Discovering Destiny (Part 32): Hold On Until You Are Changed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEigSFClu0M

Today, we continue our focus on THE YEAR OF DISCOVERY, as we learn to maintain our posture of faith after God has revealed His plans for our future.

Yesterday, in our “Discovering Destiny” series, we watched Jacob pray the promise instead of the problem. Today, everybody he loves is on the other side of the river and Jacob is left alone in the dark. Today I want to show you what happens on the night God changes your name.

Key scriptures for this year:

2 Peter 3:18 GNT“But continue to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him be glory now and forever.”

Luke 10:20 Mirror“It’s time for you to rediscover who you are from Heaven’s perspective.”

1 John 3:10 Mirror“There is a very visible and vast difference between living one’s life from your God identity or from a fallen man’s mindset.”

Proverbs 25:2 NKJV“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.”

Jeremiah 29:13 NIV“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

Scripture(s) we will study today:

Genesis 32:26 NLT“Then the man said, ‘Let me go, for the dawn is breaking!’ But Jacob said, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.'”

Genesis 32:28 NLT“‘Your name will no longer be Jacob,’ the man told him. ‘From now on you will be called Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have won.'”

Supporting scriptures:

Genesis 32:22-24 TPT“During the night, Jacob arose, woke up his two wives, his two maidservants, and eleven sons, and had them cross the ford of the Jabbok River. He sent them across along with everything he had, and Jacob was left all alone. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a man appeared and wrestled with him until daybreak.”

Genesis 32:25 NLT“When the man saw that he would not win the match, he touched Jacob’s hip and wrenched it out of its socket.”

Genesis 32:27 NLT“‘What is your name?’ the man asked. He replied, ‘Jacob.'”

Genesis 27:19 NLT“Jacob replied, ‘I’m Esau, your older son. I’ve done as you told me. Here is the wild game. Now sit up and eat it so you can give me your blessing.'”

Genesis 32:30 NLT“Jacob named the place Peniel (which means ‘face of God’), for he said, ‘I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared.'”

Genesis 32:31 NLT“The sun was rising as Jacob left Peniel, and he was limping because of the injury to his hip.”

Hosea 12:4 NLT“Yes, he wrestled with the angel and won. He wept and pleaded for a blessing from him.”

1 John 1:9 TPT“But if we freely admit our sins when his light uncovers them, he will be faithful to forgive us every time. God is just to forgive us our sins because of Christ, and he will continue to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

2 Corinthians 5:17 TPT“Now, if anyone is enfolded into Christ, he has become an entirely new person. All that is related to the old order has vanished. Behold, everything is fresh and new.”

2 Corinthians 12:9 NLT“Each time he said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.'”

Setting the Stage:

Jacob prayed the promise, and then he went right back to working his own plan. He picked out a massive gift for Esau: 220 goats, 220 sheep, 30 camels with their young, 40 cows, 10 bulls, and 30 donkeys. He broke it into waves and sent it on ahead, hoping to soften his brother before the two of them ever stood face to face. Then the sun went down.

In the middle of that night, he got up, took his two wives, his two servant wives, and his eleven sons, and sent them across the Jabbok River. Then he sent everything he owned across behind them. Genesis 32:23-24 TPT says, “He sent them across along with everything he had, and Jacob was left all alone. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a man appeared and wrestled with him until daybreak.” Look at that picture. The gift is gone. The family is gone. The flocks are gone. 20 years of increase is sitting on the other side of the water, and the man who had been counting his stuff since the day he left home had nothing left to count. Remember back then, there were no bank accounts, so everything he owned was on the other side of the river.

That is exactly when God showed up. No ladder this time and no dream. A man, and Jacob knew immediately that this was no ordinary man. They wrestled all night long. The Angel could have ended that match in a second, and He proved it with one touch that put Jacob’s hip out of joint. Even injured, Jacob would not turn Him loose. “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

Then came the question that opened him up. “What is your name?” God was not gathering information. That question was a mirror. The last time an old man asked Jacob who he was, he was standing there in goat skins in front of his blind father saying, “I’m Esau, your older son.” He lied about his identity to get a blessing. 20 years later, God asks him the same question, and this time he tells the truth: “Jacob.” Trickster. Heel-grabber. Deceiver. Conniver.

And the second he owned who he had been, God told him who he was about to become. “Your name will no longer be Jacob. From now on, you will be called Israel.” He walked out of that night with a limp, a new name, and a face-to-face history with God.

So, what does this mean for you today? A few things.

1. God Will Get You Alone Before He Changes You.

Watch what had to happen before the encounter. Jacob sent his wives across. He sent his eleven sons across. He sent the servants, the herds, and every ounce of the wealth he had spent 20 years building. Then the text says, “Jacob was left all alone.” No crowd, no buffer, and nobody left to impress. Everything he had used to define himself was on the other side of the water. God will let the space get empty when He is ready to deal with the man.

How this applies to you:

— God is not after your stuff. He is after you.

— Jacob spent that night taking inventory of his life. He left home with a stick, and he was coming back with a household, but that was never the real question. He was returning with more stuff, but was he returning with more character?

— Moses met God alone on the backside of the desert. Elijah heard God alone in a cave. Jesus prayed alone in the garden while His closest friends slept. We serve a God that will meet you when you’re all by yourself.

— Your secret time with God is what makes you and keeps you a public success.

— This is THE YEAR OF DISCOVERY, and discovery happens in the secret place. The crowd can celebrate your destiny, but only God can reveal it, and He does that when He has you alone.

— Do not wait for life to order your schedule. Jacob never planned this encounter, but he could have. If he had built an altar and spent that evening in worship, God could have moved another way. But since he did not, God made sure to make one-on-one time with him.

— You can either give God your attention, or He will get it. Believe me, giving it to Him is much better.

— Either your prayer will order your day, or your day will order your prayer.

— If your life just got quiet and the crowd just got small, do not panic. That is not abandonment. That is preparation. Seek God in the silence, and He will speak.

2. He Refused To Let Go Until He Was Blessed.

The Angel said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking!” Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” Understand who is holding on to whom here. Jacob is exhausted, his hip is out of the socket, and he is hanging on to God with everything he has left in him. He was not trying to win the match. He was trying to make sure he did not leave that place the same way he walked into it. Desperation is the breeding ground of miracles, and Jacob was desperate enough to hold on through the pain.

How this applies to you:

— The Angel could have ended that fight any time He wanted. One touch took the hip out, and He had that power the entire night.

— Jacob did not hold on because he was strong. He held on because he was desperate.

— Hosea mentioned Jacob and this encounter. Hosea 12:4 NLT says, “he wept and pleaded for a blessing.” That is not a man showing off his grip. That is a man begging God not to leave him the way He found him.

— Jacob was not just wrestling for a blessing. He was holding on to the destiny God had already promised him, the same promise he prayed for the night before. Once God shows you your future, do not release it until you are walking in it.

— Wrestling with God is not rebellion. It is refusing to walk away from Him empty.

— The injury did not make Jacob quit. It made him hold tighter.

— Some of you got hurt in the middle of the process, and you turned loose. The pain was never the signal to let go. God doesn’t leave when you are in pain. When you’re really hungry for God, the pain just makes you want Him even more.

— Do not give up, do not cave in, and do not quit. Hold on until you get your breakthrough.

3. He Had To Say His Name Before God Would Change It.

Now we get to the hinge of the entire night. God asked, “What is your name?” He already knew the answer. That question was not for God; it was for Jacob. 20 years earlier, a blind old man asked him the same thing, and he lied: “I’m Esau.” He faked an identity to get a blessing he had not been given. This time, he does not dress it up, explain it, or blame Laban, Esau, or his mother. He just says it: “Jacob.” And that one honest word is what opened the door.

How this applies to you:

— God will not rename a man who refuses to tell the truth about the man he is.

— Confession is not informing God about something He missed. It is agreeing with God about what He already sees.

— Notice what God did NOT do with that answer. He did not shame him. He renamed him.

— Jacob means “heel-grabber” and “deceiver.” Israel means “he who strives with God” and “God will rule.” God handed him a name that described his destiny, not his history.

— Jacob is who he was. Israel is who he was born to be. Your destiny has a name on it, and God cannot hand it to you while you are still answering to the wrong one.

— Before you were born again, you spent your entire life becoming someone you may have never been destined to be. Once you are born again, you must be willing to die to the person you became on your own so you can become the man or woman God destined you to be.

— God renamed him while he was still walking in the old character. That is grace. He was not required to clean himself up first.

— 1 John 1:9 TPT says if we freely admit our sins when His light uncovers them, “he will be faithful to forgive us every time” and He will “continue to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The cleansing follows the confession, not your performance.

— Some of you are still introducing yourselves by the worst thing you ever did. Heaven stopped calling you that a long time ago.

— 2 Corinthians 5:17 TPT says anyone enfolded into Christ “has become an entirely new person.” You already have the new name. Start answering to it.

— We all know the terrible things Paul did while he was still Saul of Tarsus. Yet after he was born again, that same man wrote in 2 Corinthians 7:2 AMPC, “We have wronged no one, we have betrayed or corrupted no one, we have cheated or taken advantage of no one.” That is not denial; that is a man who knows the old man is dead and refuses to keep answering for him.

4. He Stopped Running And Started Leaning.

Genesis 32:31 NLT says, “The sun was rising as Jacob left Peniel, and he was limping because of the injury to his hip.” Now be careful with this verse, because a lot of people make the limp the headline. The limp was not the prize. The encounter was the prize. Jacob walked out of that night with a new name and a face-to-face history with God. The limp was simply a reminder of the night the running stopped. This man had been running his whole life: from Esau, from Laban, from consequences, from himself. He walked out of Peniel slower, but for the first time, he was not running. He was leaning on God.

How this applies to you:

— God was not trying to break Jacob. He was trying to get Jacob to lean on and trust in Him.

— You cannot run your way into destiny. You lean/trust your way into it.

— You do not have to fail, fall, or get wounded to qualify for God’s best. That is religion talking, not the Bible. I’ve heard people say that if you don’t have a limp, God can’t use you. But you don’t need a limp. All you need is a real encounter with God.

— Your pain does not have to be public for God to use you. Maybe your limp is one nobody else sees. Public or private, the true test is the same: have you had encounters with God?

— The change is the proof, not the pain. The question is not, did you leave wounded. The question is, did you leave changed?

— Hebrews 11:21 says that at the end of his life, he worshiped while leaning on his staff. He never stopped leaning, and he never stopped worshiping.

— 2 Corinthians 12:9 NLT says, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” Weakness in this verse is not failure. It is dependence. When you live totally dependent on God, everybody will know you have been with Him, because His power is being manifested in your weakness.

— After a real encounter, you are not just praying to God anymore. You are depending on God. From that moment on, your life is marked by total reliance on Him.

— You are a steward of the life God gave you. You own nothing; everything belongs to Him, and your life is in His hands. You are who God says you are, and you can do what God says you can do.

— He called that place Peniel, “face of God,” because he saw God face to face, and his life was spared. He left wounded, but more importantly, he left changed. Grace is the only reason anybody survives that encounter.

— The sun came up on him. The night was long, but the night was not permanent.

— You are not supposed to leave your Peniel the same way you walked into it. That is the entire point of the night. Encounters with God are supposed to be just that: encounters. They don’t have to take years, and they don’t have to leave you wounded, but they will leave you changed.

That’s enough for today.

Declaration of Faith:

Father, I thank You that You are not finished with me!

I will not let go until You have blessed me!

When the room gets quiet, I know You are about to move!

I tell the truth about my past, and You tell me my future!

I answer to my new name and not my old one!

I am in Christ, so the old is gone and the new has come!

Your grace renamed me before I ever cleaned myself up!

My weakness is exactly where Your power works best!

I do not give up, I do not cave in, and I do not quit!

In THE YEAR OF DISCOVERY, I hold on, and GREATER IS COMING FOR ME!

I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen!

This is Today’s Word. Apply it and prosper!