It’s Clean!

Hey PWEN people! I wanted to share a message that the Lord gave to me while I was in church service. The focus of the pastor’s sermon was on 2 Kings 5 which highlights a man named Naaman who has leprosy and is seeking healing. He eventually meets the prophet Elisha who tells him to go wash seven times in the Jordan river. At first Naaman is indignant about going to the Jordan river when compared to the other rivers because it’s dirtier, but eventually he listens and is healed. What the Lord told me after reading this story is “don’t call dirty what God has called clean or you may miss your blessing.” The Lord then reminded me of Acts 10 where Peter has the vision of all the clean and unclean animals and is told to eat them. Peter didn’t want to eat what was unclean but God said to him “do not call something unclean if God has made clean.” [Acts 10:15 NLT] So Peter obeyed.

Now it might not look like it but there are so many times when you and I have been just like Naaman or Peter with the different things that arise in our lives. Like Naaman we’ve had issues, problems, or mishaps that we’ve needed God to solve and when we get our answer, we don’t like it. We don’t like how it feels, we don’t like the package that it came in; we don’t like the actions we’ll have to take. And at times because we acted too slow on whatever God gave us as His response to the issue, we’ve missed out on major blessings.

Like Peter we’ve had our different priorities, preferences and the specific ways that we choose to do things but when the Lord told us to switch up our diets, we didn’t, and it cost us as well. I know I’m not the only one! What Naaman and Peter have in common however, is that despite their initial misgivings, they eventually obeyed God and were blessed for it.

Naaman washed seven times in the Jordan river and his leprosy was healed permanently. Peter received and accepted the vision he had and started preaching the gospel to the Gentiles which forever changed and shifted his ministry. The same thing can be done for us. We, too, can experience healing and important life shifts that impact us for the better. But we have to listen and obey the word of the Lord. Let me encourage you today. The blessings of the Lord cannot be predicted. They are as infinite as He is. If we allow ourselves to get too caught up in the “why” of an instruction from Jesus instead remembering the “who” that we are being obedient to, we miss out. ‭‭1 John‬ ‭2:5‬ ‭NLT says “But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love Him. ‭‭That is how we know we are living in Him.” Obey Jesus, get blessed.

Til’ next time adieu.