Real change comes only by God's power.

Pastor/Teacher
John Farley
Friday,
November 27, 2009

Real change comes only by God's power.

Paul’s new name was a sign of his personal sense of destiny.

With his physical strength disabled, Jacob now shifts his tenacity to become bold in faith.

Once you come to the end of your rope, hang on tenaciously to the Lord and don’t let go until He blesses you!

God is often compelled to steer us into a situation of absolute helplessness before our faith will take hold of His might.

God graciously deals with each of His children according to their need, circumstance and nature.

Note that God blessed Jacob in the very place that He disabled him.

Then He pours His power into you and it comes out the same opening to bless others.

2CO 1:5 For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.

Neither human failure nor human success is the issue. The issue is: whose power are you using?

God is only glorified when you use the power that He supplies!

He wanted to show us Jacob’s determination and teach us the lesson that we must never quit.

Life is a struggle. It is a wrestling match. At times it may even involve wrestling with the Lord.

Rather it consists of friends contending with each other, in which God overthrows, but only to raise us higher.

The very fact that He has given us a free will means that He has even given us the power to strive with Him.

He strikes us with one hand and defends us with the other.

Jacob had to deal with the Lord, who made him deal with himself, before he could deal with his brother.

It was none other than Jehovah, the pre-incarnate Christ, who wrestled with Jacob that night.

A new name is what God desires to give all of us.

Jacob is absolutely determined to find out the name of the Lord!

He sees whatever is standing in a believer’s way and preventing him from receiving His highest and best, and He will weaken that thing and break it down.

Being given a new name in Bible times meant a change in nature or relationship.

The Divine wrestler asked Jacob his name because He wanted to emphasize the meaning of his name being changed from Jacob the contender and swindler to Israel, a prince with God.

At the moment that Jacob yielded to God’s will, he became a new man who could receive the blessings from God and assume his place in God’s plan.

He is destined to become a servant of God, a man governed by God’s will, instead of a dishonorable supplanter.

So we have seen real change in the life of Jacob. We have seen him go from the swindler and supplanter to a prince with God.

We have seen real change in the life of Abram. By God’s power and grace he became the father of many nations.

We have seen real change in the life of Saul. He went from a persecutor of the church to the apostle of Christ to the Gentiles.

The second packed phrase here is
“a slave of Christ Jesus”