Saturday, March 19, 2011

I’m On My Way! (Part 4)

I’m On My Way! (Part 4)
And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. (Genesis 32:24-26)
Jacob wanted the blessing. It was his blessing, and he wanted it! The scripture says that he wanted the blessing so bad that the "hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint…" Jacob thought his real enemy was Esau, but in fact his real enemy was his own carnal, fleshly nature. This was what God needed to conquer! When God is conquering our carnal, fleshly nature, we fight so hard that God has to deliberately throw our hip out of joint. According to orthopedics, a hip out of joint is called a hip dislocation. This happens when the thighbone is pushed out of its socket in either a backwards direction (posterior dislocation) or a forward direction (anterior dislocation). A posterior dislocation leaves the hip in a fixed position, bent and twisted in toward the middle of the body. In an anterior dislocation, the hip will be bent only slightly, and the leg will twist out and away from the middle of the body. Either way, a hip dislocation is very painful. Patients are unable to move the leg and, if there is nerve damage, may not have any feeling in the foot or ankle area.
When God threw Jacob's hip out of joint, Jacob was in a very painful place. His direction got changed, he became bent and twisted, and he could not walk. The structure of a ball-and-socket joint gives it a great deal of stability and allows it to move freely. When a great amount of force is used, it can pop the thighbone out of its sock, causing a hip dislocation. Understand that before the wrestling match, Jacob could move about freely. God finally got Jacob to the place he needed to be, to deal with him…in a fixed position! In a fixed position, Jacob now knew that he could not write his own destiny outside of what God had planned for him. In a fixed position Jacob came to understand that he did not really know how to handle habits, financial matters, relationships and attitude without God!
On my way to becoming all that God intended for me to be, I have been in some very painful places. I could not walk as I should, because I was out of joint. Have you ever felt misplaced? To be misplaced is the same feeling of being dislocated…very painful. It seems as if everything you ever trusted has been pulled away from you. You can’t put any weight on your foot or your ankle meaning you can not longer stand on the things you used to trust in… you now have a limp. The outcome for Jacob was that he did come through this painful place to a new place. God even changed his name to Israel! When God brings you to your new place, He will give you a new name! He changes your name, so that you don’t identify with all that you had to walk through in life. I don’t know about you, but I am no longer the same…I am forgetting about my past… I am on my way!!!

Send this message to a Friend, and go take charge of the day!

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