God’s Unfathomable Ways
by Patricia Lake
Whatever challenges he faced in life were clearly not a problem for this man. According to Scripture (2 Kings 5:1-14), he was a great man, honourable, well respected, and courageous, winning many victories, and (courtesy of the God of Israel), all was going well, except for one thing. Naaman was a leper.
Following a wartime victory and in the Providence of God, a young servant girl from Israel was placed in his house to look after his wife. Interestingly, through her, word reached him that there was hope for his condition, if he contacted the prophet in Samaria. His attention was arrested! God often uses what is in our house or what is in our possession to bring about His purposes. Clearly, Naaman didn’t realise just how much God loved him, even to going to the extent of allowing the answer to his problem to be placed right in his own house.
He was also used to a certain level of respect. His master, the King of Syria, sent a letter to the horrified King of Israel asking for help. Eventually, the letter reached its intended destination, but when the prophet Elisha didn’t go down to meet him, but sent a messenger instead, he was affronted.
The real question, at the end of the day, was how badly did Naaman want his healing? The choice was his. He could either remain prideful, angry, offended and resentful, or he could be obedient to the Word of the Lord through the prophet, and receive his healing. Thankfully, after listening to the wise words of his servants, he chose the latter course of action.
In his mind a battle had been raging, but his human will came into play. He had to choose to dethrone the obstacles of pride and arrogance, humiliation and shame to activate the key of obedience. Dipping seven times in the Jordan river wasn’t what he had in mind, but God’s ways are always quite different from ours, and nothing short of FULL obedience to God’s Word would do. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways” declares the Lord (Isaiah 55:8).
God knows exactly what’s right for each one of us and anyone who turns their feet in the ways of the Lord will not only discover healing and deliverance, but restoration and life itself.
Patricia Lake is now Ellel’s Representative in Curacao, in the Dutch West Indies, where she is now living, having served with Ellel Ministries as Peter Horrobin’s Secretary for almost 20 years. Prior to that she was in ministry in her local Pentecostal church in Birmingham, before feeling the call of God to serve in the healing and deliverance ministry at Ellel Grange in the northwest of England.
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