"A New Walk" By Brother Parrish Lee January 4th,
2015
What
a wonderful opportunity it is
to be able to be in worship with everybody.
It’s good to see everybody’s wonderful faces. It’s awesome!
Y’all can’t see it like I see it.
Y’all look awesome!
Y’all look
like the Spirit of the Lord has been upon you.
Well, most of you, anyway.
Giving
honor to God, who is the
Head of our lives; of my life… Our
maker, our creator, our sustainer, our provider, our encourager, our
bulwark,
our shield, our high tower, our sword, our bridge over troubled waters,
our way
in the midst of no way, our light in the dark place, our answer for
things when
we don’t even know the question, giving honor to Him.
Giving honor to our founding pastor, he and
his family, for their labor; for our pastor, he and his family, for
their
labor, on whose shoulders the ministry now resides…
Giving honor to all those who have stood in
the gap to make up the hedge, who answered the call, who presented
themselves
before the Lord. Giving
honor to all of
y’all who say, “You know, there’s nothing better than coming to the
House of
the Lord, saying, ‘God, fill me, use me, bless me, God, and then, when
You’re
done with me, fill me, use me, and bless me again.’”
Amen. As
I said, Brother Andy Giebler
and myself, we are the people who were called to help lead the
fellowship, and
it’s been a blessing. 2014
was
huge. So much that,
when you see the
blessing in other people’s lives, it is so encouraging.
Have you ever seen a blessing in somebody
else’s life, and it’s like, Wow! That’s exciting?
Everybody likes a winner; did you ever notice
that? Everybody
likes to be on the
winning team. If
your team isn’t doing
too good, you don’t buy their shirts or their shoes; you don’t want to
spend
the money on a ticket. A
lot of times,
you turn off the game halfway through, because you don’t want to get
your heart
broke. Everybody
likes a winner. So,
when you’re able to see wins and
victories over trials, over temptations, over labors, over
persecutions; when
you’re able to see God bring a victory in somebody’s life, you’ve got
to take a
step back and say, “Go, God, go! You
do
great, God!” Going
along with that
Scripture that Kirk quoted, there’s a Scripture in Psalms that says, He
hath
not rewarded us according to our iniquities.
He hath not answered us according to our
transgressions (Psalms
103:10). So, if God
were to just pour
out meet punishment for all the things that we’ve done, this place
would be
empty, because we all would have perished by now.
But, God, in His great mercy, saw fit to
bless us, even up to this point, today.
What a God! What
a God that
is. Amen? Our Scripture for the
month: John 5:11
He
answered them, He that made me whole, the
same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk. “…Take
up thy bed, and walk.” That
is going to be our theme for the
month. Our theme
for the month: Taking
up our bed and walking. From
the Book of Genesis, chapter
32—we are going to spend some time in Genesis this morning. Our
scripture thought
for this morning: Genesis 32:1-3 And Jacob went on
his way, and the angels of God met him. And
when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God's host: and he called the
name of
that place Mahanaim. And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his
brother unto
the land of Seir, the country of Edom. If
you could bow your heads for
just a moment. Lord,
God Almighty, we
thank you so much. God,
if we were to
name every blessing, truly we could fill the rest of our lives with the
goodness that You have poured out on us.
We thank You for our time this morning; we thank You
for waking us up
this morning, God. We
thank You for our
eyes this morning; we thank You for providing for us this morning. We thank You for bringing
us here this
morning, ready to open our mouths and speak Your holy name, this
morning,
God. We thank You
for that; we thank You
for our time for worshipping You, the Most High.
God, at this time, as we go over Your Word;
as we go to teach ourselves and be led by Your Word, we pray that it
would do
as it spoke in the Book of Isaiah, that Your Word would surely go and
accomplish that which You sent and would not return unto You void. So, at this time, Lord, we
do come and pray,
pray that You anoint, bless, that You use, that You teach, and we
claim, as we
present ourselves to You. In
Jesus’
name, and everyone said, amen. Amen. So,
the Scripture thought, again,
for the month is, “He answered them, He that made me whole, the same
said unto
me, Take up thy bed, and walk.” We
want
to spend some time in this month, talking, specifically, about that
walk. “…Take up thy
bed, and walk.” We
want to spend some time talking about
that. And why? Why do you want to make it
so that it’s so
new and fresh? Because
it’s 2015? Oh, no;
come on. It’s 2015,
but, let’s face it, God wants to
give us new, great, and precious promises every day.
It just so happens that, when it’s a new
year, it’s a convenient marker for us to say, “Now it is time for us to
have a
newness about our lives.” A
new frame of
mind, maybe a new body, maybe a new diet, maybe new habits… Yeah, that’s something
that’s really
convenient to do at this time, but we realize that God is a great big
God, and
He wants to bless us all the time.
All
the time. So, when
we can present
ourselves, make ourselves ready, he can usher in a blessing. Amen.
So, this helps us to set a tone, a tone for the
month that would be in
our hearts, and in our minds, and in our lives, how God wants to bless
our walk
with Him. God wants
to bless our walk
with Him. And,
as it says in Genesis 32,
specifically, verse number one, “And Jacob went on his way, and the
angels of
God met him.” Now,
if we provided a
little background about the story, Jacob had a brother, and they were
actually
twins. Jacob and
Esau. You know how
it is, you’re twins, and you’ve
got a little bit of sibling rivalry…
According to the Bible, one was stronger, and one
was the weaker; one
was a little more coarse and rough, and one was a little more soft; one
was a
little bit older, and one was a little bit younger; one was the
favorite of the
Dad, and one was the favorite of the Mom.
And you know how it is with that whole sibling
rivalry. You know
how that whole thing can get—I don’t
know if any of you ever had any sibling rivalry, but, when my brother
does
something, or my sister does something, the other ones just seem to
take a
bearing, “Okay, that’s the standard.
If
I pass that, dah-ta-dah-ta-dah, I’m the favorite!”
That’s how sibling rivalry is.
Any of you that have had siblings, you know,
that you lived in the same house, unless you had a perfect brother or
sister,
and then, you wouldn’t know, any of you, what I’m talking about, but,
that is
the exception, rather than the rule.
So,
this first Scripture, here, “And
Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.”
The angels of God met him. Part 1: Jacob
Already had a Walk with God He
already had a walk with
God. The Bible says
that he recognized,
in verse number two, “And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God's
host: and
he called the name of that place Mahanaim.”
So, he was familiar with the realm of God’s stuff,
Godly things. When
it was a Godly thing, he was familiar
with that, and why wouldn’t he be?
Why
wouldn’t Jacob be familiar with Godly things, I mean, after all, his
grandfather was Abraham, who the Bible says was the friend of God
(James 2:23);
his father was Isaac, who the Bible says was the child of promise. Why
wouldn’t
he be familiar with the realm of God?
Can
you imagine what Abraham would have talked to Jacob about? Can you imagine the
stories that Isaac must
have told his son Jacob? Can
you imagine
what that must have been like to hear it first-hand?
Oh, wow, the things of God; the impressions
that was put forth in his life. This
is
why it is important for parents to imprint their faith and the things
of God in
their lives on their children, and their families—that they can
recognize the
things of God when they are around them, also. And
not just them, people that know God need
to be imprinting Godliness every place we go.
Every place we go.
Genesis 32:6-8 And the messengers
returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and also he
cometh to
meet thee, and four hundred men with him. Then
Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed:
and he divided the people that was with him, and the flocks, and herds,
and the
camels, into two bands; And said, If Esau come to the one company, and
smite
it, then the other company which is left shall escape. But
it says here, “And the
messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau,” and
Esau
was the stronger one, the more rugged one, “We came to thy brother
Esau, and
also he cometh to meet thee,” to meet you, and, and, and, “and four
hundred men
with him.” You
know, sibling rivalry,
how far does it have to go? You’ve
got
to bring four hundred men out to meet me?
Oh, ho, ho, ho.
And Jacob, yeah,
this grandson of Abraham, this son of Isaac, this man who had a walk
with God,
this man was afraid. “My
brother? I mean,
you know, it’s not like we were the
best of brothers, I mean, that whole stealing the birthright thing… I’m sure he’s still a
little angry, but, four
hundred men? Oh,
yeah, I’m really
afraid, now. I’m
really afraid. As a
matter of fact, I’m so afraid, I’m going
to divide up my family; I’m going to divide them up.” Yeah,
Jacob, he would have known, “I’ve been
blessed; I mean, God’s moved in my life.
He’s provided me with things, after all, I got the
woman of my dreams,
and her sister. God’s
been adding to me;
I’m kind of wealthy right now. God
has
blessed my life! But,
now I’m
afraid! I’m facing
something, and I
don’t know how this thing is going to turn out!
I’m facing something; I think this is too big for me. I’m up against something;
I don’t think I can
handle this. I
mean, God’s been blessing
me, but, against four hundred men?
And
Esau is still kind of mad. Yeah,
I’m
afraid, Lord; I’m afraid.” Now,
this is
what is important to know: As
big as
this battle—I’ve never had to fight one that big, I wouldn’t know what
that’s
like. I once had to
fight two, and that
wasn’t all that great, either. I
mean,
I—anyway, so, “Four hundred men? I
mean,
Lord, You’ve blessed my life, but, compared to what I’m facing, I don’t
know if
I can handle it. I
don’t know, being up
against this. I
mean, God, You’re a
great big God, but, God, four hundred?”
But God had already intended to bless Jacob, long
before the battle was
coming. Long
before, God had meant to
bless Jacob. I
want to set a little bit of the
tone for the year, that we can glean everything that God has for us
from each
chapter and each verse, but not afraid or reluctant to say, “You know,
God, we
can really delve into a few more verses also.” Part 2: Jacob
Aligned his Attitude Genesis 32:9-12 And
Jacob said, O God
of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the LORD which saidst
unto
me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well
with
thee: I am not
worthy of the least of
all the mercies, and of all the truth, which Thou hast shewed unto thy
servant;
for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two
bands. Deliver me,
I pray thee, from the hand of my
brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and
smite me,
and the mother with the children. And
Thou
saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of
the sea,
which cannot be numbered for multitude. So,
you know how it is: You
kind of get into a predicament, and Jacob
does something that’s familiar, if you’ve been living for God for a
little
while. He does
something that’s a little
bit familiar, especially when you face something, or you really need
something
or you really, really, really, really, want something. He says, “Lord, You know,
You spoke and…” In
verse nine: “…O God
of my father Abraham, and God of my
father Isaac, the LORD which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country,
and to
thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee…”
“God, I mean, Lord, you told me that if I would
trust You, that You
would see that my needs would be taken care of.
God, You said that, if I would follow You, You said
that You would
direct my paths, and…” You
know,
Christians, you know, when you’re a person of God, you get to a place
sometimes
where we think, “Well, I didn’t think I was going to face of a
situation like
this, and it seems like it’s too much, and I’m going to try to bargain
with You
a little bit. God,
I’ve tried to live
right; I’ve tried to do the right things.
God, you know my testimony; You know that I try to
put up with people
that get on my nerves. Lord,
you know
when the boss yells at me, you know what I want to say, but I bite my
tongue
anyway. I try to do
good by my family,
Lord. You know I
don’t have much
understanding, but I open my Bible, and I read that, too. God, I need Your help. I’ve been living for You,
and I’m trying to
put up with this, God. HELP
ME!!! I’ve been a
god guy, really; I mean,
mostly. More often
than not, You
know. Please?” So, this was his plea. This was Jacob’s plea,
“You said You would
deal well with me.” And
I love verse
number ten. I love
verse number ten,
because, long before there was the internet, and long before there was
Cineplex, and long before there was the multi-movies and the newspapers
and the
televisions and the radio, long before there was that, this verse
speaks. And long
before our Lord walked on the earth;
before that. Before
even Daniel’s
visions, and before David’s battle with Goliath, even before Moses and
the Ten
Commandments and the dividing of the Red Sea, before that, Jacob steps
on the
scene in verse number ten and says, “I am not worthy of the least of
all the
mercies, and of all the truth, which Thou hast shewed unto thy
servant...” Man!
What was God showing him long before Moses even
stepped on the scene? What
was He showing him even before David
stood up to Goliath? What
was He showing
him that he could say, “I’m not worthy of Your great mercy and Your
great
truth?” Well, that
tended to be between
God and Jacob, showing us that we have access to those wonderful things
of
God. So, we see
this situation that gets
familiar, and he goes over promises, and he says, “Lord, I’ve made my
plea,”
but, the truth is that God had intended for him to be blessed before
the battle
came. And,
sometimes—we’ve been there—we
can get sidetracked, we can get distracted, we can think that, “This
time—I
mean, God, You’ve been blessing me.
God,
You’ve been good to me, but I don’t know about this one. I don’t know about this
one, God. I don’t
know. Genesis 32:21-24
So went
the present over before him: and himself lodged that night in the
company. And
he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two
womenservants, and
his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok. And he took them, and
sent
them over the brook, and sent over that he had. And
Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a
man with him until the breaking of the day. Part 3:
Jacob Had To Recognize His Opportunity Yes,
this is how he felt: “I
had to divide my family up, because, if my
brother finds one and not the other, maybe, if he slays the one, I’ll
still
have half a family, if I, myself, am alive.”
And it talks about how he (Jacob) had sent gifts to
him (Esau), trying
to assuage his anger. He
didn’t know if
he was going to receive it or not.
Here
he is, in verse number twenty-four—and we’re familiar with this—“And
Jacob was
left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the
day.” Jacob is left
alone. He’s alone,
now. His family’s
gone; his servants are gone. Nobody’s
with him. All his
stuff has been divided and sent out;
he doesn’t have anything there with him.
It talked about how he sent them out at nighttime. It was dark out, and he
sent them out. Then,
all of the sudden, out of nowhere, there
wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.
Who was this man, anyway?
Where did he come from?
How did he find him, and why are they
wrestling? What is
going on? Jacob, he
had Abraham for his grandfather; he
had Isaac for his father, and he was familiar with this realm of God. Jacob knew, now is not the
time to take a
nap; now is the time to grab a blessing.
He knew that; he’s familiar with it.
This thing that he knows now is now’s the time to
look for opportunity. “I
don’t know exactly what’s going to happen,
but I do know now is the time to look.
So, there wrestled a man with him until the breaking
of the day. We
can find ourselves in a similar
place, that we know God’s been blessing us, but there’s something about
when
God blesses us. You
know, when God blesses
you a lot, and you get comfortable in God, you kind of, if it’s enough,
and you’re
happy, you kind of don’t look for a whole lot of more blessings. Because, after all,
looking for blessing is work.
If I’m happy, and things are going well, and
even-keeled, why do I need
to work for more blessings, when the blessings I’ve got are enough? Why do I need to look for
more? And this is
why God has to send what is
called incentive. God
has to send some
sort of stimulus. You
know, if you’re
real comfortable in the chair, you might not get up.
You might stay in the chair until you’re no
longer comfortable. If
you’re laying on
the couch, laying in the bed; if you’ve got the greatest food right
there in
front of you at the table—thank You, Jesus—if you’ve got the greatest
thing
going on in the meal in front of you, you tend to not get up from the
table
until you’re done with that blessing.
Right? So,
the point is, when God’s
blessing you a lot, you don’t look for anything else, until He has to
give you
an incentive to look. He
has to give you
a reason. This is
the reason why, so
often, the reason why sicknesses, and illnesses, and debts—so many
times we
find ourselves in trouble. Because,
the
truth of the matter is, Christians pray—we pray—but we don’t pray like
we pray
when we got a need. When
I’m in trouble—oooh!—I’m
going to call down the smoke! Oh,
you’re
going to see it come up off of me.
I
better take my watch off. I’m
going to
do something, I’m going to have some prayer; yeah, I’m going to pray. But, when you have a need,
it will drive you
to your knees. It
will make you call on—you
won’t question what name to call god, you will call Him Lord. “Jesus, Lord, help! God, I need—“and you’ll be
specific when you
have a great need. If
you have pain, you
have no problem finding out what to pray for.
If you’ve got a bill that’s due, and it’s too much
to pay, if somebody’s
made you angry, or you’re in jeopardy of losing your job, you know
specifically
how to aim that prayer. You
know how to
do it, because the need is that great.
So,
when you’re comfortable, when we’re comfortable, we don’t tend to do
that. But, when we
have a need, and for this cause,
God so often has to give us an incentive; something for us to focus on,
and
that will get us hot. So,
this battle
that was coming to Jacob made him focus.
“Yeah, I got two beautiful wives; I got a bunch of
kids. I’ve got all
these things, so how hard am I really seeking God.
But, now, when my brother’s coming after me,
and, you know what? we didn’t part on too great a terms, and he’s
bringing four
hundred men. Wooo! Yeah, Lord, I know how to
pray about this
one. I need You to
move.” So, Jacob
prays. In the midst
of all that, in the dark time,
he finds himself having to wrestle.
Now,
it didn’t say he had to fight. Fighting,
you say fighting, everything goes.
Fighting,
you say fighting, if you’re bigger than me, I’m going to get a bigger
stick. Or,
nowadays, you get a bigger
gun. If we’re
fighting, I’ll throw a
kick, and then, after the kick, I’ll bite you.
If we’re fighting…
But, it says
that they wrestled. Now,
wrestling is an
art of grabbing somebody. It’s
an art of
holding on and not letting go. It’s
specific, it’s specific about grappling.
Yeah, Jacob, he had to grapple with this guy. It said it went on until
the breaking of the
day. Now that’s
important. Because,
you know, in wrestling, if you—anybody
here wrestle?—in wrestling, if you’re strong, you can go for a little
while,
but after a while, you have to get a little bit smarter about this. You know, if their as
strong as me, we might
be going for a little while, and now I’ve got to figure out a certain
move, I’ve
got to figure out a certain maneuver.
Yeah, wrestling.
So, he wrestled
with this man, according to the Bible, until the breaking of the day. Something has to happen
here. Genesis 32:25-26
And
when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the
hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint,
as he
wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he
said, I
will not let thee go, except thou bless me. So,
Jacob is wrestling with him until
the breaking of the day, and now they’re having a conversation. Now they’re talking. He said, “Let me go; we’ve
been doing this
for a while,” and he says, “I won’t, until I get a blessing.” So, this whole thing was
about a
blessing. Jacob
recognized that there
was a blessing in the middle of the battle.
This
is why—you have to notice
that, whenever you go to pray, whenever you go to fast, it’s like
climbing in
the ring. When you
go to pray, before
you even get started, the devil is right there to just knock you out,
first. If he can’t
stop you from praying, he’s
making sure there’s a time limit on it; he’s making sure the
distractions are
there. He’s trying
to pull you out. He’s
trying to turn it off. He’s
trying to push you off from prevailing
in the battle. And,
as far as fasting,
you know what? whenever the word, ‘fast,’ comes up, you can almost feel
your
flesh just shudder. “We’ll
get around to
fasting later; I mean, there’s a lot of eating to do before I get to
fast.” I know; I’m
a witness. You know?
But the devil knows.
The devil
knows; your adversary knows that if you go through this, the blessing
that you
will receive, it’ll shake things loose.
In fact, in fact, it will be so big that the
blessing in it, everybody’s
going to be able to see. Genesis 32:28 And he said, Thy
name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel… Now
Jacob literally means, “heel-catcher.”
According to the Bible, when they were in the
womb, as Esau came out, Jacob caught him by the heel.
But Esau was first, so he was the one
deserving of the better birthright.
Because he wrestled, because he would not let go of
the blessing, this
man, this one who wrestled with him, said to him, “Your name shall be
changed, from
now on. You’re
going to be known
differently. You
used to be known as
heel-catcher. You
got the left-over blessings. You
got the blessings on the rim of the plate.
But, now you are going to be known as
Israel. Israel. Genesis 32:28 … for as a prince
hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. Now,
now, now you have power. Now
you have power. I
do need to make one point in verse
twenty-five. Genesis 32:25 And when he [when
the man who wrestled with Jacob] saw that
he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and
the
hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. So,
the hollow of your thigh is
supposed to be a strong point, one of the big muscle parts. I had to look that up. So, the strength of him
was out of
joint. He put a
move on him; I don’t
know what it was, but it must have been a bad one.
He put a move on him, and, now, now, his leg
is out of joint. Usually,
about that
point, “Tap! Tap! Tap!
I’m
out!” But, no, he
continued through,
because he realized, “Even though I took a hit, even though I took one,
there
is more that God has for me than this.
So he says, “for as a prince hast thou power with
God and with men, and
hast prevailed.” So,
now you’re going to
have power; both with the Lord and with men, and you will be a
prevailer—you will
be one that prevails. Before
we go, I’ve just got one
more scripture here, and one more point.
But, I had a situation, years ago; I was younger in
the faith, and I was
in the service. We
had a wonderful night
of fellowship and praying. We
would do
that when I was on the ship in the service; we had a few brothers and
we would pray. We
had some marvelous times. One
particular day, we’d been fellowshipping,
and we’d done a little Bible study, and we had a pray, and I had to go
on
watch. I had to go
on watch at ten o’clock;
I had the mid-watch. We
finished about
eight or eight-thirty, and I was thinking, I need to hurry up and get
some
sleep because that mid-watch is a killer!
So, I took my little tired self and I threw myself
in bed—a little rack,
really, it wasn’t a bed. There
I
was---shush!—and you know how it is when you start getting that good
sleep. Wooo! I was getting a power nap,
in its truest
form. Oh, yeah, it
was sweet. And then
something woke me up! Something
woke me up! As it
woke me up after, I don’t know, twenty
or thirty minutes—and I know I’m not the only one who’s ever gone
through this—it
was a whole spiritual thing going on. It
was as if I could hear angels round about my rack, and the call was to
seek and
pray; seek and pray. After
a little thirty
minute nap, with me about to go on the mid-watch.
So, I did; I began to pray and seek, and I was
tired, but I prayed, and I was seeking God, and I was blessing God, and
I could
feel myself getting stronger, spiritually speaking, but, on the other
hand, I could
feel that, “Man, in less than a half an hour, I’m going to have to go
on watch,
and I kind of would like to finish this nap, and I, you know, maybe I
could get
back to this later,” on the other hand, I could feel the presence
of--the
angels just were there, and I could feel it. I
had a decision to make. Continue
praying, and miss my nap; seek God
all the way through—who knows what might happen.
After a couple of minutes, I don’t know,
maybe ten minutes, I said, “Ah, that’s enough.
I’m tired. God,
I prayed. I’m
relieved; I did my duty. Now
I’m going to finish my nap, because You
know I’ve got to go on watch.” That
next
nap was not as sweet. That
next nap was
not as long. That
next nap, my soul was
screaming at my flesh. Before
the person
came around that woke you up to go on watch, I was woke. You know what the word was? The word was straight,
straight from angels
themselves, it must have been, “You missed it!
God had something for you, and you stopped right
there!” I had no
idea what it was, but the presence
telling me that I blew it was unmistakable.
And, yeah, God knew that we had fellowship, He knew
that we had Bible
study, He knew that I had to go on watch, He knew that we prayed, and
that was
the time that He said, “I have something for you.
Just go ahead and wrestle this thing
through. Continue;
hold on and don’t let
go until you get it.” I
have no idea of
what it was, but I’ll tell you what it was for me, and that was a
lesson not to
ever let an opportunity slip before us again.
Never let an opportunity that God has for you slip
through your fingers
again. Genesis 32:30 And Jacob called
the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my
life is
preserved. Part 4:
Forever Changed- A New Walk To
anyone just looking with the
naked eye they would see Jacob—they didn’t see him wrestling the man in
the
middle of the night; they didn’t see that.
Because there was nobody else around.
There was just Jacob, and then there was the man. Nobody else saw that but
Jacob and the man
that was there. Nobody
else saw
that. But, if
anybody else had seen the
residue, they would have said, “Wow!
Somebody really hurt this guy!”
If you were looking with the naked eye, you would
have seen that he
walked with a halt, or he walked with a limp ever after. You would have thought,
“His flesh is weaker. He
somehow suffered loss. But
if you were able to look at it from a
spiritual eye, you would say, “Man this guy’s got some power now! Man, this guy really knows
how to call down
things that I needed! Anybody
have a
need? Get over to
Jacob’s house. That’s
where it’s going on. He
ain’t going to win no races, but, if you
have a need, that’s where you go.
So, if
anybody would have seen him, looking from a spiritual context, they
would say, “Oh,
yeah, that limp that he walks with now?
That represents power.
That limp,
that change, that difference that he walks with now, that represents a
new name
that God gave him. That
change that you
see in his life, that represents prevailing.
That represents victory. And,
so,
that’s what they say about Christians.
You don’t do what you used to do.
Your flesh isn’t the most powerful thing going on
anymore; anything to
give more over to the spirit. Hallelujah.
What a change
God has wrought. “When
you became a Christian, seems like, all
of the sudden, all of your friends, you just cut them loose. Some of the things you
used to do, you just
push them aside. You
seem to find some
sort of, I don’t know, power that you didn’t have before.” Great God in Heaven, yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,
and yes. So, this
walk, this new walk represents that
we will never, never be the same.
We
will never be the same. Amen. Give the Lord a praise.
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