In Genesis 32:1-32 & 33:1-20 we have a story of an encounter that Jacob had with the Angel of the Lord. This encounter was a trial and inner warfare of fears Jacob had and God was trying to change his inner nature to conform him to His way of thinking. I will paraphrase as we go along. As Jacob was on his journey going home to where he was born, God’s angels met him. When Jacob saw them, he said, this is God’s army! So he named that place Mahanaim meaning two armies]. (This meaning he also had an army of men and servants and animals with great wealth with two wives and children.)

And Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir in the country of Edom in which he was heading home. And he commanded his servants to say to his brother Esau: Your servant Jacob says this: I have been living temporarily with Laban (my father in law) and have stayed there till now. And I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, menservants, and women servants; and I have sent to tell my lord, so that I may find mercy and kindness in your sight. (He did this because he was afraid that Esau would kill him because he in cahoots with his mother stole his brother’s birth right for a bowl of pottage.) And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, we came to your brother Esau; and now he is on the way to meet you, and four hundred men are coming with him. ( When Jacob heard that he had four hundred men,) he was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two groups, thinking, if Esau comes to the one group and kills them, then the other group which is left will escape. (It is the devils plan to divide and conquer the body of Christ.) (Then Jacob prayed.)

Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, ( Jacob was leaning on the testimonies of his father and grandfather because he didn’t know God very well and had no track record with Him.) you told me to return to your country and to your people and that you will do nothing but good for me even though I feel that I am not worthy of the least of all the mercy and loving-kindness and all the faithfulness which You have shown to Your servant, for with (only my staff) I passed over this Jordan river [long ago], and now I have come back prospered with two companies meaning, (Large in wealth and blessing.) Deliver me, I pray you, from the hand of my brother Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and kill [us all], the mothers with the children. You told me that you would surly do good and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. (Jacob was reminding God and himself that God told him to go home from his travels and if he was obedient God would bless Him.)

So Jacob lodged there that night and took from what he had with him as a present for his brother Esau: (He thought that he had to buy him off with gifts because, Jacob was noted in history as being a schemer and working out his own salvation in his own strength.) He was giving his brother two hundred she-goats, 20 he-goats, 200 ewes, 20 rams, and thirty milk camels with their colts, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 she-donkeys, and 10 [donkey] colts. And he put them into the charge of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, go a head of me.

When Esau my brother meets you and asks to whom you belong, where you are going, and whose are the animals before you, then you shall say, they are your servant Jacob’s; it is a present sent to my lord Esau; and moreover, he is behind us. And so he commanded the second and the third and all that followed the droves, saying, this is what you are to say to Esau when you meet him. (With Jacobs’s conniving he divided these gifts of animals three times to find his brothers favor.) Jacob thought, I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and when I see his face; perhaps he will accept me.

So the gifts went on before him, and he himself lodged that night in the camp. But he rose up that [same] night and took his two wives, his two women servants, and his eleven sons and passed over the ford [of the] Jabbok. And he took them and sent them across the brook; also he sent over all that he had. And Jacob was left alone, and a Man wrestled with him until daybreak. And when [the Man] saw that He did not win over [Jacob], He touched the hollow of his thigh; and Jacob’s thigh was put out of joint as he wrestled with Him. Then He said, Let Me go, for day is breaking. But [Jacob] said I will not let you go unless you declare a blessing upon me. [The Man] asked him, what is your name? And [in shock of realization, whispering] he said, Jacob [supplanter, schemer, trickster and swindler]! And He said, your name shall be called no more Jacob [supplanter], but Israel [one who knows how to contend with God]; for you have contended and have power with God and with men and have prevailed. (Jacob had wept with strong tears and crying.) Then Jacob asked Him, tell me, I pray you, what [in contrast] is your name? But He said, why are you asking me my name? And [the Angel of God declared] a blessing on [Jacob] there. (The God who he wrestled with is the, I am that I am and as we learn what His name represents as we passionately wrestle with Him all of our lives, He reveals to us His loving kindness and keeping power.)

So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel meaning [the face of God], saying, “for I have seen God face to face, and my life is spared and not snatched away.” And as he passed Penuel [Peniel] and the sun rose upon him, he halted upon his thigh I have seen God face to face, and my life is spared and not snatched away.” And as he passed Penuel [Peniel] and the sun rose upon him, he halted upon his thigh. This does not mean that his thigh was hurting him as it has been preached in hundreds of church assemblies. It means, Jacob was learning to check his attitude and making sure that his steps were being ordered by the Lord and he was not leaning towards his own understanding as he had done for so many years. That is why to this day the Israelites do not eat the sinew of the hip which is on the hollow of the thigh, because [the Angel of the Lord] touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh on the sinew of the hip. (This encounter that Jacob had with God has been so misunderstood that the Jewish people have made a doctrine out of this and a ritualistic law of religion.) And Jacob raised his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming and with him 400 men. So he divided the children to Leah and to Rachel and to the two maids. And he put the maids and their children in front, Leah and her children after them, and Rachel and Joseph last of all. Then Jacob went over [the stream] before them and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother. But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. (This is what happens when born again believers live with a forgiving spirit, it binds up the bruised and wounded and brings the body of Christ together in a loving relationship.) Esau looked up and saw the women and the children and said, “Who are these with you?” And [Jacob] replied, “They are the children whom God has graciously given your servant.” Then the maids came near, they and their children, and they bowed themselves. And Leah also with her children came near, and they bowed themselves.

After them Joseph and Rachel came near, and they bowed themselves. Esau said, what do you mean by all this company which I met? And he said these are that I might find favor in the sight of my lord. And Esau said, I have plenty, my brother; keep what you have for yourself. But Jacob replied, No, I beg of you, if now I have found favor in your sight, receive my gift that I am presenting; for truly to see your face is to me as if I had seen the face of God, and you have received me favorably. Accept, I beg of you, my blessing and gift that I have brought to you; for God has dealt graciously with me and I have everything.

And he kept urging him and he accepted it. Then [Esau] said, Let us get started on our journey, and I will go before you. But Jacob replied, you know, my lord, that the children are tender and delicate and need gentle care, and the flocks and herds with young are of concern to me; for if the men should overdrive them for a single day, the whole of the flocks would die. Let my lord, I pray you, pass over before his servant; and I will lead on slowly, governed by [consideration for] the livestock that set the pace before me and the endurance of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir. (Jacobs heart change had made him have a fellow feeling for other peoples needs other then his own and God had made him over to have the kind of heart God has.)

Then Esau said, Let me now leave with you some of the people who are with me. But [Jacob] said, what need is there for it? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord. So Esau turned back that day on his way to Seir. But Jacob journeyed to Succoth and built himself a house and made booths or places of shelter for his livestock; so the name of the place is called Succoth [booths]. When Jacob came from Padan-aram, he arrived safely and in peace at the town of Shechem. This place that he lived called Succoth means that Jacob had learned how to tabernacle with God in his life because he realized that he could rest from his scheming ways and let go and let God hold him from slipping by going back to living according to his own understanding.

This is the story of man who was living in favor with God and going though the trials of life with fears of one kind or another. He was feeling guilty of what he and his mother had schemed to steal Esau’s birthright when he put animal skin on his body to become hairy and went to his father Isaac and had him bless him because he was dying. Because Esau had a hairy body and because his father was blind, they both planned to put an animal skin on his body to fool his father that he was Esau. It was the custom for the father to pass on the family heritage to the first born son and since Isaac could not see he had to feel him to make sure he was Esau because he had a hairy body. This is defined in Genesis 27 read it.

As this story starts out, we see that Jacob was going back home as God commanded and he had the spiritual perception to recognize a God encounter of angels that came to meet him on his journey. The Bible tells us that we entertain angels and we could be unaware of their presence. This should not be so in the Christian life of the spirit. We need to get this deep with in our hearts and for ever settled, that God has got us in the palm of His hand and He is constantly holding on to us for our security and well being. To keep this assurance we are going to have to learn to wrestle. Our wrestling takes place in our inner self with God and the devil’s influencing thoughts and our fight is not with flesh and blood (unreasoning people who oppose themselves.) We must grow up in the Lord and recognize the difference of how these spiritual influences want to control our souls to do their bidding. The spiritual world once you are born again has to become real in your life because you have been called to enter or participate in God’s kingdom and because the kingdom of God suffers violents, the violent must learn to take it by force.

It is interesting to note that even though Esau didn’t consider his birth right as something to treasure and he sold it for a bowl of pottage and Jacob who was a schemer, trickster and swindler, both had prospered by the hand of God. It sounds like God is not a respecter of persons and even though they had character flaws God still prospered them. When I first read this portion of scripture many years ago it was then that I became aware that the Gospel of the kingdom of God was not being preached with a clear understanding of the love that God has for us and this is only using this one example that has been misunderstood in Christian settings. There are slews of misinterpretations of scripture being preached to the body of Christ every day.

Jacobs’s fear of being killed by his brother drove him to have an all night prayer session and during his wrestling his true nature was reveled to him by the spirit of God of his scheming ways and he accepted God’s evaluation of his condition for the first time. We need to constantly live in God’s evaluation like we breathe air. Jacob was beginning to learn that he had a power to lean on God and hold him to his word of promise and was finding out that God, who is integrity himself, can not lie and we have the power to hold him to His word until we get the petitions of our heart. Unless we learn how to wrestle like this, you will never be able to possess this God like integrity and recognize God’s holding power. We must be able to operate in the promise from God that we will be able to find favor with God and with men.

We see here that the scripture says the Angel of the Lord had to touch the hollow of his thigh which was able to set him free from the hold that Jacob had on him. If we look at this from a natural point of view how can a physical being hold on to a spiritual being? Since one can’t, there must be a higher meaning here that has to be discerned by us by the Spirit of God. In the Hebrew the word for hollow of the thigh means to bow down and surrender. This should always be the results from our wrestling in our prayer life so that we can constantly walk in the admonitions of the Lord. This is what scripture tells us we should be doing and that is dying to self. It has been interpreted that the Angel of the Lord gave Jacob a physical impartment and he had a limp the rest of his life. This can’t be any farther from the truth because God never is the author of sickness or tries to cripple us in any form. Let’s now rightly discern from scripture what took place as Jacob put his demands on the Angel of the Lord. This verse says that Jacob passed through a place called Peniel called by him (a place where I saw God face to face)

This word for Peniel in the Hebrew is peniyel: meaning, to behold, respect, be emptied, cast out and used in a variety of applications. Some of these applications meaning, having a battle going on inside oneself because you are doing a beseeching with in yourself and there is a travailing going on of needing an answer or peace that has been lost through stressful forces that have come against you to kill, steal or destroy in some form in your life. What was happening was Jacob was using his power of persuasion with God and leaning heavily on God’s promises to him and by keeping God locked up in his commitment to him and God could not deny His word to Jacob because, He is not like man who lies. If we are determined to mature in our Christian lives our prayer lives are the times when we petition God for our needs to be met but unless we come to understand how God answers our prayers, we constantly ask amiss and our prayers are not answered because they are asked for the wrong reasons.

In Philippians 4:6-7 Paul states “Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition (definite requests), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God. And God’s peace [shall be yours, that tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and being content with its earthly lot of whatever sort that is, that peace] which transcends all understanding shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

You notice in these two verses that the answer to all prayers from God brings with it first an immediate response of getting a peace which is greater then our own understanding that we have which protects and mounts a guard over our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. God the Father knows what needs we have and He is always going to meet our needs because we are His children even in spite of ourselves. Jacob and Esau had some sever character flaws but God gave them wealth and large families including servants to do their bidding. It is us meditating on the word day and night and the wrestling we go through as the Holy Ghost works at conforming us to God’s will and us knowing how to let God the Father love on us.

You might look at our lives as a loaf of bread being baked in an oven and coming out of it nice and hot and your able to smell the aroma of all the ingredients that were baked in it. The body of Christ where ever they may live on the planet must have a passion and prayer life of God’s loving baking chambers of our meeting in the throne room with Him behind the veil where we will walk and experience the emptying of our selves of living in fear, agitating passions and moral conflicts which will be replaced with His peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. It is only as we live this type of committed life with God through the Holy Ghost that we can have an assurance of our salvation. It is very disturbing to me at times when I hear from well know ministers of the Gospel on television preaching that those of the body of Christ who believe in eternal security in Christ are deceived because, they teach that a born again believer can back slide and go to hell.

This type of teaching with in the body of Christ (Father forgive them because they don’t have a clue of your holding power of love) causes the born again believer to stay a cripple child all their lives and they never realize the demands they can put on God to have their needs met because, they are forever looking under their white righteous robe that God put on them the day they became born again believers. They live in such a guilt consciousness and even though they love God they have no liberty to be honest with their feelings and approach the throne room with hope and playfulness. These types of condemning emotions keep God’s family locked up with in them selves and at times drives a person to search for love in all the wrong places.

The angel touching Jacobs hallow of his thigh was an inner revelation to him of what we must all experience in our life being that, we must learn how to constantly walk in the conscience presence of the Lord in our thought life and being and that our actions can not personally offend Him in any way because, (a loving person can not be offended.) The hollow of his thigh is where the created ability of the spiritual life is formed in our hearts and where changes are taking place where we become Christ like. It is this inner throne room where God has to have the supreme authority and where we must learn to enter and communicate with Him in safety and in unashamed transparency.

As the angel made Jacob realize for the first time that he was a schemer all his life, he surrendered his conniving nature and got delivered and his name was changed to Israel. In the Hebrew Israel represents a person who has had an encounter with God and was being made over to become a prince and mighty man in God’s kingdom. Scripture tells us that God wants His people to rule and reign with Him as Kings and Priests in His kingdom. Jacob then asked Him what His name was and the angel did not answer Him. The reason He did not answer him was how could tell Jacob what His name represents in a one night vigil of prayer when the revelation of God starts to be reveled to us the day we became born again and continues to take place for all eternity. Moses in the Old Testament had a burning bush experience with God and God told Him His name was I Am that I am.

How can God explain to a mortal man all that He is in one sitting? Because the born again believer has the mind of Christ, God can now reveal himself to them continually. It is our every day seeking of Him and the new revelation He gives us of Himself that keeps us hungering after Him. With all of Jacobs’s wealth, he was spiritually bankrupt of having an intimate relationship with God and didn’t know how to walk in the reverential fear of God and experience His loving presence. What a devastating and grieves condition to live your whole life as God’s kid and be so separated from God the Fathers holding power of love. There are thousands of born again believers that love God and have never been discipled and know how to trust a fathers love to enter the throne room behind the veil and sit in the presence of God.

There are many stories in the bible where men and women of God had their name changed because of their encounters with God. Paul the Apostle had an encounter with God on the road to Damascus and God change his name from Saul to Paul. The name Saul in the Greek was the Jewish name for Paul. It also defines for us that Paul’s attitude before he had his wrestling encounter with God his Jewish upbringing was that of a person with great zeal trying to be a God servant by observing the Hebraic Law but not according to the true knowledge of God. Paul was going around according to his own understanding of God’s ways and not doing God’s business in the earth but, raising him self up with his own ego and building his own reputation. In turn he was going about killing born again believers. The word Paul in the Greek represents him not only having his name changed but he had an awakening by having an encounter that caused him to halt his intension to kill Christian and come to the end of himself in doing his own thing.

Peter the Apostle also had a revelation from God and his name was changed from Simon Barjona to Peter because he was given a revelation by God the Father and that revelation was a rock solid message that Jesus was the Son of God. This is the revelation and foundation that must be in place if we are going to be born again believers growing to maturity.

In the Old Testament Abrahams original name was Abram. Abram means one who received a promise that he would have as many children as the stars in heaven even though he was in his nineties and from a physical perspective that was impossible. Abraham means he had the physical manifestation of that promise and Sarah in her nineties conceived Isaac. I could go on. The point I am trying to make is it was the wrestling encounters and passionate relationship that gifted and conformed these people to God’s characteristics and gave them the power to operate in their anointing. This caused them to go about their Heavenly Fathers business in the earth as Jesus did.

As born again believing children of God, we have to become spiritually conscious of the fact that unless our first priority is us having a vision and knowledge of the invisible world rather then concentrating on our physical needs and wants being met, we will never operate in the kingdom of God with the anointing we received from God the day we made Jesus our Savior. I have heard from born again believers and on hundreds of Christian television shows that God is going to do a new thing in the earth and that has been going on for the last forty years. Let’s get serious about what it’s going to take to allow this to happen and understand once and for all that God has been trying to do this for the last two thousand years since He left the planet.

God our Father doesn’t have a problem wanting to pour His Spirit out on His children. The problem with the body of Christ is they don’t know how to receive His love and goodness from their Heavenly Father because they have not been able to identify the maturing process and enter and live in God’s courts where they belong daily. This happens because the jealous love that he has for us is not becoming an inbred part of the new man that we became the day we were born again. This happens because it is not the first priority being taught in the majority of the born again churches of today.

How can the true message of our rock solid righteous position take hold and ground us if it is not being taught with the anointing. The manifestation of the presence of God is a wonder beyond words and at times difficult to describe and that’s if Christians in some circles are even experiencing it, I have been in services where the anointing was so heavy that you could hear and feel it with your own physical sense. I am not only talking about church service but in communicating God’s grace in my own home and with people I get to minister to in different places. I have in my life time experienced the joy and laughter of the Holy Ghost for hours and when that happens, it will put a new step into your life. I am trying to make a point that, all these manifestations of the presence of the Lord are wonders to behold however, they are only appetizers and will not take the place of dedicating your self and presenting your body as a living sacrifice in seeking God and learning how to become a warrior and wrestle in the spiritual world. When one wrestles in the physical, there is close body to body contact with your opponent and a lot of physical exertion that takes place. I wrestled a bit in high school and one needs to have a patient stamina that has to be exerted to stay the course to become a winner Continued in part two.

How can God explain to a mortal man all that He is in one sitting? Because the born again believer has the mind of Christ, God can now reveal himself to them continually. It is our every day seeking of Him and the new revelation He gives us of Himself that keeps us hungering after Him. With all of Jacobs’s wealth, he was spiritually bankrupt of having an intimate relationship with God and didn’t know how to walk in the reverential fear of God and experience His loving presence. What a devastating and grieves condition to live your whole life as God’s kid and be so separated from God the Fathers holding power of love. There are thousands of born again believers that love God and have never been discipled and know how to trust a fathers love to enter the throne room behind the veil and sit in the presence of God.

There are many stories in the bible where men and women of God had their name changed because of their encounters with God. Paul the Apostle had an encounter with God on the road to Damascus and God change his name from Saul to Paul. The name Saul in the Greek was the Jewish name for Paul. It also defines for us that Paul’s attitude before he had his wrestling encounter with God his Jewish upbringing was that of a person with great zeal trying to be a God servant by observing the Hebraic Law but not according to the true knowledge of God. Paul was going around according to his own understanding of God’s ways and not doing God’s business in the earth but, raising him self up with his own ego and building his own reputation. In turn he was going about killing born again believers. The word Paul in the Greek represents him not only having his name changed but he had an awakening by having an encounter that caused him to halt his intension to kill Christian and come to the end of himself in doing his own thing.

Peter the Apostle also had a revelation from God and his name was changed from Simon Barjona to Peter because he was given a revelation by God the Father and that revelation was a rock solid message that Jesus was the Son of God. This is the revelation and foundation that must be in place if we are going to be born again believers growing to maturity.

In the Old Testament Abrahams original name was Abram. Abram means one who received a promise that he would have as many children as the stars in heaven even though he was in his nineties and from a physical perspective that was impossible. Abraham means he had the physical manifestation of that promise and Sarah in her nineties conceived Isaac. I could go on. The point I am trying to make is it was the wrestling encounters and passionate relationship that gifted and conformed these people to God’s characteristics and gave them the power to operate in their anointing. This caused them to go about their Heavenly Fathers business in the earth as Jesus did.

As born again believing children of God, we have to become spiritually conscious of the fact that unless our first priority is us having a vision and knowledge of the invisible world rather then concentrating on our physical needs and wants being met, we will never operate in the kingdom of God with the anointing we received from God the day we made Jesus our Savior. I have heard from born again believers and on hundreds of Christian television shows that God is going to do a new thing in the earth and that has been going on for the last forty years. Let’s get serious about what it’s going to take to allow this to happen and understand once and for all that God has been trying to do this for the last two thousand years since He left the planet.

God our Father doesn’t have a problem wanting to pour His Spirit out on His children. The problem with the body of Christ is they don’t know how to receive His love and goodness from their Heavenly Father because they have not been able to identify the maturing process and enter and live in God’s courts where they belong daily. This happens because the jealous love that he has for us is not becoming an inbred part of the new man that we became the day we were born again. This happens because it is not the first priority being taught in the majority of the born again churches of today.

How can the true message of our rock solid righteous position take hold and ground us if it is not being taught with the anointing. The manifestation of the presence of God is a wonder beyond words and at times difficult to describe and that’s if Christians in some circles are even experiencing it, I have been in services where the anointing was so heavy that you could hear and feel it with your own physical sense. I am not only talking about church service but in communicating God’s grace in my own home and with people I get to minister to in different places. I have in my life time experienced the joy and laughter of the Holy Ghost for hours and when that happens, it will put a new step into your life. I am trying to make a point that, all these manifestations of the presence of the Lord are wonders to behold however, they are only appetizers and will not take the place of dedicating your self and presenting your body as a living sacrifice in seeking God and learning how to become a warrior and wrestle in the spiritual world. When one wrestles in the physical, there is close body to body contact with your opponent and a lot of physical exertion that takes place. I wrestled a bit in high school and one needs to have a patient stamina that has to be exerted to stay the course to become a winner Continued in part two.