The Preacher's Diary, Author at The Preacher's Diary

THE SEVEN ALTARS OF BALAAM

January 16, 2023 by The Preacher's Diary

And he brought him into the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered a bullock and a ram on every altar.

Numbers 23:14.

How Many Altars Make a Curse?

Balaam was a famed prophet of international repute whom kings often hired to curse their foes. He was so highly ranked that, like flocking insects to a night lamp, nobles were his clients (Numbers 22:4-17). He was a man of such aura that even animals took up a human voice in his sessions (Numbers 22:28-30). That was whom Balak the king of Moab consulted to cast a spell over the Israelites in transit from Egypt. To do that effectively, Balaam raised seven consecutive altars in each of three separate locations, making a total of twenty-one altars, to wage just one battle of a curse. Unfortunately, those many altars with their lavish sacrifices failed against his innocent and unaware targets (Numbers 23:1, 11, 14, 29). How many altars make a potent curse?

The Power of Obedience

January 12, 2023 by The Preacher's Diary

If we would but obey, we would waste less prayers. Ten loud lepers met Jesus, needing a miracle. He never prayed, He only instructed: “Go shew yourselves unto the priests.” Their miracle came “as they went.” Jesus didn’t say a prayer about their case (Luke 17:14). Prophetic instruction is not less potent than prophetic prayers (2 Chronicles 20:20).

To a man born blind, Jesus instructed, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.” Healing for that man came not by prayers offered but by obedience implemented: “He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing” (John 9:7). Many a miracle is hidden not in mighty prayers but in simple obedience. Certain sacrifices and prayers would have been unnecessary if there had been obedience. In the equations of God, “rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry” (1 Samuel 15:23). A pending obedience could be a pending miracle.

From The Preacher’s diary,
January 12, 2023.

Discerning Delusions

January 12, 2023 by The Preacher's Diary

Under “strong delusion,” according to 2 Thessalonians 2:11, a people will “believe a lie”; in fact, according to the Living Bible, they will do so “with all their hearts.” Therefore, the fact that something is believed, even strongly believed, does not make it true. That something is believed by many does not mean that it is right. That it has become tradition, because it has been believed for so long, still does not make it correct. A thing is not true because of who believes it. Belief is neither fact of the matter nor validation of it. Delusion could be at work, and believers in lies are often marked by a readiness to defend it violently. Sometimes, that’s how to tell (Acts 19:26-29; James 3:14-18).

From The Preacher’s diary,
December 29, 2022

Nurse your Baby

January 12, 2023 by The Preacher's Diary

It might take a miracle to get some baby, but it will take the mother to nurse that miracle. If she should fail, that miracle could die, prophetic though the miracle had been. Often, we invest intensity to procure a miracle, and celebrate it with more intensity and noise, but not always have we watched over that gift with the same dedication. Every miracle is often human participation in divine intervention. Where the human element fails, miracles also often fail, despite having come graciously from God.

DISCERNING MESSIAHS (Part 2 of 2)

January 12, 2023 by The Preacher's Diary

Rulers and Deliverers

God made Moses “a ruler and a deliverer.” Not every ruler is a deliverer, and a deliverer might be no ruler. In Moses, both roles were combined.

In all of this, the spiritual element should not be missed. Moses was a natural leader on a mission from a supernatural Agency; a mortal man empowered by a Spirit: “the same did GOD SEND.”

DISCERNING MESSIAHS (Part 1 of 2)

January 7, 2023 by The Preacher's Diary

This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.

Acts 7:35

Messiahs Refused

Not always do an oppressed people recognize and receive their messiah, because messiahs don’t often look like it. A people’s reception or refusal of their messiah, however, does not dismiss his mandate, although it can diminish his mission to them. Reception often determines delivery. In other words, how well one receives a messenger often determines how much of the message, or of the benefits of the message, one gets (Matthew 10:41; Mark 6:11). It may also be said that reception begets reception. That is, the reception that one gives to a message or messenger often influences how much of the related benefits one can receive.

DISPLACMENTS FOR SURVIVAL

December 22, 2022 by The Preacher's Diary

10 To him that smote Egypt in their firstborn … 11 And brought out Israel from among them: for his mercy endureth for ever.

Psalms 136:10-11.

To get Israel out of Egypt, according to this psalm, God had to smite the oppressors, in one night eliminating the first-borns of humans and animals. It was one unforgettable night of colossal lamentations from palace to dungeon. Until Super Power Egypt was thus judged, ironically according to “his mercy [that] endureth for ever,” deliverance for Israel lingered, even though they were the people of God. In other words, some deliverance will never be possible unless, first, by the elimination of the threats to the deliverance, and the threats could be thrones and beasts, with their collateral casualties (Mark 3:27).

FIVE HUSBANDS

December 22, 2022 by The Preacher's Diary

The Insight of a Prophet

One tiring thirsty afternoon, Jesus broke a long-distance trip on foot to sit by a midway Samaritan well where He struck a conversation with a local woman. By prophetic insight, at one point in their discussion, Jesus said to her, “thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband” (John 4:18). She was very shocked at how the stranger knew so much about her private life, and that opened the door to other matters.

THE POWER OF A PRESENCE (Part 2 of 3)

December 18, 2022 by The Preacher's Diary

The Midas Touch

Joseph’s master “saw” something; a Something that made that servant “a prosperous man.” Yes, servants may also carry a presence; a negative or positive presence; and servants need not be masters before they prosper. There can be prospering servants as there can be prospering masters; there are enabling servants, and there disabling servants; carrier-servants who leave their masters worse than they had met them.

A POWER OF A PRESENCE

December 14, 2022 by The Preacher's Diary

And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, If I have found favour in thine eyes, tarry: for I have learned by experience that the LORD hath blessed me for thy sake.

Genesis 30:27.

Collateral Cruises and Crises

Sometimes we are blessed for another’s sake, or cursed for another’s sake. Everyone carries a presence; a right or wrong presence, which often follows them to wherever they are allowed. The Presence that followed Jacob blessed his boss; the Presence that followed Abraham cursed the palace of the kings who forcefully took advantage of his weakness (Genesis 12:17; 20:1-3). Laban “learned by experience,” by observation, that while Jacob ‘tarried’ with him, he was collaterally benefitted by the Presence that followed that guest.