- And he answered and said, “Must I not take care to speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?” Numbers 23:12 – More Christians should be like Balaam. Now don’t stone me for saying that, here me out! I know after everything I said of Balaam in yesterday’s devotion for Christians to be like Balaam would seem like an incorrect direction to go. We have a pagan prophet who doesn’t follow the Lord using his divinations to hopefully bring about a divine curse over God’s people. Not the best role model for Christians, so why would I ever say we need to be more like Balaam? For while being a false prophet in the past, speaking whatever the enemy may have told him to speak, in this case with his prophecies within these chapters Balaam is speaking only the true words of the Lord. Was Balaam corrupt and doing all this for selfish gain? Absolutely. Yet were his words from the Lord false? Not at all, he spoke whatever the Lord put in his mouth to say. He was compelled and couldn’t say anything but what God told him to say. Whether that was because God made him unable to say anything else or because Balaam recognized the true power of God when God spoke with him and fear kept him from speaking anything else, we don’t know. Either way the only words that Balaam spoke were the words God gave him, and that’s something all Christians can grow to be more like. Too often the words that we speak to others find their root in something different than the Lord. Influences we watch and listen to are feeding our soul and out of that comes the words we speak. Sadly some of those influences are unholy making our speech unholy. Instead allow the root that feeds our speech to be the holy words of the Lord so what comes out is only what the Lord bids us to speak. The world needs less people speaking the words of this world, it needs more disciples speaking the words of Jesus. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 3373
- But Balaam answered Balak, “Did I not tell you, ‘All that the Lord says, that I must do’?” Numbers 23:26 – It didn’t matter the outcome for him, Balaam was going to say what God told him to say. Even if that meant repeatedly going against the will of a king that could kill him at any moment. I’ve sat down with a few people these last few days who have expressed the pushback they have gotten, or seen others close to them get, for expressing their beliefs and values on certain things. Comments are filled with anger and vile things are said because they posted something. In those moments it’s easy to either be filled with anger towards those people or to let those anger filled comments direct how you share about your beliefs in the future. I’m not saying to be rude about how you present your beliefs, careless of how it may impact someone, but I am saying to share when God tells you to share. If God has put it in your heart to share something, share it. Even if you know it isn’t the most popular way to think amongst your social bubble, if God is leading you to say it, say it. As with Balaam, while it may not be what some want to hear it may be a blessing to someone else. Say then what God leads you to say and allow yourself to be a blessing to someone. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 1439
- Numbers 23 – Pastor Mac Daily DEVO God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? Numbers 23:19 – This response was given by Balaam to King Balak after the king requested he approach God again because he didn’t like the first answer. Balak wanted a curse to be put on Israel, and after Balaam spoke with the Lord it was clear that wasn’t God’s plan. Instead of accepting God decision, the king chose to move to a new location to ask God again from there, hoping the decision of God would change because the location of the asking changed. After this second request is where we see God responding with our verse. God isn’t like us. He doesn’t lie and doesn’t change His mind after He has spoken something into being. A different location of request or different manner of asking it won’t produce a different answer if God has already established His word. This message is important to remember when it comes to what God has spoken into our lives to do. If He has said no to something in your life, asking again or asking in a different manner isn’t going to change His answer. If He has said go, you can try asking from a different mountaintop for a different answer from God, but you won’t find one. This message goes even a step further when it comes to salvation. God has spoken His way for how salvation will work, and we can try coming to Him in all different ways and approaching Him in all different manners, but His word has been spoken. Only through Jesus can we find salvation. We may be fickle and change our minds, and even change direction after we’ve already spoken, but this isn’t the Lord. Let’s seek to be at peace with whatever word the Lord speaks. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2304
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