2 Kings 5:1
“The king of Aram had great admiration for Naaman, the commander of his army, because through him the Lord had given Aram great victories. But though Naaman was a mighty warrior, he suffered from leprosy.” NLT
It is interesting to see in this Scripture that Naaman held a prestigious position that made him successful and highly favored as a commander and servant of the army of Aram. Yet, he suffered from leprosy. According to léxico.com leprosy is a contagious disease that, among other things, affects the skin and nerves, and causes disfigurement and deformities.
In the things of the spirit, this can be compared to what happens to a person that is contaminated with the influence of the spirit of this world. The ruler of this world, Satan, has veiled their minds (their hearts) from seeing the truth about God, His Word, and the ways of His Kingdom, thus, they reject and oppose whatever doctrine does not conform to the wickedness (twisted nature) of their thinking.
2 Corinthians 4:4 explains this to us,
“among them the god of this world [Satan] has blinded the minds of the unbelieving to prevent them from seeing the illuminating light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” AMP
This veil causes the heart of the unbeliever to harden and reject the Word of God for lack of understanding. When I say unbeliever, I’m also including people who have invited Jesus into their hearts and even call themselves believers. For many of them, as soon as they hear the Word, the evil one snatches away any good and holiness that is sown in their heart and there’s no lasting fruit of holiness seen in their life (See Matthew 13:18-19).
The only thing that removes this veil is when we give our heart completely to Christ and to His lordship over our lives. The light of the glory of God comes to us when we receive true salvation and begins to open our eyes to the truth of His transforming Gospel that helps us come out of the twistedness and disfigurement of our thinking and beliefs brought by all the lies of the enemy and the systems of this world that we trusted and believed in.
2 Corinthians 3:16-18 adds,
“but whenever a person turns [in repentance and faith] to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty [emancipation from bondage, true freedom]. And we all, with unveiled face, continually seeing as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are progressively being transformed into His image from [one degree of] glory to [even more] glory, which comes from the Lord, [who is] the Spirit.” AMP
The Bible tells us that the leprosy of this world is characterized by the allure of pleasure where our senses and emotions, and selfish ambitions drive our actions. We’re passionately driven to have and own things that in reality end up owning our heart away from God and His ways. This contamination also gives us a pompous sense of superiority that causes us to think more highly of ourselves than we should.
This contamination can also blind us of our wrong ways, so much that it could easily bring us to pursue our bright shining and at the same time we’re willing to turn the light off on those we feel threatened by because they may express a level of success that comes from their understanding of their true identity in Christ no matter what they may be going through.
1 John 2:16-17 tells us,
“For all that is in the world—the lust and sensual craving of the flesh and the lust and longing of the eyes and the boastful pride of life [pretentious confidence in one’s resources or in the stability of earthly things]—these do not come from the Father, but are from the world. The world is passing away, and with it its lusts [the shameful pursuits and ungodly longings]; but the one who does the will of God and carries out His purposes lives forever.” AMP
As seen in some of the descriptions mentioned, spiritual leprosy has a fruit. This fruit, however, is not as obvious until we hear the person contaminated with it when they open their mouth. What drives their conversations and the intended end from encounters with them is their focus on self and how much they can gain by the methods they use to get what they want. Though this may appear innocent, the thought of how what they say or do could affect others doesn’t cross their twisted mindset.
Matthew 7:15-20 also says,
“‘Beware of the false prophets, [teachers] who come to you dressed as sheep [appearing gentle and innocent], but inwardly are ravenous wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them [that is, by their contrived doctrine and self-focus]. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the unhealthy tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore, by their fruit you will recognize them [as false prophets].” AMP
The Bible also says that this contamination is contagious and the enemy uses tricky dirty ways to attract a person to it. This means that this is a spiritual enemy that we may not see with our natural eye for the people contaminated come in all dress and sizes. But it can rub on us without our realization. Suddenly, we may find ourselves following the wrong habits of others we have allowed in our inner circle. If they’re gossipers and slanderers, for example, or lazy, fearful or angry, and reject God and His ways, sooner or later we will find ourselves giving in to those temptations too.
Galatians 5:9 shares,
“You know what they say, “Just a little yeast causes all the dough to rise,” so even the slightest detour from the truth will take you to a destination you do not desire.” VOICE
More on the next post. And as always, to God alone be all the glory. *
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