I heard a great sermon today and wanted to just share a short outline of that message. I pray it speaks to your heart as well.
Read Psalms 24.....all the way through. It tells of a Jacob Generation. Are we of that generation today?
It has been said, "Everything that we see in the Spiritual, that relates to our Lord in Israel, has a message to us who are living in the natural."
When you read in Genesis the life of Jacob, we see his name~Yacob~means "supplanter". He was grabbing the heel of his brother to get out first. He was not a man with clean hands or a pure heart. This generation today is not a David generation, not an Elisha generation, not an Elijah generation, it's a Jacob generation. God is raising up a people who, when we go in to worship, the Lord will say "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in." Ps 24:7
1. This was an unsettled generation. Jacob, with his sinful past as a cheater, himself was cheated with Rachel. Later he thought his brother Esau was coming to destroy him to pay him back for what Jacob had done to him, so he sent his wife out to meet him. What a cowardly act. But, while he was sleeping, God had an encounter with Jacob. God pursues and chases those very people who have messed up, ran away, done wrong, and made a mistake, to bring them to Himself.
2. This was a lonely generation. In Genesis 32 Jacob was left alone. These days we are very busy but often so lonely at times when no one sees the condition of our hearts.
3. This was a struggling generation. In the world today, people everywhere are struggling with problems and rebelling against God. All the time the Father longs for them to come to Him, but they are running, running away, but still feeling that tug.
4. This was a broken generation. Parents today look at their kids and see them as perfect, but when God gets through with them, they are astounded at where those kids were headed if God hadn't stopped them. The good news is that God is able to wrestle with His chosen ones, just like He did with Jacob. The Lord wrestles them down till they come back to Him. How blessed we are that we have a God who will bring the rod of correction and break us down in order to guide us back to the fold. Being broken is not the worst thing that could happen in life.
Read the story of Helen Keller~when they told her about Jesus, she said, Oh, I knew Him, but I didn't know His name. Just look what God brought out of her life. She was broken.
Beethovan became deaf~why would God give such a great musician and then let him go deaf? God could have healed him, but the greatest music came when he could only hear God. He was broken.
Fanny Crosby~if you know anything about that great hymn writer, she was blinded at birth when they mistakenly put sulfuric acid in the newborn's eyes. Yet she wrote some of the world's best~loved gospel music. Do you know this one?
"When my life's work is ended and I cross the swelling tide,
and the bright and glorious morning I shall see,
I shall know my Redeemer, when I reach the other side,
and His smile shall be the first to welcome me,
I shall know Him, I shall know Him, and redeemed, by His side I shall stand,
I shall know Him, I shall know Him, by the prints of the nails in His hands."
If anyone was ever broken, this lady was broken.
Nobody ever was blessed who was not broken first. What are you doing with your sorrows? What's this crushing going on? Could it be God who's wrestled you to the ground? God, in His great love, may break you to bring you to Himself. If that's you, just hang onto Jesus' Hand, for He doeth all things well. We have His Word on that, and He cannot lie.
