When you kneel down and clasp your hands in prayer, think that you are holding God tight with your clasped hands.
2. The second fact that Jacob took advantage of was that God could not go when he was talking to Him. Why was the Almighty God pleading with Jacob to let Him go? Cannot the God of heaven and earth kick him off and go His way? He can, but He cannot! He will not.
God is bound when His child is praying to Him. Our prayer arrests God ' s attention. God has no calls waiting when He ' s got you on line. He has committed Himself to listen to His children. Only when Jacob let Him go, He could go. That is the power of prayer! He is a gentleman. He will not walk off, when you are talking to Him. In fact, He longs for His children to be talking to Him.
Then why did He say,“ Let Me go”? Why did He weaken Jacob so that he would release his grip on Him? God was testing Jacob ' s faith and perseverance. Jacob would not let Him go unless He blessed him! It was a prevailing prayer. God blessed him there in his prayer closet. What Jacob wrestled for, he got Blessing! Thus he qualified for the final. He wrestled with God and humans and prevailed. He had learnt the secret of prevailing prayer.
He went to talk to God as Jacob the deceiver; but came back as Israel, Prince with God. The transformation happens in our prayer closet, on our knees. The blessing of Jacob continues even today. He is still Prince with God. We don ' t hear of a Canaanite, Hittite or Perizzite today. But Israel is sitting in the centre of the world! Israel today is a land of about six million Jews surrounded by a sea of 150 million enemies, eager to devour. If you learn the secret of prayer and become a prince with God, no Esau can stand against you.
idle man ' s job, it is wrestling.
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”( Heb 5:7). Prayer squeezes the blood out of you.
Jacob called on God ' s name and stirred himself to reach out to God( Isa 64:7). Thus he witnessed a revival in his personal prayer life.“ The sun rose above him”( Gen 32:31). Revival broke forth! He was out of the night, into daylight! He had gone from life to abundant life( Jn 10:10).
Paul, Peter, Epaphras and Jesus prayed in inconvenient places, under adverse circumstances. They prayed in prison, hands and feet shackled, in gardens, in ships among cargo and in the wilderness. But we can ' t even pray under the fan or an air conditioner. We cannot expect unusual results for our usual prayers. Our prayer must be unusual.
Lift up your hands and pray: kneel and pray; wake up and pray; prostrate yourself on the floor and pray; walk and pray; pray aloud; pray with your prayer diary open in front of you; pray with the newspaper spread out before you; join together with someone and pray; give priority and pray. Pray, pray, pray! And you will shake the world.
Don ' t have your eyes on the bronze in your prayer life; aim for gold! www. lilianstanley. com
Now Jacob has no reason to worry about his limp. He has got what he wantedBlessing. With God ' s blessing, winning the gold was child ' s play. Esau was flat before the limping Jacob.
“ Epaphras... is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured”( Col 4:12). Prayer is no
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