The Spirit of Naaman

Posted on June 21, 2023 by Elizabeth Welte in Victory Call

Here’s Naaman – Leper. Sought out Elisha, prophet of God for healing.  (See 2 Kings 5:1-14 for the full account) And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” (5:10) There stood Naaman – 7 dips away from complete healing of this debilitating disease.  Does he rush to the river and jump in?  Does he obey the man of God?  NO.  Instead he is angry.

 

But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.” (5:11) He was angry because God didn’t snap His Divine fingers and heal him, or as he says wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.

 

Do you ever see the spirit of Naaman in your own heart?  I see it in mine.  Do I want to do battle with sin?  Do I want to die to myself, my wants, my desires or do I want God to wave His hand over me and remove the temptation so I don’t have to do the hard thing? The way I see the spirit of Naaman is that he didn’t want to DO anything, he wanted it DONE for him. As Christians, I think we want God to change us with no effort of our own. We don’t want to change, we want to BE changed.

 

Even though Naaman was told to wash in the Jordan seven times it was not the washing that healed him, it was a miracle of God that healed him.  The washing in the Jordan was to demonstrate his belief that the God of Israel was able to accomplish the impossible.

When we face that besetting sin in our life that seems impossible to overcome, over and over again God calls us to step out in faith-filled obedience, believing that HE can accomplish the impossible. He has already delivered us from the power of sin at the cross. “We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Romans 6:6-11

 

Do we believe it?

 

Defeat is found in the spirit of Naaman; Victory is found in the Spirit of Christ. Father can do the impossible.

 

Written by Diane Hunt: Diane Hunt serves on the board of America’s Keswick and is the Executive Director & CEO of Changed Choices, a Christian non-profit in North Carolina. She is also a biblical counselor and women’s event speaker. For more information about having Diane speak at your next event please contact her at dhunt@americaskeswick.org.

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This Week’s Verse to Memorize: “Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, ² who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house.” Hebrews 3:1-2