First Wednesday | June 2024

Three Spirits that Divide the Body (Baalam, Cain, and Korah)

Jesus talked a lot about division, strife and unforgiveness

1. Leave your gift at the altar, go be reconciled (Matthew 5:24)
2. If someone has something against you go to them (Matthew 18:15-19)
3. If you don’t forgive your brother you will be tormented (Matthew 18:21-35)

²⁰ “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; ²¹ that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. ~ John 17:20-21 NKJV

²⁵ But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. ~ Matthew 12:25 NKJV

¹¹ Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. ~ Jude 1:11 NASB1995

Way of Cain

• I will worship God my way (Genesis 4:1-7)
• Chose victimization (they don’t accept me)
• Jealous of his brother
• Broke fellowship with family

¹⁴ We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. ¹⁵ Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. ~ 1 John 3:14-15 NKJV

¹¹ So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. ¹² When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.” ~ Genesis 4:11-12 NKJV

• Success comes from your strength
• Fugitive
• Vagabond

Error of Balaam

¹⁵ forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; ¹⁶ but he received a rebuke for his own transgression, for a mute donkey, speaking with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet. ~ 2 Peter 2:15-16 NASB1995

Error

• Loved success
  • Money
  • Fame
  • The hero
  • Power
  • Position
• Stubbornness – idolatry (worship of your own opinion
• Double mindedness
• Inability to distinguish God’s voice
• Argumentative
• Judgmental

⁴ “Therefore speak to them, and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Everyone of the house of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart, and puts before him what causes him to stumble into iniquity, and then comes to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him who comes, according to the multitude of his idols, ⁵ that I may seize the house of Israel by their heart, because they are all estranged from Me by their idols.” ’ ~ Ezekiel 14:4-5 NKJV

Rebellion 0f Korah

Now Korah the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men; ² and they rose up before Moses with some of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty leaders of the congregation, representatives of the congregation, men of renown. ~ Numbers 16:1-2 NKJV

Type of men they were:

• Men Moses appointed
• Were rulers over groups of people
• Represented the opinion of others
• Popular and famous

³ They gathered together against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, “You take too much upon yourselves, for all the congregation is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?” ~ Numbers 16:3 NKJV

Rebellion

• Does not Honor spiritual authority
  • Do not believe the authority was appointed by God
  • Do not believe that it is God speaking through his leaders
• Covertly undermines spiritual authority
  • Who are they to tell us
  • We hear from god just like they do
• Gathers others to themselves to stand against spiritual authority
• Believes it is their responsibility to correct those who are in spiritual authority

³⁰ But if the Lord creates a new thing, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the pit, then you will understand that these men have rejected the Lord.” ³¹ Now it came to pass, as he finished speaking all these words, that the ground split apart under them, ³² and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the men with Korah, with all their goods. ~ Numbers 16:30-32 NKJV

What keeps you divided:

1. Fathers and mothers
2. Fellowship-