A little girl from the land of Israel had been taken captive by the Syrians as a maid for the wife of Naaman. Naaman was the captain of the army of the king of Syria. He was a valiant warrior, and he was also a leper.
One day the girl said to her mistress, “Would that my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria, for he would heal him of his leprosy.” When this was told to the king of Syria, he sent gifts and a message to the king of Israel, saying, “I am sending my servant Naaman to you, that you might cure him of leprosy.”
The king of Israel was distraught. He tore his clothes and said, “He is seeking a quarrel with me, for who can cure leprosy?” He thought this was an occasion of war against him. When Elisha heard of it, he told the king of Israel, “Let this man come to me.” Elisha was not impressed by the man’s position.
When Naaman arrived at his door, Elisha did not go out to greet him. He merely sent a messenger to tell him to wash in the Jordan River seven times. Naaman became furious at this, and would have left had not his servant convinced him to simply do what the prophet had said and receive his healing (2 Kings 5:2–14).
Naaman almost missed God and came very close to missing his healing, all because he was a logical man. That was his problem, and it is our problem today. There is a place for being a reasonable, logical person; but you will not gain much from God through that process. The way a man obtains supernatural blessing from God, above and beyond the natural realm, is by supernatural revelation and obedience. The limitations upon the human mind are divinely imposed. God does not intend that the natural mind should be able to comprehend and understand spiritual things. It is by divine intent that the boundaries of intelligence and understanding be limited. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5–6. Above everything else, God wants complete, perfect trust in Him.
Now we can better understand why the prophet Elisha asked Naaman to dip seven times in the dirty Jordan River. Naaman could not see how this would do his leprosy any good. His reasoning was logical. Leprosy is a disease closely related to the bloodstream. An internal disorder is not cured by an external cleansing; yet Elisha commanded this by revelation from the Lord.
Naaman was angry because in his reasoning he was sure that nothing could be accomplished or obtained without great sacrifice or effort. Being a man of battle, he knew that to take a distant city or country, strategy had to be executed, step by step. Now if his healing had been laid before him in like manner, he would have understood it; but simply to dip seven times in a muddy river in order to receive healing was something he could not grasp.
Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so. Romans 8:7. For this reason the natural man never perceives the things of God. Paul said, “If the rulers of this world had known what was really happening, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Corinthians 2:8). However, they were delivered over to the reasonings of the natural, carnal mind, and so they missed God.
When a believer comes face-to-face with the truths of the restoration and knows that God has set blessings and promises before him that are absolutely unlimited, he must not look to his own reasoning for understanding. When he depends upon his own reasoning, he again imposes walls and barriers to his thinking which restrict him. God imposes no limitations.
The Word of God is explicit in saying, “All things are possible to him who believes.” Mark 9:23b. Limitations are built by our own thinking, through the processes of human reasoning. Everything that God has ever done in the supernatural realm was done by faith, as men moved to do something that could not be arrived at by the natural processes of reasoning. There had to be an expression of obedience to revelation.
For instance, at the marriage at Cana, there was no sense in filling the water pots with water and bringing some to the governor of the feast; but Jesus said to do it. The mother of our Lord had told the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it” (John 2:5). The servants were constrained to do what was not a logical or reasonable action at all. If they had leaned upon their own understanding, they would have nullified faith.
Your spirit, in its trust and obedience to God, must reach a plane higher and beyond that which the mind can reach, beyond what the understanding can fathom. If God says, “I am going to do such and such a thing,” and you start reasoning it out and wondering whether or not it will work, you will destroy the very thing God is trying to do. Do not lean on your own understanding!
Naaman was not the only one who had to learn this lesson. Abraham produced Ishmael in his haste to help God. He followed a certain line of reasoning that his wife had suggested, but this was not to be (Genesis 16:2).
The Word says that Abraham’s faith was purified, even though he considered his own body now as good as dead. And without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what He had promised, He was able also to perform. Romans 4:19–21.
Abraham came to the place where he refused to consider his own reasoning about things. That is difficult, for we will consider our own bodies when we fail to consider anything else.
I suppose that every time Abraham saw his reflection or stood up and felt the aches in his bones, it took some doing to have faith as he considered his own body as good as dead. He still rejoiced in the promise and knew it was going to be fulfilled, even though day after day and year after year he watched the ravages of age take hold of his body. He could not consider Sarah’s dead womb either. He did not stagger at the promises of God, but trusted Him with all of his heart.
Jesus told a blind man to go and wash in the pool of Siloam (John 9:7). This, too, seemed unreasonable. If washing the eyes could bring sight, then why not give the blind some eye lotion with which to wash their eyes for healing?
The clay that had been put upon that man’s eyes had to be washed off in an act of obedience. It was not reasonable, but there is always a reason behind the unreasonableness of God. God has a wisdom which appears to be foolishness for everything He demands of you. God will take the foolish things to confound the wise (1 Corinthians 1:27), because the wise lean on their own understanding.
But a man with childlike faith comes to trust in the Lord in simplicity, without analyzing all the whys and wherefores; and he receives the blessing of the Lord. If you want to enter into the riches of the Kingdom, you must become like a little child (Mark 10:15). When a Word comes from God, trust it and believe in it, no matter what happens.
Today, people will not believe for certain things because they are too far out of the line of reason. Yet the day of miracles has not passed, and God is speaking to us that a time is coming when His arm will be made bare as never before in the history of all of His dealings with mankind (Isaiah 52:10).
We are living on the border of the miraculous; but at the same time, this is a day completely conformed to reason and scientific approach, and anything that a man cannot reason through his senses he will not accept. If he cannot see how it is going to work, he will not believe it.
There are two kinds of knowledge, one of which comes by scientific inquiry. This knowledge is based upon the evidence of the senses and the procedures of logic in analyzing this evidence.
For instance, whatever your eyes see, your ears hear, your nose smells, your mouth tastes, and your hands handle is filtered and absorbed. Then the mind analyzes it and arrives at what we call natural knowledge or wisdom.
What the senses perceive is often absolutely contrary to what God says, because much of the world is delusion. Satan also can take things that you see and distort them into something which is an absolute lie.
When you have certain aches and pains, you come to the conclusion that you are sick; and therefore you pray and ask the Lord to heal the sickness.
From that point on, there must be another kind of knowledge that comes to bear on the situation. If the pain persists and you conclude by this evidence that you are not healed, then you are coming to a conclusion based on your sense of feeling, rather than on God’s promise.
The revelation that comes to the inner man is based upon God’s Word, which seems to be completely unreasonable because it goes against the evidence of the senses. It goes against what you see or feel or hear. It goes against everything that is normally used to arrive at knowledge through scientific inquiry. You must refuse to consider the evidence of your senses or accept it as reality when it is in direct conflict with His Word, for God’s Word is true:… with his stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53:5. As you stand upon that promise in God’s Word, it becomes the reality, and soon you will base every situation upon another kind of knowledge.
Naaman was moved by only one kind of knowledge. It was based upon the fact that it seemed unreasonable for him to wash in the dirty Jordan River.
How many things are you refusing to do for God because they do not seem reasonable? How many times have you backed off because you did not see your way clearly?
God’s Word contains many accounts of men who started out to do His will, yet they did not know how or have the means or resources. But they had a Word from God which gave them an inner knowledge beyond anything else they knew. They stood upon a promise from God. That was their reality; and as they stood upon that promise, God delivered them.
The Word of the Lord that came to Jehoshaphat was very similar to the Word that Naaman received from the prophet; however, Jehoshaphat did not back off like Naaman did. He cried, “Lord, the enemy is coming to invade us; but our eyes are upon You. The prophet told us to have singers go before us, and when we get to the battle, the enemy will all be dead” (2 Chronicles 20:14–24). It happened exactly that way. Jehoshaphat put his faith in the Lord, and the most unusual military victory in history was given to him because he wholly trusted in the Lord.
That was also the difference between Caleb and Joshua and the other spies. When Caleb and Joshua came back from spying in Canaan, they were not the least impressed by what they had seen. They were still moved greatly by what God had been speaking to them during the preceding months and years. They wanted to go in and take the beautiful country they had seen.
The other spies refused and said, “We can’t go in, because we are like grasshoppers and they are like giants, and the walls are high” (Numbers 13:30–33). They followed the evidence of their senses.
Suppose that a man who has never boxed before is asked to fight in a boxing match. After measuring his opponent’s reach, determining how much he weighs and how much experience he has had, and realizing that his opponent has scored a knockout in every bout, his normal reaction would be to call off the fight. That is the course which reasoning follows.
When Goliath, nine feet tall, came striding down into the valley, every Israelite refused to meet him. But there was one little fellow who said that he would fight him. David was not impressed by a man nine feet tall; he saw a man who must be brought down because he was blaspheming the Lord (1 Samuel 17:23–47).
On one occasion when the Lord saw that His people needed deliverance, the Word of the Lord came by the prophet telling them to dig ditches in the valley. As the water filled the ditches, the sun reflecting on the water made it look like blood. The enemy, thinking that all were dead, came stumbling into the ambush and were all destroyed (2 Kings 3:16–24).
Why and how the Lord does some of these things we do not know. He has more wisdom than people give Him credit for. There is great wisdom behind the seemingly foolish things He requires of us.
Many times God will let you chafe under circumstances until you learn not to derive your attitude from the circumstances, but from the living God Who says, “Thus says the Lord.”
When the prophecies and promises of God are upon you, do not draw back or worry about any hindrance. When God says you are a free man, but you still see chains from head to foot, do not worry about them; He will deliver you. If He says you are free, you are free. Do not look at what appears at the moment. Believe that everything which God has spoken is absolutely true.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. When it comes to walking with God, faith must cling to a knowledge and an assurance that is above reason.