You're listening to the Miracle Word Podcast. We believe that the Word of God gives you the power to experience never-ending increase in every area. If you're ready for revelation that will take you to the next level, you're in the right place. Here's your host, evangelist, author, and founder of Miracle Word University, 10 Shuttlesworth Jr.
So tonight, do a supernatural surgery on us to cut out everything that doesn't belong. And then add to us everything you want us to have. Let us leave here on another level in the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus. Lift your hands just in tonight.
God's doing something new. The fire's on you. Ha, the fire's on you. Cool, the fire's on you.
Hey, for I'll use you to do something new, says the Lord. Not only is your fire increasing. Not only is your hunger increasing, your fruitfulness is increasing. This will be the most fruitful year in the kingdom you've ever had before.
More fruit production for the kingdom than you've ever seen. Don't be surprised if God gives you more souls in one year than you've had in the history of your Christianity. Don't be surprised if the Lord does one in one year. Why?
So you're of exceeding growth. Somebody say, exceeding growth. Say, exceeding growth of the righteous is a shining light that shines ever brighter until full day the Bible says Proverbs 4, 18. So declare it with me.
My path is getting brighter and brighter and brighter in the kingdom of God. My path is getting brighter and brighter and brighter in the kingdom of God. You believe that? Have I met you before?
Last year. Tell me your first name. Jacob, lift your hands. That's significant because the word on preaching tonight is on Jacob and his encounter with God.
And I tell you by the Holy Ghost, you're going to have an encounter with God like you've never had before. It's going to change everything. For God has a mighty plan for your life, mighty. Stuff you've not even begun to see amazing things.
But God is going to give you an encounter. And when you have an encounter with God, everything changes. Everything changes. Changes even what you carry.
People notice it. It is funny about it. It's people in the world. They don't even know what to say when they feel it on you.
They say the fun. I like your energy. You have a great aura. What's your spirit animal?
They don't know. It's called the anointing. They don't know. They don't know what to say.
But I tell you this. You'll carry the tangible presence of God on your person. Meaning even when you go in places, people will feel God's power on you. It'll bring conviction from sin.
It'll bring deliverance to the captives. Amen. Lift your hand. I tell you the Lord's touching you tonight.
Fills, come on. Jacob. And I declare from this night, that prophetic anointing comes upon you. What you used to think was impossible will become easy.
It'll become easy. Ha ha ha ha. As you yield yourself to the presence of the Lord. Shh.
You'll never be the same. Never be the same. Somebody shout never the same. Grab your Bible if you would.
I'm going to read you one passage for you. Sit down. Jacob, his story starts here that I'm reading Genesis 32. Just if you would remain standing for one reading.
And then we'll sit down for the next three and a half hours. And then I'll minister for another two hours. We'll be home by 2 a.m. Don't even worry.
I'm just messing with you. It'll be one. The Bible says three people passed out. Genesis 32.
This is verse 22. What an interesting story this is. His life was an interesting story. But Genesis 32.
22, the Bible says the same night. He, and that's talking about Jacob, he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his 11 children. He was busy and crossed the forward of the jabbat. Verse 23, he took them and sent them across the stream.
And everything else that he had. That's significant right there. So mark that in your spirit. He sent all the people across the river and everything that he had.
The Bible says in verse 24 and Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. And when the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket. And Jacob's hip was put out a joint as he wrestled with him.
And he said, let me go for the day has broken. And Jacob said, I will not let you go unless you bless me. I'll leave you here. And he said to him, what's your name?
And he said to Jacob, he said, Jacob. And he said, your name shall no longer be called Jacob. Get this now. But your name shall be called Israel.
For you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed. Then Jacob asked him, please tell me your name. But he said, why is it? You asked my name.
And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the name of that place, Peniel, saying, for I have seen God face to face and yet my life has been delivered. The sun rose upon him as he passed, Peniel limping because of his hip. Therefore, look, to this day, the people of Israel do not eat the sinu of the thigh that is on the hip socket because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip on the sinu of the thigh.
Father, let every one of us receive this revelation tonight. And more than that, let us leave here with an encounter. Let us leave here changed by the power of your spirit. We thank you.
We give you praise. Everybody say amen. You can be seated. Thank you, Team Excellent John.
I want you to get this in your heart because see, this is what, even as I left my church this morning, got on the plane and was shooting up here to be with you, which I'm so excited to be here with you this week. But I'm going to tell you something. This hit my spirit so strong as soon as I got on that plane. And the Lord starts speaking to me and he said, I'm giving world harvest church an encounter with my presence like they've never had before.
Now, that's not because of me. I'm not saying because I came here. I'm telling you, this is a message I'm delivering to you from the Lord. Because this is going to continue long after I'm out of here.
It's about what God has planned for this assembly. And I'm going to tell you something. It is a supernatural encounter that will change everything about what he's doing in your life and in your ministry and in your business and in your family. When you have one encounter with God, things supernaturally totally change.
And I found this interesting because there's a lot of people who want to have an encounter with God, but some people are too busy to have an encounter with God. And there's a lot of things on our schedules. Our Google, Google counters are packed to the brim. Every, you pop that thing open, every single color of every event, every appointment you got is on there.
You can see the whole week is planned and God's looking on the calendar to see what he can get some time to meet with you. And I'm telling you, that's why it was so significant when the Bible says that though they camped next to this Jabbak River, the Bible says Jacob was so hungry for an encounter. He said, here's what I want you to do. Everybody that's traveling with me, go ahead and cross the river.
And he said, take the livestock with you. And then he said, take all my possessions too. He said, take my iPad with you, take my iPhone with you, take my chargers and take, I want you to take everything, take my laptop and take, take everything. That's an acronym.
There was no, but I want you to understand what he was doing. He's saying anything that would distract me, take it across the river. And I find that the Bible, essentially the Bible says, and he remained there alone. Jacob was by himself.
There was nothing and there was no one. It was just him and God, just him and God. And the Bible says finally, when Jacob was alone, God showed up and took hold of him and began to wrestle with him. See, here's what I love is that when we decided you've been doing that, I mean, you just came through fasting and prayer.
You just came through all night prayer. So I'm not talking to people that don't know how to separate themselves. I'm talking to people that have already separated themselves. That's why I'm telling you, get ready for an encounter like you've never had.
It's not that you, oh, well, once you do that, no, you've already done it. You're already in position. And now we're stepping into a mighty encounter with God. But the Bible declares that not until he was alone, was God able to meet with him and to wrestle with him.
Everybody say this with me, every distraction removed. See, and once those distractions were removed and he remained alone, God said, I've got time. Now, nothing's going to take your attention. Nothing's going to, no, I can come and speak to you and wrestle with you.
And notice this, though God, an infinite supernatural being, stood before Jacob. Jacob had such a hunger for a touch from God that he just latched onto him, took a hold of him, and began to wrestle with him. You know what he was doing? He was trying to get his blessing.
How do you do? I'm trying to get my blessing. And the Lord's wrestling with Jacob and Jacob's wrestling with the Lord. And see, here's what happens sometimes, because remember who God is.
The Bible says, in the beginning, was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word, what? Sometimes God wrestles with you in the form of a Word.
Sometimes God speaks to you and gives you instructions about the future. And there's people wrestling with that Word. Because when you hear it, it seems so big to you. It seems so impossible at the time you hear it, that you wrestle with it, and you barter with God, and you negotiate with God, and then you analyze every single thing, well, how can I make that happen?
And how's that going to work? And well, if I did this, and maybe if I sold a few things, and we're trying to figure out how to make God's plan work, he's just looking for yielded people. He sends a Word to you to empower you. Because he has his Word, it will never return to him empty, and it will not come back void.
Hallelujah. It will always accomplish what he sends it to do. So when he gives you a Word, glory to God. See, I like this, because as Dr.
Bill Winston said, when you get a Word from God, and you obey it, now you're living in the fourth dimension, the fourth dimension, which is faith, glory to God. See Moses, even Moses, the mighty man of God, Moses, had a hard time hearing a Word from God, and understanding how it was going to function. Anybody else ever had that? God gave you a Word, you're trying to figure it out with your natural mind.
Like, Lord, how's this going to even come to pass? God said, Moses said to God, Lord, the people, we've been out here in the wilderness, and we, as much as we do appreciate the man, Lord, we love the man. It's wonderful. Thank you for the manna.
It's been great. But the people are calling for meat. They want some meat. And he said, oh, God said, oh, you want meat, do you?
He said, here's all I'm going to do. I'm going to give you so much meat that you're going to have meat, not for one day, or two days or 10 days, but for a whole month, I'm going to give you meat till it's coming out your nostrils and it becomes sickening to you. And he said, what? He said, you know what?
Lord, you know we do have millions of people out here in the wilderness. You know, scholars tell us there were anywhere between two to four million people in the wilderness wandering. Okay, Lord, we got like three million people out here. I don't know if you know how much meat we need.
We need a lot of meat. I mean, these are some hungry folks and they want meat. And God gives us our own, almost sends you meat. And notice what Moses does.
The Bible said Moses asked God a question because he's trying to figure out with his natural mind how he's going to feed the people meat. So Moses responds like this. All right, Lord, you're going to do it? So what do you want me to do?
Slutter every last piece of cattle we got in this. Oh, it's all heard? Don't you want me to do? He said, or how about this?
Or do you think we're going to catch every fish in the sea to feed these people? Is that what you think? And God said, is that what you think I'm going to do? He said, you don't remember all that I've done for you?
Do you think that now my arm is too short? That's what he told Moses. You think my arm is too short now? You've, I'm part of the Red Sea for you.
You walked across on dry ground. I drowned Pharaoh and his whole army in that sea. And you think now my arm is short? You don't remember the miracles of the past?
Let me tell you, if you thought that was good, get ready for what I'm about to do. Because you've not seen anything yet. My arm is not too short. I can touch you and provide right where you are now.
And the Bible said, and so God started blowing his breath. And as God blew his breath, the Bible said he blew quail in from every direction they looked. He said, I'm going to blow so much quail in. You'll have over a month's worth.
You'll be sick of eating quail. You're going to have quail every day. Quail eggs for breakfast, quail meat. You're going to have quail sandwiches with cheese.
You're going to have quail for dinner, poached in the oven. And they had quail. It was an all you can eat quail buffet. He was eating it up.
And he said, what are you going to do with all this? And he said, I'm going to provide so much. But then the Bible said, it wasn't just that it came into the camp. The Bible said, God gave them so much that it filled a mile on every side of the camp.
Quail. But then I said, okay, I kept on looking at the story. You know what the Bible says? God caused the quail.
They didn't have shotguns with bird shots to shoot him out of the sky. See what the Lord did? The Bible says, he made every quail fly a foot and a half above the ground. They flip.
You know what that means? Even little kids were able to just reach up and snag a quail when they got hungry. Yeah, I like that because it shows you no matter what level of maturity the people were at. They didn't have to be veterans in the nation of Israel to get a quail.
It was little kids running around. Mom, snap, because you cooked this up for me. I need a PB and quail. See you have all these young kids foot and a half off the ground.
God, notice what God did. He put their blessing within reach of every person. I came to prophesy on a Sunday night that God's putting your blessing in reach of your family. You won't have to struggle to get it.
You won't have to strain to get it. You just reach out and take what God said in your chaiyaa. Put it within reach of his people. God knows how to put your blessing within reach.
Moses is trying to figure out which cows to slaughter and how much they don't have to go fishing. Guys, no, no, no. Let me just blow my breath. See, something happens when God blows his breath.
Oh, man. Something happens when God blows his breath. Adam was just a sandcastle man. God formed him for the dust of the earth.
He was a dust man, but God wasn't done. So he brought his face down and blew his breath into the sandcastle man. And he became a living being when God blows his breath. He blew provision in from every side.
I'm telling you, there's a storm coming. There's a storm coming. There's a storm coming. There's a storm coming.
I said, there's a storm coming. See, maybe you don't realize that when God wanted to part the Red Sea, he blew his breath as he was walking. Oh, he would not even see that. I've never seen the Bible with the Bible says the reason the Red Sea parted is because a great wind began to blow.
And that wind blew into the sea until it blew it apart. And all that was left in the middle was dry ground. But when you read Psalm 77, the Psalmist tells us prophetically, God's way was through the sea and there were footprints nobody saw. Psalm 77 verse 16 and 19, the Bible tells us that it was God's way was through the sea and that he opened a door.
No one knew was there and they never saw his footprints, but he was the first one to walk through that Red Sea blowing as he went. The wind didn't just shoot up because it was a storm. No, no, no, the man who is the Almighty's storm. Look at that.
Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters, yet your footprints were unseen. God was walking, but the breath was blowing. As the breath was blowing, every obstacle had to get out of their way. Because when God blows his breath, everything has to move.
Oh yes, you know when God wanted to start the church, the New Testament church, blew his breath again because they were all in the upper room in one accord in one place, but they heard a sound like a rushing mighty. Because the same breath that brought Adam to life and the same breath that opened the Red Sea and the same breath that's been blowing for all of eternity. Did you know if you go back and study the Old Testament tabernacle, they had that word for the spirit in Hebrew, ruh, that word was actually phonetic. It was made out of a sound they heard as the wind of God would enter the tabernacle and it would heave.
It would heave in the wind because God blew in and he came in with his presence and they heard it, into the tent and they said that's the spirit coming in because the wind of heaven blew into the tabernacle. It's the same breath that brought Adam to life, the same breath that brought the quail, the same breath that opened the sea, the same breath that came into the tabernacle is the same breath that came upon God's people and they were filled with the Holy Ghost. God blows his breath. Every attack against your life has to move out of the way.
Every provision God has set aside for you has to show up. It can't say, no I ain't going. You're showing up. You know they're saying now I just saw the article.
They're finding old chariot wheels and axles at the bottom of the Red Sea, chariot wheels and axles at the bottom of the Red Sea. Oh, in one miracle God gave freedom to his people but at the same time destroyed all their enemies. I always thought it was amazing because God could have just brought them through the Red Sea and then closed it and put a gap between them but he left it open. He said come on, come on, come on, come on, bring them all in, bring them all in.
All of you, every chariot, every horse, buy and drop that water. Drop that water and total freedom. You get God's people. Now you don't have to wonder why Miriam was dancing on the other side of the tambourine.
She saw God bring total freedom. She said, where my tambourine at? A praise break hit the people of God on the other side. Hey, hallelujah.
See when God blows his breath and see an encounter with God changes everything, everything, everything and Jacob here he is by the river wrestling with God. You heard his cry out of his heart. I'm not going to let you go until you bless me. You got to get that kind of hunger.
This is God. I'm not going to stop pressing it. Yeah, the time of fasting came to an end but I'm not going to stop pressing in until you bless me. I know we may have ended our corporate fast.
That time we're doing that. But Lord, I'm not just because the fast came to an end. Doesn't mean my pressing in came to an end. Doesn't mean my prayer time came to an end.
Doesn't mean my study time came to an end. Doesn't mean all the things I was doing before. I'm not stopping that because you're not my part time job. You're not my hobby.
You're not my side piece. God's not looking for a part time lover. God's looking for a bride who will stand in an altar and then come and beat time, take him forever. And he grabbed on.
He said, I won't let you go. He said, let me go. Dawn is breaking. So I'm not letting you go.
Not till you bless me. Not till you bless me. Somebody say, I'll tell you bless me. See that real, that faith, there's a lot of people to give up before the blessing hits.
The devil loves to try to discourage you and try to get you to quit. You know why? Because he can't defeat you. So he tries to get you to defeat yourself by deceiving words of discouragement until you just throw in the towel and say, it ain't worth this, it ain't worth it.
I'm not, no, don't give up on the brink of a miracle. Right? Oh man. Right at the moment, God's about to move.
The devil's talking the loudest. I'm putting up the biggest smoke screen. Oh, it ain't gonna work. You're not gonna have it.
You're gonna go, this be your last year. You're going down. And I'm gonna tell you, I shared it with you last time. I gotta say it again, because this is not a message.
This is something that I keep in my spirit. And anytime the devil comes and says, you're finished, you know, it doesn't matter. People say, well, preachers, you know, they don't ever have to go through it. Well, some of us know, sometimes we go through it more because the devil don't want us preaching.
He don't want us telling the truth. And you think about men in the Bible like Elijah, who though he had miracle after miracle, called down fire from heaven. I mean, slaughtered the prophets of Baal. He had miracle after miracle.
And after all the, I mean, literally, holy goes in him and he outran a horse and chariot. So bye to King Ahab. And after all that. He crawls up under a broom tree.
He's like, I did God, just kill me. I can't do this no more. Nobody serves you like I do, Lord. Just kill me.
I'm ready to come home. The prophets deal with depression. And he had to shake him up. So you ain't the only one.
I got 7,000 that have not bowed their knees to Baal. I got others. You're not the only one. And that's what the devil does.
Tries to make you feel isolated. Like you're the only one going through the problem that you're going through. But let me tell you something. The enemy's trying his hardest to stop all of us.
But he's already defeated. He's already under our feet. And we're seated in heavenly places, far above principalities and powers. And rulers and communion.
And every name that's named. So you know what God did? God sent an angel down and had him cook something for Elijah. He said eat something man.
You need to just eat something. I knew that was the Holy Ghost. I said yes, Lord. Eat something.
And then he ate a supernatural meal twice. And then I said the Bible says, and he ran on the strength of those meals for 40 days. Oh, the power God hit him. He ate a supernatural meal and ran on the strength of that meal.
40 days. Think about this now. The meal I'm talking about. What am I?
Supernatural meal. The meal I'm talking about is what the Bible says about God's own word. Did you know that God's word is supernatural nutrition? The Bible says in Ephesians chapter 5, he cleans the church by the washing of water by the word.
So the base level of nutrition in the body of Christ in the word is the water of the word. That's the base level. It's good for cleansing. It's good for refreshing.
The next level is what Paul told the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 3. He said, you're in so I had to give you milk. So there's a certain level of the word that's the milk of the word. That's good for growth.
If you're at an immature level, it'll start pulling you up, pulling you up, pulling you up to a more mature level. But see, it doesn't stop with the milk of the word. Jesus said in John chapter 6, I am the bread that has come down from heaven. So the word who was made flesh was the bread of heaven.
The word was the bread. Glory to God. Everything about how powerful this is. The Bible says the word who is the bread, the bread of God came down from heaven.
And you know where they put him in a manger. You know what that is? A feeding trough. They put the bread on a plate.
You know what that Bethlehem means in Hebrew, Beth. The house of bread. They didn't just have it, got it in heaven, born anywhere. Took the bread of heaven, had it in the house of bread, and put him on a plate.
And then he told his disciples, I'll let you eat my flesh and drink my blood. You're not worthy to be called mine. Oh man. I could preach a whole message called he was born to be eaten.
Here's a man that came to be devoured. His enemies tried to devour him, but he came to be devoured by his people. He said, if you drink from this water, you'll never thirst again. Hey, Ali, it's the bread of the word.
They've done stop there. There's the meat and the strong meat of the word. Paul said, I wanted to give you meat. You could only take milk.
Now that I'm a pastor, I start to realize pastors are serving like four meals a Sunday. I didn't know that. There's pastor squirting water over here throwing some milk over here. There's bread going over here and steak throwing over the steak.
It's a good steak piece of it. If you've ever had small kids, you know, they all want something different for lunch. They don't know the same thing. I want to take that nugget.
I'm a PB&J. I'm a barbecue chicken pizza. I was like, all right, I'll get you, all right, I'll get you, all right, I'll get you. Pastors are making like four meals a Sunday.
It's like a food truck from this pipe. Boom, boom, boom. Orders up, boom. Found that out.
The meat of the word. But you know what else? It doesn't stop with the meat. That's on the fourth level.
There's the fifth level. The fifth level, the Bible says, is the honey of the word. The book of Proverbs says your words were sweet to the taste like honey. Your words were sweet to the taste like honey.
That's a word that'll come in and refresh you. Man, that's good. Sweet to the taste. Doesn't stop there though.
There's the wine of the word. The Bible says in Genesis chapter 42 that Judah was a lion's whelp. That's Genesis 42. He said eyes red with wine, teeth white with milk.
So there's actually a level of nutrition in the word that will intoxicate you to do what you've never done before for the kingdom of God. See when you get drunk in the world, it makes you do stuff you'd have never done if you were sober. You can't even dance and you're on a table with a song you never heard before. You ain't even got moves.
What's she doing? She had too many. She's had too many. What are you doing?
You're 46. You can't be twerking on this table. 46, get down. Down from that table.
Become apart from them. Be separated. See something happens when you're intoxicated. It changes how you act.
It'll even change who you get around. That's why we have a term called beer goggles. He looked good to me. I'm just going to talk.
I woke up and I was ready to gnaw my arm off and escape out of that house because he was not what I remembered. What happened? You had too many. Got intoxicated.
Oh, is that Denzel? You woke up. It was not Denzel. It was his cousin, Crenzel.
And there's a different dude. There's the cross-eyed one with the bucked Eve. Hello, me, me, Crenzel. It's like what?
Because when you get intoxicated, you'll do things you would not have done sober. And see, that's why when a strong word comes into your spirit, it's the wine of the word. His eyes red with wine. His eyes red with wine.
What happened? A word hit you that puts such a gift of faith on the inside of you, that he didn't intoxicated you by the spirit. So you step out to do stuff you would not have done before. So what are you talking about, Pastor Ted?
I'm talking about what hit Peter when he was in the middle of a storm. And he said, Lord, if it's really you, command me to come unto you. And he said, come and the wine hit Peter's spirit. And a man that would have never put his leg over the boat and jumped down into a storm, jumped out and began to walk on a word that was so strong.
Because the word will intoxicate you until you start doing stuff you never would have done before. You start planting churches and building orphanages and going on 63 missions trips and shooting for 100. You know what I'm talking about? What happened?
Got intoxicated by the word. So we're not done yet. We're just getting started. If you thought you saw it, you ain't seen nothing yet.
But baby, oh, you ain't seen nothing yet. Yeah, because when that thing hits you, when that word gets in you, you feel like you forget running through a troop and leaping over a wall. You're going to run through a wall and leap over a troop. I feel the strength of the Holy Ghost.
See what happened? A word hit you. I want the strength of that word hits you. See Elijah ran on it for 40 days.
He didn't even need another meal. Has anybody ever had a word hit you that was so strong that if nobody else preached any other messages to you, you just got that in your spirit deep and you started running with it and running with it. And when other people were talking nonsense, you just put your blinders on because you had a meal that already went in your belly and you've been running on that word. Oh yeah.
It'll change everything. He said, I won't let you go till you bless me. But here's the interesting thing. He said, what's your name?
He said, Jacob. Oh man, if we had time to go through all of his story, his mother named Matt DeSever, supplant her. Great name, Mom. Thank you.
I had a girl that I went to high school with. She went to play in UNC for the Tar Heels on the basketball team. And she went to basketball camp one time. She said, man, I met these two twins and these girls were amazing at basketball.
She said, their names were Lamonjillo and Aronjillo. They were twins. She said, I was like, man, I have to learn their names. Lamonjillo and Aronjillo.
And she said, I looked and they wrote it down. It was Lemon Jello and Orange Jello. Lamonjillo and Aronjillo. Sometimes Jacob probably wished he had a better name.
Here comes Olacad and here comes Lilsa Planter. Here comes Olaciever. Tell us another liar. So they raised him to be a deceiver.
His mom raised him up to be a deceiver. Go deceive your father. He won't know it's not your brother. Get, steal the blessing.
Steal the double portion. Steal it. Put some of this animal skin on your arm so you feel all hairy like your brother. Because your dad can't see that well.
So just put your arm out. Let him feel the hairiness of the animal pelt. He'll think your esol and steal that double portion. Training him to be a deceiver.
Tran, watch this. Training him, grooming him to be what she already wrongly named him. Here's what the world will do. Try to get you to live up to their expectations.
Oh man. Let me finish this because after you get saved, if you don't stand in your righteousness and recognize who you are in Christ, on new creation, old things are passed away. See the hard thing is, is that your spirit is way out there redeemed and God's already taken and your mind has to catch up with your spirit. Has to snap up where your spirit is because if not, then you get back around the same people and they're trying to expect you to do the same old stuff you've always done and they want you to hit the bar in the club on Friday night and they want you to go to all the same places and do all the same stuff.
And the problem is they still recognize your body because they can't see your spirit because your spirit's been renewed but your body looks the same. But you've got to learn though your name might have been Jacob before. What they don't realize is you had an encounter with God and after you had an encounter with God, he knows how to change your name. And the Bible says he asked him, what's your name?
He said, Jacob. He said no longer. That's not your name anymore. Now your name shall be called Israel because you have wrestled with God.
And you've wrestled with men and prevailed. That means Israel means God fights. God fights. You've wrestled with God at one.
Huh, but he didn't stop there. Changed his whole identity. See, but so you can have a change of identity supernaturally but you still need to touch from God. You still need to touch from God.
So before God kept seeing him, I said, let me go. I'm not letting you go. I need my blessing. So but the blessing comes along with a touch.
So God reached out, boom, hit him in his hip and knocked it out. And from that day forward, the Bible said, Jacob never walked the same again. Because after God touches you, you won't walk the same. You won't talk the same.
He used to walk like everybody else, but something happened in his hip where God hit it. So now I was like, he had a limp for the rest of his life. They saw Jacob coming when he was coming now. Because he used to be like everybody else.
But now I've been touched by God. And when you get touched by God, you won't walk like everybody. You come in different. I said, you come in different.
Why? Because God touched you. And when God touches you, he'll change your walk. He'll change your thought.
He'll change what you look like. He'll change what you sound like. It's an encounter that will turn your life around. I said it will turn your life around.
Touching in his hip. And it charted. Changed his walk. So now no one could deny.
Any time they encountered Jacob, man, this man's been with God. This man's been with God. Now here's something interesting. I feel the Holy Ghost.
I'm getting ready to pray for you. The interesting thing to me is if you keep reading the Bible, even after Genesis 32, the Bible keeps calling him Jacob. Even though God changed his name. Why didn't the Bible flip it?
And I start calling him Israel from that point on. I kept calling him Jacob. Here's the interesting thought. He gets to the end of his life.
He's an old man. But I was still calling him Jacob. But his son, Joseph, brings his grandsons in the room. Because now is his final purpose.
His final task in the anointing that God's placed on his life. And they said, your grandsons are here. Because your son wants you to pronounce the blessing. It's time for impartation.
I said, it's time for impartation. So Genesis 48, look at this. The Bible says in the verse one, after this, Joseph was told, behold, your father is ill. So he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.
And it was told to Jacob, here we are in Genesis 48, Bible is still calling him Jacob. And it was told to Jacob, your son Joseph has come to you. Look at this, then Israel summoned his strength. And sat up in the bed.
See, he was weak and ready to give it all up until his purpose walked in the room. And when his purpose walked in the room, he accessed his supernatural identity. He was Jacob dying, laying in a bed. And when his purpose came in, he summoned his strength in the Holy Ghost.
And sat up in bed. Do you see this? A supernatural strength came on him because he had one more thing to do for God. People thought Samson was all done.
And they were mocking him and making fun, watching him like a slave. They'd already put his eyes out. But what they failed to realize was his hair started growing back. Because he had one more thing to do for God.
And I came to encourage you tonight, even if the devil told you you were done. You've got something else to do for God. I said, you've got something else to do for God. Your story's not over yet.
You're not done yet. Don't worry about where you're standing right now. The devil ought to worry about where you're going. Because this is not the end.
It's just the beginning of what God's about to do. So my shout, amen? The Bible says, and Israel summoned his strength. And sat up in bed.
And Jacob said to Joseph God Almighty, appeared to me at Lewis and the land of Canaan and blessed me. He said to me, hold on, make your fruit for multiply you. I'll make of you a company of peoples. Give this land to your offspring after you.
It's an everlasting possession. And now your two sons who were born to you in the land of Egypt. Before I came to you in Egypt or mine, Eve from an acid shall be mine as Reuben and Cibinar. And the children you fathered after them shall be yours.
They shall be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance. Now look at this. Verse 8, when Israel saw Joseph's sons, he said, who are these? Joseph said, these are my sons whom God's given me here.
And he said, bring them to me, please, that I may bless them. Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age so that he couldn't see. So Joseph brought them near him and he kissed them and embraced them. And Israel said to Joseph, I never expected to see your face and behold, God's let me see your offspring also.
Then Joseph removed them from his knees and bowed himself with his face to the earth. And Joseph took them both, Eve from his right hand towards Israel's left. And look, Joseph is trying to decide where the blessing goes. Now you bless this one here and this one here, you but the Bible says something else happened.
That though Jacob couldn't see, he still could feel it in his spirit. And he knew that hand don't go there. And that hand don't go there. And I know you're trying to figure out how you're going to make the blessing work, but let me show you what God's doing.
And the Bible said he crossed his hands. And this freaked everybody out because he put his right hand, the hand of double portion power on the younger son instead of the oldest son. Traditionally it should have been the oldest that got the double portion blessing. He should have got the dominant blessing.
But God had Israel crossed his hands. You know why? Because God puts his favor on those who he has determined to have his favor upon. And I don't care if everybody in your family counted you out.
I don't care if everybody you've ever met has said you'll never have it. I don't care if the devil has lied to you and told you it's not going to come. And there's every reason you can count on both hands while you shouldn't be blessed. I don't have those kind of connections.
And I never even went to college. I don't even know I'm working a part time job. I'm trying to make ends meet. And God said I don't care what your credentials are because I don't place based my blessing on your personal credentials.
And if I want to cross my hands, I'm going to cross my hands. If I'm going to put my favor where I wanted to go, I'll put my favor on you. And I came to encourage you tonight, though the devil may lie to you, I've got a word for you that God is crossing his hand. Let me give up.
Say what are you talking about? See, people thought for years this is not for anybody but the Jews. And God said watch me cross my hands because they rejected my Jesus. They rejected my covenant.
They rejected my blessing. And so now the Gentiles, then everybody counted out and said that they'd never be blessed. And said they'd never have my power. Let me cross my hands and put the gospel to the whole ends of the earth until it doesn't matter where you came from.
Red, yellow, black, and white. They are precious in his sight. When God crosses his hands, the blessing falls where God sends it. I said the blessing falls where God sends it.
And favor is not something man determines. It's something God determines. Others may not have picked you but God picked you. I mean when I was in high school, my guidance counselor was trying so hard to push me.
She was like what are you talking about? You better have some college applications ready. You don't know what you're going to do? I said yeah, I know what I'm going to do.
I'm going to be a preacher. I mean she was like mad. Talk about going to be a preacher. You better have some backup plans.
She's like you better have two or three backup plans. I'm coming to my office with one plan. And so I was like no problem and I did my thing anyway. And I went out and filled it up.
I applied to one Bible school. One. Filled out the application. Sent it in.
And when she found out that this young man had only applied to one college, I had an emergency meeting with the guidance counselor. She said what are you doing? I said we talked about she said you applied to one college. I said yes.
I told you I was going to be a preacher. She said one college. What if they reject your application? I want to say like you know it's a Bible college.
So I mean if you're alive and have money they let you come. And even if you're not alive but you got the money they still might let you come. She said what if they don't I said it'll be all right. She said so what are you going to do?
I said I'm going to be a preacher. I told you I'm going to be a preacher. She said you're going to spend your whole life. She said your whole plan is that you're going to be a preacher.
I said yeah. She said like I had never thought. She said what if nobody likes your preaching? I said that would be bad.