Numbers 24:2-5

The idea here is something finally went through this thick skull of Balaam and he decided he was not going to resist God like he had before, and he was going to allow God to use him, if you will. And so when it says that he set his face toward the wilderness, what it means is he turned toward Israel, because Israel was in the wilderness. So he turned to address them, if you will, rather than turning his back on them like Balak wanted him to do. He was, in a sense, cooperating, starting to cooperate with God here in a minor way.

God is doing something really strange here by giving His Spirit to this pagan sorcerer to give a prophecy. Now, what did the Holy Spirit do in him? Well, he mentions it actually twice or three times here, at least in two different ways. But what it did, what he says here: It opened his eyes. He says that twice. It also says that he hears the word of the Lord. So it also opened his ears. But what did it open his ears to? What did it open his eyes to? Well, we would say, the truth. It opened his eyes to the truth. I like to look at a little bit differently. It opened his eyes to reality, which is slightly different, along the same lines, but slightly different.

We need to see this in context here. See, his idea of Israel was what Balak had told him. Balak had told him that Israel was this terrible nation that was coming to kill all the Moabites, and he needed Balaam to curse Israel so they would not be able to do this. Israel was the enemy. Israel was terrible. Israel was ugly. Israel was doing all these things that were against the Canaanite peoples (and here, the Moabite people), and he turned toward Israel. God gave him the Spirit and what did he see? He saw Israel as beautiful.

Now, who saw Israel as beautiful? God did, they were His children. It says here, "How lovely are your tents and your dwellings, O Israel!" He, by the Spirit of God, looked through God's eyes at these terrible Israelites and realized that they were a blessed and wonderful people. He saw reality by the Spirit of God.

So, we can understand that what the Holy Spirit does is it reveals the truth to a person. It gives them a vision of reality. It helps them to see things as God sees them rather than as we, as enemies of God, would normally see them. If you want to use another metaphor, the Holy Spirit removes the blinders that Satan's deceptions, his influence has clamped on the whole world. In another place the metaphor is in Paul's conversion—it took the scales off his eyes and he was able to see. That is what the Holy Spirit does. It opens our eyes, opens our minds to things beyond what we were able to see before.

Numbers 24:3-5

Let us notice what the Spirit does to Balaam:

What happened when God sent His Spirit upon this pagan sorcerer? It opened his eyes! It made him see. This is one of the chief effects of the Holy Spirit. It reveals the truth to a person. Now I did not say that the person accepted the truth, in this case with this man, he certainly did not over the long haul. But the Holy Spirit came in power and opened his eyes so that he could see what God saw. God saw Israel defeating all his enemies, being blessed, and having all these good things happen. Later on, in verse 17, he even gives a prophesy of the Savior coming from Israel, the Redeemer of mankind!

So, the Holy Spirit, when it comes upon a person, makes a person see what is real, makes him see reality, makes him see what is actually going on. Like I said, as God sees things. As it says there in I Corinthians 2, we have the mind of Christ; that is what happens when it comes upon us. We can then look at situations, doctrines, or whatever, and have an understanding of what God is trying to make us see. It opens our eyes to what is true, and what is real.

To use another metaphor, it takes the blinders off that Satan's deceptions have clamped on the whole world. When a horse has blinders on, it can only see straight ahead. It cannot see the whole picture. But when you take the blinders off, he can see everything around him and all the influences of what is happening. The same thing happens with us. We may have an understanding, a very narrow understanding, of the Bible before we are ever called. But when the Holy Spirit comes everything is opened wide. We see things in a way that we never saw them before because it is the way that God looks at things.

Now, obviously when we are first called, we do not have that perfect vision. As a matter of fact, it grows over the course of our conversion. But it is the Holy Spirit working in us throughout this period of time that gives us this wider vision, this godly vision of what is. God's truth is reality and it is the Holy Spirit that reveals it to us.