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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