They Never Knew!

Just a little thing. Hold on to your face. All right, that's all you get. That's all you get. Sorry. Not sorry. It's all you get because that's a little taste of uh I wrote I wrote this. Um, it's my favorite passage. You guys know that. John 4. I'm addicted to it. I've written songs, I've written poems, I've written all kinds of things over the years about it. And when we get to it, uh, which is going to be sooner than you think. You may think it's forever away, but it's not. Oh, by the way, good morning. Um, good early morning to you, Nicole, 4 a.m. Good morning, Miss Tammy. Your flowers are looking beautiful. Good morning, Miss Susan. How are you? So good to see you all. And all those who I can't see because it's scrolling. Um, so it is my favorite passage ever, ever, ever. And uh, and so over the years I've written poems and songs and all of that. And uh, so I've written uh three different versions, four different versions of this song. Composed the so anyway, it's on uh the link there that was on the screen a second ago, and and also in the live chat, and I'll put it in comments um on the YouTube. Also, it's uh it's on the YouTube channel, True Word Faith for Life with Dr. Sean, S H A W N. It's the one with about 4,000. We're a small channel, about 4,000 uh subscribers. If you're not one, you could be one. It's free of charge, no cost or obligation to you. Hit the bell with all notifications and the thumbs up while you're cruising on by. Easy peasy, cost you nothing, does everything. Anyway, I think you'll be blessed by it if you're a rocker. Um, I like pretty much all kinds of music. Uh, I'm not a huge fan of rap. There's some of Eminem stuff I really like, and uh, there's some different ones that I've that I've liked. And there's a Christian rapper, for the life of me, I can't remember his name, who I'd like to interview on the show. Um, his whole life turned around, and man, the rap he does is it's really good. It's really, really good. I'm not but I'm typically of that genre, I'm not a big fan. Um, but I love country, I love classical music, rock anthems, rock, um, folk music, uh, bluegrass, huge fan of bluegrass. And um, yeah, there's all kinds of music I like. I like all kinds. But so I try to write with that in mind, but um I hope you like them. I hope you go listen to them. And if if you like it, click on the thumbs up, share it with somebody. It's free of charge, no cost or obligation to you. Um why not? And it's also both both versions. I did two versions, one a little bit harder than the other. Um and they are on Spotify, iTunes 27 places, just like this. After the after the episode, usually about two hours after, uh, they'll show up there. So the audio only. Well, I'm glad you're here. I gotta remember, Robbie wanted to know what passage last time. Numbers 22 through 24, 25. Yeah, it's a lot. Now, this one's a little bit heavy. How are we as humans supposed to get tired and bored of this existence? Is this it? Is this what we are made for? No. Real number seven, first of all, listening on YouTube, um, I will say this, welcome. We're glad you're here, and uh, it's good to have you. We we have a very respectful group here. They're very kind to one another, they're very respectful, and and uh this is a teaching, this isn't a conversation back and forth, although sometimes I will address things in the chat. Um, I'll ask questions and people will put them in, like just in a second, you're gonna hear a question, and it'll be in the chat. But uh I would love to answer that question. That's gonna require more than this episode, but uh the short version is um we were created for God's glory, and uh we got jacked up and and uh we are jacked up, but one day it's gonna be all made well. But once it's well with your soul, umce you place your faith in Christ, then you live your life with joy. It's not easy, nothing easy about it, and uh I mean sometimes it's easy, but um, and then when you close your eyes the last, you will see the face of your savior and mine. I don't deserve it, I'm as jacked up as they come, but um God's grace, massive. So I invite you to listen, just like everybody else, everybody else listening, and I just mentioned if you just missed it, um, in in um it's on uh it's up in the the comments in the live chat. Uh there's links for an episode I did on the woman at the well, and also a uh song that I wrote and uh the music to that. Anyway, so welcome. Good to have you here. But but I meant to say you can contact me through true wordfaithforlife.com. True WordFaithforLife.com. That's our website. And uh go to contact and I'll be I'll reach out to you. As soon as I receive it, I'll reach out to you. So you you've you've felt it for a while, and again, I I'm just gonna tell you this right up. Praise the Lord, amen. John Sima John. I'm gonna tell you this right up front. Heavy episode, heavy episode, and I told you it was coming. I've been dropping hints, little breadcrumbs along the way. So I don't know how the sound is, my sound text. I don't know. If you could let me know. Um, you you've felt it for a while now. Like some something's against you. A weight on your life, a weight on your soul, a weight on your shoulders and your head that you just can't name it. There may be doors closing that you didn't close. A sense that somebody somewhere is working against you, and you're facing it alone. Maybe the hardest part is the alone part. You assume nobody's fighting for you. You feel like nobody is fighting for you. Thank you, Miss Tammy. God bless you. You do. You feel like nobody's fighting for you, you feel like nobody's in your corner. That whatever is coming at you, you're the only one standing in front of it. Well, there's a story in the Bible where a king spends a fortune trying to destroy an entire nation. Folks have been trying to destroy Israel for millennia. So this this king hires the most famous curse for money man in the region. He builds altars, he builds sacrifices, he tries for days, and and the people's the people he's aiming at are down in the valley, they're cooking dinner, they're putting their kids to bed, and they've got no idea any of this is happening. They never lifted a finger to defend themselves, because they never even knew there was a fight. Because someone was already standing in the way between them and the oppressor. Not for nothing, this is true word, faith for life with Dr. Sean SHAWN, and guess what? I am Sean. Welcome in. We're walking the whole Bible together this year, ish, in the order that it happened for the most part, and today we're in Numbers 22, 23, and 24. Three chapters. One long story. And the strangest thing about it is that the people, the people it's about, they're they're not in it. They're not in it. If you want this walk in your hands at your own table, by the way, I know. Product placement, true word, faith for life, Dr. Sean Michael Greener. Yes, this is the book, and um, it is textbook quality. I gave one to my dear friend, Dr. Amy, best endo in the in the world. And um anyway, for she was she was my doctor, endocrinologist, and uh first time seeing her after this massive diabetes, I was in the hospital for a week, blood sugar of almost a thousand. Yeah, it was crazy. Um, A1C of like 15 or 16, it was nuts. Yeah, it was a rough time. Rough time. So anyway, so she was my endo when that happened. And I said when I sat down in front of her, I said, you know what? You and I are gonna be friends. And we are. Yeah. It's nice. I love it. She's an author too, and um, one of these days I'm gonna get her on here and talk about her book. She has multiple books and she does retreats and all of that. And uh, it's a whole different story. I'll have to explain that story to sometime. Anyway, I gave her the book yesterday, and and uh she loved how the margins, there's plenty of room. They're they're not squinched in together. You save money on writing a book and producing a book if you squish it all together. You make the print real small that only um I would say six million dollar man, but nobody nobody alive today really even knows who that is. Superman, Spider-Man, I don't know. Some somebody with a great sight. Anyway, point is this that uh uh we wrote it, and uh I believe it'll bless you. I really do, really do. And it'll make you laugh, it'll make you cry. Um, yeah, really well. It's available at true wordfaithforlife.com. Open this door. So before we really truly open this episode, one honest question. You can answer it in the comments below or in the live chat if you're listening live. If you're listening on play back on audio, put it in the comments. One word. Here's the question. You ready? Do you feel like you're facing something alone right now? Yes or no? Look, for real, do you feel like you're facing something alone right now? And I'm not looking for some spiritualistic answer. Well, I'm about to trust the Lord. The Lord is always with me. He'll never leave me for never forsake me. No, no, no. I'm not talking about that. I'm not talking about that. I need that different thing. I need the raw gut thing. Something you're facing that you feel like you're facing alone right now. Yes or no? Just the word. So, here we go. Balak, the king of Moab. He watches Israel move through the region and he's terrified. He is terrified. If I was from Philly, I'd say terrified. He's terrified. So he does what a frightened king in the ancient world does. He hires a professional. He sends messengers hundreds of miles east to Pethor by the river in Mesopotamia to bring back a man named Balaam, son of Baor. They carry the fees of divination in their hands. Oof. Oof. People trolling for money. Sorry. If you're listening to this live in the live chat, that's a scammer. So here's the detail that should make you perk right up, even though it's early in the morning. Unless you're listening at nighttime. I don't want you to perk up because if you're trying to go to bed. Our two friends that are uh, he's a trauma surgeon and she is a uh trauma PA. They work in the same place. Can you guess where they met? And uh anyway, um, they're going to bed. Where they live, they work overnight. Anyway, this every time I read it, it rocks me. So here it is. In 1967, at a site called Dir Arai. Dir Ara. In the Jordan Valley, archaeologists dug up fragments of a plaster wall inscription from around the 8th century before the Messiah. Before Hamachiac. It's written in a local Aramaic dialect, and it opens by describing the vision of a man in names as Balaam, son of Beol, a seer of the gods. That's a text found outside the Bible. In the region, naming this exact man by name and by his father, doing exactly what the Bible says he did for a living. Balaam was real, regionally famous, and professionally respected. Balach wasn't hiring some nobody off the street. He wasn't hiring me, you know. He was retaining the biggest name in the business to aim a curse at the people of God. And the people of God, they had no idea. So now watch Balaam's pattern here. Because it's one of the most honest portraits of self-deception in Scripture. God tells them plainly, you shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed. Clear, answered, done. Say it again. God tells them this. You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people. For they are blessed. Couldn't be any clearer than that, right? So Balak sends more officials, more important ones, and a bigger offer. And Balaam says something that sounds beautifully pious. Even if Balak gave me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the word of the Lord my God. And then he says, Stay here tonight too, so that I can find out what more the Lord will say to me. More? He already had the answer. He goes back to ask again, hoping for a different one, while telling everybody in the room how uncompromising he is. That's a maneuver most of us know from the inside out. You don't disobey, you just keep praying about it until you get the answer you wanted. And you call that delayed discernment. Now, look, I'm gonna just tell you this. We do it all the time. We pray these real pious prayers, and the good sound of prayer, Dear Lord, we beseech thee. You know, and you pray for that thing you want. And then the Lord says, Hey, not this. Good morning, Miss Linda. The Lord says, Not this, not this. This is not the thing, this is not what I have for you. I have another thing. Or I have just wait, take some breaths, just wait, be still and know that I am God. And we hate that answer. We want the answer we want, we want the answer we want. We do not want some other answer other than the one we go to God with. That's our nature. But we s we're all fluffy and churchy about it. And we call that discernment, but it's not true. So God lets him go. And then the text says God's anger burned because he went. And then the donkey, the angel of the Lord, stands in the road with the drawn sword, and the donkey sees it. And Balaam does not. The animal turns into a field, and he beats the donkey. Animal, I hate that. She crushes his foot against a wall. He beats her. She lies down under him. He beats her with his staff, and the Lord opened the donkey's mouth, and she said, What have I done to you that you have struck me these three times? I love animals. So, of course, I got mad. Every time I read it, I get mad. Why are you hitting on a donkey, man? Why are you hitting on an animal at all? No, no cause for that. I know. I'm like a kid when it comes to animals. So the world famous seer, the man, kings pay to see what nobody else can see. Air quotes. Is blind. And the animal under him has been seeing the angel of God the whole time. And notice absurdly that he argues with her. He doesn't recoil from the talking the talking donkey. He answers back in an argument. Because his rage his rage owns him completely. Then his eyes are opened, and the angel says, I came out to oppose you because your way is reckless before me. And the donkey saved his life three times. Then the oracles, and this is where it turns almost comic. Balach takes him to a high place, builds seven altars, offers seven bulls and seven rams. And Bilaam opens his mouth and blesses Israel. And Balach is furious, so he moves him. Another mountain, another view, seven more altars, seven more sacrifices. Bilaam blesses Israel again. A third spot, a third blessing, stronger than the first two. Bilach claps his hands together and says, I called you to curse my enemies, and look, you have blessed them these three times. Look at the logic he's running on. He believes that if he can just change the vantage point, he can change the verdict. Move the prophet, see less of Israel, get a different outcome. He kept changing his position, hoping God would change his. You have no idea. You weren't defending yourself. You didn't even know there was a threat. Somebody was standing between you and it with a drawn sword, and you slept through the whole thing. You just had no idea. Listen, that's not a nice sentiment. It's the plain shape of the story. For three chapters, the war happened entirely over Israel's heads. And the only evidence they ever got was that nothing bad happened. But there's a shadow side. And the text is honest about it, but Alam couldn't curse them, so he found another way in Numbers 31, not to, you know, skip ahead. He tells us he taught Balak how to get Israel to destroy themselves. Send the women. Invite them to the feasts. Let them walk in on their own feet. Hello. You know? What a professional curse couldn't do from the outside, an invitation did from the inside. That's still the enemy's method today. Not the frontal attack you'd see coming. It's the invitation you say yes to. So here's your one thing today. And you can do it before dark. You can do it. Amen, Ryan. Amen. Jesus Christ is indeed King. Glory to God. You can do this every day, Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, and Sundays at 6 30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. I say the same thing. You can do this. Sometimes it's by the end of the week because sometimes they're complex and multi-step. This you can do today. Name the question you keep bringing back to God that He's already answered. God said this. Lord, I would like this in my life. And God says, nope. Hashtag no. Hashtag hard no. He keeps saying it to you. That's not what I have for you. Be still. I mentioned that singer who uh the other day, who worship singers, very, very talented person, extremely talented, professionally trained, the whole deal. But it this person is very frustrated. Thank you, brother. Hey, good to see you. Thank you for the sound. To be continued 25. Awesome, dude. Um this person is extremely talented. But they don't get selected to do a lot of leads and you know be the star in the worship team and just constantly frustrated about it. Feel like, you know, why am I not getting my turn? Am I not good? Well, they know they're good. Everybody knows they're really good. But it's not about that. God's saying no for a whole bunch of other reasons. And look, I got big decisions on my horizon. Miss Cullen got big decisions on her horizon. And I keep saying to her, we have to seek the Lord. Truly, truly seek the Lord. I've got my answer, and she's waiting on hers. I can't answer it for her. She can't answer it for me. One question that you keep bringing back to God that He's already answered. You know the one. You know the one. You've asked it 30 times, hoping the answer changes. And you've been calling the delay discernment. Balaam did exactly that. He heard a clear no and went back for a better one. All the while he was telling everybody how uncompromising he was. So today, stop asking. Take the first answer as the real answer and do the thing it actually requires, no matter what it is. Make the call, close the door, open the door, say the no. Listen, your yeses will mean nothing until your no's mean something. Act on what you already heard. And here's the wonder buried in the middle of all this. A hired diviner from the east standing on a mountain in Moab. He's paid to destroy Israel. He opens his mouth and prophesies the Messiah. Well, that's not the outcome that the king wanted. A star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel. And 14 centuries later, men came from the east to Jerusalem asking where the king of the Jews was born, because they had seen his star. The prophecy came from a man of the east, and it seems the east never quite forgot it. And listen to the line God put in the mouth of man whose heart was wrong. God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should change his mind. He has said it and he will not do it. The word over your life doesn't move when somebody pays to move it. Nobody else, nobody else can can do it for you. And if God has said, this is what I have for you, nothing can keep you from it. And if God says, That's not what I have from you, there's nothing can give you that. And nobody else. Balak hired one man to speak against Israel from a hilltop. You have one speaking for you at the throne of the living God. He lives, he lives eternally to make intercession for you. You have never once, not for a single hour of your life, been undefended. Breathe that in. You cannot know how much that lifts me. Thank you so much. Thank you to all of you. Wonderful. Miss Sharon, thank you for your gift. Lovely. Just lovely. And it helps us do what we do. This is expensive. So the challenges, and then look. Hurts my head to just put this in front of you, but there's two things before we pray. Just two things. It's not really complicated, it's just honest. One, are you praying about something God already settled? Seriously. Are you? God already dealt with it. God already dealt with it. He already answered it. He answered it clearly. Your struggle isn't that. Oh, I'm I it's just so unclear. I don't know. I'm not sure. He doesn't know. He's already answered it clearly. But um sin didn't look like rebellion. It looked like diligence. He kept seeking the Lord about a matter the Lord had already closed, and he sounded more spiritual than everybody else in the room while he did it. Look, if you've asked the same question 40 times, you already have your answer. And there's two, here's the second part. I want you to hear the comfort in it. While a king spent a fortune on three mountains, Israel was in their tents, and God stood in the gap the whole time. You didn't build that defense. You couldn't have. It just was simply true. Rest in that. The name of this composition that I did, that you hear in the background now, it's called Be Still. Be still and know that I am God. Man, we struggle with that. Prayer is a great tool to help us to be still. And prayer isn't just talking, you talking to the sky. It's a connection and communication that we've been promised by God. And He is absolutely listening. He cares, He's waiting to hear from you. But it's also a conversation. It's waiting. Sometimes prayer is just being still, shutting out all distractions, everything. And just feeling the presence of God. Prayer, by the way, isn't asking for some sort of easy journey. It's asking for a strong back. Pray with me. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the battles we we never we never knew were being fought on our behalf. I thank you, Father, for every curse that never landed while we were asleep or busy or oblivious. We were oblivious to what was going on, the war that was being fought. I thank you that you stood in the way with a drawn sword and we never saw a thing. Father, forgive us for asking you again and again about things you've already settled, and for calling that faithfulness. Give us the honesty to hear the first answer and the courage to obey it. I ask God that you guard us from what the frontal attack could never do. Keep us from walking willingly into what the enemy couldn't force on us. I thank you that you are not a man that you should lie, that what you've said you do. And I thank you for a son, the son who stands at your right hand and prays for us, prays on our behalf, stands in the gap for us by name. And I pray it in his name. The name, the matchless name, my redeemer, my savior, and my friend, Yeshua Hamashiach. I mean. Maybe you've been under something a long time. And you assumed nobody was fighting for you. Hear this. There were three chapters where a king spent everything to destroy God's people. And they were in the valley of their tents. In the valley in their tents. And every word aimed at them came back a blessing they had never earned and they never needed to defend. That's the God who is offering himself to you this morning. His son prays for you by name right now at the right hand of the Father. You've never been undefended, and you don't have to face, you don't have to face him all cleaned up. I talked about it yesterday. Come just as you are. Pray this with me. Yeshua, I need you. I believe you died for me and rose from the grave. I surrender my life to you today. Forgive me. Fill me. Lead me. I'm yours. In your name. Amen. Look, if you prayed that prayer this morning and you meant it, don't keep it quiet. Tell one person, pick a person. Or send me a message at truewordfaithfullife.com. Click on contact. I'll be glad to help you.

Look.

Two things here. Number one, I always say prayer is not asking for an easy journey. It's asking for a strong back. I'm here to tell you God will help you do the lifting. If you trust him, there's nothing about being a follower of the way that's easy. Nothing. Only until we enter into eternity when our life here stops, and it will. Tell somebody that you placed your faith in him today. And then thank God for the arrows you never saw coming and you never had to stop. Look, a king on three mountains spending a fortune to break you, and you down in the valley, you're just cooking dinner, putting the kids to bed. You're held the whole time by a hand that you never felt. The war was won over your head. You only had to keep living. Just keep living. Rest now. You were never alone in it. One more thing. Somebody you know right now is convinced that they're fighting alone. They're just convinced of it. Send them this. Send them this episode. It might be the morning they learn who's been standing in the way. And now, I'm gonna pray a priestly blessing over you've been prayed since very nearly the beginning. And Yeshua Hamashiach, as he was about to ascend, mid-sentence, by the way, he was praying this prayer. The last thing he did on earth over his people is pray this prayer over them. And and I want you to receive this prayer. I'm nobody special, trust me on that. People who know me know that's a fact. But I'm gonna pray this in his heavenly name in Lashon Hokadesh, which means in Hebrew the language of God, because Hebrew is in fact the language of God. It's what his people spoke to him, and he spoke to them in. Seems only fitting. And don't panic, don't freak out. I'm not speaking in tongues, I'm speaking in Hebrew, and when I'm finished, I'll pray it again in English. You'll get a double blessing. From here on out, you'll understand what it means. You ready? May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Until tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. every Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. until he calls me home. 7 a.m. Easter standard, Monday through Friday. And then Sundays, we would go in deep on the whole prior week and give you a little hint about what's coming. Until he calls me home, that's where I'll be. Listen, I'm praying for you both before and after the episode. And I want you to know it matters to me that you come here. And if you've come here, I ask, by the way, Psalm 46.10. Look it up. That's Nicole's life verse right now. And for the last couple of years. Psalm 46.10. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you all for joining us. Really appreciate it. Wouldn't kill you to click on the subscribe, like, little thumbs up deal, and click on all notifications so you don't miss anything. You never know what I'm up to. By the way, true wordfaithforlife.com. It's all free. It's all free. The only thing isn't free is my book. In the meantime, God bless you. Thank you so much for coming. Have a great, great day. Shalom Bishem Yeshua. The shalom elekim.