Fulfilling Your Destiny

Journey Into The Promised Land

Genesis 30:25–43 (CSB)

JACOB’S FLOCKS MULTIPLY

25 After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so that I can return to my homeland. 26 Give me my wives and my children that I have worked for, and let me go. You know how hard I have worked for you.”

27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor with you, stay. I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.” 28 Then Laban said, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.”

29 So Jacob said to him, “You know how I have served you and how your herds have fared with me. 30 For you had very little before I came, but now your wealth has increased. The Lord has blessed you because of me. And now, when will I also do something for my own family?”

31 Laban asked, “What should I give you?”

And Jacob said, “You don’t need to give me anything. If you do this one thing for me, I will continue to shepherd and keep your flock. 32 Let me go through all your sheep today and remove every sheep that is speckled or spotted, every dark-colored sheep among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the female goats. Such will be my wages. 33 In the future when you come to check on my wages, my honesty will testify for me. If I have any female goats that are not speckled or spotted, or any lambs that are not black, they will be considered stolen.”

34 “Good,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.”

35 That day Laban removed the streaked and spotted male goats and all the speckled and spotted female goats—every one that had any white on it—and every dark-colored one among the lambs, and he placed his sons in charge of them. 36 He put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob. Jacob, meanwhile, was shepherding the rest of Laban’s flock.

37 Jacob then took branches of fresh poplar, almond, and plane wood, and peeled the bark, exposing white stripes on the branches. 38 He set the peeled branches in the troughs in front of the sheep—in the water channels where the sheep came to drink. And the sheep bred when they came to drink. 39 The flocks bred in front of the branches and bore streaked, speckled, and spotted young. 40 Jacob separated the lambs and made the flocks face the streaked sheep and the completely dark sheep in Laban’s flocks. Then he set his own stock apart and didn’t put them with Laban’s sheep.

41 Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob placed the branches in the troughs, in full view of the flocks, and they would breed in front of the branches. 42 As for the weaklings of the flocks, he did not put out the branches. So it turned out that the weak sheep belonged to Laban and the stronger ones to Jacob. 43 And the man became very rich. He had many flocks, female and male slaves, and camels and donkeys.

Stop Struggling

As believers, God has given us His power to meet the circumstances of life. Could it be that this God-given ability to overcome any problem and change any circumstance is within us, just waiting for us to recognize it?

In Genesis 32:28, the angel told Jacob something by revelation that by human effort he was struggling to attain. He didn’t realize it, but he already possessed what he was struggling to achieve. God’s power did not come by wrestling and struggling. Jacob did not get God’s power as a result of wrestling with the angel. He received a blessing from the angel, but he already had the power without struggling. It was given to him by God.

Will you stop struggling? Will you stop wrestling for God’s power to help you rise up and face your circumstances? Will you stop battling in your own strength for spiritual breakthroughs in your ministry? They don’t come by struggling!

What was wrong with Jacob? Simply this: He was not partaking of the provisions that already had been given to him. Faith is a fact, but faith is also an act. What Jacob needed to do — what the Church of Jesus Christ needs to do, what you need to do — is realize who we are in God and begin to act on that knowledge.

Jacob never realized the truth of his position in God, so he struggled for years. When you don’t have a right understanding of your position, you struggle. Jacob did not even understand the implications of his name — and neither has the Church. He thought his name was Jacob — the conniver, the deceiver, the sinner, a weak-kneed, fearful man. That’s who Jacob thought he was and why he acted that way, running, hiding, and tormented by fear.

I am sure that the angel knew who it was that was wrestling with him, but why did he ask Jacob what his name was? Because Jacob didn’t realize himself just who he was. This is the parallel of the condition in the lives of most Christians.

The angel said, “What is your name?”

Jacob said, “It is Jacob.”

The angel said, “You’re mistaken. I know you better than you know yourself. Your name is Israel.”

If only you would know yourself as you are known by God! God knows you — in all of the power and glory that He has created you — but you need to come to the place where you can recognize it.

The angel said, “You think your name is Jacob? Well, it’s not! One day up there in the heavens God changed your name from Jacob, the supplanter and deceiver, and renamed you Israel. He made you a prince because of a promise that God gave to you. You have power with God and with men and you don’t even know it! You are running, hiding, whimpering, and crying — and all the while, inside of you, you have supernatural power.”

Make this declaration:

No more running, hiding, whimpering, and crying. Operating inside of me is the supernatural power of God.

*Adapted from MCWE email – Journey Into The Promised Land by Morris Cerullo

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