Under the Cloud

https://kristiann1.com I have friends who will say they are “keeping their fingers crossed” over a situation, but nothing is effective except prayer to a heavenly Father. ( James 5:16 ) Some will pray to saints, Mary, even the Devil, but our only intercessor is the Lord Jesus. ( Isaiah 53:12 ) There is no other way to knowledge, peace, faith, and comfort than the one True God. We will see today that Balaam the false prophet is hearing from the One True God but also dabbling in the occult, as if God needed help.   Balaam’s third oracle begins  in  Numbers C hapter 24 .  Balak , Moab’s king  is not giving up on his quest for a means of victory over Israel.  He is acting out of fear.  The future of his country is depending on him.  However, as in the first two messages, God continues to give Balaam a message of blessing.   Before this third oracle, it says  that Balaam did not resort to divination this time as he had in the past.  Divination is seeking wisdom from an inanimate

Words are a very powerful force. I’m sure we can all remember words spoken to us in love, in anger, in fear and in kindness. Many words are imprinted in our hearts and memories. We can be agents of love, kindness, and encouragement. We can also hurt others in our anger, pride and selfishness. The closer we are to the Lord, the more our words should be tempered by love. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. We can choose to say no to the flesh which desires to speak our thoughts, no matter how unkind or inflict hurt to those who hurt us. James says that the tongue is a “restless evil, full of deadly poison.”  (James 3:8 ) He also says the tongue “corrupts the whole man, sets the course of his life on fire and is itself set on fire by hell."  ( James 3:6 )    Wow! That is a lot of power and evil! God help us.  In Numbers 23, Balaam b egan  delivering his messages from God.  These oracles praise God and bless Israel.  Preceding each message, Balaam and Balak build sev

Last week we met King Balak and a false prophet named Balaam. Balaam was summoned by King Balak to curse the nation of Israel so they wouldn’t destroy Balak’s country of Moab. Balaam  actually heard  from the one, true God and was told not to go to Moab to curse Israel because they were under God’s  protection. Balaam persisted in his desire to go to Moab to be consulted by the King and God let him go.   God was very angry with Balaam who was on his way to Moab ( Numbers 22:22 ). The angel of the Lord stood in the road, opposing Balaam according to the second half of the same verse .  Wait a minute; didn’t God tell Balaam to go?  Why was He mad?  Why did He oppose Balaam?  God told Balaam to go with them but only do what God tells him. ( Numbers 22:20 )   The reason that God was angry with Balaam and opposed his trip to Moab was because God knew Balaam’s heart and knew that he was not planning to do only what God told him.  Imagine Balaam on his way. He is probably starting t