This is one subject every new believer, new convert, new seeker really needs to be excited and look forward to.
Knowing that Correction is the Way to LIFE.
It is the Path to Heaven. It is the Beauty and Glory of God to be corrected and exhorted by the King of Heaven, even through his lowliest of servants.
If I am rebuked by a donkey, how awesome is that? An animal without even the normal ability to speak is used to correct me on my way to my own destruction.
Too Bad that Baalam didn't get the message. Even though he heard & obeyed God's External message, even the rebuke from his Donkey. He still didn't guard his steps any better than Cain guarded his steps toward Abel.
This is a picture of God's Tender Compassion and Mercy packed into trying to Correct a greedy Servant. God even sent his Angel to bring Correction. But the end result?
Baalam did not turn his heart to God, nor heed his soul to God's Correction. Not even with the Angel of the LORD, with a drawn Sword could turn the heart of greedy Baalam. So sad, but so common an error billions have made, and billions more will soon make. (This is very similar to Cain's lack of correction.)
BTW: who might that be? See The Angel of the LORD?
Baalam still failed to obey the spirit of the message. And He paid for not heeding the rebuke of his Life, with the blood of his life.
He sided with evil in the end, and paid for his rebellion, because he really did not receive the Rebuke of God, Why? Because He loved Money and the Praise and Fellowship of Evil Men who worshipped idols, over the Fellowship with God, and His Heavenly Kingdom.
That is such a powerful, strong, and current life lession, I will need to present a study on it soon. (See: How Baalam Blew it?)
Let that never be our story. May God Pour Out Revelation and Renewal of Life as you welcome His Light and Life into your Soul and Heart.
God's Great and Glorious Shalom, will be yours, if you harden not your heart against His:
REPROOF
REBUKE
CORRECTION
EXHORTATION,
In your highly personalized, heavenly ordained discipleship lessons, as you grow in your relationship with Jesus in the kingdom of God.
TPD
I personally feel very privileged to share this heavenly blessed study with you. May it bring LIFE.
Today if ye will hear his voice = Harden not your heart
Hebrews 3:7-15 (KJV) 7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, 8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. 10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. 11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. 13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; 15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
Psalms 95:11
Unto whom I sware in my wrath
that they should not enter into my rest.
Psalms 95:7-11 (KJV)
To day if ye will hear his voice,
8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation,
and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
9 When your fathers tempted me,
proved me, and saw my work.
10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation,
and said, It is a people that do err in their heart,
and they have not known my ways:
11 Unto whom I sware in my wrath
that they should not enter into my rest.
If you prefer using a slide show presentation:
Here that is (below), but it is not as interactive as the above message and study is.