SPRING FORTH NOW 2022

Balaam said, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.” Balak did as Balaam said, and the two of them offered a bull and a ram on each altar. Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your offering while I go aside. Perhaps the Lord will come to meet with me. Whatever he reveals to me I will tell you.” Then he went off to a barren height. God met with him, and Balaam said, “I have prepared seven altars, and on each altar I have offered a bull and a ram.” The Lord put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Go back to Balak and give him this word.” So he went back to him and found him standing beside his offering, with all the Moabite officials. Then Balaam spoke his message: “Balak brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from the eastern mountains. ‘Come,’ he said, ‘curse Jacob for me,’ come, denounce Israel.’ How can I curse those whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce those whom the Lord has not denounced? From the rocky peaks I see them, from the heights I view them. I see a people who live apart and do not consider themselves one of the nations. Who can count the dust of Jacob or number even a fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and may my final end be like theirs!” Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but you have done nothing but bless them!” He answered, “Must I not speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?” Then Balak said to him, “Come with me to another place where you can see them; you will not see them all but only the outskirts of their camp. And from there, curse them for me.” So he took him to the field of Zophim on the top of Pisgah, and there he built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your offering while I meet with him over there.” The Lord met with Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, “Go back to Balak and give him this word.” So he went to him and found him standing beside his offering, with the Moabite officials. Balak asked him, “What did the Lord say?” Then he spoke his message: “Arise, Balak, and listen; hear me, son of Zippor. God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? I have received a command to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot change it.

Numbers 23:1-20 (NIV)

The last day of the year is here and we are positioned to Breathe: New Life. However, being in the position to experience our new life is not sufficient in and of itself, we must also bring a positive mind, vibe, and life to our new life. Without a doubt, we will experience difficult, complex, and downright damning experiences in 2023, nevertheless, we do have new life, and thus, we come to our experiences with a new attitude, despite and in spite of it all, which is positive and illuminating for us to walk right through our valley and shadows of death and yet fear no evil. Our positive attitude serves as our light of illumination in our experiences which does not diminish our expectations but instead increases our expectations for the more, the exceedingly, abundantly, more than we can ever ask or imagine. Thus, seeing ourselves and our experiences through the lens of positivity and inspiration, we are invited as well as our space to a Most Favored Status in which All Things Have Become New, this is the impact of breathing new life, inhaling the Spirit of God which makes us living souls.