Discovering Destiny (Part 35): Never Settle For Less Than God’s Best

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

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.

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 35:1-3 AMPC“And God said to Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. And make there an altar to God Who appeared to you [in a distinct manifestation] when you fled from the presence of Esau your brother. Then Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, Put away the [images of] strange gods that are among you, and purify yourselves and change [into fresh] garments; Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, and I will make there an altar to God Who answered me in the day of my distress and was with me wherever I went.”

Genesis 35:9-12 TPT“After Jacob returned from Paddan-Aram, God appeared to him once again and blessed him, saying, ‘Your name was once Jacob, but no longer. Your new name is Israel!’ God named him Israel and said to him, ‘I am the God who is more than enough. Go and have many children, and they will multiply. A nation and a gathering of many nations will come from you; and you will be the ancestor of kings. I will give you the land which I gave to Abraham and to Isaac, and after you are gone, to your descendants.'”

Supporting scriptures:

Genesis 33:18-20 ERV“Jacob safely ended his trip from Paddan Aram when he came to the town of Shechem in Canaan. He made his camp in a field near the city. He bought the field where he camped from the family of Hamor, father of Shechem. He paid 100 pieces of silver for it. He built an altar there to honor God. He named the place ‘El, the God of Israel.'”

Genesis 28:15 ERV“I am with you, and I will protect you everywhere you go. I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised.”

Genesis 28:20-22 TPT“Then Jacob committed himself to God, saying, ‘If you will always be with me and protect me on this long journey, and if you give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, and if I return safely to my father’s house, then Yahweh, you will be my God! See! I have set up this sacred stone pillar and it will be your house, God. I promise to set aside a tenth of all that you give me as my gift to you.'”

Genesis 35:4-5 AMPC“So they [both young men and women] gave to Jacob all the strange gods they had and their earrings which were [worn as charms against evil] in their ears; and Jacob buried and hid them under the oak near Shechem. And they journeyed and a terror from God fell on the towns round about them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.”

Ecclesiastes 5:4-5 ERV“If you make a promise to God, keep your promise. Don’t be slow to do what you promised. God is not happy with fools. Give God what you promised to give him. It is better to promise nothing than to promise something and not be able to do it.”

Psalm 24:3-4 NLT“Who may climb the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? Only those whose hands and hearts are pure, who do not worship idols and never tell lies.”

Revelation 2:4-5 TPT“But I have this against you: you have abandoned the passionate love you had for me at the beginning. Think about how far you have fallen! Repent and do the works of love you did at first.”

2 Peter 3:8 TPT“So, dear friends, don’t let this one thing escape your notice: a single day counts like a thousand years to the Lord Yahweh, and a thousand years counts as one day.”

Setting the Stage:

Yesterday, in our “Discovering Destiny” series, we saw that God loved Jacob too much to leave him the way He found him. Today, Jacob is home. Esau is behind him, the herds made it across the river, and the man with the new name is standing in the land God promised him. So he settles in. He finds a piece of land he likes, pays 100 pieces of silver for it, pitches his tents, and builds an altar. He even names the altar with his new name: El-Elohe-Israel, “God, the God of Israel.”

There is only one problem. The land was in Shechem. More than 20 years earlier, on the night of the ladder, God had told Jacob at Bethel, “I will bring you back to this land,” and Jacob had answered with a vow. He said, “If You bring me back safely, then You will be my God, this stone will be Your house, and I will give You a tenth of everything.” Bethel was about 20 miles down the road, one hard day’s walk. Jacob got almost there and stopped.

While he sat still at Shechem, Genesis 34 happened. His daughter Dinah went into the city to visit the local women, and Shechem Jr., the prince of the city, raped her. Then he wanted to marry her, and his father came to Jacob offering a full merger of the two families. Jacob said nothing. His sons answered with a trick: “Every man in your city must be circumcised first, then we will become one people.” The men agreed, and on the third day, while they were too sore to fight, Simeon and Levi walked in and killed every male in the city. Then the rest of the brothers plundered it. Jacob knew something was off. He had missed it somewhere. That is when God spoke: “Arise, go up to Bethel.”

Here is what I want you to see. God did not give Jacob a new word. He sent him back to the old one. The unfinished vow was still on the books, and the idols were still in the tents. Before God confirmed Jacob’s name a second time, Jacob had to go back to the place where God first spoke to him and finish what he started. Destiny is not just discovered. It is finished.

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

1. Right Country, Wrong Address.

Look at what Jacob built at Shechem. He bought land, pitched tents, and raised an altar with the right name on it, but it was the wrong place. From the outside, it looked like obedience. He was in Canaan, he was worshiping, and he was using the name God gave him. But God said Bethel, and Jacob stopped at Shechem. I call this settling short. You get close enough to the promise to feel like you have arrived, so you stop traveling. Shechem is where you stop when you are tired of the road. Jacob was not in rebellion. He was in the right country at the wrong address, and the wrong address cost his family.

How this applies to you:

— Partial obedience feels like obedience right up until the bill comes due.

— Jacob built an altar to “the God of Israel” in a place God never told him to settle. You can do the right thing in the wrong place, and you will still be out of position.

— When you are in the wrong place, you open yourself up to the wrong things.

— God has specific places for you. He did not tell Jacob “somewhere in Canaan.” He said Bethel, and after a 500-mile journey, the last 20 miles are where most people quit.

— Comfortable is not the same as called.

— When you walk with God, you have to know when something is off. Jacob felt it after Genesis 34, and that feeling was not condemnation; it was God telling him he was outside His will. Be honest today: did God tell you to settle here, or did you get tired?

— Bethel was still waiting. God did not move the promise to Shechem; He moved Jacob back to Bethel. God will do the same with you. 

2. God Will Send You Back To Where He First Spoke To You.

Genesis 35:1 AMPC says, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. And make there an altar to God Who appeared to you when you fled from the presence of Esau.” God reminded Jacob of the exact night. The ladder, the stone pillow, the promise, the vow. Now go back to what God said on that night. Genesis 28:15 ERV: “I will bring you back to this land.” That was not a general direction. That was a specific address, and 20 years later, God walked him right back to it. Notice that God did not give Jacob a brand-new revelation to fix a brand-new problem. He pointed him back to the first word. Jesus said the same thing to the church at Ephesus: “Think about how far you have fallen! Repent and do the works of love you did at first.” When you drift, God does not usually say something new. He says what He already said.

How this applies to you:

— The word that started you is the word that will restart you.

— Some of you are waiting on a fresh word from God, and God is waiting on you to obey the last one. Go back and read what He said at your Bethel.

— The way my spiritual father, Pastor Tony Bethel, says it is that when God stopped speaking to you, it is because you got off the bus somewhere. God will wait for you to get back on the bus where you left Him before He’ll start speaking to you again. 

— God said, “I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised.” God will not settle for less than everything He said, so never settle for less than everything He said either.

— Revelation 2:5 gives you the whole plan in three words: remember, repent, return.

— Twenty years is nothing to God. 2 Peter 3:8 TPT says “a thousand years counts as one day,” so an old promise is simply a promise with a current due date.

3. Clean House Before You Move To The Next Level.

Before Jacob moved one tent, he cleaned the camp. Genesis 35:2 AMPC: “Put away the [images of] strange gods that are among you, and purify yourselves and change [into fresh] garments.” Now watch where those idols came from. Rachel had stolen her father’s household gods back in Haran, and the boys had just carried off everything in Shechem. The idols came home with them. Jacob gathered every one of them, plus the earrings they wore as charms, and buried them under the oak at Shechem. Then verse 5 says a terror from God fell on the towns around them and nobody attacked. Obedience came with protection. They did not carry the idols to Bethel. They left them in the ground at Shechem.

How this applies to you:

— You cannot carry Shechem’s idols to Bethel’s altar.

— Psalm 24 asks who can climb the mountain of the Lord, and the answer names two things: no idols and no lies. Those were Jacob’s two specialties. God cleaned both before He confirmed his name.

— Whatever you have been carrying that you know you’re not supposed to be carrying, bury it at Shechem, and leave it in the ground.

— Jacob had let the idols ride in his camp for years, and nothing changed until the father dealt with it. Clean your house, and your household will follow you to the altar.

— The fresh garments symbolized a fresh start. Put on a new mind when God is leading you into a new place.

4. When You Finish Your Vow, God Confirms Your Name.

Jacob went up to Bethel, built the altar, and called the place El-Bethel. Then Genesis 35:9-10 TPT says, “God appeared to him once again and blessed him, saying, ‘Your name was once Jacob, but no longer. Your new name is Israel!'” Jacob got that name at Peniel, but it was confirmed at Bethel. Peniel was the wrestling; Bethel was the finishing. Now look at the two altars. At Shechem, the altar was Jacob’s idea. At Bethel, the altar was God’s instruction. 

20 years earlier he said, “If You bring me back, then You will be my God.” At Bethel the “if” became “is.” The vow was paid, the tenth was on the table, and God said, “I am the God who is more than enough. Kings will come from you.”

How this applies to you:

— God does not confirm what you start; He confirms what you finish.

— Ecclesiastes 5:4 ERV says, “If you make a promise to God, keep your promise. Don’t be slow to do what you promised.” Jacob was slow for years, and it cost him, yet God still met him the moment he moved.

— Walking with God is a long-haul walk. He said “Kings will come from you,” to a man with eleven boys and no throne, because God speaks in generations while we count in weeks. Destiny needs a mindset built for decades, not a mood built for a good day or a good week.

— Jacob was not perfect between Peniel and Bethel, and God did not withdraw the name. He waited for the vow to be fulfilled by Jacob (Israel), and then He spoke the name again.

— Some of you made a vow to God years ago in a hard season. He kept His end, and today is a good day to keep yours.

— The tenth Jacob promised at the ladder was not a tax; it was proof that God, not money, was his source. At some point in your walk with God, you must settle the issue that God is your source. 

— This is THE YEAR OF DISCOVERY; go back to Bethel, finish your vow, worship the Lord, and He will affirm you and confirm what He promised!

That’s enough for today.

Declaration of Faith:

Father, thank You that You still remember the vow I made at my Bethel!

I will not settle for anything less than everything You said!

Almost there is not there, so I keep moving until I arrive!

I go back to Your first word, and I obey it today!

I know when something is off, and I move the moment You say move!

I clean my house, and every idol gets buried at Shechem!

Twenty years is nothing to You, Father, and Your word over me has not expired!

The name You gave me is confirmed when I finish what I started!

You are El-Shaddai, and kings and nations come from my obedience!

In THE YEAR OF DISCOVERY, I finish my vow, and GREATER IS COMING FOR ME!

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

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