August 5, 2009
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The following is from the book "Blessing or Curse" by Derek Prince. This aided my Myanmar team greatly as we visited the country for a week. People I know who have visited the country before have come out of it very sick or under spiritual attack. I wanted my team to be strong and protected. We did well and came out of the trip strong. I think many Christians make light of curses, but the word "curse" appears all throughout the Bible. Just like sin, it is something that must be redeemed by the blood (Galatians 3:13). #3 (submission to authority) is critical. I plan to share about that later. Be blessed!
How to be Protected from Curses (Numbers 23-24)
1. The people of Israel were moving in fulfillment of God’s plan for them.
2. They were supernaturally guided, day and night, by a cloud and a pillar of fire. This corresponds to the guidance of the Holy Spirit for New Testament believers (see Romans 8:14).
3. They were a nation under discipline, with God-appointed leaders and God-given laws.
4. Their relationships were carefully ordered according to a divine pattern. This harmonious pattern of relationships was beautifully depicted by Balaam’s own visionary description of them in Numbers 24:5-6: “How lovely are your tents, O Jacob! Your dwellings, O Israel! Like valleys that stretch out, like gardens by the riverside, like aloes planted by the Lord, like cedars beside the waters.” Obviously, this was not a literal picture of Israel, since she was encamped at that time in a desert area.
5. Much of the above was due to the fact that a whole generation of unbelieving and disobedient Israelites had been purged out from among them (see Numbers 26:63-65).
Deuteronomy 23:5 – But the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam; instead the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you.
