YOU HAVE TO STOP STRUGGLING

As believers, God has given us His power to meet the circumstances of life. Could it be that this God-given ability to overcome any problem and change any circumstance is within us, just waiting for us to recognize it?

In Genesis 32:28, the angel told Jacob something by the revelation that by the human effort he was struggling to attain. He didn’t realize it, but he already possessed what he was struggling to achieve. God’s power did not come by wrestling and struggling. Jacob did not get God’s power as a result of wrestling with the angel. He received a blessing from the angel, but he already had the power without struggling. It was given to him by God.

Will you stop struggling? Will you stop wrestling for God’s power to help you rise up and face your circumstances? Will you stop battling in your own strength for spiritual breakthroughs in your ministry? They don’t come by struggling!

What was wrong with Jacob? Simply this: He was not partaking of the provisions that already had been given to him. Faith is a fact, but faith is also an act. What Jacob needed to do — what the Church of Jesus Christ needs to do, what you need to do — is realize who we are in God and begin to act on that knowledge.

Jacob never realized the truth of his position in God, so he struggled for years. When you don’t have a right understanding of your position, you struggle. Jacob did not even understand the implications of his name — and neither has the Church. He thought his name was Jacob — the conniver, the deceiver, the sinner, a weak-kneed, fearful man. That’s who Jacob thought he was and why he acted that way, running, hiding, and tormented by fear.

I am sure that the angel knew who it was that was wrestling with him, but why did he ask Jacob what his name was? Because Jacob didn’t realize himself just who he was. This is the parallel of the condition in the lives of most Christians.

The angel said, “What is your name?”

Jacob said, “It is Jacob.”

The angel said, “You’re mistaken. I know you better than you know yourself. Your name is Israel.”

If only you would know yourself as you are known by God! God knows you — in all of the power and glory that He has created you — but you need to come to the place where you can recognize it.

The angel said, “You think your name is Jacob? Well, it’s not! One day up there in the heavens God changed your name from Jacob, the supplanter and deceiver, and renamed you Israel. He made you a prince because of a promise that God gave to you. You have power with God and with men and you don’t even know it! You are running, hiding, whimpering, and crying — and all the while, inside of you, you have supernatural power.”