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August 21, 2003 by Rose Murdock The word ‘purpose’ means our intention. Our determination. Something we want to accomplish or are striving for. If we say that someone did something on purpose then we mean he did it with intention. He meant to do it. It wasn’t an accident. Everything God says and does has purpose to it. God has intentions. The things He has spoken have an intended purpose to them. He doesn’t just say things for the fun of it.
The story behind these verses is that Balak, King of the Moabites, knew that Balaam spoke for God. And Balak wanted Balaam to curse Israel. He was afraid because he had seen what Israel did to the Amorites and he thought he would be next. He knew that if he could get a spokesperson of God to curse them then he would be able to prevail against them. God strictly advised Balaam not to curse the Israelites because He had blessed them. In fact, Balaam almost lost his life by getting killed by an angel but his donkey saved him! (Numbers 22:33). That was how strongly God felt about him not cursing the Israelites. Balaam got the point and refused to say anything contrary to what God had spoken. God’s purpose was to bless Israel. God’s intentions were to bless them. It had been difficult enough to do because of their unbelief and rebellion and He didn’t need one of His prophets, His own spokesperson, working against Him too! What we see from this is that God took very seriously the words Balaam spoke. It was important to God for Balaam to speak the words that He gave Him. God didn’t take Balaam’s words lightly! Balak, on the other hand, was trying his best to change God’s purposes. He kept building altars and offering sacrifices on the altars. He was trying to ‘set the atmosphere’ for Balaam to curse the Israelites in the Name of God. Would you go to the Lord in prayer offering up worship and praise to Him and then pray for things contrary to His purpose? Do we ever think that our ‘worship’ will change what He has purposed and spoken? Our worship should be a time of seeking God’s intentions and plans for our lives and not an attempt to seduce God into carrying out the evil intentions in a person’s heart! How do we know what God’s intentions are? By what He has said. Balaam said, "hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" God’s purposes are what He has spoken. His purpose is for what He has spoken to come to pass. That’s His purpose. Whatever God has said is what He wants to happen. He doesn’t say one thing and mean another. He doesn’t say things and not really mean them. It might sound simple enough but much too often people rebel against that. Now, we may not intentionally pray contrary to God’s purpose like Balak was doing but do we do so without realizing it? It’s easy enough to admit that we shouldn’t ‘curse’ or speak against God’s plans and purposes for others but what about His plans for us? Do we ‘curse’ ourselves and speak against His purposes for us? Do we speak contrary to what He has spoken concerning our own lives? God has spoken His purposes for us and do we speak against that by saying that we can’t (or won’t) do it? Do we say it’s "too hard" or it’s "impossible" for that to happen in our life? Does God say it’s not O.K. for us to speak against His plan for others but that it’s O.K. for us to speak against His plans for us? We absolutely should not speak against His plans for us! We need to come into agreement with His plans for us! That is what will please God. We need to say what God says about His plans for our lives and His plans to bless us. His plans are for us to be successful in what He has called and purposed for us to do. We’re not being humble by saying, "God could never use me or bless me in that way, I’m not smart enough, good enough, bold enough, strong enough etc.." If God has said something concerning your life then you need to agree with it, don’t work against it. We can’t settle for doing like Balak did and offer gifts and sacrifices of ‘worship’ to the Lord and then turn around and curse God’s people-ourselves included! How do we curse God’s people and speak against His plans for our life? By saying things like, "You know, I’ve always kind of felt like God’s plan was for me to do such and such but you know, I just don’t see how that could happen now." We curse by saying things like, "that would just take too much time, energy, money etc. and I just don’t have it." Who are we speaking against? We’re not just speaking against ourselves, we’re speaking against the purposes of God! Anytime we say anything contrary to what God has said about us we are cursing God’s own people. God says, "By Jesus’ stripes you were healed" (1 Peter 2:24). Agree with what God says. He says that He supplies all of your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus, (Philippians 4:19), You need to say what He says. Don’t say that God isn’t taking care of you. Don’t say that you have bills that you can’t pay because then you are speaking against what God has said, and what He intends, for you, His child. You are the only person on this planet that you can rightfully control and you should at least make sure that you line up with God’s purposes. But too often we want to tell everyone else how they can please God instead. We’ll ‘encourage’ everyone else but we speak against ourselves by saying we can’t. Balak said to Balaam:
Balak is like the devil trying to get us to curse God’s people and by doing so we’re cursing God’s plans for the future. We’re working against God. The devil knows if he can get you to speak contrary to what God’s plans for you are then he will keep you in a place of defeat in your life. He knows that you are a spokesperson for God. He knows the power that your words carry. The devil knows it, but do we? Do we realize the importance of lining our words up with the Word of God? The Bible doesn’t teach us that just believing in God or in His Word does anything for us. It’s believing and confessing—speaking the right words—that cause things to happen (Romans 10:9-10). We need to be like Balaam and say that we will ‘speak that which the Lord has put in our mouth.’ What does the Lord put in our mouth? His Words. Where do we find His Words? In the Bible. So we need to speak what He has spoken to us through His Word—The Bible. We need to say what God says about us and only what He says about us. He told Balaam:
What this means is that if we want the plans and purposes of God to come to pass in our life then we must say what God says about us. We need to talk in agreement with what those plans are. And not only that but we need to be consistent about it and not say what the Word says one minute and then turn around the next minute and talk contrary to it. We need to learn to say only what God says. We need to talk in agreement with His Word all the time. Now, of course that doesn’t mean you only quote chapter and verse all day long, but it means that what you say is in agreement with what the scriptures say. It means your words are not contrary to what the Bible says. If God has said, (and He has), that the love of God is shed abroad in your heart then you should say, "I have God’s love in my heart." Don’t say, "I just don’t have it in me to love or forgive that person." You are cursing one of God’s own children. You are cursing yourself when you say that! And the devil is loving it because he knows if you keep talking like that you will never be able to love or forgive other people and that unforgiveness will keep you in trouble. Get a hold of God’s purposes. Be purposeful with your words just like God is with His. Let’s hook up together with God and work with Him to see that His plans come to pass in the earth. Make that quality decision to quit working against Him by speaking contrary to Him but start agreeing with God and watch the mountains move out of the way!
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