Proverbs 30:5 Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
It must be irksome to God to have people who think they know everything, question God’s integrity who does know everything. When we judge God from our human standard, we are demonstrating how dimwitted and ignorant we are because we are missing it; we are deeming God’s capabilities inside of our limitations. Mal. 2:17a You have wearied the LORD with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and He delights in them. They try to promote the idea that God is happy and agreeable with the status quo of our times. When these dispensers of pseudo-knowledge try to expand and explain the idea of God with their inaccurate descriptions of His perfection, they inadvertently put God in a box of distorted ideas of their own making. The great I Am becomes a totem symbol of human invention.
History has shown us that we cannot contain the fullness of God within our understanding. The universe cannot contain Him. How then can we think we can constrain God within the limited dimensions of our making? Yet, we keep trying to organize and maintain God within a denominational framework that in most cases has only scratched the surface of just one of God’s thoughts. After Solomon had built the temple for God, he rightly said, 1Kings 8:27b Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built! What makes man think he can box God up and dispense Him as needed? The finite mind that tries to explain an infinite God will have difficulties thinking things through. We have to respond to what God is doing and not the other way around.
When Naaman the captain of the army of Syria asked to be healed of his leprosy, he had a certain idea as to how the procedure might be done. 2 Kings 5:9 So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. However, when Elijah sent his servant out with instructions for Naaman to go dip seven times in the Jordan river and he would be healed, Naaman was incensed, and his pride was hurt. 2Kings 5:11 But Naaman became angry and stalked away. “I thought he would certainly come out to meet me!” he said. “I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call on the name of the LORD his God and heal me! Naaman had expected the healing to be done his way and within the understanding of his ideology of how miracles worked. People are doing the same thing today. They put God in a box and say to Him, “Work my miracle my way, or do it the way you did for my cousin.”
God rarely dispenses blessings or miracles the way we instruct Him to do it. Yes, go ahead and keep praying for the miracle needed, but realize that God works the way God wants so that there is no doubt about where the miracle came from and by whom it was created. Naaman’s servants had to reason with him and subdue his anger and pride with reasoning and logic. 2Kings 5:13 But his servants came near and said to him, “My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?”
The good news for Naaman is that he did what he was told, and the miracle is greater than even Naaman could have imagined. Naaman wanted to be cleansed and healed of his leprosy, but God had a bigger and better idea in mind. Not only was he healed, but his skin was rejuvenated to that of a young child. 2Kings 5:14 So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy. God’s way is always better than our ways because God is thinking eternally.
When we seek God’s word on a situation and we are blessed to be given an illuminated answer, then to turn around and ask for another word because we do not think the one we got is good enough, or not powerful enough to suit our inflated opinions of ourselves, we need to stop and repent of our idiocy and self-worship. The Lord has all the answers to any question or any situation happening in the universe and He wants us to ask for His help, not tell Him what to do. God wants to be part of our lives because we were created to respond to God’s love and friendship. Jer. 31:3 The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.
The mystery is, that God will not live in a receptacle of human invention, but, He will live in a human’s heart. Wow, what a miraculous concept. The God of the entire universe wants to live in our hearts, and He wants to be invited in the way He has made a way for it to happen. Through Christ, our Lord, God will live in our hearts. How amazing is that? Salvation is God’s plan, not ours. Let us submit to what the Lord is doing in our lives and hand over the pathetic images we try to make of God. Blessings to us all.
It must be irksome to God to have people who think they know everything, question God’s integrity who does know everything. When we judge God from our human standard, we are demonstrating how dimwitted and ignorant we are because we are missing it; we are deeming God’s capabilities inside of our limitations. Mal. 2:17a You have wearied the LORD with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and He delights in them. They try to promote the idea that God is happy and agreeable with the status quo of our times. When these dispensers of pseudo-knowledge try to expand and explain the idea of God with their inaccurate descriptions of His perfection, they inadvertently put God in a box of distorted ideas of their own making. The great I Am becomes a totem symbol of human invention.
History has shown us that we cannot contain the fullness of God within our understanding. The universe cannot contain Him. How then can we think we can constrain God within the limited dimensions of our making? Yet, we keep trying to organize and maintain God within a denominational framework that in most cases has only scratched the surface of just one of God’s thoughts. After Solomon had built the temple for God, he rightly said, 1Kings 8:27b Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built! What makes man think he can box God up and dispense Him as needed? The finite mind that tries to explain an infinite God will have difficulties thinking things through. We have to respond to what God is doing and not the other way around.
When Naaman the captain of the army of Syria asked to be healed of his leprosy, he had a certain idea as to how the procedure might be done. 2 Kings 5:9 So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. However, when Elijah sent his servant out with instructions for Naaman to go dip seven times in the Jordan river and he would be healed, Naaman was incensed, and his pride was hurt. 2Kings 5:11 But Naaman became angry and stalked away. “I thought he would certainly come out to meet me!” he said. “I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call on the name of the LORD his God and heal me! Naaman had expected the healing to be done his way and within the understanding of his ideology of how miracles worked. People are doing the same thing today. They put God in a box and say to Him, “Work my miracle my way, or do it the way you did for my cousin.”
God rarely dispenses blessings or miracles the way we instruct Him to do it. Yes, go ahead and keep praying for the miracle needed, but realize that God works the way God wants so that there is no doubt about where the miracle came from and by whom it was created. Naaman’s servants had to reason with him and subdue his anger and pride with reasoning and logic. 2Kings 5:13 But his servants came near and said to him, “My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?”
The good news for Naaman is that he did what he was told, and the miracle is greater than even Naaman could have imagined. Naaman wanted to be cleansed and healed of his leprosy, but God had a bigger and better idea in mind. Not only was he healed, but his skin was rejuvenated to that of a young child. 2Kings 5:14 So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy. God’s way is always better than our ways because God is thinking eternally.
When we seek God’s word on a situation and we are blessed to be given an illuminated answer, then to turn around and ask for another word because we do not think the one we got is good enough, or not powerful enough to suit our inflated opinions of ourselves, we need to stop and repent of our idiocy and self-worship. The Lord has all the answers to any question or any situation happening in the universe and He wants us to ask for His help, not tell Him what to do. God wants to be part of our lives because we were created to respond to God’s love and friendship. Jer. 31:3 The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.
The mystery is, that God will not live in a receptacle of human invention, but, He will live in a human’s heart. Wow, what a miraculous concept. The God of the entire universe wants to live in our hearts, and He wants to be invited in the way He has made a way for it to happen. Through Christ, our Lord, God will live in our hearts. How amazing is that? Salvation is God’s plan, not ours. Let us submit to what the Lord is doing in our lives and hand over the pathetic images we try to make of God. Blessings to us all.
Thank you, Norm this is so well said! When I was believing for healing, God, came through in a completely different way than I imagined He would. My spirit rejoiced whilst my flesh had a fit. Let God be God and trust Him.