Wrestling Before God

"Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God . . . praying always . . . " Ephesians 6:13, 18

You must learn to wrestle against the things that hinder your communication with God, and wrestle in prayer for other people; but to wrestle with God in prayer is unscriptural. If you ever do wrestle with God, you will be crippled for the rest of your life. If you grab hold of God and wrestle with Him, as Jacob did, simply because He is working in a way that doesn’t meet with your approval, you force Him to put you out of joint (see Genesis 32:24-25). Don’t become a cripple by wrestling with the ways of God, but be someone who wrestles before God with the things of this world, because "we are more than conquerors through Him . . ." (Romans 8:37). Wrestling before God makes an impact in His kingdom. If you ask me to pray for you, and I am not complete in Christ, my prayer accomplishes nothing. But if I am complete in Christ, my prayer brings victory all the time. Prayer is effective only when there is completeness— "take up the whole armor of God . . . ."

Always make a distinction between God’s perfect will and His permissive will, which He uses to accomplish His divine purpose for our lives. God’s perfect will is unchangeable. It is with His permissive will, or the various things that He allows into our lives, that we must wrestle before Him. It is our reaction to these things allowed by His permissive will that enables us to come to the point of seeing His perfect will for us. "We know that all things work together for good to those who love God . . ." (Romans 8:28)— to those who remain true to God’s perfect will— His calling in Christ Jesus. God’s permissive will is the testing He uses to reveal His true sons and daughters. We should not be spineless and automatically say, "Yes, it is the Lord’s will." We don’t have to fight or wrestle with God, but we must wrestle before God with things. Beware of lazily giving up. Instead, put up a glorious fight and you will find yourself empowered with His strength.

My Utmost For His Highest, Oswald Chambers

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Last night before bed, God used a passage by Oswald Chambers (not this one) to speak to my heart. It was just...amazing. God always knows just what we need. The Lord has been dealing with me about some personal things--mainly His will and His purpose, as I seek His direction for my life. Yesterday I finished that post entitled "Mary's Miracle," and as I read the devotional excerpt before bed and read some Bible and prayed and thought, God was using some things in that post, that He wrote through me, to work in my heart. I don't want to go into detail because some things are just too precious. Some things need to remain a secret between me and God.

Well, this morning during our family devotions we were discussing some things having to do with Christians in our church who have lost their zeal to serve God and have fallen back into the world. Dad was telling us how important it is for us to be in the ministry for the long haul, because people will always come and go. We may have to have 300 people come through our church only to have 30 faithful Christians stay and grow. Then Dad pointed out that of the ten lepers, only one returned to thank the Lord. Jesus had a 10% success rate. Should we, being His servants, expect more? Daddy read us this passage (above) by Oswald Chambers, and let me tell you, God spoke!!!

Dad expounded on many things. I'm trying to remember all the good stuff that was talked about. Some people think it was heroic of Jacob to wrestle the angel all night. But Mr. Chambers points out that Jacob's will was conflicting with God's will. He would not yield, and he forced God to put his hip out of joint. If we refuse to yield to God's will, we may force Him to put something in our lives out of joint. Each person in our home has a strong will, and that's a good thing, as long as it is pointed in the right direction. The folks who have left our church are Christians who didn't have a strong will and bent like a limp reed with the heavy winds of the world.

Dad talked about our satisfaction with our spiritual lives. We should never be satisfied with our spiritual state, but always hungering and thirsting after more knowledge of God. A deeper relationship with Him! Last night something happened that sorta opened our eyes to some ways the devil is secretly infiltrating our home. Oh, it wasn't anything out-rightly wicked or corrupt, otherwise we would have recognize it instantaneously. But that is how Satan works. He's sly and sneaky. He desensitizes us slowly, with small doses of evil. We must be vigilant to intercept these plans of wickedness.

Dad pointed out that what happened yesterday was God's permissive will. He allowed something that wasn't necessarily in His perfect will to happen, which enabled us to come to the point of seeing His perfect will. His perfect will was the garbage (and that's where it's going, by the way)! We acted upon the light the Lord showed us, and that is what is important. We need to continually wrestle before God with the things of this world.

And then God's will. We are to wrestle before God, not with God. I guess this is what hit me the hardest, because my own will has been acting up...getting a little stronger lately. I'm not really sure that what is presently my will is God's will. I don't know that my desires are His desires. I don't want to be wrestling with God. It's dangerous. God will cripple me if I try to overpower His will and step beyond His set boundaries. And who am I to strive with God? I need to have discernment to know what is God's permissive will and what is God's perfect will for my life. I don't plan on settling for second best. I want THE BEST. And I need to be open to the fact that the Lord may choose to work in a way that doesn’t meet with my approval. I have two choices. I can wrestle with God, and get myself in trouble, or I can wrestle with the issue before God and show Him that I mean business.

Teach me thy way, O LORD;

I will walk in thy truth:

unite my heart to fear thy name!

Psalm 86:11