healed. She presses through the crowd until she's within reach, grabs the hem of his garment, and instantly realizes that her condition is gone.

Jesus turns, perceiving that healing power has flowed out from him, and demands to know who has touched him. When the woman finds the courage to come forward, he comforts her: "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering." (Mark 5:34)

So Jesus demonstrates his authority over sickness and disease.

As Jesus is speaking to the woman, he's met by messengers from Jairus' house announcing that Jairus' daughter has died, and not to bother Jesus any more. Jesus ignores them and continues on his way. When he arrives he dismisses the mourners, takes the girl by the hand, and commands her to arise. Immediately she gets up and walks around, to the astonishment of the observers.

So Jesus demonstrates his authority over death.

These stories are tremendously encouraging to me in the situations I am praying for. Humanly speaking, they are just as impossible as the situations Jesus faced 2,000 years ago. Yet I know because of his authority over each of these impossibilities: nature, demons, sickness, and death, that he has authority over the situations I and those around me face today, and that I can believe him for that. The key to accessing his authority is faith.

For most of my life, I believed and was taught that these stories about Jesus were simply that: stories. They were things that happened 2,000 years ago, and the only practical relevance they had in our lives today was convincing us to believe that Jesus is the Son of God. We certainly couldn't expect him to do the same things today, or use them as examples for our lives.

I've since learned differently. But it's been a slow journey of shedding cynicism, fear, prejudice, doubt, and a host of other anti-faith sentiments, to the point where I can begin to look at Jesus with fresh eyes as the One who is "the same yesterday and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8). His authority has not changed. His power has not changed. His heart has not changed. He still has compassion for those caught in Satan's kingdom: those oppressed by sickness, sin, disease, demons, and death.

John tells us: "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work." (1 John 3:8). Jesus came to both announce and demonstrate the arrival of God's kingdom. He demonstrated it by forgiving sin, healing diseases, casting out demons, and raising the dead. All that opposes God in these areas is from the evil one.

The problem is not Jesus, but us. His kingdom remains the same; his authority is undiminished. The problem is with our faith. We do not believe Jesus to conquer the impossible in our lives and the lives of those around us, and we do not trust that the One who stilled the storms, cast out demons, healed the sick and raised the dead will do the same today.

We need our blindness to be removed, and spiritual eyes to see Jesus for who he really is: not what we have been taught that he is, or what we have experienced in our lives, or what the lies of the enemy tell us, but the Jesus of the Gospels, the Jesus who is the same yesterday today and forever. We need bold faith that falls at his feet like Jairus, knowing that we cannot do the impossible, but that he can. In short, we need faith.

When the messengers came to tell Jairus that his daughter was dead, Jesus said, "Don't be afraid; just believe." (Mark 5:36) When Jesus was on his way to raise another dead person, Lazarus, he said to Lazarus' sister, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" (John 11:40).

I was so struck by these four stories of Jesus conquering the impossible. In stark contrast, the very next story is about Jesus visiting his hometown. The people who heard him teaching were offended by him. They knew him. They knew his family. They knew where he was from. And it states "He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their lack of faith." (Mark 6:1-6)

I'm convinced that what I personally need is to fill my mind with the truth of who Jesus is and what he came to do. I need to believe that and act on it, rather than on the voices that loudly tell me otherwise. I need to step out in faith and ask him to do the impossible, that which humanly speaking cannot be. I need to cry out to him to give me the faith that I lack. The good news is that Jesus is gracious, and he will give even faith to those who admit their need of it.

The more I do that, the more I've seen him answer prayer in definite ways. It's encouraged my faith and made me confident to ask for more. I'm excited to see what he's going to do.