Healed BY and THROUGH Obedient Trust in Jesus
I woke this morning to spend time in the Word and prayer, and He stopped me dead in my tracks as He revealed to me a promise FULFILLED from years prior. I burst into tears of worship and gratefulness as I recounted His faithfulness, loving care, and providence to me through the deepest pains imaginable. I saw so clearly His mercy to prepare me, equip me, and give to me BEFORE I walked into things. I saw a love that knew what lay ahead, and prepared my heart to cling to Him. To sustain me in the midst of what my eyes SAW and my heart FELT...His truth and character settled me into a deep abiding. A place of complete trust in HIM, and not my circumstances. To a place that wouldn't allow what I went through, to alter or distort who I believed He was, revealed clearly in Jesus. To be so desperate for Jesus, that I would push through everything just to touch His garment and be healed. A place of complete obedience, "dipping in the Jordan 7 times", and not coming short of FULL healing by only dipping 5 times.
Back in January 2023, He led me to fast, pray, and deeply seek Him. For around 3 days I shut myself up with the Lord in my house and my only aim was to seek and know Him. I was in Luke at the time, and there was a scripture that the Holy Spirit used to draw me in. It was all I could see, and the Lord was using it to speak to me and reveal things to me.
"But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land; and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elijah the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian. And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things."
I read it over and over, and was hungry to understand why only Naaman was healed. I knew of the story in the OT, so flipped to 2 Kings 5 and let the Holy Spirit speak to me. As I read 2 Kings chapter 4 and 5, the Lord gave me two very distinct promises and words for my life. I knew He promised me conception and birth, (I thought it would be another baby, but my best friend laughed and said "this is going to be a spiritual birth of something Kristin!) and I knew He promised me healing though I had no pressing wound at that moment. I wrote them down in my journal and bible and just sat there for a while, soaking in it, and unpacking it. I had NO idea what would lay ahead in the coming weeks, but I know without a doubt, the Holy Spirit led me there to prepare my heart.
Naaman was a commander of the Syrian army. He was "highly favored and a mighty man of valor" but he was a leper. This disease would touch every aspect of his life; physically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually. Oddly enough, his leprosy was not the result of some wrongdoing, known willful disobedience, or action exposing him to his affliction. Yet, if he wanted to be healed of his leprosy, he would need to humble himself and be fully trusting/obedient to what was spoken to him by Elisha. An Israelite servant girl that served Naaman's wife, spoke up in faith because she recognized God's power to heal. She suggested that Naaman seek healing from the prophet 'who is in Samaria'- Elisha himself. Naaman had sent a letter out to the King of Israel along with lavish gifts (from a heart that sought to BUY the gift of God instead of RECEIVE it). The king did NOT respond well to this letter and the interaction led to Elisha requesting Naaman to come to HIM. Here is the account that follows:
" Then Naaman went with his horses and chariot, and he stood at the door of Elisha's house. And Elisha sent a 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." But 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 heal the leprosy'. Are not the Abanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?" So he turned and went away in a rage. "
When I read that, the Holy Spirit was speaking so deeply to my heart. Full healing was offered to Naaman, all he really had to 'DO' ...was TRUST/ BELIEVE; genuine trust births action; a faith that receives. Yet in his hidden pride and preconceived ideas and expectations/preference (which we can easily come to worship instead of HIM) about HOW God should bring healing... he went away in a rage when confronted with the truth of receiving the very thing he was desperate for. Naaman basically wanted God to do a magic trick by waving his hand and healing come. But God was placing the responsibility back on Naaman to TRUST and OBEY His word. Naaman was so offended by Gods plan for his cleansing that he almost forfeited what was freely being given to him. Elishas humbling solution did not match Naaman's preconceived expectation of how he might be cured. Naaman's servants thankfully challenged him and for a second time this man of high status was led by those deemed beneath him...unlikely people bringing Gods heart and message. They questioned Naaman and he finally yielded in humble trust to the words of his servants and Elisha. He believed and moved forward in FULL faith dipping 7 times in the Jordan. This is a faith that doesn't just believe, but a true living faith that births action- that births a BEING. And by that obedient trust- his skin was restored. Naaman experienced something even more wonderful than his physical healing- He came to know intimately that Israel's God is the only true God. God transformed not only his diseased skin, but also his heart. God USED the physical healing, to bring about the deeper spiritual healing. God drew Naaman to himself through his leprosy that was not a result of something he had done. Yet full healing hinged on Naaman's obedient faith, not on God. The promise of full healing was given and couldn't be revoked by GOD- but it could be forfeited and unattained in unbelief by MAN. God wants us to cooperate with Him (which really is trusting Him and taking Him at His word) and by that, receive ALL He has for us. Naaman could have only dipped 5 times and become discouraged that healing hadn't come yet. He could have lived by sight, emotion, and reason...but he didn't. Sure there was a time of wrestling before submission, but God is able to handle our doubts and isn't surprised by them or turned away because of them. Naaman placed his faith on the sure Word from Him. And by that trusting faith...healing came. Healing didn't just partially come, it came fully and completely.
The walk of faith, places its security in the character of God and roots its being in His unchanging, steadfast word to us. It makes a decision to reject what our eyes see, and the circumstances that threaten to overtake us- and to live by faith in WHO HE IS, and His word to us. It is often a walk of patient endurance and active perseverance as we press towards Him. It is always walking by faith and not what our eyes see and heart feels. When the answer does not come to second time or the sixth time, faith does not quit. We shouldn't allow a lack of faith to cause us to fall short of Gods complete healing! He is beckoning to us, wooing us in, drawing us to HIMSELF- WE are the ones who give up to soon because we set our hope on what we see and feel instead of WHO HE IS and what He promises us! WE are the ones who come short and fail to obtain ALL HE HAS PROMISED TO US!!!!
Remember earlier when I said, "I had NO idea what would lay ahead in the coming weeks, but I know without a doubt, the Holy Spirit led me there to prepare my heart."? He led me in this truth because weeks later, I found out about another affair my husband had. Grief crushed and crippled me in the weeks to come. Some of the deepest pains and days filled with the most raw of laments. After MUCH wrestling, lament, prayer, counsel, counseling, guidance, comfort from THE Counselor, and my very close friends knowing my heart intimately- I knew this was not a result of something I did, it wasn't the result of some known willful disobedience, the pain I felt and the gaping wound I sit with wasn't the result of an action I did to expose me to this affliction/suffering- YET if I was to be completely healed; I knew that healing was to be found in trusting HIM and HIS word to me. This was not going to be a journey of traveling around the pain- but through it. With Him by my side, shouldering me through it ALL. I understood what the scripture meant, "By His wounds we are healed." My deepest pains, become my deepest and FULLEST healing. Nothing and no-one stood in the way of that- except my OWN belief (or lack of it). And the promise of a birth? That also was fulfilled! Just as my friend said- spiritually! A heart that saw HIM so clearly where I could stand in the midst of that all, and STILL believe this is who He is, "Love your enemies and do good, lend expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons (daughters) of the Most High; for He Himself is kind/gracious to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful." (I KNOW this is ONLY Him, because this is NOT the Kristin I used to be!) And this wasn't going to be a "one time thing". This truth would carry me through another betrayal by my husband and eventually an unwanted divorce. Fast forward to today... January 2025... YET healing has come, and THAT is why I was weeping this morning in tears of gratitude, worship, and awe; because He was revealing to me how HE has brought healing to my heart and life; FULL and COMPLETE healing despite the circumstances of my life that remain. Full healing is found only in Jesus and I have a heart of gratitude because of that!
Lyrics from my favorite song the Lord woke me up to one morning while my heart was in the deepest of agony and pain from betrayal. I had never heard it before but it ministered DEEPLY to me and paved the way for the year to follow.
Preference by Rachel Morley
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