God’s answers to us are often simple. In 2 Kings Chapter 5, we see a man named Naaman who expected God to heal him of his leprosy in a spectacular way. When Naaman came to Elisha the prophet to see what God’s instructions were for his healing, Elisha told him that God said to “go wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed” (2 Kings 5:10). What we must understand is that it is not necessarily our actions that effect change in the spiritual realm, but our faith behind those actions. God didn’t heal Naaman with the water from the Jordan river, Naaman was healed because of his faith in the God who told him to wash himself in the river. Naaman evidenced his trust in God, and God healed him. We know that God doesn’t always heal, but in this particular case, God’s answer to Naaman was something that He would use to grow Naaman’s understanding of Him. There was a much bigger picture that God was at work in, than just healing Naaman’s leprosy. But in this particular case, healing Naaman’s leprosy served just one small part in the bigger picture.
I know someone that struggles with fear. It is an irrational fear and it is crippling to them. In their particular case, it is a combination of both medical and spiritual things at work. The medical aspect is a biological imbalance of the chemicals in their brain. When our brains don’t make the right chemicals in the right amounts, it affects our mood and thinking. The spiritual aspect is that this medical imbalance– and its resulting effects– are being taken advantage of by demonic entities who use this imbalance as an opportunity to exacerbate the fluctuation in this person’s thinking and perceptions. Demonic entities don’t necessarily attack people because they are bad. Sometimes they attack them because they are good and they hate them because of their relationship with God. Other times they attack them because that person has opened themselves up to spiritual attack by unrepented sin or by allowing some sort of demonic foothold in their life. Either way, whether because the person is doing something right or because they have done something wrong, remember that Jesus was attacked by Satan himself. Jesus is the holiest human being that has ever lived, so Jesus wasn’t attacked because He was doing anything wrong, but because of the threat He posed to Satan and his kingdom. When Satan attacked Jesus, Jesus was legitimately, biologically hungry and weak. And then Satan tried to take advantage of Jesus spiritually through His weakened and compromised physical state. That is how spiritual warfare usually works. Often times when someone is undergoing emotional spiritual warfare, both biological and spiritual aspects are in play. Depression, anxiety, and compulsive/obsessive thoughts are real medical conditions. But demons who take advantage of us in these weakened mental states are just as real. But this post isn’t about the nuts and bolts behind spiritual warfare and the details of demonism in the spiritual realm. This post is about faith. So, bear with me as we traverse through the details that will lead us full circle, back to where this post started.
Several days ago, I had the sort of dream that I am pretty used to having at this point in my life. I dreamed that I was dealing with a demon. I often dream of battling with demons and it used to freak me out, but now it’s just a normal part of my life and I take it in stride. In my dream, I told the demon to leave because it had no right to be where it was at. The person in my dream had done nothing to invite the demon or its torment into their life. The demon was there because it had convinced the person that they couldn’t make it leave. The demon had convinced the person that there was nothing they could do to make it go and the demon stayed because that person had been believing its lies. When I told the demon to leave, it resisted because that’s what most of them do. They want to see if you really believe what you are saying. In many ways, a demon has the mentality of a three-year-old child, they will resist anything you tell them to do and will try to wait around to see just how serious you are about forcing them to comply. Like a toddler, they are boundary testers and they are relentless about it. Like a toddler, they usually don’t overcome your will by sheer strength, but simply because they’ve worn down your resolve to stand firm on it. While I stood there in my dream, refusing to budge, and resolutely waited for the demon to leave, I began to praise God and then the dream immediately ended and I woke up. Then I rolled over and went back to sleep.
As I was praying in the spirit this morning for the person that has been tormented with irrational fear, I was crying out to God for them. I was interceding for them and going to battle for them in prayer against whatever wickedness was trying to cripple them through their thoughts and emotions. I humbled myself before the Lord and prayed for Him to show us the way to walk in that would free this person and their family from this relentless spirit. The Holy Spirit immediately brought me to remembrance of the dream I had a few nights ago. I immediately understood that the dream I had that night wasn’t random, but was the answer that I would be seeking just a few days later. God knew I would go to battle for someone this Tuesday morning, so He gave me the answer I needed before the day even came. The way this particular evil would be driven out of this person’s life would be through praise.
We often think that God’s answers to us should be profound and spectacular. We are often like Naaman, who “went away angry” when he received God’s simple answer to go wash in the Jordan River for his leprosy (2 Kings 5:11). Scripture records Naaman’s reaction: “I thought that [Elisha] would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy,” then he reasoned within himself that the water from the rivers in his hometown were just as good as the Jordan River and he might as well rinse somewhere closer to home if rinsing in the Jordan was gonna be God’s lame answer to him, “so he turned and went off in a rage” (2 Kings 5:12). Naaman was frustrated and discouraged because God’s answer to him was nothing like what he expected. Naaman’s disgust at God’s simple answer to wash in the Jordan shows us that Naaman was focused on God’s answer as one of action, rather than one of faith. It wasn’t the water of the Jordan River that was special, nor was it the actual getting wet and washing himself. Naaman’s healing really had nothing to do with the “thing” God was asking Naaman to do, it had to do with his attitude behind it. God was dealing with Naaman’s heart, so He told Naaman to do something that would orient Naaman’s heart to God in the proper way: to humble him.
Verse 13 records Naaman’s servants asking him: If Elisha had told you to do some great thing to be healed, wouldn’t you have done it? Yet how much easier is it to do such a simple thing as to wash in the Jordan? We often make God’s dealings with us out to be far more complicated than they usually are. God deals in simple transactions of faith. Faith is our currency, our shield, and our weapon. We tend to focus on the sword as our weapon, but what we must understand is that spiritual swords are lifted by faith. The sword is useless as a weapon without the faith to move it. God’s answer to this person I prayed for who was dealing with tormentuous fear was: “You will overcome fear with praise. Evil will not stand against praise. It can’t. Praise will drive it out.” Fear wants to be this person’s god and this person has been feeling torn apart because they are trying to serve two masters. The fear they feel is very real, but the things they are imagining in their mind that are inciting the fear are not real. What God wanted this person to know is, “This is what is real: FEAR IS NOT THE MASTER OF YOUR HOUSE. So, tell it to leave and praise Me as it waits around to see how serious you are about forcing it to comply.” Like Naaman, the answer this person received was quite simple. It was tailor made to deal with what needed to be reoriented in this person’s heart: trust in God. Like Naaman, their faith would be evidenced by a simple action. Their trust in God would be evidenced through their praise.
You are to fear the Lord your God and serve Him. Hold fast to Him and take your oaths in His name. He is your praise and He is your God, Who has done for you these great and awesome wonders your eyes have seen. (Deut 10:20,21)
I cry out by day, O my God, but You do not answer, and by night, but I have no rest. Yet You are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In You our fathers trusted; they trusted and You delivered them. (Psalm 22:2-4)
Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord, O my soul.
I will praise the Lord all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortal men, who cannot save.
When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.
Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord his God,
the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them–
the Lord, who remains faithful forever.
He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets prisoners free,
the Lord gives sight to the blind,
the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down,
the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the foreigner
and sustains that fatherless and the widow,
but He frustrates the ways of the wicked.
The Lord reigns forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the Lord. (Psalm 146)
Talitha Koum 