Today I want to explore with you how can we improve our relationship with God.
Do you wonder sometimes why it’s hard or difficult to enjoy being in Gods presence?
How is your relationship with God? Also how is your relationship with those around you?
We are going to study the life of a man who was transformed after a single Encounter with God. Genesis 32. 22-31let’s read
“That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered. Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.” The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.”
Genesis 32:22-32 NIV
How many of you here struggle with your past, your memories, anguish and fears?
How many of you feel that your mind and thoughts, paralyse you?
Do you believe that you can live without all this anguish and fear?
Jacob was a man who was born to be a blessing, but he made several mistakes in his life, he deceived his brother by exchanging the right of primogeniture for a plate of soup.
Jacob deceived his blind father together with his mother to win his father’s blessing and so he had to run away from home, because his brother wanted to kill him.
Living in his father in law’s house, he reaped the fruits (the curse) of his lies and deceptions, because he was deceived by his father-in-law.
Don’t forget that everything we sow we will reap.
Jacob received Leah as his wife in Rachel’s place, he had his salary changed several times. But after so much suffering (deceptions) he still prospered. But his past still haunted him.
There were things in his personal life that were not right, his past persecuted him, every time someone called his name – Jacob, he remembered – I am a deceiver, cheater, fraudulent, liar.
“[The Man] asked him, What is your name? And [in shock of realisation, whispering] he said, Jacob [supplanter, schemer, trickster, swindler]!”
Genesis 32:27 AMPC
But one day he understood, he had to go back there and fix it. We often make mistakes, we make wrong decisions, and don’t go back to fix our mistakes.
If you don’t face your past it will devour you, if you don’t repent of your sins there will always be an open door for the enemy to come and accuse you, for people to condemn you and for you to blame yourself.
The Bible says that God does not condemn us if we confess, repent and abandon our sins.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all injustice.”
1 John 1:9
Beloved, if our life is stagnant, we don’t grow spiritually, if we do not enjoy inner peace, if our life with God is not pleasant, if you do not take pleasure in being in His presence, if your mind always runs away from God, I can assure you, there are things in your past that have not yet been resolved.
There is no communion between Light and darkness, there is no way you can hear from God if your heart is full of bitterness, anguish, rebellion and fears.
The Holy Spirit is like a dove.
Did you know that if you have a dove in a cage, and if you don’t want it to die you need to clean their cage 3 times a week? Because they are very clean birds.
How can you have full communion with God through the Holy Spirit, who dwells in you, if your mind is trapped in your past pains (dirt)?
If you allow it, the Holy Spirit will speak to you and restore your soul (mind, will and emotions)
You may tell me: but you don’t understand, I was betrayed, I was hurt, I had losses.
Some times in life we made CHOICES or people around us made bad choices as well: Jacob, in fact, chose to betray his brother, his father. He set everything up, that’s why his brother’s hatred was so strong. But he had a birthright, God had promised his parents when he was born, despite being the second child.
“The Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.””
Genesis 25:23 NIV
He could have acted differently with his brother that day when he returned hungry from hunting. His parents could have talked together and decided to bless Jacob, but it was not like that, his father had Esau as his favourite son.
Things were done badly and wrong choices were made.
People hurt us, we make mistakes and we make bad decisions!
The problem is: will you choose to live with the pains of your past or will you live as a child of God?
God had plans for Jacob, but Jacob needed to first have an encounter with God, he had to face his sins.
I imagine that night in the Jabbok valley, when he was in fight with God through prayer, it was really a fight with himself, with his memories, with his past and his justifications.
He said: But Lord, they deceived me, my father was not fair, my brother wanted to kill me. ….. etc.
Until the Lord asks him: What’s your name?
When he answers, he comes to his senses and realises: that’s right, I’ve made wrong decisions, I’ve been deceiving myself and my family all along.
Beloved, God has a new name for you: ISRAEL. (Gn 32:28)
But we need to face our sins, we need to stop justifying ourselves and hiding behind our religiousness.
There is a woman her name is Edith Eger, she is a holocaust survivor, in the day she arrived in the camp with her family, her mum and dad were sent straight away to the gas chamber and only herself and her sister survived. Today she is 96 years old and she became a psychologist in her forties. She wrote a book about her experiences when she was 90 years old. Her book’s name is the Choice. She said she had to make choices all the time in order to survive all the pain and the difficulties she went through. Think she was abused and suffered just because she was a Jew. But for her to live in peace she had to face her past and forgive those who hurt her.
What is there inside you? We need to be honest if we want to be grown spiritually and emotionally.
I want to go through some points that we need to consider if we want to be healed.
1- Anxiety (worries) – this is a sin because Jesus said to not be anxious about anything, because He takes care of us
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Philippians 4:6 NIV
2- Uncontrolled anger – lack of control, impatience, frustration.
“Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry—but don’t use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don’t stay angry. Don’t go to bed angry. Don’t give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life.”
Ephesians 4:26-27 MSG
3- Bitterness- when we feel wronged, we may turn a kind of anger against God and others, and then we get bitter we do not enjoy the grace of God. Angry and unhappy feelings caused by the belief that you have been treated unfairly.
“See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.” Hebrews 12:15 NIV
“Exercise foresight and be on the watch to look [after one another], to see that no one falls back from and fails to secure God’s grace (His unmerited favour and spiritual blessing), in order that no root of resentment (rancour, bitterness, or hatred) shoots forth and causes trouble and bitter torment, and the many become contaminated and defiled by it–” Hebrews 12:15 AMPC
4- Sadness – lack of faith and lost hope.
“Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God.”
Psalms 42:5 NIV
5- Envy – you’re not happy with what you have, discontent . Envy is accompanied by pride, selfishness and greed. We have to learn to be happy and grateful.
“A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.”
Proverbs 14:30 NIV
6- Fear – It leads us to disobey God, it paralyses us. Why can’t we trust him, contrary to fear is trust and faith, this leads us to trust the word of God.
“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”
1 John 4:18 NIV
Fear of others- anxiety of being rejected, worried about what others will think of me.
“Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.”
Proverbs 29:25 NIV
7- Laziness – when we are negligent and do not assume our responsibilities, we are selfish and only think about ourselves.
“I went past the field of a sluggard, past the vineyard of someone who has no sense; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins.
I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw: A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest— and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.”
Proverbs 24:30-34 NIV
8- Pride – is the basis of all sins, when we worship ourselves, we think we are too good and even better than God.
“Pride is the first step toward destruction. Proud thoughts will lead you to defeat.”
Proverbs 16:18 ERV
Jacob had to leave all his sins at the Lord’s feet, he had to humble himself and only then was he blessed and received a new name and a new identity.
After this experience with the Lord he was able to face his brother and his family, he returned home and reencounter with his brother.
“When Esau saw Jacob, he ran to meet him. He put his arms around Jacob, hugged his neck, and kissed him. Then they both cried.”
Genesis 33:4 ERV
If you continue reading you will see that he could help his people to sanctify themselves, take out the god’s of their midst and then victory and worship came.
“Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone.” So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem. Then they set out, and the terror of God fell on the towns all around them so that no one pursued them.”
Genesis 35:3-5 NIV
Conclusion:
Restoration and freedom comes with Repentance of sins!
And this is not just once in the Christian life, we need to live a life of repentance.
There are things in our lives that apparently don’t seem that bad, but as you get closer to the Light of God that is Holy, you will see where you need to fix yourself, where you need to repent.
If we cannot relate to people, if we are like Jacob, always running away from our brothers and sisters and from our Cell Meeting, we have a problem to fix ! This are sins we need repent of!
Our Father wants to have a good relationship with us, but he doesn’t accept dirt, something badly done. He wants to transform us from glory to glory.
His goal is to have us as his witnesses on this earth, ambassadors of the King, and for that we need to have the mind of Christ. Whoever puts his hand on the plough cannot look back.
Your past should only have one function in his life: To be a testimony of how the Lord freed you!
If you can’t tell your past to someone it’s because the devil is still holding you there.
The day you confess your sins and are set free, it will no longer be shameful or painful to talk about it.
So fight, don’t conform the way you are: fast, cry out , repent from your sins, seek help. But don’t stay stuck in the past.
Take time this week to be with the Lord. Let him show you the dirt and let Him to clean you.
Jesus is our good shepherd. Don’t live like a sorry, defeated person anymore. You are what the Lord says you are.
May God bless and keep you.