The truth about the healing process

As I lay on my bed trying unsuccessfully to fall back asleep this morning, I overheard a Bible reading that changed the rest of my morning.

It was the story of Naaman, the commander of the Syrian army. Many of us know this story, we may remember:

1. The courage and love of the slave girl who sought her master’s healing.
2. The humility of Naaman to listen to his wife’s maidservant.

There is another part to this story; the fact that Naaman almost lost his miracle when he refused to follow Elisha’s order. Here’s what happened.

So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and waited at the door of Elisha’s house. But Elisha sent a messenger out to him with this message: “Go and wash yourself seven times in the Jordan river…but Naaman became angry and stalked away. “I thought he would certainly come out to meet me!” he said. “I expected him to wave his and over the leprosy and call on the name of the Lord his God and heal me.”

2 Kings 5:9-11

On this particular morning, the Holy Spirit drew my attention to Naaman’s words. You see, Naaman had been expecting a powerful and immediate healing. He hadn’t expected to be told to go to the Jordan river, which was one of the worst rivers at the time.

His healing process required obedience. Not to dunk himself one time but seven times. And it was only on the 7^th time that he received his miracle.

How many of us would have continued past the 4^th or 5^th time? We may have believed the prophet was lying to us or not really anointed.

 

The Holy Spirit (HS) impressed two things on my heart from Naaman’s story:

1. Big, immediate or nothing

HS revealed to me that so many of us have missed our healing because we were expecting it to come a certain way. We may have been expecting some immediate or life-changing experience. He told me that many of his daughters had missed their miracles because they failed to obey. God is calling many of us to a place of obedience. He is calling us to trust him and do what he requires of us no matter how unorthodox it may seem.

 

2. Same miracle, same way

He also taught me that some of us have missed our miracles because we were expecting them to happen the same way every time. Perhaps, we had prayed the last time we had a migraine and got instant healing and so we pray the same way and expect the same thing not realising that this time around God is asking a different thing of us. He may be asking us to forgive and let go of the pains of the past or to stop worrying about the future two things that can exacerbate our mental and physical health.

 

While pondering on these two things, I realised how easy it is to miss our healing or ignore the healing process. We may have done this out of fear, spiritual laziness or even just a wrong perception of God.

Like Naaman, we may have been furious if God’s solution to our ‘dis-ease’ was not what we were expecting. For example, a direction to forgive those who have hurt us in the past or to apologise to those we may have hurt is not an easy thing to do.

 

What the healing process may look like

There were a few instances that kept coming up in my spirit.

• The yoke of unforgiveness has kept many of us bound and chained to our past hurts and pains. These burdens have hardened our hearts and messed up with our emotional health leading to various ills.

 

• the yoke of besetting sin has also kept us bound. We may have excused our actions by telling God –“this is how I am, I can’t change.” Rather than asking for the grace and strength to change. I know I had struggled with this when it came to food, pornography, and the nature of my interactions with others. I had gotten comfortable in my struggles rather than seeking his grace and guidance.
  • In some of the healing stories in the Bible, we see Jesus focus on sin and encourage the recipient to sin no more. “…has no one condemned you. Neither do I, go and sin no more.” These were his words to the woman who committed adultery.
  • What is God saying to you today?
  • I am certain that his words do not condemn but are filled with love and conviction. He is calling us out of a sinful lifestyle to his more excellent way. Are you willing to walk with him? See Matthew 11:28-30

 

• For some of us, our healing is attached to our faith in God’s power to heal and our willingness to testify of his goodness. Remember what God told the woman with the issue of blood – “thy faith has made you well.” And I believe these are his words to many of us today. Amen

While I have shared the instances God highlighted to me, please know that this list is by no means exhaustive. It is rather a call for us to seek his face and obey all he is calling us to do no matter how unorthodox they may seem.

 

Pray with me:

Heavenly Father, I thank you for you are the One who knows the end from the beginning. You know my story, and nothing is too difficult for you. Father, I come to you with my burdens, my pains and my ‘dis-eases’. Lord, you are the greatest physician, the one who shines light in the deepest crevices of the earth. Father, shine your light in every corner of my life. Search me father and heal me from within. Teach me to hear you and know all you are calling me to do. And give me the grace to live out the life you have for me. In Jesus’ name. Amen

 

PS: Another important and deeper part of healing is freedom/deliverance from evil and demonic elements. I hope to write on this in the future, by God’s grace and power. But for other sources on this, check out Tiphani Montgomery and Rev. James A. Solomon.