Uncommon: Healing
Pastor Rollan Fisher
Focus: In all the stages and circumstances of life, there is an uncommon, redemptive purpose to your pain and supernatural healing available to those who submit to Jesus Christ.
God’s International, Eternal Sovereignty
But I Thought…
Uncommon Healing in Christ
God’s International, Eternal Sovereignty
We need to run to God for healing rather than stay in the holes to which we’ve become accustomed.
We will look at this familiar passage today not just from the perspective of Naaman, but the young woman who was taken captive into his service.
2 Kings 5:1-14 ESV
“Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress, "Would that my Lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy." So Naaman went in and told his Lord, "Thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel." And the king of Syria said, "Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel." So he went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, "When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Naaman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy." And when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, "Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me." But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, "Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel." So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and 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, and you shall be clean." 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. Are not Abana and 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. But his servants came near and said to him, "My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, 'Wash, and be clean'?" So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.”
It is clear that you can have great success in life but still be in desperate need of healing.
This was true of Naaman.
How many people do you know who are professionally successful but have bodies, families, mental or emotional states that are literally falling apart?
The good news is that Jesus is no respecter of persons and comes for both the high and the low, those who seem to have it all together and those who are fully aware that their lives are unraveling.
It is amazing that in Naaman we see God working outside of the walls of his people Israel, showing his concern for all of the people of the earth.
The Scripture says clearly that Naaman, though neither knowing or serving the one true God of Israel, had won a great victory for his Syrian people by the hand of the Lord.
This is a poignant communication that God is sovereign even in the international affairs of nations.
In the midst of God’s sovereignty, the young girl mentioned had been carried off from Israel to serve Naaman’s wife.
How much pain, heartache and loss would her family have experienced, not to mention the young girl herself?
However, God allowed this Syrian raid and her abduction for greater missiological purposes.
*In all of our lives, when we are thrown circumstantial curveballs, we will either get bitter or be buffeted to become even more useful in the hand and eternal purposes of God.
The young girl had a choice in those circumstances - to allow her pain to divorce her from her allegiance to Yahweh, the one true God of Israel because of her pain and foreign captors, or allow her pain to be a bridge to God’s supernatural plan and glory in the nations.
The young girl chose the latter.
Have you ever wondered why pain was allowed in your life?
Did you see this pain as a prison or a platform?
“To stay away from Christianity because part of the Bible's teaching is offensive to you assumes that if there is a God he wouldn't have any views that upset you. Does that belief make sense?”
-Timothy Keller
The young woman was positioned through her pain to be a witness to Naaman of God’s supernatural grace and healing.
But I Thought…
We all have ideas in our minds of how our healing will come, but need to learn to trust God’s word and his plan.
God’s word and his ways are always higher and better, though it may take more time than we prefer and his healing comes in a manner different than we would have engineered it.
God has purpose in the process.
God used the humility that it would take for the great military general to listen to this servant girl’s testimony of Yahweh to bring him to a place of healing.
*You may be captain of your world in business, work and industry, but you need to be open to hearing the voice of God in the way that he chooses to deliver it.
*Part of God’s ordained process of healing is worked out as you intentionally develop Christ-centered relationships in the church.
“The glory of God is available to you in the church in a way it’s not available to you anywhere else. . . . There is no more important means of discipleship than deep involvement in the life of the church.”
-Timothy Keller
Have you begun building life transforming relationships in your church community?
II Kings 5:10-12 ESV
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." 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. Are not Abana and 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.
We must submit to God’s process until it is complete for the healing to take place.
This is why Elisha told Naaman to wash seven times in the Jordan, the Biblical number often associated with completion.
In each of our lives, the real issue is sin that has introduced physical, emotional and spiritual death into our worlds.
Bitterness is an example of the results of that sin.
Bitterness is a poisonous trap that we feel justified in nursing.
Usually, we have some valid reason in our minds that allows bitterness to be an option - an offense, some disappointment or a way against which you’ve been legitimately sinned.
However, God does not allow us to remain in bitterness, since in the end, not only do you suffer, but you poison the well from which others drink.
Here’s how bitterness affects you:
Matthew 5:21-26 ESV
“"You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.”
Here’s how bitterness affects others:
Hebrews 12:12-17 ESV
“Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no "root of bitterness" springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.”
Again, why would God have chosen the methodology (not to be replicated) of dipping in the Jordan for Naaman’s healing?
To humble Naaman
To associate Naaman with the Jordan River - the place of Yahweh’s miracles for Israel and not just any cultic or spiritual power source.
To release Naaman, a man of stature, rank and success from his bondage to control. (He needed to learn, as we all do, that the only way to serve Jesus is as Lord)
In the places in which God has wanted to heal you, how has:
Pride kept you from following God’s prescriptions for cleansing?
Syncretistic philosophies kept you from crying out to Jesus as your ultimate source (even as you embrace his natural means of treatment)?
Control kept you from submitting to and persevering in God’s process with his designated people?
Uncommon Healing in Christ
It is only through repentance (a change of mind to go in a different direction) and faith in the foolishness of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection that we can be forever healed from our deepest needs.
What could have been the devil’s plan for the young woman who testified to Naaman?
To shut her down in bitterness so that in her pain, she no longer engaged with her captors and inevitably cut off her service and witness to the foreshadowed Christ.
“Contemporary people tend to examine the Bible, looking for things they can’t accept; but Christians should reverse that, allowing the Bible to examine us, looking for things God can’t accept.”
-Timothy Keller
We also look for things we can’t accept in others and distance ourselves from the very people who would aid in our healing.
There is a complete, supernatural healing, either now or at the resurrection, for those who come to Christ - for those who’ve submitted to Jesus at the cross.
There is supernatural healing through prayer.
If you are stuck in your soul, first do all that God has prescribed in his word (including medical attention as needed) and then cry out for God to heal your body, soul and spirit through prayer.
I Corinthians 1:18-25 ESV
“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart." Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”
Romans 10:8-13 ESV
“But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, "Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame." For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."”
Whether now or at the resurrection, there will be complete, supernatural healing for those who call on the name of Jesus - mind, body and soul.
No one who calls on the name of the Lord will be put to shame.
That is God’s promise and he never fails.
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher