Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours abundantly from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I am delighted to welcome you to another week of the month of November 2024. My prayer is that God will strengthen you to daily follow Him wholeheartedly, so that you too can daily experience His power for your peace of mind and elevation. Amen.
Among the sad stories of the bible is the story of a man called Gehazi. Who was Gehazi? He was the servant of Prophet Elisha, that great man of God. And what was sad about his story? It was the fact that he ended his race as a leper, when he could have taken over from Elisha as the lead prophet in Israel.
Now how did this man end up a leper? One main reason was that he did not follow the man of God wholeheartedly. How do we know this? First, there was a time that the man of God gave him his staff and instructed to run ahead and place the staff on a dead boy, so that the boy may come back to life. And part of the instructions given to him was also that he must not greet anyone on the way or answer anyone that greeted him. (Cf. 2Kings 4:29)
But then, as we further see in the account, Gehazi later came back and told the man of God that the boy did not come back to life. Why? What happened? We are not told. But that was the only recorded occasion in the bible in which a man of God would ask somebody to go and do something by the power of God and the person would come back and say, “It did not work.”
As we see in Scriptures, after Elijah had been taken up to heaven, Elisha took his garment and divided the Jordan river with it, just the way Elijah had done before his ascension. And even though Elijah did not teach him to do so, just by following him wholeheartedly, he too was able to receive the same Spirit of God that worked with him in order to do what he did. (Cf. 2Kings 2)
Then, as we also see in the bible, when Jesus told His disciples to go and out preach and heal every manner of sickness and diseases, they obeyed Him. And though He did not give them any staff or money to take along, they all came back with great testimonies. They all were also able to do what Jesus had been doing. (Cf. Luke 10:1-17)
But Gehazi’s case was totally different. He came back with bad news. So, the man of God had to go and minister to the dead boy himself in order for him to live. And as I asked before, I am asking again, “What went wrong? Why did Gehazi fail? Did he talk to someone on his way to the dead boy? Did he first go somewhere else? Or was it just that he did not believe that the boy would come back to life” We are not given answers to these questions in the bible. And the truth about the matter was also not revealed to the man of God on that occasion.
However, there was another occasion in which it was revealed to Elisha that Gehazi had not been wholeheartedly following him. That was when he went behind him to collect some money and clothes from Naaman the Syrian. Naaman had been healed of his leprosy by God. And Elisha had not collected anything from him because he wanted him to go home and let his people know that there is a God that heals people free of charge. But Gehazi cornered him and ruined his testimony by collecting things from him. (Cf. 2Kings 5)
Therefore, it became clear to the man of God that he had not been following him wholeheartedly or learning anything from him. And since he was not following this man of God wholeheartedly, it means that he was also not following God wholeheartedly. Elisha, as we know from the bible, was a true man of God. If Gehazi, then, had been faithful in following him, he too would have come to know God truly through him. And that would have resulted in his increase in usefulness in ministry. But his heart was not right. So, he lost his place in God’s purpose and also brought on himself and his descendants the leprosy of Naaman forever.
Now what is this teaching us? It is that we should follow God wholeheartedly. And one way to do so is to follow those He has appointed to lead us in the church and who are obviously walking in His will wholeheartedly. If our leaders in the church are not walking in God’s will, then we don’t have to follow them at all. On the contrary, we should stay away from them.
But if they are walking in His will, then, we should follow them wholeheartedly. That means we should not employ eye-service or deceit in following them. Instead, we should always take their teachings, instructions and prayers seriously and act on them. Otherwise, instead of always coming back to them with great testimonies, like Gehazi, it is news of our failure that we will often return to them with. Not only that, we too may lose our place in God’s purpose or even bring ourselves under His judgment.
I pray that you will not lose your place in God’s kingdom or be ruined by His judgment. But give yourself to following Him wholeheartedly. And it shall be well with your soul.
Have a great week.
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