Wrestling With God

Genesis 32:22-30 NIV

That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

The man asked him, “What is your name?”

“Jacob,” he answered.

Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”

But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.

So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

Wrestling as defined by dictionary.com 

noun 1. a sport in which two opponents struggle hand to hand in order to pin or press each other's shoulders to the mat or ground, with the style, rules, and regulations differing widely in amateur and professional matches. 

verb (used without object)

1. to engage in wrestling.

2. to contend, as in a struggle for mastery; grapple: to wrestle with one's conscience.

verb (used with object)

3. to contend with in wrestling.

4. to force by or as if by wrestling.

5. to throw (a calf or other animal) for branding.

noun

6. an act of or a bout at wrestling.

7. a struggle.

Wrestling brings to mind the thought of force into our prayers. We need to pray aggressively and wrestle with stubborn issues that the enemy has brought into our lives. We also need to wrestle with God for the blessings we desire. God will give them to us if they line up with His perfect will. 

Seek, Ask & Knock.

Wrestling is an orderly sport and our God is orderly in manner so that would bring us to believe that our prayers should be orderly. What is this order we are to follow, or the rules we are to follow? First we need to acknowledge that God is Creator and Jesus is His Son, then we need to repent of our sins or we will not be heard. 

Acts 3:19 NIV 
Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,

Obey the Lord!! We need to obey the voice of the Lord and do as He asks us.

Deuteronomy 30:10 NLT 
The LORD your God will delight in you if you obey his voice and keep the commands and decrees written in this Book of Instruction, and if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and soul.

We need to pray all kinds of prayers in all kinds of ways. A wrestler has many different moves he can make in a match, yet often he is prone to a specific style or group of moves that works for him, but if he is wise and well trained he will throw in a move that is not of his routine in order to throw off his opponent. So with that thought, routine is important for us in praying and what good athlete can get by without training? None. We need to pray and pray building our spiritual discipline focusing on God's Word and what He desires of His children. 

 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NIV 
Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

 Ephesians 6:18 NIV 
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people.

Are you wrestling with God over things? I encourage you to keep on pressing in and don't give up. If you are not receiving an answer make sure your heart is in alignment with God's will and then maybe what is needed is a change of prayer pattern from the stalemate you are in.

Blessings,
<><

Pray & Never Give Up

Ephesians 6:18 NIV

 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

Philippians 4:4-7 NIV

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Praying and praying always!

<><

How To Battle

Source

First part of this series is Warrior God.

Forces in the spiritual realm are set against us so we must battle or the enemy will invade and prevail over us. We must don our spiritual armour and wear it 24/7 and stand up to our enemy and fight because forces are set against us and if we are idle the enemy will run us over. If we do not fight the enemy will be relentless in attacking us and will take our blessings away. Whether we like it or not, spiritual warfare is going on 24/7, Satan and his army are not going to back off just because we are ignorant of his devices or tired of fighting. Oh no, he will fight even harder until we are so bound up in demonic chains that we are totally harmless to his kingdom.

Unbelief in spiritual warfare does not stop the oppression of the enemy, that only gives the enemy an advantage over us. Remember:

Exodus 15:3 NIV

The Lord is a warrior;

    the Lord is his name.

³ 
A child of God should not behave like a civilian or a citizen of the world but needs to take on their responsibility and be a soldier in the Lord's army.

Ephesians 6:12 NIV 

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

The word struggle or in some versions, wrestle, implies fighting or hand to hand combat. Struggle defined by dictionary.com says: to contend with an adversary or opposing force. to contend resolutely with a task, problem, etc.; strive: to struggle for existence. to advance with violent effort: to struggle through the snow. (of athletes and competitors) to be coping with inability to perform well or to win; contend with difficulty: After struggling for the whole month of June, he suddenly caught fire and raised his batting average 30 points. This word gives us the picture of extreme fighting, a battle that one does not give up on until they win the fight.

1 Timothy 6:12 NIV

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

Psalm 144:1 NIV

Praise be to the Lord my Rock,

    who trains my hands for war,

    my fingers for battle.

Jesus is our teacher, ask Him to show you how to do battle and He will. Remember He is faithful and Father hears our prayers if we are not living in sin and stay under the covering of the Blood of the Lamb. There are some rules to warfare and if you follow them you will be successful in the battle.

Deuteronomy 20:1-8 NIV

When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you. When you are about to go into battle, the priest shall come forward and address the army. He shall say: “Hear, Israel: Today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not panic or be terrified by them. For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.”

The officers shall say to the army: “Has anyone built a new house and not yet begun to live in it? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else may begin to live in it. Has anyone planted a vineyard and not begun to enjoy it? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else enjoy it. Has anyone become pledged to a woman and not married her? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else marry her.” Then the officers shall add, “Is anyone afraid or fainthearted? Let him go home so that his fellow soldiers will not become disheartened too.”

From reading this above passage we see that we are to go into prayer knowing God is with us and we have no reason to fear because it is God who will be fighting for us. We also see that if we are distracted when we go into prayer then our prayers are not effective and we are open for a sucker punch to the vitals by the enemy. We must deal with the distraction first in order to win the war.

Psalm 8:1 NIV

Lord, our Lord,

    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory

    in the heavens.

Always start your prayers off with praise and worship. God is worthy of our praise so when we go to war we need to acknowledge Him for Who He is, praise Him and know that He is going before you into the battle field.

1 John 1:9 NIV

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Confess your sins. You cannot enter into the presence of the Lord while you are living in sin or have unrepentant sin in your heart. You need to be right with Him because when you are He will hear your prayer and He does answer right away. It is either yes, no or wait.

Ephesians 6:18 NIV

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. 

Now you are ready to pray all kinds of prayers in the Spirit. What does praying in the Spirit mean? Check out GotQuestions.org for a good explanation. Here is a little snippet of their answer...The Greek word translated “pray in” can have several different meanings. It can mean “by means of,” “with the help of,” “in the sphere of,” and “in connection to.” Praying in the Spirit does not refer to the words we are saying. Rather, it refers to how we are praying. Praying in the Spirit is praying according to the Spirit’s leading. It is praying for things the Spirit leads us to pray for.

Next post will be on why we must fight.

Blessings,
<><

Pray in the Spirit

Ephesians 6:18 NIV

Google Image 

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

The Holy Spirit given to believers when they accepted Christ as their Saviour, gives direct access to God and we can pray what is on our heart and mind and know that God hears our prayers.

Romans 8:26 NIV
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

This verse, Romans 8:26, brings me much joy. I have a hard time trying to express the message that lies inside of me, expressive words do not come easy. When I pray, sometimes I just don't know what to say and my prayers can jump all over the place. But I have the reassurance that the Holy Spirit will take my deepest emotions and the yearning that lies inside and will bring it to the Father with groans that words cannot express.


Ephesians 3:11 NIV
In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.

Through Jesus Christ we have the freedom to come into the presence of God our Father and ask for direction, guidance and lift our brothers and sister who are in need up to God. The Holy Spirit will intercede for us and make our prayers line up with the mind of God.

1 Corinthians 2:15-16 NIV

The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgements, for,

“Who has known the mind of the Lord 

   so as to instruct him?”

 But we have the mind of Christ.

Believers who are submitted to Jesus Christ and follow in His footsteps have the mind of Christ because the Spirit intercedes for us and sets us on the right path.

Pray and ask for the things of God, God will answer. Not in our way but in His perfect, wholly complete way.

Praise God!
<><

Prayer Request 17 Year Old Boy

Google Image

Just a few days ago I saw a Twitter message from Rachel at Finding Joy asking for prayer for a 17 year old boy named Ian. Ali, Ian's mom has a blog called An ordinary mom. Ian has been diagnosed with medulloblastoma the same cancer that is afflicting Keegan and Lucy.

Please pray against medulloblastoma. Pray that the spinal tap and MRI show no cancer cells and no spreading of this tumor. The family needs prayers too as their van has just died and this mother of 8 is in need of reliable transportation. The youngest, baby Faith, is wheezing. If this continues then Ali who is nursing Faith, cannot take her with her when she visits Ian which will complicate the whole nursing schedule.

Ephesians 6:18 NIV

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

Hebrews 5:7 NIV

During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.

Google Image

Praying and praying,
<><