A Journey of Faith
Do you ever get up in the morning, and instead of your thoughts rolling around in your head, you find scripture verses coming to mind, then ideas that make you wonder, where did that come from? I awoke one night many years ago, and an entire sermon with illustrations, an outline, and the main point from a portion of the Bible went through my mind. All I had to do was get up and write it down, which I promptly did.
On Wednesday morning, Isaiah came to mind. I have never had a life-verse, but I do now. "Yet those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary." Isaiah 40:31. More of that in a minute.
Many years ago, I received a call and asked to become my church's new deacon of ordinances. An extraordinary sense of responsibility to be holy came over me. I was struck with the seriousness of leading others to serve in the only two traditions given to the Church of Jesus Christ, which remember His death and resurrection.
I became consumed with writing a book focusing on Jesus' character during that period. Due to those two responsibilities and a heightened need for accountability and transparency, my prayer life had never before reached such heights. That is not to say that my prayer life had not been good before that time. For example, in 1980, while attending Missionary Internship in Michigan and coming up $ 2,000 short on my school bill, a huge expense in those days, which drove me to my knees.
I decided to go into my bedroom and not leave until I received the money I owed in answer to prayer. I said nothing to anyone, and over the following two weeks, money came in from many people for two hundred dollars more than I needed. The two hundred went into my weekly giving.
However, this new prayer life had much more worship, praise, thanksgiving, confession, and intercession, so much so that I began inviting as many as eighteen disciples into a group that began at 3 am and did not finish until usually 8:30 or 9.
During the last two years, several changes in my life; not making excuses, but not taking into account the toll those changes were taking on my spiritual life, attitude, and prayers. Lukewarm is never a good thing. One of the brighter illuminations given to me by Isaiah is about the process of waiting. No matter if a person is Reformed or Arminian, if he even brings his hearers under conviction when preaching; if he is not WAITING upon God, he can become hardened to the truth about God, His Christ, and most devastating, his own soul.
Let us remember that God used Balaam of all people to proclaim a completely accurate message. The only thing Balaam would do when making a proclamation was to bless Israel and exalt God. However, he was a stumbling block to Israel; therefore, he was struck down and is undoubtedly in hell. It is difficult to hear a man who we believe to be doctrinally correct, and even an appearance of godliness, but in the end is a false prophet.
Godly men wait upon the Lord; they pray well, which means their prayers continue to drive them to obedience and impart a deepening relationship with the living God. Wait on the Lord; you will never be disappointed if your waiting is counted by hours and not minutes. Waiting in minutes is not waiting at all.
The following verses summarise the account of Balaam.
"Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, but behold, you have actually blessed them!” He replied, “Must I not be careful to speak what the LORD puts in my mouth?” Numbers 23:11-12
"Then he took up his discourse and said, “Arise, O Balak, and hear; Give ear to me, O son of Zippor! “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent; has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?" Numbers 23:18-19
"Then Balak said to Balaam, “Do not curse them at all nor bless them at all!” But Balaam replied to Balak, “Did I not tell you, ‘Whatever the LORD speaks, that I must do’?” Numbers 23:25-26
"And he looked at Amalek and took up his discourse and said, “Amalek was the first of the nations, but his end shall be destruction.” Numbers 24:20 (In all his discourses, Balaam only blessed the Lord and Israel; and told of the destruction of the nations.)
"When Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he did not go as at other times to seek omens, but he set his face toward the wilderness." Numbers 24:1 " (Wilderness) "But the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They did not walk in My statutes, and they rejected My ordinances, by which, if a man observes them, he will live; and My sabbaths they greatly profaned." Ezekiel 20:13
"The sons of Israel also killed Balaam the son of Beor, who practiced divination, with the sword among the rest of their slain." Joshua 13:22
"No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the LORD; none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the LORD, because they did not meet you with food and water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. "Nevertheless, the LORD your God was not willing to listen to Balaam, but the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you because the LORD your God loves you." Deuteronomy 23:3-5
"Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;" 2 Peter 2:15.
"Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core." Jude 1:11
"But I have a few things against you because you have there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication." Revelation 2:14
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