November 14, 2008

Beloved Intercessor,
    Greetings with a writing from the latest Devotional the Lord has put on my heart to write in these "last days."
    "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" (Genesis 32:24-26).
    That was Jacob's "dark night of the soul" because he knew that his life was hanging in the balance. His brother, Esau, who had not forgiven him for "stealing" the blessing of the firstborn had hated him for over twenty years, and threatened to one day kill him. Jacob knew he was guilty, for he had been deceitful, and had lied to his father, when he said he was Esau-he had even gone so far as to dress himself in Esau's garment in order to deceive his father (Genesis 27:15).
    What can you do when you are guilty? The only answer to that is to be honest with your soul, confess the truth, repent for your wrong, and "plead guilty."  
    But, before he could win his brother's favour, he had to win My favour. He had to wrestle with the Angel of the Lord. And he had to win. If he did not win; if he did not "pray through" he would be a dead man on the morrow. That night, he fought for his very life, and the lives of all his family, for he knew they would die with him.
    You have to win the victory in the heavens before you can win it in the courts of men. Many have fought for justice in the courts of men, and lost, because they did not first fight them in the heavens. First, we have to wrestle with the spirit world. When we win that victory, we will have no difficultly winning in the earthly court. Even guilty men have come away free because they wrestled through the hours of the night; I saw their hearts, and gave them another chance.  
    Jacob didn't win because he deserved to win. He won because he was desperate for My blessing. He knew that if he did not have My blessing on his life it wouldn't matter if he lived or died. And that is still the case today. You should be more concerned about the spiritual blessing than the material blessing, because the material will come as a result of what happens in your spiritual life. Many of My children have a great calling on their lives; they were born for greatness, but I can't use them because their hearts are filled with bitterness, anger and unforgiveness. They are gifted, but they are warped, and will destroy lives, even the lives of their own children. They need a meeting with Me, a true Peniel experience where I can change their lives, and make them a blessing to the world.
    Beloved, this is so true today. There are many battles raging all around us, but unless we fight it on our knees in prayer, we are fighting a losing battle.  The economic situation around the world is scary.  There are so many things going on in our own government that needs our prayers.  Around the world there are uprisings, poverty, earthquake and flood victims homeless, and fires burning out of control.  But, we must remember what it says in the Word of God in Romans 8:31, "What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?"
    It's so hard to be thankful when all these things are going on around us, but we are coming into our season of Thanksgiving here in America.  Thanksgiving is a time when we get together with friends and families to give thanks for our bountiful blessings.  When Thanksgiving was originally celebrated, it was a day of fasting and prayer after a hot and dry summer, which didn't produce much in a way of crops for the Pilgrims.  But after that day of fasting and prayer the rains came.  The pilgrims "prayed through" and God heard their prayers.  As we spend the day "feasting" with family and friends, also spend time praying for those around you who might not be so fortunate in these days and pray for all of the needs in this prayer letter

With love and gratitude in my heart,