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 you 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 find favor with Him and with men when we need
it. 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 the process that causes us to die from selfish ambitions. 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 having a urgent need 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. 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, 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 life; our prayer life are the
times when we petition God for our needs and wants to be met. 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 (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 is above are own understanding will
protect and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."
You
notice in these two verses that the answer to all prayers; the first response from God brings peace. It is God's peace
which is greater then our own understanding; which protects and mounts a guard over our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
God the Father knows the needs that we have and He is always going to meet our needs because, we are His children even at
times when we resent 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 with
the Holy Ghost which works at conforming us to God's will and us knowing how to let God the Father love on us. God's
intension and main objective in a person's life is that mankind lives at peace with Himself and others.
You might look at our lives as a loaf of bread being baked in an oven and coming out nice and hot
and your able to smell the aroma of all the ingredients that were baked in it. The body of Christ must have a passion and
prayer life and know how to enter God's baking chambers of love by knowing how to meet him in the throne room behind the
veil in His inner court. This is where we walk and experience His presence which causes us to empty our selves of living in
fear, agitating passions and moral conflicts. In turn, this is replaced with God's peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. It
is only as we live by this type of committed life with God through the Holy Ghost; that we can have an assurance of our salvation
and continuing miracles of salvation.
It is very disturbing to me at times when
I hear from well known 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 believe and are teaching that; a born again believer can back slide and go to
hell.
When we have these kind of teachings (Father forgive them because they
don't have a clue of your holding power of love) it causes the believer to stay a cripple child all their life and they
never realize the demands they can put on God to have their needs met because, they are forever looking under their white
robe of righteousness 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 all must be experiencing in our life and that being, we must
learn how to constantly walk in the conscious presence of the Lord in our thought life and understand that our wayward 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.
In this inner chamber there
can be no secretes and denial, but only a thankful and quite presence of support and unconditional acceptance.
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. (Isn't that
what we really want to be?)
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. He did not answer him because how could He 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 and can sit in heavenly places with Christ Jesus, 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 father's love and feel worthy enough 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 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 in all
of us 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 these 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 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 Holy Ghost 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 senses. 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.
Now in order for this process
to take place in our lives, we must have an honest assessment given to us by the Holy Ghost of the condition we are in as
to our thinking and reasoning that is going on in our mind and hearts and the different habits that are controlling our lives.
We are to walk in obedience to every word that we hear coming out of the mouth of God. In order to hear, our spiritual ears
have to be trained to recognize God's voice when He speaks to us. For all this to take place; there must be a heart of
passion and intense hunger to become one with our Heavenly Father; what ever the cost. It's like playing sports and you
become so thirsty that you need to have something cold to drink to satisfy this thirsting in you.
Jacob had to have a crisis in his life of being afraid of dying that caused him to make a decision to have
an all night prayer session to find peace. In his case, he did not become a crisis Christian but his conversion stuck and
he grew straight and strong because he received a spiritual blood transfusion from God his Father and a commitment bonding
took place and he received his first lessen of how to wrestle with God. The towers came down in New York on Sept 11 2001 and
people became God conscience and filled the churches and a short time later; they were back doing business as usual. This
represents (Crisis Christianity.) I talk to people who will sit and listen to me share with them the love and friendship of
the Lord and while they are sitting listening whether it is on a one on one or in a group setting; they will be comforted
and feel safe in laying down their burdens.
However, there are those who will
walk away and pick up their addicted life style and live in an unfulfilled lonely imprisonment and palsied spiritual state
staying as bruised children and never learning how to receive God's grace which gives us the stamina and patience we all
need to grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus the Christ. In spite of their condition (God gives to them again and again
and again.) There can be no greater bondage that a born again believer can live in when they are not experiencing God's
love.
God kind of love is stated in 1Corinthians 13:4-8. "His love endures
long and is patient and kind. It never is envious nor boils over with jealousy. It is not boastful nor displays itself haughtily.
It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude and does not act unbecomingly. (God's love in us)
does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it
takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong]. It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness,
but rejoices when right and truth prevail. Love bears up under anything and everything that comes is ever ready to believe
the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything without weakening. Love
never fails never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end."
Didn't God bless Jacob and Esau in spite
of their character flaws? When the body of Christ learns how to wrestle in the Spirit world, they will begin to love themselves
like Jesus loves us. When one wrestles and hungers after their righteous position in Christ, they can then hold office in
God's kingdom. Let's say we have a born again believer who says they love God and has been saved for a number of years
however, they are a bruised child on the inside and do not really know the love of a father figure. They have the behavior
of a child always needing and wanting help, just living in a survivor mode mentality and have never been taught how to sow
into God's kingdom.
Sowing into God's kingdom is the main principle that
says, "It is more blessed to give then it is to receive." Maybe there living so far in denial that they are like
the man who looks in the mirror and sees what he is and walks away not able to deal with himself as God intended. Does God
call him a backslider and send him to hell or gossip and talk about him behind his back. Or kick him out of the Christian
assembly permanently. For the born again believer who says he loves God and offends and does not carry his brothers burdens
and loves as God loves I would say, they need as much help as the one who is bruised who's life is a wreck to carnal childish
behavior.
A born again believer who looks in the mirror and sees what a wreck
he is; only walks away because, they can't stand themselves because of the self hate and disappointment they see do to
the shame they live in. They want to be free however; the love and patience they need can not be found anywhere because the
born again church which is suppose to love as Jesus loves has to go back to class 101 and be taught the basic foundation of
what their righteous position in Christ represents. We finally have to make a decision; do we really want to pay the price
because we are beginning to understand the wrestling that we are going to have to be doing in our lives? When one wrestles;
the first thing God shows you is your shallowness and the terrible need of commitment and power that will be needed to be
like Him. Jesus by His example shows us what wrestling is all about as He interacted with His Heavenly Father and the encounters
He had with the Devil when He walked the earth.
Continued in part 3
