"And Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau came, and with him four hundred men. And he divided the children unto Leah, and unto Rachel, and unto the two handmaids." - Genesis 33:1.
The above scripture is a powerful story if you read the whole ordeal from Genesis chapter 32 and 33. Let me give you just a brief summary. Jacob here had for all of his life been a con artist. Whenever he was in trouble, or when he desperately wanted something, he schemed and conned his way to get it. Jacob was a very intelligent man, and with his charm and whit would trick people into getting what he wanted. He tricked his brother Esau out of the family blessing, which meant whoever got this blessing was officially the ruler of all the people and anointed of God. He tricked his father-in-law Laban out of two daughters and the best of all his flocks and herds, and his gold and silver. Jacob came to believe with this power he possessed of whit and trickery, he could master any situation he got into.
Beloved, do you see the trap here? Jacob came to believe he had the power to manipulate his way out of any situation. This trap is called the trap of self reliance. You come to believe YOU possess the power to control your life, and the only one you need to rely on is you. It makes you to believe you are the master of your destiny and you control the outcome. But dear reader, if you are a child of God, you must remember you made a contract, with God, the day you got saved, that no longer were you the master of your destiny. You covenanted with Jesus Christ, to make him lord of your life and take control of your future. We forget this truth, and only invoke this when we are in trouble, or when we go to church on Sunday. Yet through the week, where it counts, we are like Jacob, maneuvering and manipulating people and events in our life to get the outcome we want. And I must warn you, when you get to this point in God’s eyes, something will happen to put you in the place where all your tricks, all your manipulating, will not save you. And I must let you know who will put you there, it will be God himself!
Go back to the scripture reference above. Jacob came to the place here, where Esau and four hundred soldiers were now after him to kill him. On the other side, Laban and his army were after Jacob for his thievery. I could see Jacob’s heart pounding with fear, as he finally came to the “no win” scenario. With both armies coming, cutting off all escape routes, Jacob still tried to manipulate his way out. He sends presents to both men, sending messengers to them to calm down the situation and beg for mercy. But for poor Jacob, every trick worked to no avail. And as the clock is ticking down to his own demise, Jacob finally does what God has been wanting from him from the beginning, he cries out to the Lord for help.
Would to God, that we could understand this truth before we get into the hot seat or the no win scenario. God is a god that will not accept our relying on anything other than him. We have so many scriptures that deal with the fact God wants us to come to him first, cast our cares on him, talk to him first and bring our problems to him to solve. There is a reason for this beloved, God wants faith! And that faith is simply complete trust that HE is in control, HE can fix any situation, and HE wants you to totally rely on him, and have no faith in your abilities, powers and intelligence. And I can promise you, if the “Jacob disease” is in your life, if your reading this and are feeling the conviction this is me, I do try to trick and manipulate people and situations, my friend God is going to put some situation, some trouble in your life that will cause all your tricks not to work, and the only thing left is to cry out to him.
I sense that someone is reading this, right now, that all of Hell is come at you. Everything has been stripped from you in your life. You’ve lost a job, a friend, bills are piling up or the doctor has come to you with bad news. Also, someone is reading this who had everything going good in their life till just recently. Now, you feel this overwhelming depression, a pit so deep you canfind no way to come out. Your life no longer has meaning or fun, your prayers hit the ceiling right now and God feels a million miles away. You have no clear direction on what to do and you have tried everything (trick) in the book, but all you have is silence and confusion. Let me speak to you right now, for I have a word from the Lord for you.
You have been put in the place where God is trying to teach you, stop relying on your abilities and strength. Your faith is not in me alone. For awhile now, you have manipulated your situations, and even me (God) to get what you want, and now I am teaching you, and allowing you to come to the end of your abilities and strength, so you will realize I am your answer, I am your God, and there is no problem or situation I cannot solve, but you must come to me first, and utterly have total faith that, I (God), will take care of it.
Beloved, what you are feeling right now, the depression, the loneliness, the fact that all of Hell and Satan are seeming to take everything out of your life and your situation looks hopeless, is not what it looks like. Remember the reference above. When Esau finally caught up with Jacob after he prayed to God for help, he didn’t get what he thought he would. Instead of Esau taking his life, he ran to him, fell on his neck and embraced him. In the end, because Jacob finally gave up on his strength, and gave all to God, Esau became one of his best friends till the end, and Laban ended up blessing Jacob and helping him the rest of his life. God turned what was to be the NO WIN scenario into the greatest blessings of Jacob’s life. I tell you now, if you will cry out to God, give up on the fact of figuring it all out, believing what the Devil or the Doctor is saying, and totally throw all your trust and help on Jesus, you will see your situation turn around. You will find, your steps have been ordered all along, and that God was always with you, wanting you to understand; “it’s not by might nor by power, but by MY spirit, sayeth the Lord of Hosts”.
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