This is how to receive the answer God has for you.

A Syrian General named Naaman one day awoke to find that leprosy was beginning to spread across his body. His slave girl, whom he had taken captive in one of his battles against Israel, said to his wife: “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy” (2 Kings 5:3). So Naaman went to Elisha the prophet who did not even come out of his house, but had his servant go out and tell him to bathe in the Jordan River. He was to dip himself in seven times. Naaman was furious. He felt insulted that he had to bathe in a river of Israel. And, besides, he wanted something miraculous, something to happen. He said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy” So he refused to obey and submit to what the prophet told him, and stormed off in a rage. But one of his servants tried to reason with him. He said, “If the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? Then why not when he tells you something as simple as, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!” Then the Bible says, “So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy” (2 Kings 5:14).

Many have prayed for an answer to their problems, but when the answer came they didn’t like it. They already had it fixed in their head how God should do it. They did not want to humble themselves and would not accept what God was asking them to do. Maybe you don’t want to look foolish. Maybe you don’t want to do the difficult thing God is telling you to do. You want God to do it all for you. You want Him to wave His hand and make it all go away. You want a supernatural, exciting answer. You’re willing to do a great thing, but not the small thing, the humble thing. But God asks many times to do a great thing that will not get a lot of attention, He invites you to do the simple thing of obeying what He says, and do it consistently.

Trust what God is saying to you. Listen to God. Do what he says. Do the work of obedience. It is not nearly so important that the problem in your life be moved as it is for you to press on against the problem.  It’s when you obey as Naaman finally did to dip himself in the water seven times even though it sounded ridiculous that’s how your door will be opened for you. To OBEY

The answer was closer than Naaman realized. It was humbling, but it was the thing he was told to do. It did not make sense at the time He thought he had better water where he lived in Syria, but His answer was closer than that. Same goes for you if you’re going to receive the answer God has for you; you are going to have to do what He says, when He says it and where He says to do it.