There is so much talk about miracles, we tend to forget that God provides something better. It is blessing! There is a classic case of the importance of blessing in the scriptures.
In the Book of Numbers in the Bible, frightened by the might of the Israelites, who were on their way to the Promised Land, Balak, the King of Moab, sought a prophet’s help. As the Israelites traveled to Canaan, their reputation preceded them, and the Moabites were well aware of the miracles that had accompanied the Exodus from Egypt. Moab lay on the east side of the Dead Sea.
Balaam, the prophet from Mesopotamia, was willing to use his God-given talents for illicit purposes. So he became the obvious choice of Balak, who believed that the only way to destroy the victorious Jews was to outdo them in “magic” by a spell stronger than theirs.
Balak, therefore, sent messengers to Balaam asking him to come to Moab to curse the people of Israel who were threatening to overrun their lands. Balaam knew that he could not do anything against God’s will, and he so declined, even though his personal hatred of the Jews made him only too willing to follow the call.
However, Balak was persistent. He sent an even more imposing delegation of princes and nobles and promised Balaam more gold and silver. Eventually, Balaam went but after repeated sacrifices, he could not curse the Israelites.
“How can I curse whom God has not cursed?” Balaam exclaimed.
Frustrated and angry Balak ordered Balaam to return home.
And they cursed themselves
Now, this is where the story gets interesting. Before he left, Balaam told Balak that the only way to harm the people of Israel was to seduce them into sin. For only then would God punish His people or stand aloof. That was done by enticing the Israelites with sexual immorality and food sacrificed to idols. The Israelites fell into transgression and God sent a deadly plague to them as a result, and made them vulnerable in wars.
The Significance of the Story
God has blessed us to prosper, to be invincible but through our own sin, we become vulnerable to the enemy or the devil, who is on the prowl for who he can destroy. In today’s world where immorality has been made fashionable, there are many ways through which we disobey God and fall into sin, and begin to look for miracles.
Another is when God’s timing for an opportunity becomes too long for us and makes us resort to self-help or force open doors He has closed for our own good. In both cases, we don’t get to where God wants us to go.
Pastor Adeboye
How man become his own enemy was the theme of the opening message of Pastor Enoch Adeboye – leader of the Redeemed Christian Church of God – at last year’s Holy Ghost Congress of the Church. Ministering on “Victory over Self,” he counted the three major enemies of man as death, the devil, and self – the individual. He however said, with the intervention of Jesus, death has been conquered, and it is now “like our horse to ride to our glorious home heaven.”
Similarly, through God, it is now possible to overcome the devil by resisting him, commanding him and staying away from sin to avoid him.
But, “Man’s greatest enemy is himself. The biggest enemy of all is yourself,” he stressed, adding that if you win the battle over yourself then the rest is history.
He, however, noted that victory over self, as difficult as it is, can be guaranteed by God. He added, “If you are truly born again then you are a child of God and if your salvation is genuine then something in you will say no to sin every time.”
Blessings and Miracles
Many men of God have agreed that blessing is even preferable to miracles. According to Wikipedia, “to be blessed” means to be favored by God, the source of all blessing. Blessings, therefore, are directly associated with, and are believed to come from, God. Thus, to express a blessing is like bestowing a wish on someone that they experience the favor of God, and to acknowledge God as the source of all blessings.
A miracle is an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs. Miracles bring temporary solution to our problems, while blessings keep us from problems. Miracles are short-lived, as a person healed last week, can easily lose his or her healing if they are not steadfast in God; whereas people blessed with divine health hardly fall sick.
An example is Pastor Adeboye, who is always on his feet doing God’s work around the world. He testifies that, “Before I became born again, I was a sportsman, but malaria fever knocked me down at least once a month. When I became born again, I told God to heal me so I could serve Him well. He healed me and I am now serving Him with more than ten times the energy I had back then. By the grace of God, I am waxing stronger.”
Also, staying in God’s blessing of divine prosperity diminishes the need for financial miracles in our lives. God’s miracles rescue us in times of crisis; however, we can say that living in God’s blessings keep crisis from coming.
Andrew Wommack
Wommack is an American Evangelical Christian TV evangelist, a Charismatic teacher and acclaimed faith healer, as well as the founder of Andrew Wommack Ministries.
He explains that Abraham’s blessing has come upon us through faith in Christ. It is the favor of God that was spoken over him, which produced his physical and spiritual abundance.“That’s what the blessing of God is; it’s His divine spoken favor. And that blessing, if mixed with faith, will produce abundance in spirit, soul, and body,” he says.
“The good news is, you are already blessed. The bad news is, most don’t know the power of that blessing. They would rather have a miracle.”
He says once a blessing is received, no outside force can stop it. “If we will believe we are blessed and act accordingly, and live by God’s principles, we can avoid many of the problems that make us candidates for miracles.
“It’s always better to avoid problems, which is the result of living in blessings, than it is to be delivered out of them, which requires a miracle.”