I want to quickly revisit another confusion I've observed: that people will see a technique followed by a miracle a few times and conclude that this is the way to manufacture a miracle. We've found the key! The secret! If we just pray like this, or fast for this long, or say these things, or do it this way, we'll see miracles every time!

The immediate difficulty with this is that it is so secret that it's not in the Bible.

It sounds much more like using the Star Wars force than something relational that you need God for. Sure, we say that we need God and that it is God, but the way it's acted out is anything but. For if we know the formula to unlock God's power, aren't we in control? Aren't we pulling the levers now? Aren't we saying we can move God's hand? This is presumptive, not a humble relational approach.

Let's look at a common passage used to build a certain methodological approach:

Verse 21 is almost certainly an extra-biblical addition, and must therefore be discarded: "But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting". That goes against what Jesus was saying anyway—they needed faith, not technique.

So is Jesus saying here describing a technique, that you can have an impersonal force—called faith—and grow in your amount of force, and carte blanche throw your power around wherever you direct it? How could everything we've learned so far be thrown out the window?!

First, faith is not a force, let alone impersonal. Faith is always directed to someone or something, like an idol—or Jesus. It's trust. So the disciples here needed to have faith in Jesus that the power he gave to them was real, and have faith in what Jesus said they could now do.

It's like anyone who's about to do a hard thing, and needs encouragement. Take an athlete about to compete in a big game. Now, someone on the sidelines cheering them on doesn't mean all that much. But your coach, who knows you well, your strengths and weaknesses, to have them at your back, telling you that you can do it, means a lot. It gives you the strength to do it. That's a trust that you've developed in your coach. Now, if you didn't have faith in them, you may well give up, or try half-heartedly, and that simply is not going to cut it. That is what Jesus getting at here, that even though the disciples had been given authority over demons, if they did not use their authority, they were not going to have success. They had to believe the God-given way forward was the way that they could go, even though perhaps it seemed weird or unusual to them.

Second, in referring to the ability to move a mountain, Jesus is not saying that we can just decide to move a mountain of our own accord, without God's direction. It's faith that moves the mountain, and faith is not an impersonal force. So just like Peter had to ask Jesus to say "come" onto the water, so the moving of the mountain would need to begin with God's will (it's probably rhetorical too: the mountain is a problem). So we need to ask God for direction, and then have faith in what he says, and act on that basis. That is, we could move a literal mountain if Jesus said that you should ask for that. But if we don't have that direction, trying to do so would be more like having faith in our own abilities, not Jesus'.

We have examples of this when Elijah and later Elisha crossed the Jordan by way of miraculous parting of water (2 Kings 2:1-14). Some people suppose that these men of God had power in of themselves to direct whenever and wherever they pleased, independent of God. However, God had been directing Elijah's steps, sending him specifically to Bethel, Jericho, and the Jordan (2:2, 4, 6). At that point, we are not told what Elijah had heard, but he clearly has heard something since he knows he is about to go, he knows he has time to give something to Elisha, and he knows he is to be "taken from" Elisha (vv9-10). This is a highly relational experience. Notice that alignment of will. God had most likely told Elijah to go beyond the Jordan, so either Elijah figured he could rely on God to do this miracle parting for him, or God told him directly to do what he did (take his cloak and hit the water with it).

Then, when Elisha crossed back, now with Elijah's cloak, having asked for "a double portion of the prophetic spirit that energizes you" (v9b, NET):

It sounds like Elisha is directing God. But this is much more like Gideon's fearful putting out of a fleece, looking for encouragement. Elisha doesn't know if his prayer has been answered (for a double portion). He figures that if God parted the waters for Elijah, then if he's been given double of the amount of the Spirit that Elijah had, then he should be able to similarly. But he's not sure. Was this presumption? No—it was a request. Was this commanding the water directly? No—it was done through God's answer to Elisha's request. Could Elisha just do whatever magical power he wanted to at any time? No—this was in alignment with God's will, and God chose to honour Elisha's request.

As this comes up again and again: it's not about technique! Look at how some non-Christians tried to copy the technique and failed miserably:

So we find yet again that the power is not in a particular set of words, actions, or mannerisms, but rather the power is in God. That means only a Christian with a good relationship with God can do miracles this way (there is another way, via demonic powers, where they do use spells and techniques. Reading on, we find that path was repented of and their spell books burned, Acts 19:17-20).

So, don't use the force or seek out a spell-like formula. Simply come to God and ask for direction. "Do we go up to battle?"

"Oh but I know God already wants this." Ok, maybe, but you still need to ask whether it's the right timing now, and to ask for how to do it for this particular person. If you don't hear anything, it's not wrong to pray, but it is wrong to expect and demand that God sings to our tune. Perhaps instead of a quick vaccination approach (done in five minutes) God is looking for a long-term faithful discipler to go through the Bible with the person seeking help? Perhaps God may use a faithful conservative bible study group to develop long-term character and grounding in the Word (many of whom strongly believe in the Spirit's work to help them understand the Word, and the Spirit's work to grow fruit in us). Now that's a miracle working God!

Related: Faith AND Humility