Opinions hinder breakthroughs
This message is a sequel to the previous one on general guidelines to breakthroughs. Its emphasis is on obeying divine instructions willingly, promptly and humbly without trying to figure out or question how the breakthrough will come. We can glean from the story of Naaman’s healing that two of the greatest hindrances to experiencing divine breakthroughs for believers and unbelievers are pride and personal opinions.
Naaman almost lost out because of his pride and pre-conceptions concerning how he would get healed of leprosy.
The Syrian army general came to the prophet Elisha in Samaria for the healing of his disease. He was instructed from a distance to go and wash in the Jordan River seven times and he would be clean and healed.
However, Elisha’s off-hand manner of hospitality greatly offended the man of valour, power and prestige. The Bible records “But Naaman was furious and went away and said, ‘Behold, I thought, 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 cure the leper’” (2 Kings 5:11).
In most cases we do not receive breakthroughs not because God does not instruct us in the way we should go, but because His instructions sound so simple that they can easily be ignored.
God’s instructions appear so foolish and unreasonable to our human minds that we are tempted to set them aside and look for more reasonable ones.
A story is told of a man who fell into a deep pit and managed to hold on to a small tree root half-way down the hole. Fearing that the root could succumb to the pull of his weight anytime, he cried out, “God, help me please!” God answered instantly, “Ok but let go of that root, son.” The man was disappointed with God and he cried out again, ‘‘Is there somebody else besides God to help me, please!”
You may laugh at the man’s suggestion that he wanted someone else besides God to help him. You see, just as that man acted, so do we. He thought it was unreasonable and unsafe to let go of the root yet God wanted him to be free so he could lift him up.
Naaman was instructed to dip himself seven times in the river Jordan but he got mad because he thought the prophet was supposed to welcome him into his house and lay his hands on him for healing. His pride dictated to him that he could wash in cleaner rivers back home than to wash in the muddy Jordan. In his mind the instruction was too simple to produce the desired results. His mind was made up. He had his own plan for the healing of his body. If he knew how to get well, then why did he travel such a long distance to seek help from the man of God?
Pride and personal opinions can hinder us from getting our breakthrough when it is just nearby. Naaman listened to the persuasion of his servants and repented. He humbled himself and dipped seven times and came out clean as a newly born baby.
Power and position, silver and gold, pride and pre-conceptions can be impediments to coming to Christ as well as to receiving our breakthroughs. No wonder why the Lord Jesus said that unless we become like little children we will not enter the Kingdom of God. Following divine instructions to our breakthroughs demands that we be like humble, trusting and expectant children. Reasoning with our minds greatly interferes with our faith.
I will conclude by asking you to humble yourself and look around you now for a simple clue to your breakthrough because God’s answer to your problem is simpler than you think.
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