Purity of Heart and Hearing from God

The way in which the Holy Spirit reveals the words of God to the human soul is mysterious and in many ways beyond our ability to fully grasp.  We know from the Word that it does happen and we can also from the Word and from the combined experience of the Church offer guidelines and generalities on how God speaks to people.  But the manner in which it happens is still deeply inscrutable.

For instance we know from Scripture that God sets people apart from even before birth to be prophets¹ and even that such individuals who have been called or gifted in this way still remain gifted and called as prophets even when they have fallen away from God. Their God-given sensitivity to the spirit realm and the availability of the resource of Heaven to accomplish His Work should they return to Him still remains².

But prophets can be deceived.  Particularly when they have fallen away from the faith and are no longer serving the Lord but also and more profoundly troubling³ when they may still be in the faith but are in sin.

Balaam son of Beor

The testimony of Balaam in the Old Testament is one of the most curious stories in the whole Bible.  Curious because there is a guy named Balaam who can hear from God, but seeks for a way to use his prophetic gift as a means to become rich and famous⁴.  And in Balaam's account we have an understanding of how a crooked heart can twist revelation.

We see in Numbers 22 that Balak the King of Moab had heard of Balaam's reputation as a forthtelling prophet in that whatever he said came to pass and sought to get him to curse Israel.  The first time Balaam asked about this the Lord responded with a resounding "No."  But the second time the King of Moab offers him more money and prestige⁵ and even though Balaam had already heard the answer, he asked again.  This time "God"⁶ said it was alright to go.  But the fact that Balaam was going actually angered the Lord and it caused Him to have an angel scare Balaam and ensure that since he was going that he was only to bless Israel.  So even though God still ended up using Balaam's disobedience as a means to accomplish His Purpose we still see something that happened in Balaam's heart.

Balaam had an issue with greed and it caused him to "hear from God" that it was ok to curse Israel.  In other words his greed blinded him.  It is a very sobering truth that purity is connected to hearing rightly from God.  As a consequence, sin will blind and deceive us - so that what we think was direction from the Lord is really just us wanting to do what we want.

I've seen this play out in infatuation in relationships (where we put our obsession with being married to someone above our commitment to the Lord), in bitterness and offense (where our unforgiveness and hurt colors what we believe God will do to our enemies) and in greed.

The Heart needs a Filter

The sober truth is that the human heart needs a filter.  We either place the filter of absolute submission to God and His Will on by the daily exercise of our will or a filter will be given to us by the atmosphere of the sin that we have let grow in our hearts.  Balaam changed when money was involved, Sampson changed when women were in the picture and Jonah changed because of his prejudice⁷.

The scary thing is that Balaam is not just an Old Testament figure.  Jesus prophesies that there will be many people like Balaam in history who although working marvelous signs and wonders in His Name, never knew Him (Matthew 7:21-23) due to their rebellious hearts.

Lord let us be true prophets.  Give us clean hands and pure hearts oh God.

¹ Jeremiah 1:5, Luke 1:76

² This comes from Romans 11:29 which states that the "gifts and calling of God are irrevocable" and also a reflection on the prophet Jonah who although disobeyed the Lord still had the calling to be a prophet.  When he finally submitted then the resource of Heaven was present to accomplish the task he had been called to do.
³which we should all take as a word of caution in our hearts

⁴ Balaam's story and prophetic words are in Numbers 22-24.

⁵ 2 Peter 2 is a teaching about false teachers where the false prophets of the Old Testament are likened to false teachers of our day.  What is interesting then about the way in which Balaam was deceived by his own heart to "hear from God" is that it is more than just about spiritual impressions from God but also applies to how we interpret Scripture.  Let that be a word of caution to us all - having an issue of sin in our hearts makes us more likely to explain away the hard words in the New Testament that call us to holiness, generosity and sexual purity.  But to do this would be to "pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality" (Jude 1:4).
⁶ The reason why I put "God" in quotes here is based off of 2 Peter 2:15-16.  Which calls Balaam's way in Numbers 22:15-35 as crooked (or at least not "straight") and called his decision to go "madness".  This then causes me to conclude that the God in Numbers 22:20 should have quotes around it because it speaks more to what Balaam wanted to hear from God rather than what God was actually saying to him.  While the quotes are not included in Numbers 22:20 in light of 2 Peter 2:15-16 I feel justified in interpreting it in this way.
⁷ Sampson's story is in Judges 13-16. Jonah's story is in the Book of Jonah.