As I was watching television the other day I saw an interesting commercial for Dick Devos who is a candidate for governor here in the State of Michigan this year. It was interesting to me because of the angle he took. It wasn’t really a plea for people to vote for him. He didn’t have a laundry list of reasons as to why you should vote for him. Instead he sat there and said there’s a lot of talk about whose to blame for the state of Michigan’s economy. Some point to the finger at the former governor. Some point the finger to the party who is in majority in Lansing. Some point the finger to Washington DC. In his ad DeVos says there is plenty of blame to go around but what we should be talking about instead of blame is a plan of action of Michigan’s future. The damage is done now so it don’t matter who did it, the point is, we need to reverse it and get our economy back on track.
As a degree holder in American Politics and Law it fascinates me how the closer we get to election day, the more we hear about the candidates’ pasts and not what they intend to do in the future. I can remember the 2004 election how the closer we got to November 8, the more John Kerry and George W. Bush’s past military records came into question.
I’ll take this minute to tell you brothers and sisters of Christ that whenever something is about to happen in your future, that’s when your past comes up. And its never the good things about your past. It’s the bad, shameful stuff that muckrakers dig up and spread all over for everyone to see. Yet, you must understand that no matter how much you progress, no matter how much success you can claim, no matter how much you think you got it goin on; you will never truly have it goin on until you can face your past.
When you can look head on at the issues that you know that you blew, you squandered, you messed up; that’s when you know that you are a prime candidate for the next level in life that God is trying to get you to.
In our text for today, we see the greatest wrestling match of all time as it takes place between our central character Jacob and God. Now Jacob has a shoddy past, even from birth. Because when birth was taking place, he held on to his brother’s heel and become known at that moment as a heel grabber. He wanted to hold on to someone else instead of coming out by himself. That begins the dark and dysfunctional relationship between Jacob and his brother Esau. As they develop, mature, and grow into spry young teenagers we find them again. Here Jacob tricks Esau out of his birthright. If that wasn’t bad enough, he steals the final blessing that Isaac, their father, has to give out by dressing up and fooling Isaac into thinking he was Esau. Their mother Rebekah realized that she had started something bad between her two sons and had admonished Jacob, “you need to run out of town because your brother, if he gets his hands on you, when he realizes what you did to him, he will squeeze the everloving life out of you!”
And so finally now in the 32nd chapter, after many years of separation, Jacob has been married several times. He’s broken off on his own, started his own business. Acquired and accumulated tremendous property, livestock, wealth, and houses. But now finally, just as his life is starting to progress, he finally has to face his brother Esau.
But you’ll notice something intriguing here as we come into the periphery of our text. You’ll notice that Jacob, in hearing that Esau is on his way, gathers up his family and his things and crosses a ford called Jabbok. Now here’s wherein lies the problem. Because Jabbok is the land that God promised Abraham. Jabbok is the land of promise that he had given to Abraham, but Abraham was never able to see. You have to understand then that immediately, as soon as, he steps in the region of Jabbok (the vicinity of the promise); just on the edge of it, not too far into it yet, but as soon as he comes within the boundaries of the region of the promise, is when an angel shows up to fight.
This passage has been mistakenly termed as an issue about Esau. The fact of the matter is it has nothing to do with Esau. This passage is a sign to the believers that God caught a case with Jacob. He wanted to know how in the world he could have the audacity to try and enter into the vicinity of the promise without a fight! God says “Jacob, your whole life you’ve been a hustler, you’ve been a con-artist, you’ve been a bamboozler, a hoodwinker! And you can get away with all that with people! But when you call yourself ready to possess what I have for you, I’m not gon let you trick me! I’m gon make you fight for it!
Some of you are frustrated because in every other area of your life you’ve been able to get over and get by. But when it comes to possessing the things of God, God never lets you trip up into your promise but he makes you fight for your promise! And you may as well be honest that the vision, the dream, the purpose that the Lord has given you, has given you great disposition, cause you ain’t never had to fight for this!
Usually, when you needed something, you knew who to call on! You knew who to reach out for! You knew how to get it done! But there’s an area of your life that God won’t let you skate through! God said there’s one area of that if you gon obtain the promise, I’m gon make you fight for it! I’m gon make you fight for it because I want you to understand that when you get this promise, you ain’t gon be soft! But when you get this promise, you gon be so hardy from the issues that it took you to get it, that the easy stuff is not gon let you blow over! But I fought too hard to get where I am now! That’s why I don’t have time for folk who are jealous of my blessing when you don’t know how I had to fight in order to get here! People always look at the spoils of war but don’t wanna look at the casualties! Be careful of whom you get jealous! Because if you want their stuff, you gon first have to have their fight! Are you sure you want what the Joneses got and you ain’t used to fightin for it! The level of anointing that I’m dealing with ain’t no walk in the park but there’s been some nights I couldn’t sleep! Some days I was by myself! Some weeks where I couldn’t eat! I had to fight for my promise!
When I’m dealing with my promise a fight is gon break out! So here we see Jacob is fighting in the region of his promise not knowing he’s already in it! Some of yall are fighting for some stuff that you don’t know you already have! The enemy is using your fight as a distraction! So you don’t realize that I’m already blessed! That I already got favor! That I already got anointing! That I already got healing! I’ve been spending so much time fighting my supervisor! Worrying about bills! Worrying about my marriage/my relationship! Worrying about my children/my family! That I haven’t taken the time to look around and count all of God’s blessings surrounding me! I wish somebody knew they were already up in it!
Yes, you’re already a millionaire! You just don’t have the money yet! You’re already a graduate! You just don’t have the lambskin on the wall yet! You’re already married! You just don’t have the ring yet! You’re already a homeowner! You just don’t know the address yet! But when I am a person of purpose! I walk around in my anointing, cause I feel like I already got it! And if you got the faith, if you’ve been feeling something churning and working down in the inside. You don’t know what’s different! You don’t know what’s been happening! What it’s all about! But you’ve been feelin somethin in the supernatural happening! Because the presence of the Lord is here! I can feel the presence of the Lord and I’m gonna get my blessing right now! So as I look around, I just thank him for my blessing! I thank him for letting me in the vicinity of the promise!
Now watch this: he enters the region of Jabbok and here’s what happens: he sends away his possessions and he sends away his wife. We need to understand that when you enter your promise, the first thing that you lose is possessions! When I’m in the land of promise, I don’t need as many trinkets! Because trinkets were just to hold me over til I got to the land of fulfillment! But now that I’m in the land of fulfillment, I don’t need little superfluous stuff to impress me! That’s why folk what know their purpose ain’t impressed by namebrand suits and shirts and purses and shoes! Folk what know their purpose ain’t impressed by Mercedes and BMW! They got sense enough to know it ain’t about that! As long as I’m walking around in my purpose!
When you’re in the land of your promise, you gon lose your possessions. And the second thing that’s gon happen is, you gotta reevaluate your relationships. When he enters into the land of promise, he has to send his maidservants away. Can you imagine? You know you’re in the land of your promise when folk leave you and you don’t even miss them! You know you’re in the vicinity of your promise when folk don’t call you and it don’t phase you! You know you’re in the land of your promise when folk don’t speak to you but you break your neck to speak to them anyway! “Did you not see me? Hey! I’m over here!” You’ve got to reevaluate the people who are with you!
If someone is assigned to me for a season…there are some people who are just supposed to be in my space while I’m in the wilderness! Because the only thing they can handle is wilderness! I’m talking about those friends who forever got drama and forever bring it with them! Those are wilderness wanderers! So whenever there’s peace they don’t know how to be happy! They don’t know how to celebrate! They don’t know how to glad for you! God said their season is up! You’ve got to cut your losses and find some folk who are ready to possess the land of their promise!
Now, a man appears before Jacob and he can’t see him. Jacob now has to fight something he cannot see. Have you ever been at a place where you knew you were up against something and you couldn’t even see what you were dealing with? You just felt like you were fighting against something! You were worried-but you didn’t know what you were worried about! You were stressed- but you didn’t know what you were stressing about! Sleepless! Insomniac staring at the ceiling, with nothing on your mind! You’ve been fighting against something that you cannot see! Let me remind you that the New Testament says we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against what? You can’t see a principality! The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but they are mighty unto God for the pulling down of strongholds! I’ve come to tell you today that the invisible force you strugglin against is your future! Why? Because its uncertain!
Think about this: out of all God’s creations, man is the worst about uncertainty! Everything in our lives must be certain! Have to maintain a certain temperature or your organs start actin funny! Have to maintain a certain chemical balance or you feel dizzy and faint! I need to maintain a certain blood sugar level! Without a certain amount of calcium our bones get brittle and break! So whenever there’s uncertainty we start fighting!
You have been fighting what you can’t see because it is a confirmation of biblical order! Your future represents what eyes have not seen and ears have not heard! My future is fighting me because it wants to make sure that I’m delivered from my past first! My future won’t let me just take it until I’ve been able to come to grips with the stuff that tried to kill me!
I get to a place where I’m fighting invisible adversaries, invisible attacks, invisible foes, but I keep fighting! No matter how hard it gets keep fighting! No matter how long the rounds are keep fighting! No matter how tired you get keep fighting! Cause when you get out of this, your future has to catch up with you! There’s something you were supposed to have years ago that’s been in storage! But the Lord is about to open the floodgates from heaven and let it rain! There’s some stuff God promised you in 2005 that has not yet happened! But if you keep fighting! And keep heaven on your mind! God said he will open up the windows from heaven and pour you out a blessing that you won’t have room enough to receive!
Observe, they who sanctified this text said Jacob wrestled against his future. He did not fight it. Fight comes from the Old English word feohtan which is akin toe the Greek word fechten which has the Indo European base pek meaning to pluck hair or wool! To fight it, I gotta cause some pain! To fight it means I gotta swing at it! To fight it means I gotta body slam it! To fight it means I gotta piledrive it! But Jacob didn’t fight. The word says he wrestled and wrestle comes from the Old English wraestlan meaning to hold onto and twist! Yall seen it! When a wrestling match starts the two opponents go into the center of the ring, interlock their arms and bodies and then their objective is to twist their way out of that predicament! Meanwhile they have to hold on to the opponent to make sure he doesn’t get away and mount an offensive! So I’m holding on to my faith! I’m holding on to my promise! I’m holding on to my future! I can’t fight my future! Its too big for me to go against but I’m gonna grab on and hold for dear life til my change comes!
If we could only learn when times get rough not to come out swingin! But if we could learn to just grab and hold to God’s promise! When you get sick, just hold on! When you out of money, just hold on! When all men doubt you, just hold on! When you’re at your wits end, just hold on! When it ain’t the popular thing to do, just hold on! You hold to your faith! You wait for your change! Never let go…
Just hold on! The future says to Jacob: “let me go!” And Jacob says “I can’t let go of my future cause its all I got!” If I could hold on to my past I’d have no reason to have faith! If my present was perfect, I’d have no reason for hope! And some of us the only reason we ain’t swandove off the deep end! The only reason we ain’t lost our mind is cause we’re thinking about tomorrow! We believe and keep saying to ourselves God, you’ve gotta have something better than this tomorrow! So we hold on to our future!
This is what Jacob says to his future: I’m not gon let you go til you bless me! Now that’s faith! That’s holy boldness! That I can look at the “not yet!” And keep holding on to the “not yet” until “not yet” becomes “now!” I mean I gotta start speaking to my future cause my future keeps punking me! And I gotta let my future know that I ain’t goin nowhere, til you start blessing me! Get an attitude with your future! Tell your future “now is the time for you to bless me! Now is when you make a way for me! Now is when you open those floodgates! And until you do…I ain’t lettin you go nowhere!
You’ve got to understand that the IOU your past filled out is to be cashed by your future! Cause your past did you so wrong but I can trust God for my future! With that crazy faith I dare somebody to just go househuntin in advance! Just look for real estate in advance! Go ringshoppin in advance! Go to the mall and look at the suits in advance! Its alright! Tell the sales rep you may not be able to help me now but I’ll be back! I need some stuff in my future!
You’ve got to start talking to your future! Everyday I wake up and I expect a new blessing! Everyday I wake up, I look at my past and say you are played out! You are so old! So yesterday! I’m just lookin for what tomorrow has for me! And I understand that my tomorrow is going to be so crazy! My tomorrow is going to be so off the chain that my attack now is so insane! I understand the enemy wants me to die! The enemy wants me to commit suicide! Because if I commit suicide I’ll be trapped in my past! But if I can just fight for my tomorrow, I understand that what God has for me is about to come to pass! Its some folk we’re seeing now that we won’t see later because they are a part of our present but not a part of our future! Some seasons of jobs we’ve had, God just had us there in layaway! He wanted us to stay there for a season but your season is about up! Some of you whose hooptie is holding on by a mere strip of duck tape, that hooptie’s season is already up! The remnant of believers, they ain’t caught up in their past! They’re concerned about their future! Your future! I think Donald Lawrence wrote “what’s to come is better than whats been!” Its got to get better cause I had a messed up past! But I’m still living for a reason!
The future says to Jacob “let me go.” And Jacob replies “I can’t let you go.” And so watch what the future does. The future touches the socket of his leg and forces Jacob to walk with a limp. When you have been truly blessed, you’re disfigured. God always blesses you with an issue! Any person who has walked into their promise always got something wrong with them! He said “I’ve got to make something wrong with you or else, you gon get so blessed you’ll start to think you on my level! So I gotta bless you with an issue that I’m not gon take away, but I’m gon keep it on you so you stay humble! That’s why there was a great warrior named Naaman but he had leprosy! That’s why there was a great leader named Moses but he had a speech impediment! There was a great king named David but he was weak! Yes, we’re blessed in the city! We’re blessed in the field! We’re blessed when we come and when we go but we still got issues!
As much as you shoutin you still got issues! There’s something going on in your body, your marriage, your bank account, on your job, with your children, in your house! Everybody, I don’t care how blessed you are! You still got issues! So yeah, God says I’m blessing you.
But at the same time I’m blessing you, I’m disfiguring you. He touches the hinder part of the socket of his leg so now he’s got to limp! The limp changes his walk! When I’ve been blessed by God, it changes my walk! Sometimes I’ll be in the car, singing praise songs I didn’t even know I knew the words to! Sometimes I just start preachin to myself, and stop to look around to wonder if anyone hears me! Because my walk has changed! Folk can tell that I’ve been changed, not by wardrobe! They can tell I’ve been walking with God, not by a big ol adorned cross around my neck! But there’s some things I don’t do no more! Some people I done sent across the ford! Some places, some environments I’m not comfortable in cause he changed my walk!
Not only does he change your walk, but he changes your identity. The future asks Jacob “what is your name?” And Jacob answered from the perspective of his past! He says “Jacob.” And the future says “no, that’s what your name used to be!” Stop answerin to your past category!
Some of you can’t get blessed because you keep looking at yourself for who you used to be! Stop callin youself broke when God made you a joint heir of Jesus Christ! Start responding to what I’ve been called to be!
The future says “after today, you will be called Israel.” Israel means Prince of God. Before today, you were known as Jacob which is a trickster, a supplanter, a usurper, a con-artist! But after today, your identity is changed cause folk never saw you fight for anything! But now, folk will have a greater level of respect for you because now they see that you fought cause you got wounded!
The whole issue behind John Kerry in the 2004 election was whether or not he was wounded; whether or not he earned the Purple Heart. And I get negged out when folk try to judge my wounds against somebody who didn’t even report for duty!
Don’t judge whether my wound was deep enough or real if you didn’t even show up! Didn’t take the physical! Didn’t give up your civilian clothes! If you shucked your responsibility in God’s Navy! But I’m glad to be in the service of the Lord one more time!
He says to him “I’m blessing you at daybreak.” I’m blessing you when the season shifts. He said its been an all night experience where you’ve been fighting! But when the sun comes up, everything you’ve known before this fight is gon be different! What used to be dark is gon have light! What used to be wrong is gon be right! What used to be hatred is gon be love!
