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The Perfect Pentecostal He arrived in splendor, adorned in armor and surrounded by a commanding entourage of soldiers and servants. Crowds had gathered to absorb this parade of greatness personified, for he had ensured they would see it - messengers had announced Naaman’s coming before alerting the prophet that he would be entertaining a most famous guest. The general was still intoxicated by the villagers’ silent awe when he snapped his sauntering chariot to a halt before a rather simple building. He surveyed his surroundings keenly, well aware that the prophet should be greeting him within moments. As the entourage stopped and began dismounting, he took matters into his own hands and leapt from the chariot before swaggering to the dreary dwelling. He rapped the door thrice, then stepped back as his right hand gathered his ornate cape with a practiced motion. The door opened at last, and Naaman swept his cape back and bowed low in false humility, intoning richly, “Great prophet, I am Naaman, a humble servant desiring to be healed by your power and might.” “Throughout this world, you and you alone are spoken of as the oracle of God. It is through your mighty powers that even I, your humble servant Naaman, commander-in-chief of the Syrian armies, winner of battles without number and conqueror of countries without equal, await your simple word, your gentle touch, and I will be healed of my grievous skin disease.” “For only you, in this wide world of pain…” The prophet’s feet were shifting awkwardly, as if he was unused to hearing such greetings, so Naaman raised his head to observe a nervous young man at the door whose lips couldn’t stop twitching into a smile. “Uh…the prophet, mighty Elisha, commands you to bathe in the Jordan River seven times and you will be cleansed,” the young man gulped. Then his lips twitched again. “Have a nice day.” The door clicked softly before Naaman’s bewildered eyes. Syrian curse words poisoned the air as he stomped back to his chariot, snatched the reins from his charioteer, and lashed the horses into a full gallop. It took almost ten minutes before his full entourage caught up with him. He could talk intelligibly about an hour later. Until then it was wild mutterings about the blankety-blank prophet himself speaking to the great Naaman, commander-in-chief of the Syrian armies, and the blankety-blank muddy Jordan couldn’t compare to the crystal rivers of Damascus, and if he’s so great why didn’t he just wave his hand over Naaman and heal him, and the blankety-blank servant telling him to have a nice day… Finally the charioteer spoke up, “O great Naaman, if the prophet had asked you to conquer a country, to besiege a city or some other great thing to achieve your healing, you would have thanked him for the opportunity to prove yourself! But he asks you to dunk seven times in their river and you can’t do it?” And that description is what makes Naaman the quintessential Pentecostal. --------- As Apostolics, we often insist we’re not a
religion of works, but sometimes I wonder. I wonder if our actions betray a
religion of Marthas instead of Marys, worker-bees instead of worship-bees. The
truth is we’re often programmed to act on Earth instead of interact with
heaven. (All for the glory of God, of course.) Of late, this difference has been
smiting my heart. In his superb little book Secrets of the Vine, Bruce Wilkinson’s final insight is the necessity of abiding with God. “God didn’t want me to do more for Him. He wanted me to be more with Him,”1 he writes. “I’d become an expert at serving God but somehow remained a novice at being His friend.”2 Yikes! It’s so much easier to stay busy doing the work of the kingdom without ever introducing myself to the King. It’s simple, really - Ask me to…
Just don’t ask me to pray 15 minutes a day. I can see Naaman helping me put the Easter cast through their paces at midnight, listening to teenagers quote scripture every day on the phone, or writing articles at the last minute so that souls might be touched. Such accomplishment! Such a blessing to others! Such devotion! So unknown to Jesus. This is the same Jesus who said, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:21-23). What a condemnation
- “I
never knew you.” He knows me through the conversation of daily prayer, not through my great godly achievements. Wilkinson calls it devoted time instead of devotion time. There’s a big difference. This dichotomy seems illogical until you’re immersed in the achievement mindset. Naaman had leprosy! It should have been easy to bathe in the Jordan and be freed. Yet his proud nature resisted. This is no different than the Apostolic whose family member has an incurable disease, yet their prayer life increases not one whit; or the unemployed Apostolic whose prayer life remains stagnant despite their situation; or the equivocating Apostolic who needs God’s direction for their life, so asks everyone but God for advice. Easier to create an Easter musical than spend devoted time with the creator of the universe. --------- Of course, Naaman’s story had a happy ending. II Kings 5 tells us he was healed by bathing seven times in the muddy Jordan, converted to monotheism, and became an everlasting testimony for truth. There are a few related truths I also know:
I don’ t know the precise moment Naaman traded his
selfishness for obedience, but his example offers my kind of achiever hope,
because my story doesn’t have an ending yet. It will though, and when it does
I want to hear, “Kent! I know you. Enter
thou in to the glory of the Lord.”
ninetyandnine.com ã 2002, Kent d Curry
-------- Kent d Curry is
an Executive Editor of ninetyandnine.com. 1. Page 93. 2. Page 101. |
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