I'm going to start writing about what the Lord has been dealing with me about and pray that it comes across clearly...
Sunday morning, during Praise and Worship, I felt the Holy Spirit impress on me that the Father wanted me to enter into a deeper experience of worship with Him. I remember feeling that I wanted more, but didn't quite know how to proceed. He took me to 2 Kings 5:1-14, where Naaman went looking for healing from the Prophet Elisha. In this encounter, Elisha sent instructions for Naaman to go to the river Jordan and dip himself seven times. Naaman puffed up at that because the Jordan river was filthy. He told his servants that if Elisha told him to dip into the rivers of Damascus, at least he would be clean from the soil of the world when he came out (even if he didn't get healed...Jim's interpretation).
Naaman's servants reasoned with him that he would have willingly and probably gladly done that, but the plan isn't what we always think it should be. We have to trust in what God tells us to do without question.
So I'm left with the question of how does this work with entering into a deeper experience of worship?
Last night, at Intercessory Prayer, Brendan led us to a scripture that helped. Isaiah 58:6-8 says:
"This is the kind of fast day I'm after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts. What I'm interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families. Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. The God of glory will secure your passage."
What I hear the Lord instruct me through this passage is that He's more interested in me developing a LIFESTYLE of fasting than the occassional denying myself of something and then giving it back. Don't get me wrong, fasting in that fashion is biblical and necessary, but He wants an everyday, conscious effort, total heart committed, unwaivering determinated sacrificial lifestyle of being more like Him. Verse 6 talks about spreading the gospel that frees the captive and breaks the chains of bondage. Verse 7 talks about putting others first even at your own discomfort.
Again...what does this have to do with Naaman and what does Naaman have to do with a deeper experience of worship?
What I've come up with is this...there's an old saying that "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." In other words, there is no better way of telling someone how much you admire (or worship) them than by being like them. Worship is an expression of your love to the Lord for who He is. To be like him through sacrifice and obedience to His Word is the ultimate act of worship.
Naaman comes in to this in that I need to be sensitive to His direction so that I don't haphazardly ignore something that He tells me to do because I don't think it is worthy of my time or energy. I want to keep attentive to my spirit so that it "perks up" whenever it hears from the Lord and thereby keeps me in that deeper experience of worship.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
SIMPLE OBEDIENCE
2 Kings 5:8-14 (The Message)
8 Elisha the man of God heard what had happened, that the king of Israel was so distressed that he'd ripped his robe to shreds. He sent word to the king, "Why are you so upset, ripping your robe like this? Send him to me so he'll learn that there's a prophet in Israel."
9 So Naaman with his horses and chariots arrived in style and stopped at Elisha's door.
10 Elisha sent out a servant to meet him with this message: "Go to the River Jordan and immerse yourself seven times. Your skin will be healed and you'll be as good as new."
11-12 Naaman lost his temper. He turned on his heel saying, "I thought he'd personally come out and meet me, call on the name of God, wave his hand over the diseased spot, and get rid of the disease. The Damascus rivers, Abana and Pharpar, are cleaner by far than any of the rivers in Israel. Why
not bathe in them? I'd at least get clean." He stomped off, mad as a hornet.
13 But his servants caught up with him and said, "Father, if the prophet had asked you to do something hard and heroic, wouldn't you have done it? So why not this simple 'wash and be clean'?"
14 So he did it. He went down and immersed himself in the Jordan seven times, following the orders of the Holy Man. His skin was healed; it was like the skin of a little baby. He was as good as new.
Isn't is amazing at how simple obedience can appear when pointed out, but how hard it seems when we allow our flesh to be in control? When Naaman first heard of what he needed to do in order to become healed, his flesh was not only the physical problem, but the spiritual one as well. His pride rose up and wouldn't allow him to experience his healing. His ego stepped in and became offended because Elisha didn't come out personally to speak to him. His stomach recoiled because he was disgusted with the water that would bring his healing. His understanding was halted because nothing mystical" was done to cause the disease to go away. His pride was hurt because it didn't even require anything of him that would make others recognize the sacrifice he had to make. He simply had to dip his body in a dirty river.
His servant understood simplicity in obedience. He understood that if you are told to do something by a person in authority, you did it without question. He understood that sometimes those instructions are given second-hand and not directly from the mouth of the man to your ears.
Praise God for that servant! For the boldness he had to stop his master (angry even!) and speak truth to him. We need to be willing to do that more in each others lives. We need to be willing to stop our brothers in their tracks, point out their sin and help them see the truth that will bring deliverance.
The Lord doesn't require us to do anything on our own to bring deliverance because he knows that by our own hand we fall significantly short. But by our simple obedience of following His words, our total deliverance comes immediately.
I pray that I continue to remember that obedience from the heart is not a hard task. The ultimate decision to be obedient gives me the strenght and courage to follow through. And as I follow through, the way is open for the promises of God to take place in my life.
8 Elisha the man of God heard what had happened, that the king of Israel was so distressed that he'd ripped his robe to shreds. He sent word to the king, "Why are you so upset, ripping your robe like this? Send him to me so he'll learn that there's a prophet in Israel."
9 So Naaman with his horses and chariots arrived in style and stopped at Elisha's door.
10 Elisha sent out a servant to meet him with this message: "Go to the River Jordan and immerse yourself seven times. Your skin will be healed and you'll be as good as new."
11-12 Naaman lost his temper. He turned on his heel saying, "I thought he'd personally come out and meet me, call on the name of God, wave his hand over the diseased spot, and get rid of the disease. The Damascus rivers, Abana and Pharpar, are cleaner by far than any of the rivers in Israel. Why
not bathe in them? I'd at least get clean." He stomped off, mad as a hornet.13 But his servants caught up with him and said, "Father, if the prophet had asked you to do something hard and heroic, wouldn't you have done it? So why not this simple 'wash and be clean'?"
14 So he did it. He went down and immersed himself in the Jordan seven times, following the orders of the Holy Man. His skin was healed; it was like the skin of a little baby. He was as good as new.
Isn't is amazing at how simple obedience can appear when pointed out, but how hard it seems when we allow our flesh to be in control? When Naaman first heard of what he needed to do in order to become healed, his flesh was not only the physical problem, but the spiritual one as well. His pride rose up and wouldn't allow him to experience his healing. His ego stepped in and became offended because Elisha didn't come out personally to speak to him. His stomach recoiled because he was disgusted with the water that would bring his healing. His understanding was halted because nothing mystical" was done to cause the disease to go away. His pride was hurt because it didn't even require anything of him that would make others recognize the sacrifice he had to make. He simply had to dip his body in a dirty river.
His servant understood simplicity in obedience. He understood that if you are told to do something by a person in authority, you did it without question. He understood that sometimes those instructions are given second-hand and not directly from the mouth of the man to your ears.
Praise God for that servant! For the boldness he had to stop his master (angry even!) and speak truth to him. We need to be willing to do that more in each others lives. We need to be willing to stop our brothers in their tracks, point out their sin and help them see the truth that will bring deliverance.
The Lord doesn't require us to do anything on our own to bring deliverance because he knows that by our own hand we fall significantly short. But by our simple obedience of following His words, our total deliverance comes immediately.
I pray that I continue to remember that obedience from the heart is not a hard task. The ultimate decision to be obedient gives me the strenght and courage to follow through. And as I follow through, the way is open for the promises of God to take place in my life.
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