God has spoken a word over you
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It feels like my oldest son, Kedar, who just turned 20 years old last month and plays football at a local college, has grown up so fast. The same is true of the other Hobbs children, too.
It’s almost as if someone fast forwarded life, and Kyla, Kaiah, and Kedar went from toddlers to teens to twenty-somethings in no time. My youngest son, Kaleb, who turned 17 in March, is the last teenager my hubby Kenya and I have left in the crew. I’m having a hard time believing that he’ll be 18 in the early part of next year!
Where did the time go?
When Kenya and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary this past January, that felt surreal also, because it doesn’t seem like that much time has gone by, you know?
Even though I am aware that years have passed, I think my brain is still stuck in the past. In my mind, Kenya and I are still in the early stages of building a family, and those are still our babies. But they aren’t babies anymore!
There are some fundamental things, however, that will never change in terms of the way I relate to our children—young or old. I will forever instruct them in the ways of righteousness, discuss Scripture with them, pray for them and with them, and model what it means to dedicate my everyday life to the Lord. That has and always will be part of my role in their lives.
When it comes to the everyday, practical life stuff, on the other hand, my approach changes as needed. Even so, I am always more than happy to be there for them.
That’s why when Kedar called me a few days ago in the afternoon telling me he needed my help, I joyfully sprang into action. Turns out he ran out of gas a block away from the gas station not too far from home.
Poor thing.
“I thought I had enough gas to make it,” he told me. Though he knew he was low and needed a refill, he apparently overestimated how far he could go on the small amount of gas left in the tank. Within a few moments, the car stalled, and he had to push it. Thankfully, a kind stranger walking by saw Kedar’s predicament and chose to help him push the car into a parking lot behind a bank.
When I got to where Kedar was, I took him to the gas station to put fuel in a gas can. He then poured the contents of the gas can into the tank to give him just enough gas to make it to the station where he could fill up.
Easy-peasy. Problem solved. If everything could be so easy, right?
Anyway, as I was talking to Kedar about what happened, he described what it felt like for him to run out of gas on the road for the first time in his life.
“The car started shaking,” he told me. “And the steering wheel was hard to move.”
The car then stalled out completely and refused to go any further. Kedar’s car started acting like that donkey in Numbers 22 that refused to move an inch further when its owner, a prophet named Balaam, commanded the donkey to go forward. Do you remember what happened in this biblical account?
In the ancient land of Moab, around 1400 B.C., an unusual and humorous event takes place, starring a talking donkey and its grumpy rider, Balaam. I always find it funny when I delve into the curious case of Numbers 22. It makes me chuckle every single time.
Here’s what’s going on. At the time, the Israelites, who have been making their way through the wilderness after leaving Egypt, make camp in Moab, along the Jordan across from Jericho. Their presence on the land makes the Moabite king, whose name is Balak, rather nervous. He was fearful of the Israelites conquering his land because they had rightfully earned a reputation for crushing their enemies and subduing nations.
In Numbers 22:4, the Moabites living in that area said to the elders of Midian about the Israelites, “This horde is going to lick up everything around us, as an ox licks up the grass of the field.” They were expressing their fear and concern that the Israelites were like a horde or a swarm that would consume and destroy everything around them, just like an ox would devour the grass of the field.
This gives you a clear picture of how intimidating the Israelites were, right?
So, King Balak, son of Zippor, decides that he has a good plan to stave off these divinely empowered troublemakers. King Balak is going to recruit a powerful prophet named Balaam, son of Beor, to curse the Israelites.
Interestingly, Balaam in Hebrew means devourer or destroyer, while Balak means devastator. So, a devourer and a devastator team up against God’s chosen people.
Let me just pause for a minute and encourage somebody who is currently facing some devastating opposition and adversity. It doesn’t matter who or what opposes you when God is for you.
“God said, ‘The plan the enemy has devised against you will fail because I am for you.’ Receive this today!”
“If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31) Even if the devourer sets his sights on you, in Malachi 3:11, God makes a promise to those who honor Him. He says, “I will rebuke the hand of the devourer for your sake.”
Somebody needs to know that the enemy doesn’t stand a chance against you because according to 1 John 4:4, “Greater is He that lives in us than he that is in the world.”
King Balak, bless his heart, apparently doesn’t understand how the power and principles of God work. Therefore, he proceeds with his ill-conceived plan and sends men to deliver a message to the Prophet Balaam who is in Pethor, near the Euphrates River, in his native land. Now, Pethor was famous for its diviners, sorcerers, magicians, and soothsayers. But it does not matter if a witch, a warlock, a fortune-teller, or a spell-caster position themselves as the determining factor in your destiny. There is no potion, no spell, no form of divination that exists that is strong enough to overcome our sovereign, all-powerful God who is on your side.
Amen?
Still, the king sent a message to the prophet in Numbers 22:6, saying, “Now come and put a curse on these people, because they are too powerful for me. Perhaps then I will be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land. For I know that whoever you bless is blessed, and whoever you curse is cursed.”
The king’s logic sounds so silly to those of us who actually got the memo contained in the Abrahamic covenant in Genesis 12:3, where God tells Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you.”
King Balak clearly doesn’t consider the fact that the words of a prophet, even a respected and powerful one like Balaam, can in no way usurp or override the authority, the will, and the covenant of God.
The word of the Lord stands despite who comes against it.
So, in this story, which spans Numbers chapters 22-24, initially God altogether refuses permission for Prophet Balaam to even go to King Balak, but later gives him the green light on one condition: “Do only what I tell you.”
As Balaam and his donkey get underway, the donkey starts acting funny because of something it sees that its rider cannot see. How ironic to have a prophet who can’t see in the spirit!
An angel of God had appeared in the road with a sword drawn—visible only to the donkey—who stops obeying Balaam and reacts instead to the angel of the Lord. So, an ignorant Balaam tries to beat the donkey into submission in Numbers 22:23.
This poor donkey gets three different beatings before the Lord grants it some temporary speech abilities. “What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?” it said.
I love this story.
Finally, the angel becomes visible to Balaam and asks the prophet in verse 32, “Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me. The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If it had not turned away, I would certainly have killed you by now, but I would have spared it.”
The donkey’s sensitive and appropriate response to the angel’s presence spares Balaam’s life. Then the angel reinforces for the prophet exactly what he should do when he goes to see Balak: if Balak asks him to curse Israel, he instead must bless them.
He must speak the word of God which is the will of God. And God’s will was to bless Israel. No amount of coercing from the king, financial rewards, or any incentives could change the assignment of the prophet or the decree of the Lord. In Numbers 24:13, when the prophet is with the king, the prophet offers a powerful response to King Balak who says, I can reward you handsomely for speaking a curse over Israel.
Prophet Balaam then reiterates a message he had already given to the king’s men, saying, “Even if Balak gave me all the silver and gold in his palace, I could not do anything of my own accord, good or bad, to go beyond the command of the Lord—and I must say only what the Lord says.”
The prophet further tells the king, “I can’t say whatever I please. I must speak only what God puts in my mouth.” And do you know one of the things God puts in Prophet Balaam’s mouth?
It’s the beautiful Bible verse we so love in Numbers 23:19 that says, “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?”
This is the context of that famous Bible verse. It’s referencing God’s will to prosper and bless His people, as well His ultimate refusal to change His mind and the impossibility of God failing to fulfill His word. There is no failure in God!
The prophet then stresses again, “I have received a command to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot change it.”
Listen friend, the circumstances, the people, the forces that have come against you cannot change the word of the Lord. They cannot revoke the irrevocable blessing that has been pronounced over you and your situation. Don’t worry when the devastator and devourer try to double-team you. When the liars and manipulators show up. When the gas lighters and gossipers come around. When sickness and lack make a beeline to your house. When Satan and his imps make an appearance. When worry and fear attack you.
When bad news and unexpected storms arise, Psalm 68:1 says, “Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him.” Isaiah 59:19 says, “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.”
The devil has been trying to wear somebody out. He wants to intimidate you. Stress you out. Rob you of your blessing. But he cannot take what has been ordained for you. Jesus said in John 10:10, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
There is an abundant harvest with your name on it, and the enemy can’t have it. There is a blessing that has been spoken over you, and the enemy cannot revoke it. There is a door that has been opened for you, and the enemy cannot close it. There is a breakthrough being released to you, and the enemy cannot delay it. There is victory that has been bestowed upon you by Jesus Christ, our conquering savior, and the enemy cannot change it. You are victorious through Christ. This battle is not yours, it’s the Lords.
I know you may be in a fight, and circumstances may look discouraging at times, but God is there. The Lord told me to drop Zephaniah 3:17 in your spirit—which is the sweetener I’m stirring into your cup of inspiration today—which says, “For the LORD your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.”
As you drink down the contents of your cup, God told me to tell you to stop focusing on who or what is against you and rejoice over who is with you and who has spoken over you. The Lord, a mighty savior, is there, and the word He has prophesied over your life decreeing blessings, miracles, favor, and deliverance shall come to pass.
Now, let’s pray.
God, thank You for the word that You have spoken over me. Despite what it looks like and what it feels like, I rejoice for the irrevocable promises that will be fulfilled, the unending mercy that will manifest, and the inexhaustible harvest of blessings that will be released. I praise You for reminding me that You have the final say and that You, the One who promised, is faithful according to Hebrews 10:23. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
If you desire prayer, please allow me, along with my intercessory prayer team, to stand in faith with you for breakthrough. We would be so honored. We have seen God work over and over again. There is power in agreement. Click here to request prayer now.
As always, thanks for reading and until next time... may today's cup of inspiration uplift, encourage, and empower you!
