Sometimes God’s people need to wrestle with him in prayer. Prayer is essential for our spiritual lives. Not much is going to happen without prayer. When we don’t pray, we live mundane and boring lives that change nothing for God’s kingdom. But when we pray, we will see God work.
Epaphras was a man who wrestled in prayer “night and day.” He agonized in prayer in order to see God’s people grow into maturity (Colossians 4:12). Real prayer takes energy and work in order to see results. Praise God for people like Epaphras who advance the kingdom of God by spending time in their prayer closets.
Once Jacob wrestled with God in prayer (Genesis 32:22-31). At this time, Jacob was facing a crisis. He was going to meet his brother Esau after about 20 years. Before this, he had run away from Esau because Esau was trying to kill him. Jacob had lied and taken away Esau’s family blessing and inheritance. Now, 20 years later, Esau was coming to meet Jacob with 400 men. Jacob was afraid because he didn’t know what was going to happen. Esau was unpredictable and violent.
Times of crisis are often times of spiritual struggle. During these times, God may meet us in a powerful way.
The night before meeting Esau, Jacob was met by God (Genesis 32:22-31). This was probably a preincarnate appearance of Christ, for sometimes God revealed himself as the Angel of the Lord in the Old Testament (Genesis 16:7,13; Genesis 18:1-2; Genesis 19:1).
Jacob was alone when God met him. Sometimes in the time of crisis, no one will be with us except God.
Jacob and God wrestled all night. The night speaks of darkness and struggle. This was probably both a physical and a spiritual wrestling match.
God could have won this match easily, for he has all power. It would have been very easy for him to defeat Jacob. But this was no ordinary wrestling match. When a very superior opponent engages with a weaker opponent, it may not be to defeat him but to train him. God was training Jacob and equipping him with spiritual strength. He was teaching him important lessons through this wrestling match.
How do we wrestle with God? We wrestle in prayer. Prayer is not twisting God’s arm to get him to do something he doesn’t want to do, but it is agreeing with God to do what he already wants to do. In prayer, God is not our opponent. He is our training partner. He is increasing our faith through the process of persevering in prayer. We need more faith in order to receive more from God and manifest more of his kingdom on this earth.
God is our coach to grow us into spiritual maturity.
God wants us to pray and never give up. There are times we need to knock on closed doors to open them. There are times we must receive things we don’t yet have. We need to travail in birth in order to bring something forth into the world.
The end times church will birth great deliverance into the earth through prayer. Principalities and powers will be confronted by the power of God through the church (Ephesians 3:10). God is now equipping us for this great spiritual battle of the end times. He is readying us for Armageddon, the final spiritual battle that will be fought by spiritual weapons all over the world.
We need to pray. Often we don’t have something that is God’s will for us because we don’t pray for it (James 4:2). Prayer is work, and we must labor in prayer. The apostles needed other people to minister to the poor in the church so they could focus more on prayer and sharing God’s word. The apostles weren’t shirking their responsibilities; instead, they were focusing on what was most important. Prayer is essential for the forward spiritual progress, whether it’s for the church or for our own lives.
We need energy and strength in prayer. The Holy Spirit inside us will pray through us with groanings which can’t be uttered (Romans 8:26). The Holy Spirit is the energy and fire of prayer. We need to stir ourselves up to lay hold of God (Isaiah 64:7). Sometimes God’s people don’t exert themselves in prayer, and then they wither away spiritually. Things die without prayer. We need strong prayers. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much (James 5:16).
Who won the wrestling match between God and Jacob?
They both won.
God wanted to grow Jacob and change him. He wanted to get Jacob out from his own strength into trusting in God more. He wanted to take Jacob to a higher level, stretch him, and deliver him. He wanted to show Jacob more of himself.
On his part, Jacob wanted two things. First of all, he wanted a blessing from God. Jacob knew the blessing of God is a spiritual power that will bring prosperity, success, and victory. Second, Jacob wanted to know God’s name. The revelation of God’s name is a revelation of God himself. Jacob wanted to know God better. He wanted a deeper understanding of God.
As a result of this wrestling match, Jacob was transformed. This transformation was reflected in the fact that God changed his name from Jacob to Israel, which means “prince of God.”
Jacob’s Limp
In the middle of this wrestling match, Jacob’s leg was dislocated. Normally, a person with a dislocated leg will stop wrestling and lose immediately. But not Jacob. He kept wrestling, even though his leg was out of joint. At this point, he was probably only holding on to God, but he held on tight and didn’t let him go. Jacob didn’t give up, even though he had no hope of winning in himself. Jacob had been completely defeated by God, but in the process, Jacob won. God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness. When we take up the cross, we will experience resurrection power.
After this, Jacob walked with a limp. But it didn’t really matter, because he had been transformed by a revelation of God. He had received a powerful divine blessing that would carry him through the many challenges he would yet face.
The church must rise up in order to be prepared for the end of the age. She must get off her own strength and self-reliance, and lean on God alone. In our own lives, we need to see miracles. These things are not going to happen in our own strength or wisdom. They will happen by the power of God. We need to spend time in prayer with our wonderful God in order to be changed and prepared for what is coming.
Jacob named the place where he wrestled with God, Peniel. Peniel means “the face of God.” When we get a greater revelation of God, it changes us. This is what we need. We need more of him, not more of ourselves. We need to see him better, and this will happen through prayer.
When Jacob left Peniel, the sun was rising. This represents the dawn of a new day. There is new hope after we wrestle with God. The light will arise upon us, and God’s glory will be seen through us.
After he left Peniel, Jacob met Esau. Esau seemed happy to see him, and things went well. Jacob handled himself well, and overcame this challenge with God’s help. Later, Jacob overcame many other challenges. He had been equipped to overcome these challenges by the wrestling match with God in Peniel.
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