Identity Crisis
Jacob ends up in Jabbok River (means “To Empty”) due to a crisis in his life. This crisis leads him into his destiny. This crisis at Jabbok leads to a God encounter for Jacob. This place of emptiness became the place where he would be filled.
Crisis provides:
1. Crisis can create opportunity.
Every crisis has an opportunity connected to it. The problems in life create opportunity for change of direction that we normally wouldn’t make in life otherwise. I have come to realize that most people don’t change until it is painful enough that they have to. We don’t work on our marriage until she leaves us. We don’t get healthy until we have a health scare. We don’t cry out to God until there is problem.
Jacob’s crisis led him to a place called alone. He sends his family away and he finds himself alone. It caused him to seek God in a way he had never done before. His crisis created a desperation to touch God. He didn’t have time to waste, He needed an answer sooner rather than later. His crisis led to promotion.
2. Proof that God is still there.
Jacob sent his family away and he found himself alone. It was in this alone state that he finds God waiting for him. You see, life changing encounters don’t happen in the crowds. God desires to get us in that place called alone and crisis can cause us to feel that way.
In the midst of this major crisis in Jacob’s life, he finds God is waiting for him at Jabbok. Each and every storm in life provides the proof that God is still there. Crisis don’t scare God. He shows off in the storms of our lives. Jacob comes to this alone place and finds that God is still there. In the times you feel like God has left you, the reality is He is still there. He promised to never leave you nor forsake you.
When Jacob finds God waiting for him, his crisis causes him to wrestle with God. He needs God to intervene. This crisis is more than he can stand. He won’t let go. He needs a change. The Angel of the Lord touches his hip and dislocates it and gives him a new name.
When he gets up he no longer walks the same. His dislocated hip cause him to walk with a limp. You could tell that Jacob walked different after his encounter with God. He is no longer the “deceiver” but he is Israel, the “Prince of God”. He has a new name and a new destiny. Our God encounters must cause us to walk differently afterwards.
The crisis in our lives, when responded to correctly, can cause us to walk differently. Don’t fear crisis, embrace it. Each crisis will provide opportunity, prove God is still there and can change the way we walk. Many are wearing labels God never intended you to have. Those labels have effected your destiny. I want to encourage you, you don’t need to wrestle with God, Jesus already paid the price but you do have to claim it. You are a champion, an over comer and royalty.
Walk different today. Walk in destiny.
Tags: Alone, Crisis, God, opportunity, walk
