Reversing Incurable Consequences

Why does God leave you in an incurable situation?

So we can get around to finding out who God really is. And when we do, Dr. Tony Evans says that's the time we see the Lord's power at work. Not only can He cure what's been a problem for years, He can take you back before it was a problem at all. Celebrating 40 years of faithfulness, this is the alternative with Dr. Tony Evans.

Author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of the Urban Alternative. Words like impossible or incurable don't apply when God is part of the equation. But Dr. Evans says seeing miracles happen is in some ways up to us.

Let's join him as he takes us to 2 Kings 5 for the story of an important man in a desperate situation. This man was a leper, something so wrong that it messed up everything that was so right. And there was no cure. It was incurable.

So he is both simultaneously a captain, a conqueror, and a castaway. Most importantly, leprosy is tied to something going wrong spiritually. This man, with everything right, has one thing wrong messing up all that is right. What is your leprosy? What is that one thing in your life that is messing up all the good stuff going for you? Maybe you're successful in your career or with your finances or with your educational achievements.

Maybe you can hand out a resume that is impressive, but there's that one thing that you dare not put on it. That was Naaman's reality. That was his scenario. He had the butt phrase, but he was a leper, the footnote on his life affecting everything. Well, we're told in verse 2 that in one of his battles, he captured a little slave girl. She told Naaman's wife, if we could get your husband, my boss, down to Israel to the prophet, Elisha, I believe Elisha could change his leprosy situation. She was a little girl. She was a nobody in terms of her position in life and her age in life, but she knew somebody.

She had a hookup and a connection that could change this man's world and this man's life. So Naaman goes to his boss, the king, and says, this little girl told my wife, who told me, that I may be able to get my problem solved by the prophet in Israel. So the king, watch this, the king of Aaron, verse 5 says, Go now, and I'm going to send a letter to the king of Israel.

He departed. He took with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, ten chains of clothes, brought them to the king of Israel, and he says, I've sent Naaman my servant, verse 6, to you, that you may cure him of his leprosy. Well, wait a minute. That's not what the little girl said. The little girl said, there's a prophet in Israel that could cure his leprosy. Verse 9, So Naaman came with his horses and his chariots and stood at the house of Elisha.

He knocks on Elisha's door. Uh-oh, verse 10. Elisha sent a messenger saying, Go wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh will be restored to you, and you will be clean. Houston, we have a problem.

We have some issues going on here. And the issue is explained to us in verse 11. But Naaman was furious, ticked off, mad, and went away and said, Behold, I thought, I'm coming back to that, he will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God and wave his hand, hocus pocus, over the place and cure the leprosy. The end of verse 12 says, He went away in a rage. Because he said, Are not Abana and Farpa, the rivers of Damascus, better than the waters of Israel?

Could I not wash in them and be clean? Turned away, ticked off. It's called leaning to your own understanding. It's called throwing your human opinion at God.

It's called pride. He said, Jordan's too dirty. Let me tell you something. It's a bad idea to stay outside the ark just because dirty animals are going in it. It's a bad idea when them nasty animals, two by two, are coming, I ain't going in that ark. It's gonna be stinky in there, animals in there, all the refuse in there. I ain't going in that ark.

You gonna die. So his servant comes to him and says, verse 13, My father, had the prophet told you to do some great thing, give him another million, give him this, give him that, would you not have done it? How much more than when he says, go wash and be clean? If he'd have given you something hard, you'd have gladly gone and done it.

He'd give you something easy. And now you're going to fuss and cuss and get mad at the prophet, get mad at the church. You're just going to get mad because they didn't tell you what you wanted to hear. That's not the question. The question is, was what they told you God's word and God's will? That's the only question. So, verse 14, he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan.

Watch this. According to the word of the man of God. And his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child.

And he was clean. Don't let your dignity keep you from solving your problem. Partial obedience will not bring full deliverance.

In fact, it may bring no deliverance because he was not delivered until after that seventh time. He had to complete what God was asking him to do. A lot of times people get mad. They say, I tried. I did what God said. But when you dig down deep enough, they did a part of what God said. They obeyed him enough to feel better about it.

But they did not go all the way and complete what he had asked them to do. Until obedience has been completed, you cannot expect a supernatural incursion into your circumstances to calm it, correct it, and reverse it to whatever level the sovereign will of God will allow for. You and I must stop arguing with God's Word. His Word is final.

It is settled in heaven. And sometimes you won't like it. And sometimes you won't understand it. If you can read your doctor's prescription, he's not a real doctor. But even though you can't fully read it, even though you don't fully understand it, you go to the pharmacist, you fulfill it, and you take it because you trust the one who gave it. We say, well, I don't understand.

I don't want to say it, so I'm not going to do anything. So you stay sick. Because even though you may not understand God's prescription, it's His prescription. And He knows what's really wrong. But until you take the medicine, not take the prescription, hear the sermon, no, you must take the medicine that is full obedience to see the supernatural into the natural to cure that which appears to be and actually functions as that which is incurable in your life.

What is your leprosy? I want to tell you now, related to whatever deliverance God is going to give you for that thing that will not go away, that until you adopt, I adopt, we adopt radical obedience, that's obedience to the end, even to the point of rejecting our own perspective or that of our friends. You'll not see God. You'll talk about Him. You'll sing songs to Him. You'll worship Him, but you won't see Him.

You won't see this power that the Bible talks about, this victory that the Bible talks about, because God's got to see faith, and faith is demonstrated by the walk, by the thing you do, not the thing you think, feel, or say. When a person gets stuck in quicksand, they go to what is natural to them. None of us probably have been in quicksand, but you've seen movies with people in quicksand, and they go to what's natural.

And what's natural is to flail your arms to try to get yourself out of this thing that's sucking you up. Well, the reason quicksand sucks you up is that it is sand mixed with water. When sand gets mixed with water, it removes the friction of sand being on sand.

So since sand is no longer on sand, but now sand has been mixed with water, the friction of sand being with sand is no longer there. So the more you try to get out of it, the more it's sucking you under. The harder you try to get out of it, the harder it's sucking you under, because you don't have anything with enough friction to push you against it.

So when you push against it, the water is just, with the sand, is just drawing you down. But you're doing what's natural. If you get caught in quicksand, you have to do what is unnatural. You have to go against your natural inclination to fight to get out. And you must relax, which slows down the process of you being pulled down, which gives you time to paddle, not fight. And when you rest and paddle, which is against your natural inclination, you find out deliverance is possible. You go to what you naturally think is right, and you are aiding and abetting your device. That's how it is with God.

Sometimes when God wants to do something, you have to go against your natural inclination, what is natural to your mind, your will, your desires, your goal, because you want to be delivered. Dr. Evans will tell us more about the result of Naaman's obedience when he continues our message in just a moment. First, though, I want to let you know about Tony's brand-new book that explores what it takes to turn your life in a whole new direction, even if you've spent years struggling in areas like financial responsibility, substance abuse, sexual promiscuity, or family sins that go back generations.

You'll finally discover how to reverse flaws and failures that you thought were irreversible. The book is called U-Turns, Reversing the Consequences in Your Life, and it was designed to perfectly complement the teaching series you've been listening to today, U-Turn, Reversing Spiritual Consequences. For a limited time, we're bundling the book and all 12 audio messages in this series on both CD and digital download and sending them to you as our thank-you gift when you make a contribution to help continue Tony's ministry. Just visit tonyevans.org to get the details and make the arrangements. And if you want to explore the subject of spiritual turnarounds even further or perhaps prepare yourself to lead others in these life-changing truths, be sure to look into the companion Bible study and DVD kit that Dr. Evans has prepared to accompany the U-Turns book and audio messages. Again, that's tonyevans.org, or let one of our resource team members help you day or night at 1-800-800-3222.

That's 1-800-800-3222. Well, Dr. Evans will return in just a moment. You can work through any time you want at any pace you want. Along the way, you'll explore key teachings and learn how to apply them in real-world situations. There's lots of exclusive content from Tony to keep you interested and motivated and an online forum where you can ask questions, get answers, and collaborate with other students. It's almost like having a seminary on your smartphone.

Visit tonyevans.org today and connect with the Tony Evans Training Center where you can explore the kingdom anytime, anywhere. His flesh, verse 14, became like the flesh of a little child. Whoa!

Okay, don't read that too fast. Wait a minute. He came to be delivered. He came up the seventh time. Not only was he delivered, but God took him all the way back to babyhood. He got delivered and restored. God reversed that thing.

It took him as a grown man, and it took him to the day he came out of his mother's womb as a child or an infant. God is so powerful. Not only can He cure what's been a problem for years, He can take you back before it was a problem at all.

That's called exceedingly abundantly above all you can ask or think. It says, He's saying, heal me. God says, I'm going to make you like a little baby.

Why does God leave you in an incurable situation so we can get around to finding out who God really is? He doesn't just want to be your buddy. He doesn't just want to be just another guy. He wants to show you when He shows out and shows off.

He's in a class all by Himself. Psalm 103 verses 2 and 3 says, He forgives our sins and He heals our diseases. He claimed God was the only God, but look at something else He does as we come to an end. Verse 17, If not, please let your servant at least be given two mules' load of earth, for your servant will no longer offer burnt offerings, nor will he sacrifice to other gods, but to the Lord. He said, watch this, the dirt I didn't want to go down in, Jordan, I want two loads of it and two mules, because I'm carrying this dirt back with me. Because on this dirt, I'm going to build me an altar so I can worship the only true God. I'm taking my blessing with me. Everywhere I go, I'm going to make a pile of dirt, I'm going to set up my altar, and I'm going to worship God.

Because guess what? When God delivers you like this, when He takes away your leprosy, when He reverses something that's been messing with you for days, months, years, and decades, and you come to see, this is no joke, God is no joke, He can meet you in your deepest hole, reverse you back to a baby status, you're going to want that God every place else you go. There's another verse I want to mention in closing. Luke 4.27 says, There were many lepers in Israel, but God healed none of them except Naaman. Now that's in the New Testament. Jesus is talking. He said there were many folk like Naaman in Israel, but none of those folk in Israel who are my people got healed from their leprosy except a foreigner named Naaman, because he's not a Jew.

What's he saying? You can be part of the people of God and never see God work. You can come to church every week. You can be an Israelite and a leper and live the rest of your life as a leper because you refuse to do what a foreigner did.

A foreigner bleeds God, tell the end, got a miracle, the folk in church worship God got nothing because of their unbelief. We have in our community a lot of places that clean things. We have cleaners that cleans clothes. We have car washes. It cleans cars. We've got nail salons. It cleans messed up nails and cuticles. People go into those places because something dirty and messed up needs to be corrected and cleansed.

That's why they go in there. And when they come out, something is different. You go pick up your clothes and the cleaners has cleaned them. You come out of the hair salon and the hair is now clean and it's been shaped and straightened or curled or whatever y'all do.

The hair is all right now. You take your car to the car wash, you drive it to the car wash, it comes out different than it came in. You go to the nail salon with dirty nails and nails come out. The nails have been cleaned. They've been shaved.

They've been colored. You come out different than you went in. Now the reason why you come out different than when you went in is when you went in, you did exactly what they ask you to do. The cleaning said, give me the clothes and turn it over to me. You turn it over to them, then you got clean clothes. You hook the car up, you drive it up to the place they tell you, they hook it up, you go and you wait, you do what they tell you to do, comes out clean.

You put your nails over here, you do what they tell you to do and you come out different. But in the church, folks coming to the church dirty hear from God what to do and leave the same way they came in because they refused to do what the instruction manual demanded. So if you want to see God in your situation, you're going to have to put down your pride, put down your notoriety. You can't be like the guy who used to come to our church. He was well known in the community, very wealthy. He came to the church, joined the church, and said, I want to meet with you. He wanted to meet with me.

I said yes when we met. He said, I want to be a leader. I said, excuse me? He said, I want to be a leader. Well, I said, okay, well, there's a process you have to go through.

We want to see you faithful in ministry. He said, I don't need to do all that. He said, do you know who I am? I said, I know who you are.

He said, yeah. And a lot of churches, they shouldn't hit me with that line. A lot of churches would be happy to have me in their leadership. I told them, well, I'll give you directions in one of them.

Which one do you want? What he was trying to do was use Naaman's money, clout, and power to buy position. That's not how it happens in the kingdom of God. In the kingdom of God, you got to go low in spite of your notoriety, degrees, money, position, power.

You got to humble yourself before the mighty hand of God. When we do to completion what God has said do, you've opened yourself up to a Jordan experience even in a dirty place. And by the way, the greatest miracle of all is when you dip yourself in the blood of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life. If you're ready to have that Jordan River experience for yourself, Tony would like to personally explain to you how it can happen. Just visit TonyEvans.org and follow the link that says Jesus. You'll learn exactly what it means to be a Christian, how to follow through on your decision, and what to do next. You'll find it all at TonyEvans.org. While you're there, don't forget to request your copy of Tony's current teaching series U-turn, Reversing Spiritual Consequences. As I mentioned earlier, all 12 life-changing lessons in this powerful two-volume collection are available along with this brand-new book, U-turns, for a limited time as our gift when you make a donation to help us keep Tony's teaching on the station. The alternative is a completely listener-supported ministry, so we rely on your generosity to keep these messages coming your way each day. Visit TonyEvans.org to make your donation and request your copy of the U-turn series. And be sure to take a look at the U-turns Bible study and DVD kit. This package makes a great addition to your personal study and includes tips and teaching guides for leading others in the study of how God can redeem the bad choices they've made in the past. Again, drop by TonyEvans.org today or call our Resource Center at 1-800-800-3222.

Team members are standing by to help you with your request day and night. Again, that's 1-800-800-3222. Even when the consequences of your mistakes seem irreversible, it's still not time to give up hope. But it may be time to give up something else. And Dr. Evans will tell us what that is tomorrow. I hope you'll join us. The alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by The Urban Alternative and is celebrating 40 years of faithfulness thanks to the generous contributions of listeners like you.