Who are you engaging?
There are two ways to engage the Spiritual – you engage God or you engage the enemy.
Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
If you would ask the average Christian about spiritual warfare, the very first verse they will refer to is this one in Ephesians 6. They will be able to recount many stories where they had to ”wrestle” against the enemy. One time I ask an elder about his week and his reply was: Pastor I had the devil on my back all week.” He didn’t like my response: “Great, because if he is on your back, he is not on mine.”
Who decided that it was okay to piggy back him or even give him that much space in your life?
The word for “wrestle” in the Greek means: “to throw out or away.”
You only throw stuff away that has no more purpose to you. The enemy has no purpose for or in my life. But what about the enemy. If I want to be a bouncer instead of a worshipper, he will engage me. You are not a spiritual bouncer trying to clear a night club, you are called to worship God and you have the authority of the name of Jesus.
Engaging in this kind of wrestling match with the enemy is not what we were called to do. Jesus already came and overcame the enemy. All we have to do is to take a stand against him. This is what we are called to do:
Jam 4:17. Submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you.
The second kind of wrestling you can engage in is found in Gen 32:24-26.
And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. 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.
Here we see Jacob wrestle with a man that represents God. This kind of wrestling are different than the one we previously talked about. Why do we need to wrestle with God? A few things happens with Jacob when he wrestled with God:
First we see that they wrestled until the braking of the new day. This is significant. God will not leave us halfway through our darkest hours. He will stay with us until something new breaks through in your life. If you feel like you are still in a wrestle match, keep going because the new thing God wants to do for you has not yet come. Once your new day break through, you will have something new to celebrate. Your walk will change. You will walk with a limp, marked by heaven.
Secondly we see Jacob asking God to bless him. You have a blessing in the new day. I love how Jacob kept fighting until he got it. Your yesterday was known by fear and rejection. Your yesterday was known by wandering and seeking. You were carrying the curse of your past decisions but God is about to change your curse to a blessing. The wrestling was not just to experience the difficult things but also to inherit a blessing.
Thirdly we see that Angel saying to Jacob that his name will be changed. Now longer will you be called Jacob – supplanter /cheater – but now you will be known as one that have power with God and man. In your time of wrestling, God speaks new things over you. In the difficult times He chooses to say the things that will make your enemy wonder.
Lastly I believe God wrestles with us because he wants to deliver us from our hang-ups. We all have them. When God struck Jacob’s thigh, he walked differently. Of course people will ask why and what happened. What a great thing God is doing, giving you something that will ask about your encounter with God. People with and encounter walks differently.
The kingdom are not passive but advancing. The enemy wants us to settle and get comfortable. There is no no-man’s land between the kingdom of God and the power of darkness. If we are not advancing and growing, we are retracting and dying. The kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent take it by force.
I pray we all get into a wrestling match with God. You will never win but you will never regret the encounter.
