God’s Ways

Do you ever think you have God figured out?  Sometimes we may think there is a formula to pray for certain outcomes that we would like to take place, like preconceived ideas that we have in our minds.  Let me say this, just because something works for one person doesn’t mean it will work for everyone.  There is usually more than one way to do things and the end result will be the same; take for instance tying your shoes you can do it more than one way but in the end, the result is the same.

What about people that get saved do all have to be in a church building or could you be saved somewhere else?  I heard or read that a drunk was walking down the street and a gospel track stuck to his shoe and when he got up the next morning he found it, read it, and gave his heart to the Lord.  When I got truly committed to the Lord, it wasn’t in church either.  One thing we shouldn’t do is put God in a box; God will do what He wants to do when, where and how He wants to do it.  When it comes to healing we know that the Lord used different methods to heal also.

I think about the ten Lepers in Luke 17:11-14, “Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’ So when He saw them, He said to them, ‘Go, show yourselves to the priests.’ And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.”  Jesus didn’t touch them He just told them to go and on their way they were healed.  

Then there was a blind man in John 9:6-7, “When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. And He said to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing.”

Then there was another blind man in Mark 8:22-25, “Then He came to Bethsaida; and they brought a blind man to Him, and begged Him to touch him. So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked him if he saw anything.

And he looked up and said, ‘I see men like trees, walking.’

Then He put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up. And he was restored and saw everyone clearly.”

They were all healed differently but the same person healed them.  There was one thing they had in common; they all believed that Jesus could heal them.  Obedience was the thing that needed to take place before the healings came.  The ten lepers had to go show themselves to the priest, the first blind man had to go and wash himself in the pool of Siloam and the second blind man had to go with Jesus out of the town.  Obedience and believing were the two main factors in all these healings.

There are times when God heals when you have no faith to be healed at all and this was the case with Naaman, the leper, who was a very proud man that almost missed his healing because of his pride and unbelief.  It was his servant girl that had enough faith for the both of them.  

Even Naaman had a preconceived idea that he should be healed in a different way, it says this about him in 2 Kings 5:10-12, “And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, ‘Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.’ But Naaman became furious, and went away and said, ‘Indeed, I said to myself, ‘He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy.’ Are not the Abanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?’ So he turned and went away in a rage.”     

If it wasn’t for the servant girl, Naaman would have gone away unhealed.  The servants encouraged him by saying this in verse 13, “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’?”

Then Namaan complies in verse 14, “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.”

So because of his obedience and the faith of his servant girl, he was healed.  So be careful with your preconceived ideas; God will do things the way He wants and how He wants.

The Word says this in Proverbs 3:5-6;

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

And lean not on your own understanding;

In all your ways acknowledge Him,

And He shall direct your paths.”

Enough said, something to think about!  Have a super day and may God bless you and yours!!