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0:00:00 – Jaime Luce

at some point. If you don’t struggle with this, then pride is an issue in your life. You’re going to need to struggle a little bit. God may have to humble you. He may put your out of socket. He may have to do some things to make you understand you need him. You have in him what you need to do, what he’s called you to do, but you need him.

Welcome to the Jamie Luce Podcast. Hey everybody, thanks for joining me today. I want to thank you, dig right in and my hope is that you will find something of great value in this today for each of you personally, no matter who you are, no matter what you’re dealing with, um, or what you’re called to. I pray you see yourself in this today and that that you’re able to take something away from this that really ministers to you. Um, I’m going to be reading out of Genesis well, a couple of places, but the main text today is Genesis, chapter 32 and going to talk about Jacob today and the reason I wanted to talk about this.

There’s a couple of reasons. Number one we are in the fight of our lives, culturally, for identity. Um, this is not just the sexual identity crisis. This is a crisis of who are we as a country? What do we stand for? Um, the country is guided in the United States, over. What is, um, what will be our oh gosh standards for moving forward? How we deal with the world? Uh, who’s important? Who’s more important? What takes priority? Um, and there are battles on every side to claim this ground and territory for a particular belief and an identity that, in actuality, is a, an identity that was not the United States identity, but there is a world group who wants to erase our history and identity, to establish a new identity that matches everybody else, so that there is no individual identity. Everyone is the same, that all individuality disappears, and you can see this playing out in every way. Oh, it’s on the global platform. It has made its way into the classroom. What we’re teaching our children? That when they are born now, as Christians, it’s as simple as knowing what parts you’re given at birth, if you’re a boy or a girl. It’s that simple. Which then, in turn, means you’re either a man or woman. You’re grown, which in turn, means that, if you procreate, you will either be a mother or father. Um, this is not hard. This is not difficult. Earth has been.

There has been no confusion about this issue and on top of that, you have a whole group of people who want to say that not only do you not know what you are, but because of that, that will determine who you are, which could mean that you’re not a person at all, that you are an animal, and in that animal state you are treated like an animal, so you’re not even treated as a human being, which flies in the face of believing that God is who he says he is, because it is. It’s almost like shaking your fist at God and saying you’re not God and you don’t get to tell me and the sad thing about that, the living me is the same. When he spoke to Eve, the lie was in her identity. He said you could be like God. And the truth was she already was like God. She was created in God’s image, and yet she believed the lie that she wasn’t, that she would have to become something else to attain whatever it was that seemed pleasing to her, which seemed good to her. And now you have people, they, they, and this has been going on now for many, many, many years. But you know, I think it started back with Steve the whales and we were so surprised. I apologize, we’re going to have to. My phone went on by itself on, mute on, do not disturb and turn on by itself. Okay, I’m going to need you to cut that out for me, nathan, the minute you hear that, I’m going to try to read out I just said and start back in. Okay, here we go.

So not only is this attack on the global scale of who we are or what we are, and not only does it fly in the face of the Lord to say that you’re not a troll and don’t get to decide. We then fall in line with believing. The same lie that Satan will leave. His whole lie to her was that you will be like God If you will do what God says don’t do. And the crazy thing is she was already like God. The lie is that she had become something that she wasn’t, that there was something more that she was missing out on. It’s a complete lie.

And we started doing this in the same way as a country. This was probably globally, and I just didn’t know and wasn’t aware of. It was the whole save the whales thing. And we became a society that put more value on the animal kingdom than we did the human kingdom, and I’m by saying that, what I’m saying is that we would say you pay a high price and punishment for doing harm to an animal that God told us to have dominion over. So we are in a higher position, higher authority. We have a brain and a soul. Not just the brain, but we have a soul, and animals do not have souls.

And I know people might get mad at me, don’t send me your mail telling me that you show me the scripture that said animals have a soul and we’ll talk about it. Okay, they are created, yes, but they are created for us, the ones who have a minion, according to scripture. You can read Genesis and see that for yourself. However, we then said you’re punished and you can be punished, punishable by law, if you harm these whales, but at the same time that we’re doing that, we are increasing and getting it easier to kill a human baby, that abortion goes on the rise, while saving the animals at the same time gains momentum, and we have to understand God’s view of identity, what that even means for our life personally, because if you see it happening on the global scale and you see it happen even on the state level, in our schools and education. This is to indoctrinate us and to change our thing, to change the platform we stand on, to erode and take away the foundation that you already had and to use on a new foundation.

And the crazy thing about that is the new foundation has no standing, it has no strength. It’s so shiwashi, it’s whatever are today. You might be today but that’s not tomorrow. And how are you gonna build a life in the future for something that you can never know? That constantly changes the whim of whatever you feel, your feelings. Your feelings can change 5,000 times a day, if not more. It’s probably not possible to count how many times are what we feel through the day and how many times that can change.

It’s ridiculous to think that I am whatever I think I am. That makes no sense. It makes no sense. You can say I believe that I am, and you list a country you know. Well, if you’re born in America, you can’t say that you’re a citizen of England. Even if you have ancestry there, you’re a citizen of where you’re born. We don’t get to just pick whatever we wanna pick. I don’t get to say what race and nationality that I am. I don’t get to say what gender or sex that I am. I don’t get to say, based off of my decision-making power, that I am whatever I want to be. I can’t say today that I am the president of the United States. I don’t get to just say that I am whatever I want to say. And this lies in the face of everything that is logic and common sense, things that are made in creation that you don’t even have to decipher. They’re already there in creation for us to know. It’s ridiculous to think that we can just say whatever we want. Anyway, that’s kind of a lot, but I wanted to kind of give you an intro into where we’re going, because if we go to Genesis 32, we’re gonna see Jacob. He has it back in chapter. Let’s see. Let me look real quick Back in chapter eight of Genesis. Jacob is sent to Laban and while he’s there he has the experience and maybe I’ll read that real quick. I’ll go to chapter 28, starting in verse 10.

Jacob left Bathsheba and went toward hand and he came to a certain place and stayed there that night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and laid down in that place to sleep and he dreamed and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold the angels of God sending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie, I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the earth and you shall spread abroad, to the west and to the east, and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the family be blessed. Behold, I am with you. This is what I want you to really pay attention to. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done. I have pressed.

Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it. He was afraid and said how awesome is this place? There is none other. This is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven. And I’ll stop there. And I just want to point out the reason. I’m bringing that to you, and this is just a reference.

We’re gonna go to the other passage in chapter two, but because of what God is telling him, he’s telling him I will bring you back to this land. He’s running for life. So this is quite a promise and something to hear from God, because God is saying I am going to do all the things that I promised Abraham and Isaac, your grandfather and your father, and I am still going to do this, and the blessing is actually gonna come through you and your descendant. So, even though he’s running for his life, in essence the Lord is saying your life is going to be okay, you’re not going to lose your life, your brother’s not able to take your life, and I’m gonna prosper you and I’m gonna bring you back to this place. It’s going to be good. And he gives him these promises. So we have Jacob leaving, but when Jacob leaves, jacob is. We know the picture of Jacob. We know that his name means plan, a trickster. So let’s go now to Jacob sorry, to Genesis 32. And I want us to. Really I want you to see yourself in this story. I want you to put yourself in his position from your perspective, because I believe God has something to say to you today. So chapter 32, we’re gonna start in verse 22 and read through verse 32.

The same night he arose. He’s on his way back, just for context. He has spent all his time. He has wives, he has children and he is now Lord is sending him back to the land that he came from, back to the land of his father. Okay, the same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants and his 11 children and crossed the Ford of the Jebic. He took them and sent them across the stream and things that he had.

And Jacob was left alone and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said let me go, for the day has broken. But Jacob said I will not let you go unless you bless me. And he said to him what is your name and what is your name? And he said. Then he said your name shall no longer be called Jacob but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed. Then Jacob asked him tell me your name. But he said why is it that you ask my name? And there he blessed Jacob, called the name of the place, penile, saying for I have seen God face to face and yet my life has been delivered. These are important words. The sun rose upon him as he passed Penilephus and rose upon him as he passed Penilephus because of his hip. Therefore, to this day, the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip on the sinew of the thigh.

So I want us to concentrate on several things that I see here, but before we dissect it, I want you to picture if you have ever seen an actual whistling match. We had a funny thing happen one time. We had family over, for it was a holiday of I don’t know which holiday. It was one of the holidays and we had all the siblings, parents, grandparent and niece, nephew. Everybody was at the house and my oldest son, matthew, let’s see, I don’t remember how long he had been back, but he was back home with us and he had served in the military. He was in the army and because of his abilities for combat he was in infantry.

My sister decided she wanted to see what that looked like and challenge my son in a little bit of a wrestling match. And what’s so funny about that is, you know, our son is huge, he’s big and muscular and it just it just comical to me. I mean, you know everything that’s in the news right now about men and women’s sports and whatnot. It just was comical to think that my sister would be challenging our son this way, and so he of course wanted to play along to please her, but he didn’t want to hurt her because he very easily could have, so he would allow her to get him into a position and then he would use a maneuver and turn it on her. And we recorded it because we were laughing so hard at this wrestling match.

And if you ever watched a wrestling match, it takes all of your body and all of your strength. Wrestling is not boxing. You know boxing, you can. You can stand and have kind of your space and you’re trying to punch into the other person’s space and maneuver around and stay safe in your space. Wrestling is they’re all over you, they are pinning parts of you down that you can’t use your first. You can’t use what you would use to break free, and it’s in wrestling. Wrestling is tough, it’s a very difficult. It’s a very difficult sport if it’s done as sport.

If you’ve ever seen wrestling even sadly, we watch this on television in news clips, things where the police officers have to go in and apprehend somebody there is a wrestling match that takes place in order to bring the perpetrator in custody, and you can see that it’s a fight, even those who are trained it, somebody who is just determined to fight and move and get away, can be quite an opponent, especially if they’re on some type of substance that somehow gives them an ability to fight beyond what they really should be able to fight. And so, if I want you to picture a wrestling match in your head, matthew Henry, the great commentator, says prayer is indeed wrestling with God. So you’ve got that picture in your head. I want you to now understand, in a weird sense, if you can picture that closer, I’ll just picture that A wrestling match is equated with prayer, and don’t you get that?

Don’t you often feel that way? Don’t you feel that when you’re praying, you’re having to wrestle with God in order to attain the thing you’re asking for, to get that blessing that you’re needing or wanting, and I want you to understand Jacob in this moment. In this way, he has found his place back to the very place that God made him promises and he told him I’ll bring you back to this place. And when Jacob left, he had a thing but close on his back. On his return, god had already blessed him to the point that he now has his wives servants, the servants of the wives, who are now like concubines for him. They have all born in children he has now. When he left, he had nothing of substance and part of the promise that God gave him was that he’d make sure he’s clothed and fed and that would have the substance that he needs. And here he comes with so much cattle and livestock and so much. He comes back completely blessed to the same place. So God has already been showing Jacob who he was.

Okay, God was showing Jacob who he was, but we’re at an interesting place because if God’s going to now take this blessing and begin to multiply Jacob far more than he’s ever known and to bring to pass the promise that was spoken even to Abraham through Jacob, there’s a change that needs to take place. And, folks, I would want to just say, if you are waiting on God to bring about whatever blessing or promise that he has made you, it’s going to take a wrestling match. It’s not going to come easily. You may think that you’re going to have to really wrestle for this, and wrestle God, no less, not just wrestling a man. This was the angel of the Lord. The scripture tells us he’s having to wrestle for this blessing and he’s refusing to let go, and I want you to picture that in prayer, this is someone who is fervent in prayer. Fervent in prayer. Is it James who tells us that it’s the fervent prayer of the righteous? Do I have that written somewhere? Because I think I do. Where did I put it? Oh, I did it down.

The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. This is the availing, this is the laying hold. This is, in one essence, I hesitate to say, spiritual warfare, because we’re not fighting against an enemy. You are fighting your flesh, you are fighting for identity, you fighting for destiny, you are fighting for purpose. Okay, and in this wrestling, in this prayer of, I will not turn loose until you bless me. Folks, this is the tenacity. We need to have it living in the world right now, in 2023. You need to have. You need to settle this. You need to wrestle and take away the assurance of who God says you are, what he says he’s going to do through your life, how he’s going to bless you. You need to have this settled so that you know how to stand against the war for our identity, for our blessing, to rob us of our inheritance. You need to know how to stand, and the problem is we get away, we get in the way. Okay, so in this exchange, let’s look at how this happens, because this is going to affect us.

In prayer, Jacob is trying to understand the giver of blessing and the blessing itself. He’s trying to understand this, and I bet you have tried to understand this for yourself too. I know I have Lord. What is it? What do you have for me? What do you want me to do? What is this going to look like? Can I do this?

The identity that we struggle with so many times is I don’t feel I’m equipped. Moses went through this. God, I can’t do it. I can’t talk. Please do somebody else. You have to know who you are and what God has given you, what he’s called you to, and we all will struggle with this at some point, and if you don’t struggle with this, then pride is an issue in your life. You’re going to need to struggle a little bit. God may have to humble you. He may put your out of socket. He may have to do some things to make you understand you need him. You have in him what you need to do, what he’s called you to do, but you need him. On your own, you will never attain what God has for you Never, not on your own. No, you need God. We need him. He is our Lord, our sustainer, our keeper. We need our savior. So the blessing that Jake is looking for is found in his name being changed, in his name being changed.

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Always, somebody with authority and dominion over you can change your name, if you were to, just even if you got married. When I got married and changed my name, I am required to go to the government who issued a birth certificate to me with my mom. So someone holds a record of who I am and in order for me to change that, I have to go to the one who holds the record of my name and I have to fill out all these forms and permission to change my name. And by doing that, one of the first questions they’re going to say is well, what’s your name? And God says to Jacob what is your name? And he says Jacob. Okay, what is your name, jacob? What is he doing? He’s saying I want you to identify who you are. Who are you, do you know who you are? And Jacob has to in that moment in the wrestling because this is a wrestling match. Don’t get, don’t lose sight of this. This is a wrestling match he is having to face who he really is, who he is at his core. Who is he? What is his character? What am I known for? What am I known by? How do people, what do they think when they think of my name? What have I done that I know I’ve done? What things have I done that are a part of me? I did them. I have to own them. They’re mine. It’s my sin. I have to own it. It’s me.

This is all found wrapped up in the question posed from the one who has the authority and the dominion. Who, in fact, is the one who gave the name? Okay, that his identity was already known before he was birthed. His mother was told while she was pregnant that you have twins in you and they are at war and will be at war. And God explains that younger is gonna usurp, he’s gonna do this. That’s why he’s given the name Jake. His identity was already known. God already knew. God has the authority. God knows who you are. He knows everything. You have to come to terms with it. You have to know you too.

In order for your name to be used, you have to know and identify with who you were. Who am I? What is in me? And when I say who am I, I’m not just talking about a name. You know. We’ve all heard the phrase what’s in a name, right, what’s in a name? We know that there’s a lot tied up in our name. I have somebody who is close to me who, before they married, was ashamed of their last name because in the place, in the town that they were born, raised name had a bad reputation. It’s very sad. What’s in a name? Do you feel shame about who you are? Has the enemy had a heyday with you? About your identity? Where you come from, the family you’ve come from, the place that you’ve come from, the surroundings, the elements that you have been, that you have dealt with your whole life? Have the enemy done a number on you about your name and God’s asking who are you? Who are you?

Jacob the trickster, the supplanter, the self-reliant one, the self-seeking one? Did he have things done wrong to him? Yes, he did, he did. And did he want right stuff? Yeah, he did. And that can get confusing in our minds. Because he wanted a right family. He was willing to work for the family. He wanted God’s blessing, he wanted his father’s blessing, he wanted all the rights due him being born to the man he was born to. He wanted all of that and he had a brother who didn’t value it, so he wanted it all the more.

We can want the right things, but it doesn’t mean we go about it and do the right things to get it and it doesn’t mean we rely it on God to provide it. We could be like Jacob. We could be someone who’s very self-reliant, very dependent aside from God, thinking I can do this myself, I can gain this myself, I can do this myself, I can figure out a way myself. And in doing so we take our life, our destiny and our plan out of God’s hands and try to put it in ours. And then you at the same time be thinking but I want what God has for me, but you won’t get it that way. You’re not gonna get it doing it your way. You have to do it God’s way.

Jacob could not ignore who he had been. He could not deny it any longer. But it was his admission and fervent, wrestling, the prayer that avails much, where God says you will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel. You will no longer be self-reliant Jacob. You will no longer known as a trickster. You will no longer be known as a supplanter. You will no longer be one who is self-seeking. Your name now means Prince with God. Now, why would God bestow such a name on him? You have to understand. This is the desire Jacob had, the right desires.

God had a plan for Jacob’s life before Jacob was ever born. He’s the seed of his father, isaac, who was the seed and promise of his father, abraham. God had a plan for him that was generations in the making, generations in the making. Oh, my gosh, can you think of that for yourself? That God has a plan for your life? That was generations in the making not to be self-seeking supplanter, but to be a prince with God. And how is that attained? The wrestling, the wrestling, the leaving behind the old identity to claim the new identity. This part, this part of identity is correct. There is an identity we need to turn loose of. There is a new identity we need to lay hold of the angels. I love this and I want you to hear this about God because it will help you in understanding him changing the name.

But when Jacob is warded this moment with the angel of the Lord and says what is your name, jacob is saying you asked me my name, but I want to know your name. Who are you? And he literally asks the angel what is your name? But the angels response, which is found in verse 29, is really workable and we’re not gonna take the time to go there. But in Exodus three, moses does the same thing. Who should I say you are? What should I say you are? When I go talk to this people, israel and the angel responds this way and says why is that? You ask my name? Why are you asking my name? And there he blessed him. So on the one hand, he’s saying why would you ask me this, which the question itself which I love question evokes. And are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Right now? You have met with me.

I have spoke to you on several occasions. Now I have told you I am the God of your father Abraham and your father Isaac, and you’re asking me who I am. You don’t recognize me. The one who’s able to give you another name, the one who has all authority and dominion to do this, the one that when you dream I speak to you. I show you pictures of angels ascending and descending heaven. I have shown you things no man has seen. And you’re saying who am I? You don’t know who I am.

Folks, we have to come to terms with the fact that we do know the voice of God, we do know who he is, do recognize his authority over our lives, and we must submit to his authority. We must submit to this God. Is this God alone who can give a blessing? It is this God alone who can stow on you your identity, he can tell you what your future is, who can promise protection and promise prosperity and promise generations of blessing to you? It is God and God alone. And the reason this is funny to me is because if we finish reading, let’s read again verse 29 and we’ll read through. I think it’s verse one, 29 to 31.

Then Jacob asked him please tell me your name. But he said why is it that you ask my name? And there he blessed him. So, okay, this is the key. So Jacob called the name of the place, peniel, saying for I have seen God face to face and yet my life has been delivered. Okay, this is important because what he’s saying is I don’t know that it’s God. I’m asking him his name, but I already know who he is. I have seen him. I’ve seen him face to face and, what’s amazing, he didn’t kill me. I’m not dead. I saw him face to face and I’m not dead. Yet my life has been not just so beautiful. My life has been not just spared. My life has not just been spared, my life has been delivered. Oh, do you need deliverance from who you were? Do you need deliverance from who you used to identify as? Do you need deliverance from the old man?

I want to read to you a commentary of Matthew Henry on this particular passage from verse. This commentary is the Matthew Henry concise commentary, verses 24 to 32. I was going to read just a little part of it and I realized the whole thing is so good and I can’t say it better than him, this scholar. So I’m just going to read it and I want you to really listen. You know what was the blessing always in Revelation? To him who has ears to hear, let him hear, stay really hearing, really listening.

It says a great while before day Jacob being alone or fully spread his fears before God in prayer, because it was terrified. He’s going back to Esau While thus employed, one in the likes of a man, wrestled with him, when the spirit, with our infirmities and our earnest and vast desires, can scarcely and stutter them. It’s like how do we pray this prayer, how do I find the words to pray and say and express all the fear and the anxiety and the hope of everything that you have said and what I’m facing and what I have to do and what my tomorrow holds? However tried or discouraged, we shall prevail and prevailing with him in prayer, we shall prevail in prayer against all enemies that strive with us. So this is I know I keep interrupting what his beautiful, eloquent way of saying this. But, folks, this understanding and learn how to wrestle in prayer with God is teaches us how to defeat every enemy we ever face.

Worrying requires more vigor and unceasing exertion than wrestling. It is an illum of true spirit of faith and prayer. Jacob kept his ground. Though the struggle continued long, this did not shake his faith, nor silenced his prayer. We need to learn from this. This was Jacob’s tenacity. Always he was willing to just keep going, even when he was given the wrong wife. He worked an additional seven years. He was someone who had to wait. He was someone who understood you had to keep at it. You had to keep doing this. You just have to keep going. He will have a blessing, and had rather have all his bone put out of joint than go away without. Those who would have the blessing of Christ must resolve to take no denial.

The fervent prayer is the effectual prayer. The angel puts a lasting mark of honor upon him by changing his name. Jacob signifies a supplanter, but henceforth he shall be celebrated not for craft and artful management, but for true valor. Now shall be called Israel, a prince with God, a name greater than those of the great men of the earth. As a prince, indeed, that is, a prince with God. Those are truly honorable that are mighty in prayer, having power with God. He shall have power with men too. He shall prevail and gain Esau’s favor. Jacob gives a new name place. He calls it penile, the face of God, because there he had seen the appearance of God and obtained the favor of God. It becomes those whom God honors to admire his grace towards them.

The angel who wrestled with Jacob was the second person in the sacred Trinity who was afterwards God manifest in the flesh and who, dwelling in human nature, is called Emmanuel Hosea 12, 4 and 5 says Jacob halted on his thigh. I’m sorry he’s referencing Emmanuel Hosea 12, 4, 5. Jacob halted on his thigh. It might serve to keep him from being lifted up with the abundance of the revelations. The sun rose on Jacob. It is sunrise with that soul which has had communion with God, and that’s how it is. The scripture says verse 31,. The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip, and I love that beautiful illustration that the sun truly has risen on the soul who is communed with God.

Just taking the effort and the continual time and fervency to pray, to lay hold for identity, have our name changed. The value of this is the. An outcome of this is us walking in the person of God for our life. Our God has not changed. You know the word God in verse 30 says Lord, let’s see, I have seen God face to face. That word God is the word Elohim, which means creator, stayner and supreme judge.

Genesis one, verses 26 and 27 said let us make man in our image, because that word, elohim is used there, the same one denoting that there is a plurality to that and it’s just because God said let him, let us make man in our image. So he’s explaining the trinity and we see that we’re here with Jacob. You have angels, jesus present, though. He’s saying I have seen God face to face, and yet the work of the soul is done by the spirit of God. God alone could say, because God and God alone had dominion over Jacob, he could say who he was. He was no longer who he had been, but is now who God says he is and should be known as from everyone else. He said from now on, this is what you’re to be called.

Our God has not changed folks, the scholars have said we heard Matthew Henry say this is Jesus appearing when we wrestle with God over our old nature, that is, when we repent in prayer, acknowledging our sin and our sin nature and who we have been. We can then receive the blessing of our new name and now our new nature, just as Jacob did. Second Corinthians 517 says therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. And then in Revelation 2, 17 said he who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches, to the one who conquers, it will give some of the hidden manna and I will give him a white stone with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.

I wanted to mention the scripture, not just the sense that we’re given a new name, but this also explains that to the one who conquers, to the overcomer, is our job, in fervent prayer, to overcome, to not give up, to not go away in denial, to be those who lay hold of what God has told us. We are to lay hold of that. We are to wait and wrestle for the promise. We are supposed to just sit back and say, well, god promised it, so it’s going to come. I don’t have to do anything, I can just keep on keeping on the way I’ve been doing and get it. That’s not the way it works, folks. There is a definite fervent wrestling that takes place and there is a character change that takes place, a salvation, a change of the old man now to the new. What we just read in the scripture I’ll read it again Second Corinthians, 5.17,. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, is a new creation. The old has passed away, it’s dead, it’s gone. Behold, the new has come, has come.

In ancient times, a custom was that a white stone represented the absolution, guilt or offense, and that the custom was that you would give a white stone to those who were acquitted on trial, versus a black stone in the condemned. Those acquitted, a new name can be given. That’s us. The salvation through Jesus Christ is our acquittal. We are not guilty. We are set free. The penalty gets paid. Jesus took our name. He was given the black rock, but he has given us a white rock, a new name that is written for us. We did it all that we have ever done, or where we came from, or the things that have tried to hang on, the generational curses that have been passed down. We have this ability to wrestle for the blessing. This new name, new promise, this new covenant blessing only comes from the wrestling Child of God.

I want to encourage you today. No matter what God has promised you, no matter what you’re trying to lay hold of, no matter what side of penile you find yourself on the side where you’re running away or the side that you are returning home regardless of where you find yourself, we need to find ourselves wrestling. We need to find ourselves in prayer, not giving up, no matter the fight, not turning loose, willing to sacrifice and let a mark people placed upon us that says we have been with God, that there’s no denying it, that walking from this place, I cannot deny that I have wrestled with God. This mark I now bear and can be seen by others. I have been touched by God. I walk different. He touches our hip because we walk, from now on, differently than we used to walk. This is our sanctification and we need to have our name changed.

Don’t let the world don’t, let the government don’t, let your family don’t, let old friends and cronies don’t, let old circumstances tell you who you are. Do not let the outside world tell you your identity. Get out with God and let him identify who you are. Your father alone can give you a name and let him change your name today. I hope this was a blessing to you.

I really encourage you to share this message with those that you know need to hear it. I would encourage you, if you haven’t already done so, subscribe, hit that little bell and give us a thumbs up. Like it today and share this message and help us get the gospel out. I would love to hear from you. You can send me an email at mail at jamieluce.com, or visit my website, jamieluce.com. That’s J-A-I-M-E-L-U-C-E. Also, hey, if you have read my book, you Need Just God. I would love to be able to hear your comments about that.

If you would go to Amazon and leave me a review there, that would be greatly appreciated. Maybe I’ll read some and read them on there so you can hear about that. If you have a whole, you can go to Amazon and get ahold of that, or you can do that at my website as well. Thank you so much for joining me today. Next time we are going to be digging into the names of God and this journey of us understanding who God is. The question that Jacob asked God wanted to answer, but more fully, to answer that, as he was unfolding himself before people at a very specific time, it was necessary for him to do it in the manner he did for them learn and have God reveal to them layer by layer. We’ll talk about that next time, but thank you so much for joining me today. We’ll see you next time. Bye-bye.