Sometime in July, I was walking in a store and wearing a mask.
Honestly, I had been perturbed by wearing masks for quite some time.
Couldn't Jesus protect me from COVID? That had been my mantra.
As I was walking and asking the Lord about the matter, I heard:
"Is not wearing a mask helping evangelism?"
The Lord asked me that question.
And I began to weep.
I was crying in the aisles as I thought about how my reluctance or even refusal to wear a mask could present an opportunity for someone to label me as lacking compassion and selfish.
And then I heard...
"If we prayed for a cure for COVID...
Why isn’t the vaccine good enough?"
We prayed for a cure for COVID...
And now some folks don’t want it.
As I sought the Lord further about the controversy over vaccines and masks, I heard the name "Naaman."
“Now Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was also a mighty man of valor, but a leper.” II Kings 5:1 NKJV
Naaman was a man of honor and privilege.
But Naaman was sick.
So, he went to the man of God.
He went to the prophet.
He went to the voice of the Lord.
He went at the request of a believer to go near the voice of God.
To heed the voice of the Lord.
And so he humbly sought an unfamiliar voice.
He didn’t know the voice of God.
The Lord allowed an ailment to provoke Naaman to seek Him.
The plague was designed to being Naaman to the Lord.
Naaman wanted so badly to be healed he went.
But did he go to get closer to the Lord?
What we see in his reaction later says "no."
He missed the point.
The man of God told Naaman to go and wash in the Jordan.
But the answer to his prayer didn’t match what he expected.
So, he rejected God’s answer.
He came on a journey from the familiar to the unfamiliar.
The voice of the Lord came out toward him and met him at his need.
He didn’t even have to get as close as he thought.
His expectation became his idol.
So, Naaman couldn’t receive the Word of the Lord.
It took his close associate to bring his attention to this error.
“And his servants came near and spoke to him, and said, 'My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?’” II Kings 5:13 NKJV
Are we willing to hear the voice of reason from those around us?
Are we willing to take advice from people who don’t have authority over us and might even be considered by others as our subordinate or someone not prominent or influential?
Naaman heard the voice of the Lord from a girl and his servant better than he heard it from the prophet.
And the word from his servant healed him.
“So he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.” II Kings 5:14 NKJV
It's only then that Naaman got the point of the whole ordeal.
Everything we experience is designed to bring us to the Lord.
He wants to be revealed in deeper and deeper ways.
We never “arrive” at a place where we know it all.
Naaman had to get leprosy in order to see God for who He is.
He got the point.
“And he returned to the man of God, he and all his aides, and came and stood before him; and he said, 'Indeed, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel; now therefore, please take a gift from your servant.'” II Kings 5:15 NKJV
Do you desire to be closer to God even if it means taking a vaccine you’d prefer not to take?
Are we concerned about the voice of God as much as we are concerned about the government?
May we seek Him more than any so-called "freedom" from anywhere else.
The only true freedom is in obedience and heeding the healing voice of the Father.
This requires humility.
It’s a humility born out of trust in the Lord. You can trust Him more than man. You can trust Him with the unknown. You can trust His voice of reason.
In this Information Age that surrounds us with voices, the Lord is seeking those who will sit at His feet and hear His Word. There are many anxieties around us.
The answer is sitting with the Lord Jesus our friend and shield. We can truly trust Him with our healing no matter how He decides He wants that healing to happen.
May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Glory to Jesus.
God bless you.
