Continuing on our reflection on following whatever He tells you without second thoughts, we now meditate on the story of the healing of Naaman from leprosy. Despite being a foreigner, the Lord sent Elijah to him, using the prophet as His shadow of healing. May his story remind us that humility is a needed factor in realizing the blessings God bestows upon us. If we let pride get in our way, our souls will remain in the dirt. If God opens a path for us, we have no other choice but to walk down it, however unorthodox or questionable it is. He does not lie. He does not falter in His faith. After all, He is the Way!
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Whatever He Tells You To Do, Do It (Part 4)
We’re going to be continuing on with our series titled Whatever He Tells You to Do, Do It. Before we dive into that, we’re going to recap a bit. As we always do, take a moment and acknowledge God and pray. I thank you, Heavenly Father, for the opportunity to get at the feet of your Son, Jesus, and to hear His word. I pray that you give to each and every one of us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Jesus. Let the eyes of our understanding being enlightened all the more God that we may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the fullness of the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is that exceeding greatness, God, of His power towards us who believe according to the working of His mighty power. I thank you, Jesus, that you will expound on the scriptures to us about the things concerning yourself.
You will open our eyes, enlighten the understanding even of our hearts and bless us God to know you more, to love you more, to see your heart of love for us and even your plan for us. I even pray, God for a rhyme of word. I even pray that in your light, we will see the light that even as we get at Jesus’ feet right now and hear His word, that you will speak to the particular situations and circumstances that we’re in, the direction that people long for a need, God, you will give to them. God, even you will speak the solution and the way to go, even for people who don’t even know God that a problem exists.
I thank you that you’ll give it to them, God and I thank you that fruit is being born in our life that as we behold Jesus, your Holy Spirit is going to work inside of us and transforming us effortlessly into His very same image. God, I thank you that we’re not struggling or striving to be more like Christ or to have the character of Christ. I thank you that as we simply get at the feet of Jesus and hear Him, you’ll Holy Spirit, God is transforming each and every one of us into His same image for as He is so are we in this world in Jesus’ name, amen.
His Ways, Not Ours
Let’s take a minute and recap a bit about what God was showing us in this particular series and how He was reminding us of the power of following Christ in our everyday lives and decisions, not in those major things, but in all things. God was also reminding us that His ways are not our way are our ways. As high as heaven is above the earth, so are high are His ways above our ways and His thoughts above our thoughts. We must keep that in mind that although God gives us wisdom, and that’s a measure of wisdom and that’s good. He’s making us wise. He wants us to ask for wisdom. He’s saying when you do so, He gives it freely without finding fault. We must remember that God is wisdom. He is all-knowing. Christ has been made unto us wisdom. Jesus Christ is wisdom. It’s a difference between being wisdom and giving someone some wisdom. He’s the source where the wisdom comes from.
If ever we’re in a particular situation where God is saying to go one way, logic and reasoning in and of ourselves, what we know and what we believe to be wise is saying go another way. We definitely need to choose the way that God tells us to take because His reasoning, His knowledge, His understanding, His wisdom is in no way limited at all. Ours, even if God has made us wise, He, Himself has caused us to grow in knowledge and understanding. We still don’t possess all knowledge, all wisdom and all understanding. We are to be led by Him. God was reminding me right before I got ready to speak to you all about the Bible verse that says, “Lean not to your own understanding but in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.”
This particular Bible verse has within it about our understanding. That’s our wisdom, our limited knowledge. Although it is knowledge, it is wisdom and even came forth from God, it’s still limited. We’re not to lean on it in a way that is to the detriment of acknowledging God, not even asking Him for direction. It’s certainly not to be to the detriment of when God tells you to do something, you don’t do it because it doesn’t make sense to you or you think there’s a better way to handle it. Absolutely not. I don’t care how wise God has made me. I’m laying my wisdom down and I got a roll with Him. We want to remember even Psalms 119 and 105, this is the New Living Translation version. As you know, I usually read from the New King James version. God’s word is a lamp to our feet and it’s a light our path.
God, His word will illuminate the way in which we should take, the way in which we should go. It’s like His word has a way of highlighting. You go that way, you need to go this way, you need to hire this person, you need to let go of that person or you need to get employed at this job or you need to move to that city. It’s important that we do that because life is much like a road we take and we go different turns, different directions and meet people along the way. We all have the destiny to fulfill here on the earth when you’re called by God. Our ultimate destiny, when God brings us home and to be with Jesus face to face in heaven. We want to get our destiny fulfilled here on the earth.
We want to accomplish the purpose of God that He has for our life and for our families. The only way to do that is to be led by Him for He alone knows the way to take. Remember Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” I love that He adds the truth with it. When Jesus tells you the way to go, He’s the truth. That is the way. Even if it’s unorthodox, even if it doesn’t make sense to you, even if it defies all logic and reasoning, it’s the way. Jesus cannot lie for after all, He said, “I am the truth.” We looked at several examples so far in this series.
The Miracle Of Luxury
One of my favorites was the first one we looked at where Jesus turned the water into wine at that wedding when she let Him know the problem. That couple’s out a wine but the wedding celebration is still going on. You don’t want the wine to run out and the weddings deal going on. I love how it was a miracle of luxury and not a miracle of necessity. I love how Jesus responded to Mary. “Woman, what does that have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” That would seem like a denial but Mary, the mother of Jesus, knowing Him. I don’t mean knowing Him as her son. She knew Him as the son of God because Mary, having other children, didn’t ask any of them or didn’t tell any of them about the problem because she knew none of them could turn water into wine or could fix it.
She might not have known the way Jesus was going to fix it but she certainly knew He was the son to go to. She didn’t appeal to Him as her son like, “Do what your mom says.” No, she appealed to Him as the son of God, the one with whom nothing is impossible. That’s what she did. I’m remembering how the angel told her she would be pregnant with Him even without knowing a man. This woman knew that she’d given birth to God in the flesh. That with God, all things are possible. She knew that quite like maybe some other people may never know. She, after all, was impregnated as a virgin. I love how it seemed like a denial. Mary pushed past that because she knew the heart and the power. She didn’t know that Jesus was able.
Something in Mary knew His heart of love, not for her because remember, Mary didn’t ask Him to do something for her. She asks Him to do something for the married couple. We can say He did it, “That was His mom.” No, God’s not a respecter of persons. The Bible tells us that twice. That’s nice, God says it twice. If He says it once it’s important. If He says it twice, get ready to take notes and memorize that scripture. It’s super important. God says that he’s not a respecter of persons and Mary wasn’t asking for herself. God showed me she didn’t appeal to Him as her son. She appealed to Him as the son of God because she had other children. They wouldn’t have been able to help that couple with that.
She knew who could and she didn’t know His power, His hand, but she also knew His heart and His heart was to do that. His heart was to give is, to serve. The Bible says that the son of man didn’t come to be served but to serve and to give His life a ransom. She knew the heart of Jesus was to help and to bless. Jesus never came here for us to wait on Him hand and foot. Jesus knows that He has no need for anything. It’s us who need Him, not the other way around. He’s God, we’re the people. He’s the healer, we’re the healed. He’s loved, we’re beloved. He’s the savior, we’re the saved. He’s the deliverer, we’re the delivered. Jesus knows His place and His role in this whole movie called life. When we take our place and let Him lead us and trust that not only is He the way but He’s also the truth.
It is hardest to give to us, not to supply our needs but to even bless us with those things that are considered a luxury and the desires of our heart. After all, it’s written, “Delight yourself in me and I will give you the desires of your heart. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you.” God is good. We talked about some other ones too but if you didn’t get a chance to read that, I want to encourage you to go back and definitely do so. Get everything that God wants you to have. Soak it all up. If you have already, so get up again.
After all, faith comes by hearing the word of Christ. We need that. We’re going to look at something God showed me in 2 Kings chapter 5. I am going to be reading from the New King James version. My usual go-to. We’re starting at verse one, probably going up to about verse fifteen, if I remember correctly. Bear with me and follow along. Let’s take out and read what God was showing me. Let’s get everything He’s got for us from this passage of scripture in this particular series.
Let’s start 2 Kings 5:1. It says, “Naaman, commander of the army of the King of Syria, was a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master because by him, the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was also a mighty man of valor but a leper.” I love how God starts out with this man’s accolades, these impressionable things he’s accomplished and done. The Holy Spirit making sure that these details are written on the pages or the scrolls back at that time for us to be able to glean from, to eat from, and to nourish and God to speak to us through it. This is significant, God showed me. It says, “The Syrians had gone out on raids and had brought back captive a young girl from the land of Israel.”
She waited on Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “If only my master were with the prophet who’s in Samaria for he would heal him of his leprosy.” Naaman went in and told his master saying, “Thus and thus at the girl who is from the land of Israel.” The King of Syria said, “Go now and I will send a letter to the King of Israel.” He departed and took with him ten talents of silver, 6,000 shekels of gold and ten changes of clothes. He brought the letter to the King of Israel which said, “Now be advised, when this letter comes to you, that I have sent Naaman, my servant to you that you may heal him of his leprosy.”
It happened when the King of Israel read the letter that he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God to kill and make alive that this man sends a man to meet a heal him of leprosy? Therefore, please consider and see how he seeks a quarrel with me.” This guy is freaking out. He’s like, “You want me to heal him of what?” This guy knew His place. “God is the healer. He’s the healer. What are you coming to me for? I’m a man like you. What? You need to go to God. That’s what I would do. You need to do what I would do. I would pray to God, not to a person.” It says, “It was when Elijah, the man of God, heard that the King of Israel had torn his clothes that he sent to the King saying, ‘Why have you torn your clothes?’ Please let them come to me. He shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.”
We all know, maybe not all of us who are reading this. If you don’t, you certainly want to get to know about how God moved in the life of Elisha and Elijah. Elisha came after Elijah, as far as having that mantle. You all know that he got a double portion, in fact, of the anointing. He did twice as many miracles. Elijah and Elisha are pictures of Jesus’, shadows of Him in the Bible. Keep that in mind when God does it, it’s definitely God moving through Elisha like it is in many other instances in the word of God and particularly in this book, 2 Kings.
It says, “Then Naaman went with his horse and his chariot and he stood at the door of Elisha’s house. Elisha sent the message in messenger to Him saying, ‘Go and wash in the Jordan seven times and your flesh shall be restored to you and you shall be clean.’” Naaman became furious and went away and said, “Indeed I said to myself, he will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God and wave his hand over the place and healed leprosy.” Let’s put a pin in this. At first here, we’re like, “Come on Naaman, you need to humble yourself. However, God wants to heal you, take it. Beggars can’t be choosers.” We want to give them that speech.
If we keep it real, we have all been this guy at some point in time where we have it in our mind how we know it’s going to go. Of course. Even if you pray, we make the prayer and we go to God. He’s sovereign. We know we need Him. We know He’s able and we even know He’s willing. That’s a great thing, but then comes this mental movie that plays where we’re like starring this person and that person will be there. This one will be there to support me when it happens. My granny will be there to cheer me on. We have all these characters and everybody’s got their role. In our minds, we see it coming together and then God does what He almost always does and goes a whole other route.
He does it a whole other way, uses different people or no people at all. We’re like, “This can’t be God. What? I thought that God was going to do such and such. Surely, I thought this person would be in my life when this happened. Surely I knew by this age I would have been married.” We have all these mental movies we play when the truth is when we go to God, it should be more like when you go to a doctor. I’m not putting God on the same level, like bringing Him down to a doctor, even though doctors, for good reasons, can be esteemed. Thank God for them, their agents for the most part in the hands of God working about bringing forth healing and wholeness and even comfort to people.
That’s a wonderful thing when that’s done right, but God has so much greater. I want to say it for illustration purposes. It’s an illustration God gave me, so it’s good. When we go to doctors, we usually go to them and we tell them what’s wrong. We don’t tell them what’s wrong and diagnose the problem, write our own prescription, say how long we’re going to be on it and say when we’re going to follow-up. We usually leave all of that to the doctor. The only thing we usually do is say what the problem is and ask for help. After all, that’s why we’re there. With natural doctors, we are paying a pretty penny. Thank God for not making us pay Him.
God gives freely, but doctors have expenses and things like that. It makes sense but thank God for giving perfectly and not having office hours but available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, even if your insurance doesn’t cover it. He’s the best. We ought to treat our going to God more like going to a doctor in that sense. We do not go to the doctor and tell Him, “Give us two ccs of this.” We do not do that. We don’t say to the doctor, “Take a swab.” We layout the symptoms, which is the problem, ask them for help. “Can you help me with this? Do you know what this is?” We never try to scoot over and put on the white coat and take it from here after we see all the symptoms. We don’t do that. We stay in our places, the patient, we let them be the doctor.
How much greater should we do for God? God never commits malpractice, not intentionally. He doesn’t do anything that’s tantamount to malpractice intentionally or negligently. How much greater should we trust Him? When we have an issue, we got to be all right with letting God know the issue. Make yourself known. That’s wonderful. It’s good to tell God how you wish it would happen, you hope that they would be there, you want this and that. We got to trust that God knows best. I love how God puts this in the Bible with this guy because he is a clear demonstration of what we have all done at some point in time or another with God saying, “Surely, I thought it was going to go this way.”
He was offended. He was upset. He’s right on the heels of a breakthrough and a miracle, but because this miracle is not manifesting or the route that he asked to take to get to the miraculous destiny that he desires isn’t what he thought he would be, he’s offended. Instead of celebrating the fact that he is two seconds away from his breakthrough. Remember, they told him to dip seven times in the River Jordan, which is a pretty dirty river. He has leprosy. If you know anything about leprosy, you probably do. That skin condition is very bad, but it’s not leprosy, it’s beyond skin deep. It signifies sin itself. This man had this terrible skin condition. When you get healed of leprosy, the Bible calls it being clean. You’re being cleansed.
You want to be made clean because leprosy is dirty. It’s interesting that this prophet who represents God would tell Him in order to be made clean, dip not once, not twice, not 3 times but 7 times in the dirty Jordan River. This is what God meant by His ways are not our ways. This is why we cannot lead. I did a blog, maybe in 2019, that God had given me about reasoning versus faith. This man almost reasoned himself out of the very miracle that he needed, which is why we have to keep in mind what God said, “Lean not to your own understanding but in all your ways, acknowledge me.” I don’t care how much you thought it was going to go a certain way.
Even how much you desire it’s going to go a certain way, I almost urge you to lean not to that own understanding of yours but acknowledged God. He for sure is going to direct your path and He’s going to direct it perfectly and on time. You won’t be a second late with God. That’s for sure. The guy gets mad. It says, “He turned and went away in a rage,” because he already went and fussing about how the waters are dirty. It’s true but still, this is the way God told him to take. After all, our series is whatever God tells you to do, do it. That doesn’t make sense. You’re dirty already. You want to be clean. Dip yourself seven times in the dirty river, but I don’t care.
It seems illogical to dip into a dirty bottle of water and expect to come out clean. Thank God for humility that says, “Even if I don’t understand it, whatever He tells me to do, I’m going to do it.” His servant, thank God for a good friend that’ll talk you off the ledge, of leaping away from your miracle instead of towards it because of pride. The pride in like, “I would not, that’s beneath me.” Remember how the Bible talked about he was a commander and he got all these accolades at the beginning. The Holy Spirit put that there. We cannot allow pride to rob us basically of the miracles God wants to do in our life, for the transformation He wants to do on the inside of us and on the outside of us and be absolutely glorified in our lives because we feel like that’s beneath us.
Dominion And Power Through Humility
No, it’s not beneath us. Jesus is the son of the living God. Everything that was made was made by Him. He got on a heel that He made and hung His head and gave up His life and died for people who were doing nothing less than having their middle finger to Him at the time, spitting in His face. That represented all of us. He humbled Himself and love not His life, even to the point of death and even though he’s the King of all Kings. He says, “I didn’t come to be served. I came to serve.” That kind of prestige that He has, that kind of glory, that kind of majesty, dominion and power, and couple it with humility equals security in His identity.
He knows who He is, sweetheart. That’s why you get some people who are family’s established in long wealth. You’ll notice that they’re not flashy. You notice those people won’t wear the latest Jordans. They won’t even know what the latest Jordan looked like, how much they cost or where you can even buy them from. They have on Skechers and somebody looks at them and it’s like, “They got on is Skechers. That’s a billionaire.” It’s that they’re secure in who they are that they don’t need the outward adornment or the things that sometimes people will take pride in to mask their insecurity. I’m not saying you’re proud or you insecure if you wear Jordans. I’m simply saying sometimes the choice of outward adornment is a reflection of something that needs to be dealt with inside.
A lot of times it’s a lack of identity and certainly a lack of security. Jesus, knowing who He is, being secure in that is able to serve. People who are secure in who they are will get the door for you. Even if they are the keynote speaker that night, you’ll notice that somebody dropped something and they don’t let security pick it up. They’ll say, “I got it,” pick it up and hand it to the person, the so-called person that’s somebody in the audience. You can tell secure people. They are humble people. There’s something in them that serves well. Although they could sit in a position where they’re continually served, something in them wants to serve, bless and help people. This guy had almost let his pride kill him.
His miracle, his opportunity to have God glorified in his life and his opportunity to be healed of this treacherous, terrible disease, quite painful, in fact, and causing him to be ostracized. He almost missed his miracle because of pride. I felt from God to take time and point that out. We don’t want to do that. We don’t want to let pride if we feel like what God is telling us is beneath us. God says, “Forgive somebody.” We start saying, “They don’t deserve that.” No, come off that proud horse. Come back down here where Jesus says to take his yoke back upon you. Learn from Him. He’s gentle. He’s meek. He’s got a quiet spirit, a humble spirit. Let’s stay there because in the realm of humility is where God exalts you.
Joseph
Remember God gives grace and He exalts the humble but the proud are brought to shame humiliation and it leads to destruction. We do not want that. Also, it’s because the unfolding or unwrapping of the gift you’ve asked from God isn’t happening the way you thought it was, imagine the story of Joseph when God gave Him the dreams that He would go to leadership. I’m sure that Joseph didn’t think on the way to leadership, he would be betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, exiled to another country as a foreigner, stripped from his father and his younger brother who loved him and alienated from them for decades, it seemed like. I’m sure he didn’t think he would be falsely accused of raping a woman when he was telling her, “No, I want to honor your marriage. I want to honor your husband even if you don’t want to.”
He would end up in prison for something he didn’t do. I’m fairly certain Joseph didn’t see that coming. After all, his dreams didn’t reveal that part. Remember God when He prophesied, He prophesized in parts, so he didn’t see all of that coming. He didn’t know the road or the way that God would take him. Sure enough, what even looked like evil, and it was some evil in there, don’t get me wrong. To falsely accuse somebody and they end up in jail all for your false accusation is evil. No question. Especially a crime of rape, something of that immoral deprivation. That was wrong but nevertheless, God was using it and God was ordering His steps.
God was working behind the scenes, orchestrating things and allowing things that would happen to happen that would propel him, launch him into his destiny, come to find out. God made up for all the time that seemed like a delay or wasted years. No, God redeemed all of that time in an instant. He did it suddenly and redeem the time in an instant. I’m not even saying in a day. It wasn’t even in one hour. It was like in less than an hour, God redeemed each year’s worth of time. Nothing’s lost in the hands of God. Put it in His hands. It for sure won’t be lost. Not even your time. After all, Jesus is the Lord of time. Jesus doesn’t serve time. Time serves Him. He made time. Time didn’t create God. God created time. If there’s more time you need or time to redeem, that’s as simple as a prayer and some faith. That’s quite simple.
Pride Getting In The Way
I wanted to point that out because God showed it to me when I was going through this. It’s interesting not to let that pride get in the way and not to let those mental movies that we play in our minds sometimes. Not in a harmful way do we do it, but we imagine what it will be like. Sometimes what we imagine is nothing at all like what God is going to do but we can’t let that deter us. We can’t let that discourage us and we certainly shouldn’t let it anger us. He was enraged. The Bible says rage. He went away enraged. He wasn’t mad. He wasn’t disappointed. He wasn’t upset. Rage set in. He was mad that that didn’t go the way he thought it was going to go. We can’t get caught up in that. Let’s humble ourselves. God knows best. God didn’t sit down with every detail and promise you every little step along the way. He might’ve shown you the destination but He didn’t show you the route. He certainly didn’t show you everything and everyone that would go along with the route. He hasn’t lied to you. He loves you. He knows how to get you to where you need to be.
The servant spoke to Him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more than when he says to you wash and be clean.” Thank God for a good friend that’ll talk you down off that pride ledge before you jump. My mom does that with me. She’s like, “Vaughn, is that pride?” I’m like, “I do not know but I won’t wait around to find out. Father, in Jesus’ name, I renounce the pride. I renounce the big pride. I renounce the little pride. I renounce the absolute obvious pride. I renounce that hidden pride in a costume of humility in Jesus’ name. I want to get rid of that. I’m not waiting for you to get the devil out of here.”
I’m like, “Get him up out of here.” When I say out of here, I mean my heart. Do not do that because pride leads to destruction, shame and humiliation. I want nothing to do with either of the three of those things. He did it. The guy finally humbled himself. He went down and the Holy Spirit notice that it says he went down and saying he went down and he did dip seven times in the Jordan according to the saying of the man of God who the prophet represents God. He hears from God. He tells the people what God is saying. God told him to get in the Jordan River and dip seven times. You’ve come with a prayer, you need a way of escape. I’m telling you the exit plan. How to get out of there? He had the nerve to be enraged with the exit plan. He thought too much of himself. He thought more highly of himself than ought to but thank God, he did humble himself.
God is so gracious. The miracle was still waiting on him when he humbled himself. The Bible says his flesh was restored. Not only did leprosy go but his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child. He was clean. God always over answers prayers. Even though it seemed unorthodox, it seemed like he would make it worse. This man is trying to get clean and God tells him to dip himself in the dirty Jordan River. Not once, twice or 3 times but 7 times. Get dirty.
God’s ways are not our ways. They’re higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. He loves us and He always leads and guides us properly. After all, He is the way. We’re going to continue on with this series. We’re going to take a week off for New Year’s. Happy New Year to everybody for the holidays. We will be picking up with this series. Even after that, there’ll probably be a rerun playing during that time but know that I’m still with you. I love you. We are going to continue with this. I won’t leave it like this. I want to get you all everything that God has for you and everything that the Lord showed me pertaining to this.
Until then, may God continue to instruct and teach us in the way that we should go and guide us with His eyes, give us an ear to hear what the spirit of the Lord is saying. I thank you, God, for your promise that the spirit of truth will lead and guide us into all truth and teach us all things. We say yes and amen. We say, God, give us the courage and the humility that whatever you tell us to do, we do it, we do it timely. Thank you for your mantle and your blood is spread across and covers the mistakes we’ve made, the sins we’ve committed. We are clean, God. We are forgiven people. We receive your grace. We receive your forgiveness, we receive your direction, your instruction and all the manifold manifested blessings and promises that come along with God. We are letting you lead us for you are after all a good shepherd. In Jesus’ name. I love you. Have a happy and safe New Year. Try to follow these guidelines as best you can and stay safe. I’ll be talking to you soon.
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