“Even if Balak gave me his palace filled with silver and gold, I could not do anything of my own accord, good or bad, to go beyond the command of the LORD—and I must say only what the LORD says.”
– Numbers 24:13
Hi James and Ellen,
Have you ever felt like God – as God the Father, through God – as God the Spirit, gave you a word for you to pass on to another kid – or a guy or gal, that portends or foretells what may be ahead for him or her in his or her life? Have you ever felt like God – as God the Father, through God – as God the Spirit, told you to confront or admonish another kid – or a guy or gal, about what he or she has done or is doing and/or about what he or she has said or is saying? Have you ever felt like God – as God the Father, through God – as God the Spirit, directed you to not do or countermand what another kid – or guy or gal, wanted you to do with him or her? Have you ever pulled a Balaam? Balaam’s vocation was being a seer, soothsayer, diviner or sorcerer. Balaam essentially was a professional curse caster. Would you like to be a Balak? Balak’s profession was being a king. Balak was king over the Moabite people group guys and gals when God’s specially chosen guys and gals were nearing the moment when they would cross over Jordon River’s dried up riverbed into the land area that God had told His specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group guys and gals, that they would always have to live in as their very own land. Because Balak was afraid that God’s specially chosen guys would decide to do an obliterating number on his people group guys and gals where they lived on the east side of the Jordon River, Balak contacted Balaam to do his day job. By the time that Numbers 24 is written, God had gotten so much into Balaam’s head that he was more ready to please God than he was in getting a paycheck from Balak. Balaam – instead of putting curses on or against God’s specially chosen guys and gals, Balaam began conveying oracles or prophesies that God – as God the Spirit, was prompting him to say that portray the future strength and magnitude of the Israelite people group guys and gals and that warn of the eradication of the Moabite, Edomite, Amalekite and Kenite people groups of guys and gals.
Have you ever had an epiphany? An epiphany is an internal light bulb (thought) that God – as God the Father, through God – as God the Spirit, will out of nowhere turn on (imprint) in/on your mind that illuminates the moment or epiphany. Balaam may have had an epiphany. Verse 13 says, “‘Even if Balak gave me his palace filled with silver and gold, I could not do anything of my own accord, good or bad, to go beyond the command of the LORD—and I must say only what the LORD says”’? Balaam’s response to Balak’s demand that he return to his home without the financial reward that Balak promised him is a rhetorical retort born out of his experiences of having to put up with God overriding his attempts to curse the Israelite people group guys and gals. How sovereign to you think of God being? If you think of God being a fraction less than being one hundred percent sovereign, than you do not believe that God is sovereign. Unconditionally internalizing that God is all-knowing, all-powerful and everywhere present will have you arriving at where Balaam found himself after being divinely stopped by God from putting curses on His specially chosen guys and gals. Even though Balaam came face to face with God – as God the Father, – in a figurative way, when He had God – as God the Spirit, put words in Balaam’s mouth to speak and even though in his heart Balaam knew that he was pleasing God – as God the Father, when he passed on what God – as God the Spirit, told him, Balaam was never led by God – as God the Father, through God – as God the Spirit, to personalize his relationship with Him which would have made Balaam anointed/filled by God – as God the Spirit – the Holy Spirit.
Do you know a kid – or a guy or gal, who has overtly acquiesced to intellectually accepting the existence of a divine being instead of intentionally accepting God – as God the Father, through God – as God the Son, through a heartfelt belief? Do you know a kid – or a guy or gal, who is involuntarily pretending through saying that he or she is believing in a divine being when in reality, he or she is unwisely ‘playing the game’ in order to satisfy a familial, societal and/or cultural expectation? Do you know a kid – or a guy or gal, who is deliberately identifying with a Christ-follower fellowship of guys and gals through being a regular adherent and a proactive member thinking that by doing so that he or she is on a heaven bound track? Haitian guys and gals purportedly 200 years ago made a pact with the devil. Haitian guys and gals in their promise to Satan – which they said that they would keep for 200 years, was that if Satan helped them against France’s domination through giving them independent governance over their land area that they would through voodoo’s worship norms and mores, exclusively worship him. After overpowering the French military that was stationed on their part of the island of Hispaniola, money grabbing, power hungry and politically inept Haitian guys and gals for the next 200 years mutated their small country nation into a planet Earth incompetent laughingstock. Near the end of last year – which was when the 200 years contract with the devil was to end, Christ-follower fellowship leaders met together to pray. Per what your grandpaa was told when he was in Haiti last month was that the Haitian Christ-follower leaders asked God to do whatever – even to the shaking of their land, to have Haitian guys, gals and kids turn to only worshipping Him instead of continuing to idolize Satan. God would on January 12, 2010 – at 4:53 P.M., triggered in and around Porto-au-Prince, Haiti a devastating earthquake that . . .
Numbers 24 (1067)