Getting Rid of the Slave Woman—Selfish Ambition—and Her Son 3

Numbers 22:6, 12, 20-21, 23-26, 32-33.

6 “Therefore please come at once, curse this people for me, for they are too mighty for me. Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land, for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.”

12 “And God said to Balaam, ‘You shall not go with them; you shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.”

20-21 “And God came to Balaam at night and said to him, ‘If the men come to call you, rise and go with them; but only the word which I speak to you—that you shall do.’ So Balaam rose in the morning, saddled his donkey, and went with the princes of Moab.”

23-26 “Now the donkey saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the way with His drawn sword in His hand, and the donkey turned aside out of the way and went into the field. So Balaam struck the donkey to turn her back onto the road. Then the Angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path between the vineyards, with a wall on this side and a wall on that side. And when the donkey saw the Angel of the Lord, she pushed herself against the wall and crushed Balaam’s foot against the wall; so he struck her again. Then the Angel of the Lord went further, and stood in a narrow place where there was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left.”

32-33 “And the Angel of the Lord said to him, ‘Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to stand against you, because your way is perverse before Me. The donkey saw Me and turned aside from Me these three times. If she had not turned aside from Me, surely I would also have killed you by now, and let her live.” NKJV

In this passage we see the account of Balak, the king of Moab who felt threatened by the Israelites and wanted to have Balaam, a man who was not fully decided on whom he would serve, whether God or his selfish ambitions, although he seemed to have deep knowledge of God and of His ways (Numbers 24:15-16). Balaam is called the son of Jezebel. I will explain why. He has received this title because he helped the King of Moab get the children of Israel out of the way “by forsaking the worship of the Lord their God and worship other gods through their marriage union with other nations that were idol worshipers.”

Balaam did this for the reward he was offered. He was divided between two opinions even though he knew he had the authority to speak a word and see it come to pass whether to bless or to curse which shows he was a judge with an apostolic anointing as illustrated in verse 6. 

Verse 5 of Numbers 22 in the NLT version says, “Look, a vast horde of people has arrived from Egypt. They cover the face of the earth and are threatening me.”

We can see how the people of Israel were walking strong and being blessed of their God, and this made their enemies feel weak and small, and be greatly threatened by them, especially after these enemies had seen or heard of the wonderful victories God was giving His people. This demonstrates that there will be temptations to speak against someone perhaps in leadership or a peer whether in the body of Christ or outside of the Church, that looks like is being blessed of God, or because their anointing and spiritual strength is evident. The speaking against is directed at killing the person's influence in others.

One of the first signs the enemy shows that he is threatened by a person or group is that he will raise someone or a group of people to speak against the person, but the ones that are being condemned with their words and detoured from their promised lands are the ones gossiping and slandering as they are at the same time helping the one they are speaking against rise to higher levels in God for He fights their battles. There has to be a persistence in our determination to be used as instruments of blessing instead of instruments of strive and division because even our enemies can be changed by our love, unless God has prompted us to avoid them and allow Him to intervene in the situation as we cry out for justice to be done.

After the King of Moab had sent for Balaam to curse the people of Israel, God told him (Balaam) in verse 12 to not curse them for they are a blessed people. This invitation to curse came again, and this time with a bigger bribe from the King of Moab who sent even more powerful messengers to make the offer more enticing for Balaam. But God tested him in verse 20 and told him to rise and go with the servants of the King of Moab; but only to say what He would prompt him to. But Balaam failed the test and went blinded to all righteousness to see if there was a possibility for him to curse the people of God and get the reward offered to him. He set out to head in the wrong direction arousing God's anger through His Angel. 

This situation was just like it happens to many of us when we insist on going the wrong way. Verses 23 to 26 describe how the way got narrower and narrower for Balaam until there was no way to turn, but to the Angel of the Lord. Then He finally opened his eyes and could see that the donkey, whom he was blaming for his delay in reaching the wrong destination, was not his problem. It was his disobedience and continual pursuit of the wrong ways. In verses 32 and 33 we see that Balaam had struck the donkey three times to get it to continue going down the wrong path, but the Angel called his ways perverse and was willing to even kill Balaam. The donkey saved his life by not moving forward. This demonstrates to us that sometimes there are things we are blaming for not allowing us to move forward with our selfish ambitions, but in reality they are keeping us from perishing in the way, so that we can repent and turn back in the right direction.

There is a doctrine called the doctrine of Balaam that causes us to curse ourselves with our behavior because we have violated the spiritual principles of the Kingdom of God due to our disobedience. This causes us to see obstacles brought by our own sinful nature. Verse 32 of Numbers 22 in the NLT version says that the Angel of the Lord spoke to Balaam saying, “I have come to block your way because you are stubbornly resisting me.” 

When we violate the principles of the kingdom of God whether we are aware of it or not, we are disobeying the laws of His kingdom and thereby are opening ourselves to demonic attacks brought because we have caused a breach in our hedge of protection until we turn back. The other side of that obstruction comes from God Himself who will obstruct the way of the proud (1 Peter 5:5). 

-When we turn away from God, the ways of His Kingdom, and His righteousness to instead serve the things of the world;
-when we choose to walk in unforgiveness and offense instead of extending forgiveness and compassion to our brothers and sister and the lost;
-when we turn away from our relationship with God and our walk of faith and trust in His Word;
-when we do not submit to the authority figures in our lives and fail to give honor to our leaders as well as our peers;
-also when we do not give tithes and offerings or help the poor, instead of allowing fear or carelessness to block us from the source of our provision;
-when we walk independently from the leading of the Holy Spirit and obstruct ourselves from being used as objects of God's power for others to see His goodness;
-when we make ourselves objects of division, slander and strife, instead of becoming objects of unity and love with thanksgiving unto God for the privilege to serve Him and be vessels that can be used of Him;
-when we engage in promiscuity and the use of substances that alter our thinking which can damage our bodies, and that way sin against our own bodies which are the temple of the Holy Ghost;
-when we murmur and complain instead of trusting God and praise Him on the way to our breakthroughs, we are violating Spiritual laws from God's Kingdom that cause us to decrease instead of increase in Him.

Numbers 25:1-9 also says that the people of Israel intermarried with the people of Moab. This advice came from Balaam to help Balack drive the children of Israel from the land by sending women from his kingdom to intermarry with the Israelite men. This was an abomination in God's eyes for He had commanded in Deuteronomy 7:3-4 to never do such a thing for it would defile them as a nation and turn them to worship other gods which indeed happened. The enemy uses this type of tactics and strategies when he cannot turn us away from worshiping God, so he brings stumbling blocks in the form of little foxes that spoil the vine (Song of Solomon 2:15),

By these little foxes many people have been driven from the path and those that did not detect it soon enough were detoured severely until they died in the wilderness. This happened to the first generation of the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt until most of them had to die and the next generation then entered the promised land under the leadership of Joshua. Balaam, who knew the ways of the Lord, knew of this principle and advised Balak to use this strategy to get the children of Israel to forfeit their destinies by violating God's command. This disobedience caused the death of 24,000 of them in the wilderness.

Many in the body of Christ are not aware of the possibility of loosing their anointing and not being aware of it. It is easier to know when a new level of anointing comes upon us than when the anointing leaves, and all we are left with is the overflow of what we had. Neither are they aware when the anointing and mantle has been removed and given to someone else because of their disobedience no matter their spiritual rank or social status. One of the ways to know we are living under the anointing is that there is increase, there is a gathering of people and resources, a deeper desire to spend time in communion with God, unity, finances, and everything needed to fulfill God's purpose for their lives. There is also an acceleration of the manifestations of God's promises. The contrary happens when the anointing and mantle have left: there is decrease, finances and people get scattered, there is strife as well as a deceleration of God's promises, and the things of the world become more attractive.

One other little fox that can spoil our vine is the forming of an ungodly alliance with someone not ordained by God. Just like it happened to the children of Israel in the above passage, this type of disobedience also happened to King Saul in the form of allowing someone to remain alive that God had ordained him to kill or remove from his presence. God had commanded him to destroy the Amalekites and everything that belonged to them as an offering to the Lord and to not let anything survive; human or animal.

This happened because when the children of Israel where coming out of Egypt, the Amalekites tried to stop them from reaching Canaan, their promised land. The Lord swore that every generation would fight the Amalekite influence that tries to keep His people from reaching their promised land (Exodus 17:14-16). The Amalekite tribe represents the Antichrist spirit. But King Saul did not obey this order and instead focused more on getting to the plunder and even spared the life of Agag, the Amalekite king.

This aroused the anger of the Lord, who sent the prophet Samuel to tell King Saul that because he had rejected the command of the Lord and had spared the life of the enemy king, the Lord had chosen to reject him as king of Israel (1 Samuel 15). The prophet Samuel then ended up killing the wicked Amalekite king, but even though the evil king was dead, damage had been done already in the spirit realm which caused devastation to many generations thereafter because of King Saul's disobedience. God then raised someone else to do away with the enemy of the harvest of the people of Israel in other generations. This is why it is so important to keep our intimate communication with God through the reading of His Word, praise, worship, and listening to His voice. This helps us know when we have been promoted, what is the reason for the promotion and new position in the spirit or in the natural, and what is our assignment in that new season and position.

The spirit of Jezebel uses subtlety and seduction like suggestions to slander or gossip, or to buy something you do not really need, like the serpent in the garden was subtle with Eve about eating the apple God had told her and Adam not to eat (Genesis 3:4-6). But the spirit of Balaam uses pressure. It rushes people, it says that if they don't do something right now, to for instance, to get a spouse whether the person is ordained by God to become their spouse or not, they could miss the opportunity of their lifetime and would never get it again. This is just like we feel the pressure to spend money when we watch some commercials and infomercials.

It also pressures people with suggestions to not give tithes and offerings because the budget may be low and there is much debt to pay. It will even suggest that they pay the debt first and if there is anything left then they can use that to give their tithes. Sometimes whenever there is pressure to give in the church, if the people don't have a discerning heart, they could be succumbing to the pressures of Balaam to the point of giving what they do not have.

This spirit will also lead others to push and shove their way to what they call success, but away from the leading of the Holy Spirit and God's timing and process. There will also be pressure to leave a place or relationship because of strife right before a breakthrough comes. These are all things done by the works of the flesh, and not by the grace of God to lead people to their promise land in His time and in His way for the word says to seek first the Kingdom of God and all His righteousness. This means that as the people pursue to acquire the character of Christ Jesus, the Rigtheousness of God, then all those other things God promised them will make their way to their hands.

Because these spirits seek to turn people to be selfish and slanderous towards others, increasing their intimacy with God is important in these last days. The time spent in worship and adoration of our Lord, prayer, and the reading of His Word also helps us to discern the spirits behind what we're hearing or seeing at greater levels for these are the end times and Jesus will be coming soon to a bride that is without spot or wrinkle. Let's ask God in prayer to help us increase our discernments of spirits and decrease in the works of our flesh as we spend more time in communion with Him. 

To Him alone be all the glory. ■

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