“And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth: but the water is naught, and the ground barren. And he said: Bring me a new cruse and put salt therein. And they brought it to him. And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the LORD, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land. So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spake”. II Kings 2: 19 – 22

 

God speaks and things are happening to the tune of the signs of times. In my house lately, we were surrounded by flies akin to those plagues in Egypt and were very distressed. We searched the whole house and the surroundings for the source of these flying insects but to no avail. This went on for a couple of months spending a lot of money on fly sprays and cleaning the house thoroughly looking in all the wrong places.

One blessed day, after a lot of consecration and prayers, the Holy Spirit led me against all oppositions to the source of the problem: a dead squirrel rotting away in the loft. Oh! What a pleasant good-bye as the garbage men took that rubbish away that week.

We oftentimes go around our problems and issues neglecting the source. In II Kings 2:19-22, Elisha went to the source to heal the waters of Jericho. He could have achieved nothing if he had gone to the delta or the downstream of the river. In Joshua chapter 7, Joshua removed the source of shame and defeat in Israel when Achan and his household were exposed and eliminated for their sins of disobedience and covetousness. In Luke 8:26-33, Jesus dealt with the Gadarene demoniac by casting out the legion of evil spirits tormenting him. It is worthy to note that Jesus did not bind and cast out the man but the powers that held him in bondage.

We are hereby admonished to take time to identify our problems and difficulties and once they are identified, to pray to God to deal with them. We are instructed never to avoid or pretend to be unaware of the origin of our problems. If you are confident about the real source, take the giant step by pleading the blood of Jesus that was shed on Calvary for your deliverance.

The Bible says that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers. Our focus, therefore, should be to report the case to Jesus who is above these powers instead of fighting human beings that might have been helplessly possessed by these evil spirits. Prayer will allow us to know if the source is from God like in Job’s case. In such situations God will, if you allow him, deal with the problem in His own way, time and manner but be aware that not all sources of events that happen to us are from God.

Our Christian journey becomes easier if we are connected to Jesus – the source of life. This connection starts with the confession leading to forgiveness of our sins and promising never to return to them again. If after salvation, we have issues, we search for the source using the Bible as our searchlight. If we are the source, we can humbly ask for God’s mercy but if God has permitted anything to come our way as He has the right to draw our attention as He wills, we can genuinely and faithfully ask for His help with the assurance that He is in control and our burdens will definitely become lighter.