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Can you navigate the fine line between divine guidance and self-deception? On this episode of the Jamie Luce podcast, we unravel the complex story of Balaam, a figure in scripture who heard God’s voice yet strayed into the realm of false prophecy. Balaam’s narrative serves as a powerful lesson on the importance of aligning our hearts with divine will, emphasizing the transition from spiritual infancy to maturity. As we walk through Balaam’s journey, listeners are encouraged to reflect on their spiritual growth and the fruits it bears in their lives and those around them.

Our exploration doesn’t stop there; we journey into the saga of Balaam and Balak, drawing connections to the modern-day challenges we face. This episode underscores the importance of surrounding ourselves with positive influences and making discerning choices. Through the lens of Balaam’s story, we stress that God’s blessings are insurmountable and highlight the unique, personalized guidance God offers every individual. Hear how understanding and valuing God’s “no’s” can be as life-altering as embracing His “yeses,” especially for young adults and parents navigating complex social dynamics.

Lastly, we tackle the concept of idolatry born from self-deception, using Balaam’s misguided attempts for personal gain as a cautionary tale. Balaam’s donkey, a surprising source of truth, prompts us to examine our own motivations and remain vigilant against rationalizing disobedience. This discussion serves as a reminder to hold steadfast to our faith amidst worldly temptations, aiming to embody a life that reflects God’s image. Join us for a thought-provoking conversation that challenges conventional wisdom and invites listeners to embrace a life rooted in sincerity and alignment with biblical teachings.

Where to dive in:

(0:00:08) – Avoiding Self-Deception in Scripture (10 Minutes)

This chapter explores the crucial topic of avoiding self-deception, a theme repeatedly addressed in scripture. We focus on the character of Balaam, mentioned seven times across the Old and New Testaments, often in a negative light. Despite hearing from God, Balaam’s heart was not fully aligned with Him, categorizing him as a false prophet. By examining Balaam’s actions and motivations, we learn what God wants us to avoid. The discussion emphasizes the importance of growing in faith, akin to moving from spiritual childhood to maturity. As followers of Christ, we are encouraged to regularly engage with the Word of God, embody Christian principles, and produce spiritual fruit that benefits others. This growth process not only nourishes us but also enables us to contribute positively to the lives of those around us.

(0:10:00) – God’s Blessing vs. Self-Deception (14 Minutes)

This chapter explores the biblical narrative of Balaam, emphasizing the importance of seeking divine guidance in our associations and decisions. We reflect on the story of Balak, king of Moab, who sought Balaam’s help to curse the Israelites, and how Balaam initially heeded God’s instruction not to go with Balak’s messengers. We discuss the relevance of this story in contemporary life, especially for young adults and parents, highlighting the need to be cautious about the company we keep and the decisions we make. The discussion underscores the belief that God’s blessings are powerful and that no curse can prevail against those whom God has blessed. We also touch on the individuality of God’s guidance, noting how God’s directions can vary for each person, just as a parent might guide each child differently. Ultimately, the conversation emphasizes the importance of seeking personal guidance from the Lord and recognizing that God’s “no’s” are as beneficial as His “yeses.

(0:24:17) – Balaam’s Self-Deception and Idolatry (12 Minutes)

This chapter explores the theme of self-deception leading to idolatry, as illustrated by the biblical story of Balaam. We reflect on how Balaam’s repeated attempts to gain wealth by cursing God’s blessed people reveal his true desires, despite knowing God’s clear command. The discussion highlights the internal conflict of wanting personal gain against following divine instructions, emphasizing the danger of rationalizing disobedience. We also consider the humorous yet poignant moment when Balaam’s donkey, recognizing the presence of an angel, resists his commands, symbolizing how even those we least expect can see truth and offer correction. This narrative encourages self-examination of our motives, reminding us of the importance of adhering to faith and resisting the allure of worldly temptations.

(0:36:14) – Balaam’s Deceptive Advice (18 Minutes)

This chapter takes us through an in-depth Bible study, exploring the story of Balaam and Balak from the book of Numbers and its references in Revelation. We examine the deceptive tactics Balaam employed after failing to curse Israel directly, advising Balak on how to lead the Israelites into sin, thus causing them to bring a curse upon themselves. This story highlights the dangers of self-deception and the subtlety of deceit that can lead to devastating consequences, as illustrated by the resulting plague that struck Israel. Drawing parallels with King Saul’s disobedience, we reflect on the importance of self-examination and staying true to God’s commands. By doing so, we strive to live a life that truly reflects the image of God, just as children often resemble their parents. Through these scriptural lessons, we underscore the significance of sincerity in our spiritual walk and the need for vigilance against self-deception.

(0:54:13) – Walking in God’s Ways (12 Minutes)

This chapter addresses the importance of living a life aligned with biblical teachings amidst a world where societal norms can often seem contrary to Christian values. I explore how believers are called to embody the characteristics of Christ, shedding earthly behaviors such as anger, malice, and deceit, as emphasized in Colossians 3:5-17. We discuss the necessity of walking in the Spirit, as highlighted in Galatians 5:16, to resist sinful nature and embrace virtues like compassion, kindness, and love. The chapter underscores the importance of self-examination and prayer to align personal agendas with God’s will, ensuring our actions reflect our faith. Through a guided prayer, I encourage listeners to seek God’s guidance in cleansing their hearts and staying rooted in His word.

About your host: Jaime Luce’s testimony has daunting personal mountains and treacherous financial valleys. She was trapped in day-to-day stress and couldn’t see a way forward. But how she started is not how she finished! And she wants you to know God has a plan for your life too, no matter how tough it seems. Today, Jaime has been married to the love of her life for almost three decades, owns two companies, and has become an author and podcaster. God’s way is always the blessed way!

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Full Transcript

This transcript is auto-generated and not perfect. We hope it blesses you.

0:00:08 – Jaime Luce
Welcome to the Jamie Luce podcast. Thanks for taking time today to study the Word of God. Today I want to talk about oh, this is a. This is a tricky issue for people and so I hope you’re ready for this today, but we’re going to be talking about avoiding, and the steps to take to avoid self-deception. Self-deception If there is something in scripture that we see repeated over and over and over again, that is generally a good clue to us that it must be somewhat important.

It’s not mentioned one time, it’s mentioned multiple times. And many times we see different people in scripture who are mentioned multiple times because they’re the heroes, right? They’re the people that we want to be like, people we aspire to be as strong in the faith as they were. We think about how many times that Abraham is talked about and Moses is talked about and King David is talked about, and we just have all the prophets and they are mentioned and referred back to and you know, people in the New Testament are quoting the prophets of the Old Testament and the whole thing is usually built around the repetition is usually built around these people who were mighty in the word of God. They were mighty in their relationship with the Lord, mighty in the acts that they performed, mighty in miracles, mighty in faith, and we usually aspire to be like those people. I know I do, I’m assuming you do. I sure do.

But there’s a character listed here in scripture. He is mentioned seven times, both Old Testament and New Testament, and every time it is a what’s a kind word, it is a rebuke, it is a almost a condemnation of this person, and we’re going to be talking today about Balaam. Balaam there’s some tricky words, depending on which Bible you use, which translation you use. Sometimes we see it looks like he was maybe a seer, or that he was a prophet, but the truth was, though he was able to hear from God, his heart was not fully God’s, and because of that, he falls into the category of a false prophet, a false teacher. So I want us to go get your Bibles, and we’re going to be in the book of Numbers to start with. Like I said, he’s mentioned seven times, so we’re going to read some other passages as well. But I want us to look at what Balaam did, what was so wrong with it and how we can avoid that, because it is so condemned in scripture.

If God is saying I don’t want you to be like this, and he gives us a clear picture of who that is or what that person did or why they did. It shares with us their motivation. These are things that we need to look at because it is incumbent upon us as children of God those who call him by name and those of us who say that we are of the faith so that our lives should look like a representation of someone who belongs to Christ. Now, of course, this does not negate the fact that you could be a brand new Christian, a baby Christian, and you’re just learning this. Praise God, just keep on staying in the word. These are things we need to know.

What we’re going to be talking about today, that this is something you need to know. You need to know not only about God, who God is, what God thinks, what God feels because if we’re to be like him, you want to know all those things about him but if he made sure that we knew and understood. There are people and ways that I do not want you to look like. I don’t want you to act in these ways. I don’t want you to look like these kinds of people, and so we need to take a close look because if we are going to be mature, paul talks about when I was a child. I did this like a child, that like a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things, and he is equating that to our spiritual walk. Well, when we’re a child, we still may do things like a child, but you are expected to grow up. If you stay a child, if you don’t work at learning how to feed yourself and walk and conduct yourself like a little person who knows how to, how to follow the instructions that their parent is giving them and then be able to go and be schooled and taught and learn to the point that finally, someday you no longer are under someone’s tutelage, you’re able to do this on your own and then begin to teach others.

Paul made it clear over and over again that we were to be those who don’t just sit here and get fat on everything we know, but that we’re to be those who should have been grown by now, mature by now and teaching others by now. They expected there to be a very um, I would say a quick pace, a, a, not a slow pace, at least definitely a pace that takes you forward, in a forward motion that keeps you going forward. It’s expected that if you have given your life to Jesus Christ, you’re saying I want to live for the Lord, I want him to be Lord of my life. If that is your testimony, if that’s what you’re saying and you have given your life to the Lord, then that means that you’re somebody who cares about what he said. You care about his book, you care about what does he expect from us? What does a Christian life look like? And that means I spend a decent amount of time regularly reading and digesting this word, as well as practicing my faith, taking the opportunities that the day brings me to do it the way that Jesus would have us do it.

That we have an opportunity every single day to be walking by the leading of the Holy Spirit and producing the fruit of the Spirit in our life. That people can then take that fruit and be nourished by it from us. That there is a natural birthing and giving life process as we walk this life out. That we are to be those who produce the fruit of God in our lives, and that fruit doesn’t nourish us. We’re taking in to produce that fruit. That’s the nourishment coming that we’ve already put into ourselves, or by the church and by those that preach the gospel to us, and by those who are in our groups, with us and people that we do life together, as a church family, together. We have been fed by that, but then the fruit of the spirit that comes out of your life think about a tree and anyone who passes by and plucks from that tree can eat of the nourishment of that tree. Well, that’s us folks and we should be doing that.

And if there are things and ways and pictures that are depicted in scripture that tell us but do not do this, those are strong warnings. Those are really strong warnings. And to be mature is to be someone who says wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord. So I know I need to make wise decisions. I need to be someone who is introspective, someone who is willing to self-evaluate, so that I am not easily deceived into living a life that falls far short of what God has for my life, what he expects from my life, what I should expect as an outcome, as an outflow of my life.

So let’s go to Numbers 22. And I’m going to give you the background first, and then we’ll read some of the scripture. We’ll skip through some of it, I’ll summarize for you. But in Numbers 22, it says then the people of Israel set out and camped in the plains of Moab, beyond the Jordan, at Jericho. And Balak, the son of Zippor, saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. So this is another group of people, another nation of people, and they see Israel right there, they can see them, and there are millions of them, and they’re terrified of them because the glory of what God has done in his delivering Israel and his preservation of Israel and his helping them to defeat the enemy, the Amorites, he’s now afraid for Moab and thinking if I don’t do something, this group of people is going to do to me what they did to the Amorites. Okay, so let’s skip down to well, let’s go to verse four.

And Moab said to the elders of Midian. And Moab said to the elders of Midian this horde will not lick up all, I’m sorry, this horde will now lick up all that is around us as the ox looks up the grass of the field. So Balak, the son of Zippor, who was king of Moab at the time, sent messengers to Balaam, the son of Baor, at Pethor, if I’m saying these words right which is near the river, in the land of the people of Amah to call him, saying Behold, a people has come out of Egypt. They cover the face of the earth and they are dwelling opposite me. Come now, curse this people for me, since they are too mighty for me. Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them from the land, for I know that he whom you bless is blessed and he whom you curse is cursed. So Balaam had a reputation that he could go to a group of people, be hired to bless somebody or curse somebody, and obviously, to this point, his reputation was that if he did that, it actually happened.

Okay, verse seven. So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the fees for divination in their hand and they came to Balaam and gave him Balak’s message. Let’s see, yeah, let’s go ahead and read it. Verse eight. And he said to them lodge here tonight and I will bring back word to you as the Lord speaks to me.

So the princes of Moab stayed with Balaam and God came to Balaam and said who are these men with you? And Balaam said to God, balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, has sent to me saying behold, a people has come out of Egypt and it covers the face of the earth. Now come and curse them for me, perhaps I shall be able to fight against them and drive them out. God said to Balaam you shall not go with them. This is a great scripture of self-examination, right here, right now. If you’ve got teenagers in the home, if you are a young adult, shoot, even if you’re not a young adult. God cares about the people that you associate with and it would really be good if you would make sure and ask the Lord before you go and make connections with people and see if that’s what God has for you. God said to Balaam you shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.

Interesting note. I’m just throwing this in as a little extra. This is your freebie for today, just so you’re aware. If God has blessed you, you do not have to fear that someone or something is cursing you. You cannot curse what God has blessed. It just can’t happen. It can’t happen. There’s no curse more powerful than God’s blessing. There’s nothing that can be done against you. If God says you’re blessed and you’re walking in communion with the Lord, in obedience to the Lord, then you are the blessed and there is nothing that can curse you. I’ve heard people in the Christian realm who wonder if they’ve been cursed, and can they have a curse and all these crazy things. Not if you’re blessed. Not if you’re blessed, okay. Not if God says so.

Balaam rose in the morning and said to the princes of Balak go to your own land, for the Lord has refused to let me go with you. Now, up until this point, it sounds like Balaam’s a really good guy. I mean, it really sounds like he’s a good guy. He’s asking the Lord, he’s giving the Lord’s response. To these men, verse 14. To these men, verse 14. So the princess arose. Uh, the princess of Moab rose and went to Balak and said Balaam refuses to come with us. So once again, balaam, or Balak, says okay, maybe I didn’t send enough high officials, maybe I didn’t give this guy enough honor and he needs me to kind of, you know, butter him up a bit more to see if he’ll be willing to change his mind.

Now, somebody who is not firm in the faith, somebody who is not convinced of their convictions, could easily I’ve been there too could easily be lured away. If we’re not mature, we can be lured away to participate in things that God is saying I don’t want you participating in that. Even if you have other Christian friends who are, maybe the Lord just doesn’t want you in that environment. Maybe he knows there’s something about you that’s different than them If you have children. I have four children and each one of them is different, and what’s okay for one isn’t okay for the other, and how you train one isn’t necessarily the same as how you train another. How you correct one, it’s going to probably look different when you correct the other.

We are God’s children. He knows how he created us. He knows our temperaments, our personalities, he knows our weaknesses and our tendencies. He knows what he’s called you to and he knows what to keep you from, and so we have to be so careful and not be deceived, especially if we think that we are taking instruction from other Christians. You need your instruction, not even from me. You need it from the Lord. You need to go to the word yourself and you need to get it from the Lord.

The Lord has the answer for you. The Lord knows what’s good for your life. The Lord knows what is a yes and a no for you, and it the answer for you. The Lord knows what’s good for your life. The Lord knows what is a yes and a no for you, and it’s good for you If he says no to you. It’s good for you. It’s good for you, Okay, god?

My mom used to always say this to us when we were growing up, and she’d say God’s no’s are as good as his yeses. God’s no’s are as good as his yeses. It’s good that he tells me no, because that means he knows something I don’t and that’s not good for me. So he tells me no and I can act like a child and throw a fit and actually have my own desires. You know this is self-deception Asking God but really wanting what you want, regardless of what God says. You want what you want and when you want what you want, even though you say, well, I asked God. You know how many people say I talked to God and he said, yeah, it’s okay, and that is not what God said.

We’re going to do a different episode about what it really means to take the name of the Lord in vain and watching that kind of speech, because that is misrepresenting God. Do you know that misrepresenting God is what kept Moses, the man who wrote the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, kept him out of the promised land. He misrepresented God to the people. That’s serious folks, really serious, and it’s a dangerous place to be when I have my mind made up that I’m going to do this and I have justified to myself this is okay. And because I think it’s okay, I know technically, you know, I really should ask God. Okay, so I can say I asked God and I go and say, okay, Lord, I really want to do this. Yeah, thanks for blessing what I’m doing.

Or we do the old, you know, um, do whatever you’re going to do and ask for forgiveness later, where we just do what we want and then we go and we say we ask God, I hope that’s okay. Or we, we pray prayers like this where we say, lord, this is what I want to do, bless my plans, help me with my plans. But never once did we say, lord, is this your plan? Am I following after your heart in this? Am I doing what you want me to do? You know the way. You know how to make the crooked way straight for me. You know how to take these mountains and bring them down and make them plain for me and easy for me to walk through. You can part a red sea and I can walk through on dry ground. Is this the path you have for me, or am I trying to just do what I want regardless?

What does the book of Matthew teach us? That Jesus said seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then all these things will be added to you. We’re so worried we’re going to miss out. We’ve all got FOMO fear of missing out and because of that we jump ahead, we rush, rush ahead of God. We’re so afraid we’re going to miss something. We involve ourselves in things and with people that we have no business doing now.

I’m not saying that God doesn’t say go, be fruitful, multiply. I am saying, however, just ask him first if, what? If he knows this is really going to be detrimental to you, or you’re going to go this way and sure it’ll be good for a little while, but it’s actually going to take all your time, all your resources and all your attention and the thing you were supposed to focus on. Now you’re out of resources, now you don’t have what you need and you should have went the other way. There is wisdom in obedience the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You go to God first and see what God says.

Because if you, if you, if you decide that you already know what you want and you’re simply looking to justify, you know you could have a decision in your heart about something you want and you’re simply looking to justify, you know you could have a decision in your heart about something you want to do and you’re now looking for what we call confirmation bias, that everywhere you look now you’re going to see that confirmation, because that’s what you want to see. If I say to you you know, I have just been seeing red Ford trucks on the road just constantly, every day. I’m just seeing a ton of red Ford trucks. I could say that to you and you’d be driving on the road. Do you know what you’re going to start noticing while you’re driving on the road? Since you heard me say that you’re going to start noticing red Ford trucks, it’s just going to happen. It’s confirmation bias.

We all have it, we all do it and if you have your mind made up, you are setting yourself up for self-deception because you’re going to think you see all these little reasons why, yep, I’m right, yep, I’m right and you know, folks, god could say yes, and then you’re going to actually see real confirmations and you’re going to know. You’re going to know that’s God. You’re going to know the voice of God. He says my children know my voice, my sheep know my voice and they will not follow another. This is where the rubber meets the road. Are we those who walk out our faith or simply those who give lip service to it? It’s dangerous, really dangerous.

Jesus said when I come back, there’s going to be two groups of people. There’s going to be the group of people who were actually my servants and they’re going to be those who say Lord, lord, lord, we did this in your name and that in your name. And Jesus says I never knew you. I never knew you. That’s intimate. That means we didn’t actually have relationship. You used my name, you did things that you thought looked like me, sounded like me, but we didn’t have a relationship.

Self-deception can keep you out of heaven. Self-deception can keep you out of a blessing. Self-deception can take you into the worst life decisions that you could ever imagine. Self-deception We’ve got to be wiser than this, folks. Okay, let me finish reading what I was going to do and take you back into scripture when you have already decided you want what you want. You have to be careful, because that causes what I would call distorted hearing and blindness to the actual truth, that’s that confirmation bias. This leads to destruction. Balaam was responsible not just for uncovering and we’ll get all this I’m giving you like a snapshot before we read it but not only uncovering the children of Israel’s weakness and then subsequently leading them into sin and disobedience, which led to death by plague. He’s actually responsible in this deception for 24,000 people being killed, and then it ultimately cost him his own life. Self-deception cost him his life and 24,000 other people. That’s a heavy price to pay, spiritually speaking.

Self-deception leads to idolatry, which is the worship of false gods. Which false gods are. Anything that you can create, anything you create, is a false god, and your false god is an impotent god. It’s a fantasy and it’s a lie. Okay, so let’s look at this.

Let’s go back to scripture. Let’s look back at verse 12 again. God said to Balaam you should not go with them. You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed. So Balaam rose in the morning and said to the princess of Balaam go to your own land, for the Lord has refused to. Let me go with you.

Okay, balaam says let’s try again. I’m giving you more honor, I’m promising you gifts, I’m sending the best people. Let’s just ask again Haven’t we done that, lord? I know last time you told me no. But here I am again. I’m asking again Now. Why would I ask again? Because I really want that, I really want to do that, I really want what I want. That’s the only reason why you would ask again. Otherwise you’d say he said no, you’d leave it at that. But this is exposing something not just in Balak’s heart, the king of Moab. This is exposing what’s really in Balaam’s heart.

Okay, so let’s drop to verse 18. But Balaam answered and said to the servants on their second visit to him though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not be go beyond the command of the Lord, my God, to do less or more. So you too, please stay here tonight. Okay, listen to this carefully that I may know what more the Lord will say to me. So they’ve just come and promised him a lot of money. We’ll pay you really well.

Have you been offered a job that you know compromises your Christian faith or it takes you out of your ability to go to church, be a part of God’s family. Does it cause you to compromise in that it means you have to kind of lean on some fleshly attitudes to make that sale or, to, you know, manipulate somebody into doing something they don’t want to do. Think about the implications of this. They’ve just said we’re going to offer you a ton of money if you’ll come do this. And Balak’s answer now, instead of just saying sorry, can’t do it, god already told me, no, you shouldn’t have come back. Instead, he says sounds spiritual. I can only say and do what God tells me to say and do, but stay here tonight. I’ll go ask again and see if maybe he’ll say something more. So what’s this exposing? It’s exposing that Balaam actually wanted to get a hold of that money. Is there any way that God will? Let me say something so that I can get a hold of this, so that I can do the thing that I want to do.

Verse 20,. And God came to Balaam at night and said to him if the men have come to call you, rise, go with them. And you need to know. God already spoke. We know, according to scripture, god does not change his mind. This is Balaam is being put to the test right now. Rise, go with them, but only do what I tell you to Verse 21. What I tell you to Verse 21,.

So Balaam rose in the morning and saddled his donkey and went with the princes of Moab Verse 22,. But God’s anger was kindled because he went. God’s not being a split personality. He’s not schizophrenic. He doesn’t say one thing and mean something else trying to trick Balaam. He already told Balaam you cannot curse what God has blessed. To go with them means that you think there’s some way you’re going to get around this so that you could have the desire of your heart to get a hold of that money. I already told you my will for these people and now you’re going to go ahead and go. You’re just going to take the easiest first way. You get to follow after what you really want. And he saddles that donkey. And all along the way in this process we see that an angel of the Lord goes before Balaam and the donkey that Balaam is riding on sees the angel. And every time the angel gets in the donkey’s path, the donkey’s smart enough to say I ain’t going there, that angel’s got his sword drawn and that donkey knows it. The donkey knows it. That’s pretty sad that the animal understands the mission better than the rider. That’s just a sad state of affairs.

Look at verse 24. Well, let’s look at 23. And the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand. And the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand. And the donkey turned aside out of the road and went into the field and Balaam struck the donkey to turn her into the road. So he’s trying to force her to go, not seeing that there’s an angel right there with a sword drawn.

Then the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path between the vineyards with a wall on either side. Stood in a narrow path between the vineyards with a wall on either side, and when the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she pushed against the wall and pressed Balaam’s foot against the wall, so he struck her again. Then the angel of the Lord went ahead and stood in a narrow place where there was no way to turn either to the right or to the left. And when the donkey saw the angel of the Lord. She just laid down under Balaam and Balaam’s anger was kindled and he struck the donkey with his staff. Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey.

Have you ever had to have a word of correction from someone that you did not want to hear that from? God will use whomever he chooses to use to get his point across and the humiliation that he’s feeling. This is a humbling experience. God imparts the ability to speak into a donkey so that Balaam could have his eyes open. That’s how blind he was to his own behavior and his own self-deception.

Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey and she said to Balaam what have I done to you that you have struck me these three times? And Balaam said to the donkey because you have made a fool of me. I wish I had a sword in my hand, for then I would kill you. And the donkey said to Balaam am I not your donkey, on which you have ridden all your life long to this day? Is it my habit to treat you this way? And he said no.

Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam and he saw the angel of the Lord is saying your way is perverse. Before me. The angel of the Lord is saying what’s in you and this desire that you are allowing to stay inside of you is perverse. You want something you should not want. It’s twisted, something you should not want it’s twisted. You can’t say you belong to me and want to be party to cursing my people. There’s, there’s a twisting happening there. The donkey saw me and turned aside before me these three times. If she had not turned aside from me, surely just now I would have killed you and let her live. Wow. Then Balaam said to the angel of the Lord I have sinned, for I did not know that you stood in the road against me. Now, therefore, if it is evil in your sight, I will turn back.

And the angel of the Lord said to Balaam go with the men, but speak only the word that I tell you. So Balaam went on with the princess of Balak. So they get to this place. They’re overlooking and they can see the children of Israel. And the king of Moab says okay, can you see them all? All right, I want you to curse them from here. And Balaam has him build altars and he makes a sacrifice and he goes and he asks God and he comes back and he pronounces a blessing over the children of Israel. And the king is furious and he says why did you bless them? I asked you to curse them. And Balaam says I told you. I can only say what God tells me to say. He goes, well, come with me. He goes with him three different times, builds three different altars and the same thing happens every single time.

On the final oracle, which I believe is number four, he took up this discourse and said the oracle of Balaam, the son of Beor, the oracle of the man whose eye is open, the oracle of him who hears the words of God and knows the knowledge of the Most High, who sees the vision of the Almighty falling down with his eyes uncovered. I see him, but not now. I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not near. A star shall come out of Jacob and a scepter shall rise out of Israel. It shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth. Edom shall be dispossessed, sire, also his enemy shall be dispossessed. Israel is doing valiantly and one from Jacob shall exercise dominion and destroy the survivors of the cities. He is literally not only saying I’m not going to bless them, I’m prophesying over the rest of their, over the rest of their lineages and generations, and they are going to be perpetually blessed.

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At the end of this, the king is uh, let’s, let’s go. Well, let’s go to. Let’s read it, verse 25. Then Balaam rose and went back to his place and Balak also went back to his way. And it looks like that Balaam did what he was supposed to and just according to this particular passage in numbers, that he did what he was supposed to and he just left and didn’t curse the people.

But we’re missing something very important. More happened, and I want you to jump over to Numbers, chapter 31. And this is when they’re getting vengeance on Midian. And if we go over to verse 13, it says and if we go over to verse 13, it says Moses and Eleazar, the priest, and all the chiefs of the congregation went to meet them outside the camp and Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds who had come from service in the war, commanders of hundreds who had come from service in the war. Moses said to them have you let all the women live? Behold, these, on Balaam’s advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the Lord in the incident of Peor, and so the plague came among the congregation of the Lord. What’s he talking about?

Let’s look at Revelation 2. Revelation, chapter 2. We’re doing our Bible study today, verses 12 to 17. And the angel of the church in Pergamum write the words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword. I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. Yet you hold fast my name and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. But I have a few things against you.

You have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, the teaching of Balaam who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. What’s he talking about? What is not mentioned in the first passage there in Numbers 22, is that, after the blessing, cursing failed for the king and Israel was continually blessed, balaam actually says to Balak okay, here’s what you need to do If you want to actually be able to defeat them. You can’t do it by God, cause God’s not going to curse them. There’s no curse I can put on them, but they can curse themselves. If you’ll send women in to lure them away, invite them to be part of you and to take part in your sacrifices and in your worship to your gods, they’ll kill themselves, they’ll hurt themselves, they’ll curse themselves. Use the women to lure them away. And that’s exactly what happened and that’s what Moses was talking about. They followed Balaam’s advice.

In Revelation, john calls it the teaching of Balaam that you could actually get around what God says and do it another way. There’s another way to get what you want. You don’t have to do it this way. That’s okay. You can let God do God’s thing, but there’s another way. There’s another way.

Balaam wanted the money, so he wanted to be able to say something and give something to this king, because he couldn’t curse. God told him you can’t say anything that I don’t say. So Balaam did what God said. He did what God said. He didn’t say that they could be cursed. He pronounced a blessing on them. But what was in Balaam’s heart Deceit was not just deceit wickedness. What he did in telling the king what to do to lure them to curse themselves brought a curse. Not a curse, but a plague on the people, because they started sacrificing to these other idols, eating the food that was sacrificed to other idols, and then being sexually immoral with the women of these peoples, and and by doing that a plague was pronounced on them. They brought a plague on themselves and 24,000 people died. This is really awful, folks.

Deception is so deceiving it can. It can come in in such subtle ways where you can tell yourself. You can lie to yourself and self-deceive by saying to yourself well, god’s word says this, so I did that. But I went over here and I did this. That’s just because I did what God told me over here. Do you know who? That’s just like? That’s just like the witchcraft that came out of King Saul. He tried to say I did what you said, god. And he said then what’s the bleeding of the sheep? I hear that’s what Samuel said. What’s the bleeding of the sheep? I hear? Well, I saved the best for sacrifices to God. I mean, we code it in Christianese so that we can make it sound like we’re doing something godly, that we can make it sound like we’re doing something godly. But, folks, in the end it brings total destruction to those that it touches. As well as you, you will bring destruction on yourself.

If you truly want the blessing of God, you must be so keenly aware of the self-deception that can happen so easily. We have to be those who are truly self-examining our own hearts. King David would come before God and say search my heart, show me. Is there any wicked way in me? Folks, we have to be those that say I really want to live this life the way God has called me to live it. I really want to live the Christian life. I really want to be someone who looks like him. I want to.

You know, there are people who have children that look just like one of the parents. I mean, they look just like them, right? You can just see there’s a woman that I go to church with and a little girl ran up to her and I go oh my goodness, she’s got to be yours. She looks just like you. This is so common, right? Our kids look like us. We are supposed to look like our father and it’s important for us to realize that we have to make that distinction. Spiritually speaking. We have to choose. We have to choose and we have to be willing to look at our own hearts and say what is in there. Let me give you some scriptures we need to look at.

Let’s go to second Peter, uh, chapter two, verse 15. And second, peter’s primary purpose, the book that he wrote. 2. Peter’s primary purpose was to warn against false teachers and instead to encourage them to grow in faith and to live holy according to God’s word, which is the source of wisdom and truth and true salvation. Okay, so this is what he wanted. So let’s go. Second peter, I’m turning there too. Second peter, 215.

Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, they have. Well, let me back up. Let’s look at verse. Uh, I want to read you this whole little thing. Oh gosh, this is so good.

All right, we’re going to go to verse 4. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment, if he did not spare the ancient world but only preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly, if, by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly, and if he rescued righteous lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked for as that righteous man lived among them, day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard Then the angel knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions while they feast with you. They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin, they entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. These are the false teachers, accursed children Forsaking the right way. They have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Baor, who loved gain from wrongdoing but was rebuked for his own transgression. A speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

Wow, here there’s a lie that we hear propagated, and it is a um, a self comforting lie. Uh, people say this so that they can justify their behavior to themselves, not realizing that you don’t stand before yourself as judge. One day you will stand before God. Who is judge? And it’s not your opinion of yourself that matters. It’s God’s opinion and his opinion is are you covered with my son’s blood or not? Did you submit your life to him as Lord or not? And people will propagate this lie. But I’m a good person. I don’t worry about um. I don’t worry about them because they’re good people. God will have mercy. God is loving.

We have these deceptive things we tell ourselves and we deceive ourselves into not living the life we’re called to live. Jeremiah 17, 19 says the heart is deceitful above all things. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who could know it? Who could know it how bad it is? Who can even know? He’s saying you can’t even know how bad it is that our hearts are that easily deceitful. You can’t even know how bad it is that our hearts are that easily deceitful. They’re wicked.

We go so easy on ourselves. We are much harder on other people than we are ourselves we hold. If you will be honest with yourself, you will realize you hold other people me too. We hold other people to a higher standard than we expect of ourselves. We give them no excuse and we give ourselves every excuse. We say that they had no reason and no good right to do what they did. But there’s a reason that I do what I do. We, we just justify our behavior. We are always looking to justify our desires, our wants.

Balaam he was greedy. He wanted the money and many paid for that. It’s like a Bernie Madoff. You know those of you who are old enough to know who Bernie Madoff is. He had a Ponzi scheme of taking people’s money, so-called investing it, and they make all this other money while he’s actually keeping the money. They believed his craziness and they were all hurt by their loss. They gave him money that he shouldn’t have been trusted. He took that money and destroyed himself and went to prison for everything he did. His family ended up paying for everybody pays, everybody pays.

When we are self-deceptive, it doesn’t just stay with us. We can’t think that we’re not hurting anybody. We are. We are harming others. No one is an island unto himself.

When Cain killed Abel and the indictment came, where’s your brother? And he said am I my brother’s keeper? We act like that was the right thing to quote. That’s like that’s a right stance to take. Am I my brother’s keeper? God was saying, yeah, yeah, you should know.

What did you do? It matters. He says you are to love God first and love people second. All the law and all the prophets hang on those two things Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Yes, people are your business. So how you conduct your life and the things that you choose to do affect everybody else around you. It is not just you. We are responsible. We’re not responsible for one another, but we are responsible to one another. I am responsible to you as a Christian, as a daughter of the Lord, in my actions and in my words and in how I conduct myself, and you are to me. We treat ourselves like a passive parent with a spoiled, rotten child. Parent with a spoiled, rotten child who, when confronted by the child’s behavior, insists that their little sweet baby would never do that and then goes on to blame others why their child is doing that. There’s a funny meme I probably am going to butcher this and not say this, right, but it I saw this the other day and it says as soon as I say my child would never hear, they come never in like they’ve never before. And that’s the truth. It’s the truth.

I want us to go to a couple more. Uh, we’re finishing up, but I’ve got a couple more verses for you. Let’s go to 2 Corinthians 13, 5.2 Corinthians 13, 5. And it says examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith Test. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you, unless, of course, you fail the test? He’s saying you should be able to see. When you examine and test yourself, you should be able to see that Jesus Christ is in you yourself. You should be able to see that Jesus Christ is in you. But if you fail the test and you don’t find him in you, well, that’s a whole, nother problem. We are to examine ourselves to see whether we really are in the faith. Test yourselves in the faith Test yourselves. This is so crucial.

We are living in a society that is saying up is down, black is white. You know, a dog is a cat, a man is a woman. I mean, come on, it’s, it’s insanity. And if you are not convinced of your walk with the Lord, living according to biblical standards and mandates, not man, not the culture, not the nation or the country that you are a part of God’s ways, his word, then, my friend, you will be easy prey to be picked off and become the group that God says I never knew you. We have to take this seriously. We’ve got to be those. If I say I belong to Christ, I am acting that out. I am living that out. I’m living it out.

Let’s go to Colossians 3, 5 to 17. Colossians 3, 5-17. This is what it says. This is what it says Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived, but now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these Anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language from your lips.

Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge, in the image of its creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and is in all. Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another. If any one of you has a grievance against someone, forgive, as the Lord forgave you, and over all these virtues, put on love which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body, you were called to peace and be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God, the Father.

Through him, we’ve got to be those who walk and talk. You’ve heard the saying if it walks like a duck, looks like a duck, sounds like a duck must be a duck. We want the same for us. If we look like Christians, sound like Christians, smell like Christians, talk like Christians, act like I mean, we want that to be the evidence against us that, yes, you are indeed a believer, you are someone of faith, someone who believes that Jesus Christ can and does change our lives, take us from the list of old things that condemned us and takes us into a new life of every blessing and every good thing that God has for us.

Let’s close with this verse Galatians 5, 16. I have it in a couple different translations for you. King James says this I say then, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. But I liked what the Amplified said. But I say walk habitually in the Holy Spirit, seek him and be responsive to his guidance, and then you will certainly not carry out the desire of the sinful nature which responds impulsively without regard for God and his precepts. Self-examine, self-examine that’s what we need to do today, folks. I know this is really strong, but I couldn’t get over the fact that Balaam is literally mentioned. I didn’t read you all the passages, but he’s mentioned seven times.

And the rebuke comes and the danger signal and God says this is what I have against you, that this is in you. We’ve got to be so careful not to allow the spirit of the world to crowd out. You know, the parable of the seeds gives us the example. There are some that the seed falls on the ground, on ground that seems to accept the seed. The problem is that the cares of life come in and choke out the word. We allow the world’s ideas and our own deceived hearts take us and choke out our walk with the Lord and instead we are filled with the weeds of wickedness. It’s self-deception.

My heart for you today is that you will stop and that you will pray. My heart for you today is that you will stop and that you will pray. I will lead you in a word of prayer in just a moment. If this is you, if you need to have a moment, like King David did say I don’t know, jamie, I don’t know if that’s in me, I don’t know what’s in there, but I want to know. I want to lay down my personal agendas and I want to seek after the will of God. What does he want for my life? That’s what I want to do and I want to do it with all of my heart so that everything that my hand is put to in obedience to God prospers and blesses and multiplies. If that’s you, will you pray this prayer with me today?

Heavenly Father, we just ask that today your presence would come and we would know your gentle spirit, that we would hear your voice as you speak to us to show us and expose to us our hearts. And with your love, would you come, father, and take the blood of Jesus and wash us. Let the washing of your word we read so much of your word, lord let the word wash us and cleanse us and remove all the things that are in us, that have crowded out your word, your desires for our life. Father, we ask that you would speak clearly to us now. Remind us whose we are, who we are, what you’ve called us to and how you’ve called us to do it. Lord, give us your strength, your wisdom, help us to keep our eyes open. Let us not be like Balaam, so blind and consumed by our greedy desires or our fleshly desires, god, that we would submit our lives to you, truly humble ourselves and offer our lives as a living sacrifice, which is our reasonable service to you, Lord Jesus, and we ask that in our obedience, lord, you would make the way straight before us, you would remove the rocky places and make them plain. You would bring down the mountains in front of us, you would part the red seas for us. Help us, lord, to walk in accordance with your word and reap every blessing, and take us to the promises that you have established for our life, and we will give you all the glory, lord, and all the praise In Jesus’ name. We pray, amen. Well, I do hope that this has been an encouragement to you, and I say encouragement because there’s nothing better than knowing the voice of God. Encouragement because there’s nothing better than knowing the voice of God.

There have been times when I have walked into things, did things I shouldn’t have done, made the wrong choice, and I had to come back and submit my life and say God, here I am, what’s going on? Do the self-examination and, lord, show me, put a flashlight on in there, show me what’s hiding in there. And when he does, he’s so gentle, he’s so kind, he’s so merciful and forgiving that if we’ll just offer ourselves to him, he’ll swoop you up and say, yes, you are my child. Let’s dust you off, let’s set you in the right position and set your course, and let’s do this again. A righteous man falls seven times, but he gets back up. He gets back up. It doesn’t mean that you haven’t fallen. We’ve all fallen.

I heard some crazy statistic I think it was this morning or yesterday that when a child is learning to walk, that they fall like 27 times a minute, or some crazy thing, like they just fall constantly. It’s not the fall, though we don’t want. We want to get better at it and fall a lot less. And the more mature we are, we shouldn’t be falling down. And if we do fall down, his grace is sufficient. He will come and he will pick us up and there is no condemnation in Jesus Christ. Trust me, we all have moments of failure. They might be little falls, they might be big falls, but you serve a risen Savior who has conquered every possible sin and death. He has taken the curse for you. You cannot be cursed if you are under his blessing. So let’s get it right. Let’s self-examine today and let’s live the blessed life that the Lord has destined for us to live, the blessed life that the Lord has destined for us to live. It doesn’t mean it will always be easy, but it will carry his blessing with it and it will be for our good. God bless you today.

Thank you for taking time with me. If you want to find out more, listen to other episodes. Read my blogs. You can go to my website, that’s jamielucecom J-A-I-M-E-L-U-C-E. You can hear this podcast on all the podcast platforms or you can watch this on YouTube If you enjoyed this today or if this was a convicting message, but you know you need to share it. Hit that like button, share this with somebody who needs the message and if you’d like to know when a new episode comes about, ring the bell. Subscribe and you’ll get notified whenever a new episode is released. Thank you for spending time with me today. It was my pleasure being with you. We’ll see you next time. Bye-bye.