Philippians 2:12b & 13 “....with fear and trembling, work out (Grk. katergazesthe—out-work to the end point) your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”
Psalm 85:8 “I will hear what God the Lord will speak, for He will speak SHALOM to His people and to His saints; but let them not return to folly.”
Exodus 25:22 “And there I will meet (keep appointment) with you and commune with you from between the wings of the cherubim.”
God is more ready to speak than we usually are to listen. He desires to speak His shalom into every situation in which we find ourselves. Shalom=soundness, wholeness, integration. His ‘shalom’ is for spirit, soul and body! He is working in you to will (intend) and to do (effect) His good pleasure (Grk. eudokia: satisfaction). Folly is to not hear what He is saying—or, having heard, to revert to our own way and wisdom. His voice is always intended to bring us into shalom.
Example 1: King Hezekiah of Judah is an example of someone who sought to hear when in trouble, but then returned to folly. Generally, a good and godly king; however…having been healed, he acted in the folly of pridefulness (see 2 Kings 20)! Hezekiah failed to see the conversation through. It is interesting to note that His son, Manasseh (born during the extra 15 years given to Hezekiah) and who came next to Judah’s throne, was evil. Although speculation…it’s as though the poison of Hezekiah’s illness (Probably septicaemia from the boil) passed, as it were spiritually, to his son and the nation because of Hezekiah’s failure to continue/complete the dialogue with God.
Example 2: (2 Kings 5) In Elisha’s day, Naaman, the Syrian military commander was a leper. A little girl, a Hebrew captive, began for him a ‘conversation’ with God. Naaman thought it would involve due deference to his importance and position but God had a fuller and better plan—to bring health to Naaman in more ways than Naaman realised. (Remember, the health He envisages for us is…. WHOLENESS!). Naaman’s healing from leprosy was only part of the dialogue he had to have with God. It included rage from Naaman—“aren’t there better rivers than Jordan?” etc; a conversation in which several people were involved—for the good and blessing of them all! These included Elisha, Elisha’s servant, the young girl, Naaman’s wife, the king of Syria—and Naaman himself. Naaman was healed and brought into God’s plan—but, in God’s own unique way. God was at work TO WILL AND TO DO HIS GOOD PLEASURE and it pleased Him to bring healing to Naaman…in His way!
* There is NO formula! When Jesus healed, no two ways were the same. Every incident
is different but there was often engagement in a dialogue affecting more than a person’s physical and outwardly manifesting ailment. Consider these: the Canaanite woman in Matt.15; “yes Lord, but even the little dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master’s table.” The demon-possessed man of Luke 8 or Jairus’s daughter in the same chapter. In each there is a ‘conversation’, a transaction taking place which has to be completed. For Lazarus He waited 4 days until all hope was gone!
* Why no Formula? We wish we could reduce God’s ways to forms and formulas. Because
we like easy answers; put the penny in the slot, press the button and out comes the chocolate. But God will not be locked into performance formulas. He is working in you (not for you) for HIS good pleasure! It seems as though Jesus went out of His way to teach us this by using all sorts of different methods; like making clay with spit and putting on a man’s eyes. But just so we didn’t formulate a ‘spit and clay doctrine’ He then told ten lepers (Luke 17) to go and show themselves to the priest—and as they went they were ‘cleansed’ (Grk. Katharizo).
* There is a purpose! His purpose is usually more than we think. The purpose is WHOLENES
It’s to will and to do of HIS good pleasure! When we are ill, our focus (fixation?) is physical; the illness or the pain; the leg, the head, the lung. His focus is YOU; all of you—lock, stock, barrel. He is the Master of the conversation and He desires it to culminate in wholeness—which He intends to bring—as we participate in and complete the conversation. But we must complete the dialogue. Is this what Paul means when he writes in Philippians 2 ‘work out your own salvation’? Note that only one leper, a Samaritan, continued/completed the dialogue (closed the loop), and he was made ‘whole’ (Grk. sozo—saved, made whole, see ASV, AKJV, ERV, Webster’s, etc).
* There is Healing! It is all true! The Kingdom of God comes with all that His Government
brings. “Jesus went about teaching…., preaching the Kingdom of God and healing the sick.” When the Kingdom comes to a life it brings all the blessings of that new government. The old passes away; the government that ministered death, discord and fragmentation—is replaced with the government of shalom integration, wholeness! His presence as King, brings that. It’s a package! But...it must ALL be His way; the method He chooses by which to bring recognition and honour to Him. And that is why the prayer is, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done...as it is in heaven.”
* Am I allowing Him to be Master of the conversation? Naaman had his own idea of how it
would all occur. He was enraged: He said “I thought Elisha would surely come out to me and stand (respecting my position) and call on the name of the Lord his God and wave his hand over the place and heal the leprosy.” His servants wisely said, ‘if he’d asked you to do some big, important thing, would you not have done it?” Naaman dropped his pride, moved forward in the conversation, and his flesh ‘became clean like that of a youth.’ (2 Kings 5:14). And he completed the dialogue by becoming a worshiper of the God of Israel!
Consider this: you have a physical ailment. You ask God for healing; but are you willing to enter into the conversation he wants to have with you in this? (“Now I have your attention, there’s a few things I want to discuss with you!!”). About matters he’s wanting to bring into order (righteousness) or congruence in your life, relationships and attitudes? About how; about when. Our focus is just the physical. His focus, the entire you! The healing conversation he desires is one that will, even painfully, bring you to total wholeness. That’s how he loves me and you! Some want to ‘name and claim’—and there is an occasion for that; when he says so! How many want to enter into or submit to the conversation he’s longing to have with us that is designed to bring us to wholeness?
When next you ask for His healing touch, ask also just how He wants to effect this, what He wants to say within the process and what else (and who else) is important to Him in it?
This is one reason Jesus encouraged us to “ask and keep on asking”. He wants us in dialogue.
Ian Heard: 20/05/18
