A treatment for pride

There is a sector of the Church of Jesus Christ that is a weak sector and with little experience in the supernatural movement of God, represented by the King of Israel, a mediocre man in his faith and definitely to some extent idolatrous who knows that God exists but does not He has experience with Him, his lifestyle does not lead him to have experiences of the supernatural God.

When the test comes into his life in the form of this blunt letter from the king of Syria asking him for miraculous action, the king tears his clothes, he believes that the king of Syria is looking for an excuse to wage war against him if he fails in the act. order that he gives to heal his servant, and sees everything in a negative way instead of seeing things from the supernatural perspective in which Elisha sees it, who does have experience with the supernatural power of God, and Elisha sees it as a way to exhibit and show that God is real and that God is true, and has the ability to do miraculous things.

There are two churches so to speak, there have always been. There are two types of servants in the Church of Jesus Christ: some who are religious and only know the literal part of the Bible, liturgy, religiosity, rituals but who do not know that explosive supernatural power, pure fire of the Holy Spirit and supernatural life, and therefore therefore they are not effective in the trials and challenges that come at the hands of the Church.

But there is another sector, like the prophet Elisha, who do know the mechanisms, the springs that move the Hand of God and that we want to be part of that supernatural people, we want to have supernatural experiences with God and that this people is needed in our time that can offer supernatural alternatives to authorities, even secular who do not know how to deal with the challenges of modern life, social, financial and political problems that they are facing.

A supernaturally illuminated Church is needed, with a supernatural experience of the power of God that can offer them that alternative of powerful solutions and I believe that God is preparing, in our time in fact, a scenario where the Church of Jesus Christ is going to be called to exercise authority. very powerful in the world and be a source of a word of wisdom and a solution to the nations, because a time of great harvest is coming where the Church of Jesus Christ will receive great authority, and great power, and great wisdom to be a prophetic voice that it cannot be ignored in the midst of nations.

And that is why Elisha tells the king of Israel when he finds out what is happening: hey, send that man before me, do not despair and I am going to show him that there is a prophet of God in Israel. And then the king of Israel sends Naaman, transfers the problem to Elisha, and then says in verse 9 of Second Kings 5 that: "Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the gates of Elisha's house. "

"And then" he says: "He sent a messenger saying: Go and wash yourself seven times in the Jordan and your flesh will be restored, and you will be clean." And Naaman left angry saying: here I thought to myself, the prophet goes to go out and stand he will call on the name of his God, and will lift up his hand, and touch the place, and will heal the leprosy. "

Interesting again: God moving here concocting a very complex and very instructive plan for us who are reading this passage because Elisha discerns the arrogance of the king of Syria and Naaman, and wants to show them that the God of Israel cannot be treated as a mere provider of miracles, you give him an order and he does what you want; God requires a humble, simple, broken approach. We have to go through a very low door to enter the Kingdom of God. Arrogance does not move the Heart of God at all but rather brings about contempt for God.

So Elisha develops a treatment plan for the pride of Naaman and by extension also that of the king of Syria and he does not even deign to receive this man personally in his house or give him a personal audience as this man expects right? he's used to everyone at once throwing himself at his feet and doing whatever he wants, and treating him with a lot of reverence, and a lot of homage, no.

In this case, Elisha sends his servant and says to him: Look, do this, this and this. Go to the Jordan River, lie down seven times and you will be healed. He doesn't even give him the courtesy of a personal meeting because he's working on his pride and he knew that would sting Naaman's pride. And Naaman reacts very predictably.

Naaman is scandalized and then expresses what is the scenario of how God was going to deal with him. Naaman thinks: well of course, a man like me deserves a dramatic and grandiose scene, of a movie where the prophet of God comes with all his luxurious clothes, worthy of a person like me, he approaches me, touches me with his hand, he says a few magic words and my leprosy disappears mysteriously and wonderfully, and suddenly.

Instead of this this man sends me to a river, he says: hey in my town there are better rivers. He does not even deign to visit me and see me or call me in his presence, he sends me like anyone to a tiny and insignificant river much smaller than the beautiful and scenic rivers that are in my land, and he is outraged, and enraged, and feels insulted . And he determines to return to his nation without receiving what he expected to receive. Because again, God is dealing with your pride and bringing you into a meeting.

It is that God not only wants to give us what we want like a spoiled child who wants a lollipop, a sweet and if you do not give it to him he will throw a dog on the ground and start crying and protesting, God cannot deal with us that way. The greater the blessing He wants to give us, the stronger is the humiliation to which He has to subject us.

God does not only want to deal with your need but also to deal with your personality and that is important for us to understand. God's plans are very comprehensive, more than we think. The Church of Jesus Christ is full of narrow-minded Christians who want only God to give them this, small, limited but God wants to work in a much more comprehensive way and form these things in us, and bless others around us, and use us. as his instruments on a large scale as God wanted in this case.

God not only wanted to heal Naaman but He wanted to use him as an illustration of the methods of His Kingdom and also as a witness to his nation of Syria when he returned. So Naaman had to be humiliated, insulted, scandalized so that then God could do what he wanted to do in his life.

And that is why Elisha, inspired by the Holy Spirit, treats him in this distant, humiliating way to provoke in him a reaction that would force him to confront the methods that God uses in His Kingdom, which are the methods of humility, brokenness, openness to what God sovereignly wants to do no matter how outrageous and counter-intuitive, and so many times God wants to deal with us.

May the Lord bless you on this day and we will continue our meditation. Blessings.