Hey, this is Pastor John Ryan Cantu from PNEUMA Church in Houston, Texas. Thank you for listening to the message today. I hope that it blesses you and all those that you share it with.
God bless you. I want to transition. It's crazy that we went into this song because it's very, very similar to the message that we're going to talk about today. And I want to, before we do the, we won't do the meet and greet today. We'll do, we'll save that for after. And I have some announcements and I made sure to put them to the end so that I don't forget them. But I want to go straight to the word.
Genesis chapter 32, Genesis 32, 24 through 28. If you're here for the first time, we welcome you. God bless you. We consider you family. You are, you chose to come to the right place, not because it's the right church, but you came to church today. You came to the presence of God.
You have it. Genesis 32, 24 through 28 says, 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. And 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's your name? And he said, Jacob.
And then he said, your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with man and have prevailed. Amen. Let's pray heavenly father. I thank you for this word that you've spoken over your servant, Lord. And I pray my God that as I have received it with conviction, my God, that your people would receive it with conviction. Holy spirit, take this message in any direction that you want to take it. Holy spirit be on my lips.
My God, may nothing that I say be from me, my God, out of human wisdom, but out of divine wisdom and from your word in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. Amen. You can be seated. Amen. I entitled the message today. God named, God named, named by God throughout the Bible.
We see specifically, we see four individuals who had their names changed by God himself. God gave a new name to Abraham from Abram. He gave a new name to, uh, to, to set up the Sarah, to Sarah Israel from Jacob. And then Jesus changes Simon's name to Peter. Paul often gets lumped in there, but Paul's name was, was never changed. He simply had two names. And he would use different name in each circumstance that he was in.
But the other four individuals did have their names changed intentionally by God. And so that that's pretty significant, significant for God to, to look down upon you and say, your name is no longer going to Brandon. It's going to be something else. Um, and, and, and ancient times in the ancient near East names were a big deal. Nowadays, you know, we, we name our children to be creative and cute. Um, you know, nobody, nobody wants to name their child, the classic name, John anymore, which is beautiful. It means God is gracious, but because everybody's name is John, nobody wants to John anymore.
Nobody wants, nobody wants to be called Juan anymore. If I say Juan, about 30 of y'all will turn around and say, yes, Michael's. I got about 52 Michaels in my phone. Like, like, so, so instead of, of, of our names meaning something, now we just try to come up with something. We, we make up words to make up names, right?
Absidy, A, B, C, D E. It's spelled like that. And just, just to be different. Um, and ancient times names were supposed to mean something and, and so rulers and Kings, they would often change the names of their subjects in order to symbolize, uh, their new role or, or a calling, or to symbolize something that they had done that speaks to their identity. We see this a lot. We see this even with Moses, Moses changes the name of Hosea to Joshua, uh, because Joshua, which is the name, uh, uh, Yeshua means God is salvation. And, and so Moses was trying to get Joshua to represent something that he hoped he would possess as Moses successor.
So Moses changes Joshua's name, uh, to Joshua from Hosea. Uh, Joseph had his name changed by an Egyptian Pharaoh. Uh, Daniel, when he was subject to, uh, the, the Chaldean court, he was given a new name along with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They were all given new names. And so in ancient times for somebody to give you a new name, it meant that they had some type of authority over you. It meant that you were subject to them in some way. And, and the new name that they were giving you probably meant something very significant to them that they were trying to bestow on you.
In other words, excuse me, a name was never just a name. It was an identity. And so God changing the names of these men and think about how powerful that is because that meant that he was exercising his Lordship over who he was calling them to be in that moment. And earlier this week, I started, uh, this message really came to me early this week, which is a surprise, but God really started to put a word on me about identity and not, not identity. Like, like you might be thinking about identity. I've, I've said it before. There's a massive identity crisis in our world.
And it's been like that since the beginning of time, when sin entered the world, uh, it creeps into every aspect of human life because when you don't know who you are and when you don't know, uh, who you are in God, you don't know who you are. Right? And so we see this as a result in our world. It's a very, uh, confused world. We have boys who don't know how to be sons because they were never, they were never raised by fathers or, or even godly fathers. They were never raised by somebody who was present in the home. And so they grow up and many times they don't know how to be fathers to their sons.
You've got husbands who don't know how to be husbands because it wasn't modeled correctly. Wives who don't know how to be wives and men who don't know how to be men and women who don't know how to be women. And it goes on and on and on, right? In our world, people who don't have God in their lives don't have that proper identity. And as believers, we understand why it's so important to view oneself as a child of God. The identity of child of God, man, let me tell you, it changes everything, everything. And so that's the whole message of the gospel.
The gospel says, you're not unloved. You are deeply loved. You're not abandoned. God is with you. He is present and you might be an orphan and maybe you didn't have a godly dad growing up, but God is your good father. You are not damaged. You are filled with grace and you are filled with mercy.
You are not worthless. You are worth it. You are worth Jesus coming down and dying for your sins because you are loved. It's beautiful and transformative when you know who you are in Christ and the believers in the house say amen, right? Because it transforms the way that you live and the way that you perceive things, the way that you deal with things, the way that you handle stress and the way that you handle people. Walking as a child of God, it grounds you. It grounds you.
Keeps your faith in check. It keeps your salvation intact. But this message isn't for those who don't see themselves as a child of God. If you're here today and you walked in and you don't see yourself as a child of God, maybe you don't have Jesus in your life. I promise you that God sees you as a child and he wants to give you hope. He wants to give you a future. He wants to save your soul and in just a little bit, we'll have an opportunity to come to these altars and receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior and I want to do all of that because that's what we do here at NUMA, but I also want to talk to those of us who proudly identify as children of God.
God really spoke this word to me. By a show of hands, you know I like participation. How many of us can identify as a child of God? I'm a child of God. Come on, raise them high. Raise them high proudly. Okay, God has a word for you, okay?
Because the scripture shows me you can be walking in the right identity while also walking in the wrong name. You know who you are and you know whose you are, but you don't really know what you're supposed to do. You know what the future holds as a child of God, but you don't know what tomorrow holds because there's too much clouding your judgment and you can't discern correctly. You got the right identity, but you're not recognizing the name that God is trying to give you today in this season of life. See, if you believe that God is active and working, that he didn't just set it and forget it, that God is, he actually sent his Holy Spirit to be a living and breathing force in the church, you've got to know that God always takes us from moment to moment, right?
Do you believe that? Do you believe that God is working in you right now or he just worked on Jesus on the cross and that's it? No, as believers, we know that God is doing something in the here and in the now. He's taking us from moment to moment, from season to season, and every new season requires a new manifestation of the I am in us. God is always the I am.
We just sang it. He is always the I am, but sometimes the I am reveals themselves in different manifestations. This is why God is called by so many names. When we need Jaira, he can be Jaira. When we need Rafa, he can be Rafa. When we simply need God to be with us, he can be Emmanuel. He can be all of those things and sometimes chooses to only be one of those things so that we can focus on who God is trying to show us.
In the same way, I am always a child of God, always, but there might be different assignments that God is calling me to from season to season. There might be a road that God wants me to travel through that I've never been through before. There might be a new mountain that I need to climb. There might be a new gift that I need to pray for, a different fruit that God is trying to work out in me. The identity is the same, but the name might change according to the season that you're in. It's safe to say that Jacob was a child of God before even receiving his new name. Jacob was a child of God from birth.
He had the fear of God. He prayed to the Lord. He had faith in God. He wasn't perfect. In fact, we know that Jacob was not perfect and he had some deep-rooted issues that affected him for so much of his life, but he was still a child of God. Peter, before he was Peter, he had enough faith as Simon to follow Jesus and to submit to his Lordship. He identified correctly that Jesus is the Son of God.
Before Jesus gave him a new name, Simon had the right identity. And so there's many Christians in this room who have the right identity. You just got the wrong name. You got the wrong name. And we're not talking about physical names, okay? We're talking about something that you're naming in your life, something that you are identifying, something that you are living in in this moment because you just think it's a part of who you are. That's what we're talking about.
And I'm willing to bet that many of us, maybe if not at this moment, at one point of time before, we've been through seasons where God was trying to mold a new name into us, but we kept resisting. We kept fighting, kept struggling. We kept trying to ask God to get us out of the thing that he had intentionally put us in. We kept trying to figure it out on our own way, not realizing that God was trying to create something new in us. And so all of Jacob's life, you know, if you know his story up to this point, Jacob was always just trying to figure things out on his own. This is a man defined by struggle. If you go back and search previous sermons on the podcast, you'll find a sermon that I preached called The Struggle.
It was on this same passage. It was on Jacob's life. His life was marked by struggle. And because it was marked by struggle, Jacob was always trying to figure things out on his own to get out of the struggle. You know, when things get rough in your life, like we get desperate, right? We get desperate and we get a little stupid and we do things too quickly and we do things foolishly because we got to figure something out. Ideally, God would just fix everything, but because he doesn't, we feel like we got to figure it out on our own.
Is that just me? Is that just me and Jacob? Y'all know what I'm saying. Because, you know, the prayers aren't being answered. I've been in those moments of struggle where I prayed and prayed and prayed. They're not being answered. The pieces aren't falling into place, even though I've sought first the kingdom of heaven.
And so there's been so many times where I felt like God was just saying, figure it out. So I'm like, fine, I do it myself. All of Jacob's life, he struggled all of his life, even though he walked with this incredible promise over his life. He struggled. What I think is worse is struggling while knowing that you've got a promise. That's the worst. Because you're struggling while knowing you have a promise that automatically gives you this mental entitlement that says, why am I even struggling right now?
And it makes you want to figure it out by yourself. I got this promise over my life. I guess I just got to get it myself. Right. So I was Jacob all his life. And so he adopts these habits of deception and deceit and trickery, always trying to take a shortcut, because even though there was a promise, even though he had his identity, he couldn't figure out how he was going to get there in God's timing. How many of us can relate to that, man?
Sometimes those of us who are left in the struggle, we just feel like God is saying, you're on your own, man. Because I've prayed that God turned something around and he didn't. I prayed, Lord, at least give me a sign that you're still with me. And he didn't even give me that. That's real. Like, all right, God, fine. You ain't going to do anything.
Can you at least let me know you're still here? And I'm like, God, I'm not trying to put you to the test, but like, just to see me in my weakness right now. Have some grace with me. No, I didn't get a sign. And so I've come to conclusion so many times in my life that God just wants me to handle it, I guess. I'm on my own, because if he really wanted to do something, he would have done something. I don't know how many of you are feeling that today, but if you are, it's probably because God is trying to give you a new name.
This isn't the time to quit. It's not the time to say, well, I guess I'm on my own. No, this is the time to keep going. It's a time to get alone with God, just like Jacob got alone with God. And you need to start praying prayers that you can't pray around other people and analyze what the Holy Spirit is trying to show you about yourself. I've learned that in the moments where I thought God was saying you're on your own, that he was simply trying to get me to see a new side of me that I didn't even know was there. When we are weak, God said you're stronger than you think you are.
When we're out of ideas, God says you're wiser than you think you are. Come on, just keep thinking. What name is God trying to give you in this moment? Maybe you've always been a provider, but since you've lost your job, you don't know what you are. And so you ask God to provide and he doesn't do it right away, not because he's left you, maybe he's trying to put a new name in you, not called provider, but called faith. So, you know, we're always looking at that one manifestation. Most of us love Jehovah Jireh. Come on.
Hallelujah, Jehovah Jireh. We lift Jehovah Jireh above the name Yahweh. Where we only seek Jireh, but we don't worship Yahweh.
And God is saying I'm all these things. And if we are image bearers of God, if we hold the image of God in us, and he is the I am, that means God can show us how to be different things when we're going through life. So, so, so Jacob, here's Jacob, he's this man, he's got this purpose over his life from birth. God, God told Rebecca, his mother, that the older will serve the younger.
Read Genesis 25 real quick. Beginning at 22, it says, the children struggled together within her. And she said, if it is thus, why is this happening to me? So she went to inquire the Lord. And the Lord said to her, two nations are in your womb and two peoples from within you shall be divided. The one shall be stronger than the other. The older shall serve the younger.
Very clear promise that Jacob was going to have this double portion. He was going to be that, the blessed child. And so when these twins were born, Jacob and Esau, the Bible says that Jacob loved Esau, but Rebecca loved Jacob. Did I say that right? Isaac, Isaac, his father loved Esau, Rebecca loved Jacob. So Esau was probably favored because, you know, firstborns are naturally the best, right? Amen. It's easy to, it's easy to be the favorite.
But also in Isaac's eyes, his eldest son was the one that was going to inherit the blessing. So he just felt that natural bond. Jacob was this special boy to, to Rebecca for a reason. And I think that reason was because she knew the promise that he had. So she felt, you know, mama bear has to protect that promise over his life. And if you read the story, you just know, Jacob was a mama's boy, man. Rebecca probably told everything to Jacob and, you know, who's my special boy and who's going to get that, you know, that promise over his life.
You know, he was babied and coddled and just a brat. It's like most youngest children, right?
Except my sister. But for real, all of this, all of this upbringing in Jacob's life, it probably played a role in who Jacob became as a grown man. Even though he was a child of God, even though Jacob knew his identity, he, he, there was still so much about himself that he didn't understand. So anytime Jacob was in a bind, he dealt with it the only way he knew how to through deception and through trickery. In fact, one of the many meanings of Jacob is deceiver. So he, he lived in that deception. He lived in that name, even though he was a child of God, he lived in that, in that name of deceiver and sub planter.
And I, I can't, I can't help but how many children of God still deal with things in worldly ways. And you excuse it by saying, I'm a child of God. You're a child of God, but you're still a cry baby. Somebody hurts your feelings. You got to deal with it like a child. You say hurtful things, can't control your emotions. You're a child of God, but you're jealous.
You got a jealousy issue and it's not your whole identity, but it's a part of it. You're a child of God, but you are a prideful person. And God is trying to call you out of that pride because in certain situations, that's what you default to. I struggle to admit when I'm wrong because I hate being wrong. And I'm, if I'm not calling the shots, if I'm not in charge, I don't even want to participate. And if that person's going to be the leader, I don't, I don't, I'm not coming anymore. That's pride.
You're a child of God. You're over here calling yourself a child of God and still acting childish. Your name isn't aligning with your identity. You're a child of God, but you're a gossip. Come on. Somebody needs to hear this one. You're a gossiper.
I'm love and highly favorite. You can't even go to sister to ask for prayer because she's going to tell the whole world. It's mostly the sisters is mostly the sisters. I'll say it. It's the brothers too, but it's mostly the sisters. Y'all laugh. Cause y'all knows God, God is, God is saying your name is an aligning with your identity.
God is saying, I don't name my children fear. I don't name my children pride. I don't name my children addicts or promiscuous or worriers or doubters or liars or controllers. Why are so many of us carrying names that don't match the identification of child of God? Jacob's physical name did not completely align with his identity as a child of God. So, so one night, you know, very troubling night, Jacob is dealing with the anxiety of being reunited with his brother. We're not telling all of Jacob's story because it's a long story.
And I'm, I'm really just focusing on one point, but Jacob is about to reunite with his brother who he had deceived years ago. And his brother said, Hey, I'm going to kill you. If I ever see you again, I'm going to kill you. And so Jacob hears that his, his, his brother is nearby and he's, he's anxious.
He's fearful of his life. What kind of encounter is this going to be? And the Bible says, Jacob finds himself alone. He sends off his, his wives and he goes in solitude. I've spoken on this many, many times. Like you got to learn how to get alone with God. Send them away.
Sometimes a praying couple that's beautiful. It's great. But sometimes send your wife away so you can pray by yourself so you can throw down.
Why do the same thing? Because sometimes a husband's got to pray for his wife and it's going to be awkward if you do it in prayer. But he, he gets alone and he's anxious. And I just, I mean, there's so much in this story that we don't know. There's so much. We just don't know. I wish we had answers to, but he's, he's alone.
And we hear Jacob praying to God in an earlier passage. And now he's praying to God again. I just imagine him being alone. He's one-on-one with God. And then all of a sudden the Bible says that this man, we don't know anything about this man. Comes out of nowhere. We don't know who he is. And he starts to wrestle with Jacob.
Like it's, it's weird. Just, it doesn't make sense. Doesn't, doesn't fit the story. Like, okay, Jacob is, he's, he's, he went away by himself and he's probably going to pray and probably have a moment. And then all of a sudden this man comes from nowhere and starts to wrestle to the breaking of the day. And, and commentators have, have really been intrigued by this story because again, there's a lot that we don't know. There's a lot of questions we don't have answers to, but we noticed from just a surface level reading of the text that the man could not prevail against Jacob.
I want you, I want you to hear this. My sermon is going to be a little shorter today, so I want you to stick with me. It says the man could not prevail against Jacob.
Jacob is strong. He probably grew up wrestling his brother. He was also tenacious. Let's not forget that this dude worked for seven, for seven years for a wife that he didn't get. And then he had to work another seven years because she was real, she was real pretty.
For 14 years, he works. Struggling wasn't new to Jacob. He was always struggling. He could take, he could take some hits. He knew how to fight, but so often in his obstacles, Jacob would what? Default to dealing with the struggles through deception, through scheming. I've got to figure it out on my own.
That was Jacob. Think about how you deal with opposition real quick. Think about it. Think about it. Think about it. How do you deal with opposition? How do you deal with stress?
How do you deal with bad news? How do you deal with financial loss?
You're a child of God. That's your identity. So you probably go to God in prayer. Praise the Lord. That's good. Keep doing that. But what do you do after that?
Nobody asked that question. What do you do after that? What do you do when God takes his time? What do you do when the situation gets worse, not better? What do you do when God isn't giving you the direction that you feel like you need? Most people in an act of desperation default to what they know. They go back to doing what they did before.
Read the Bible stories. You'll see it. Peter went back to fishing. Jonah went back to pouting and complaining. Moses went back to insecurity. Noah went back to drinking. So many of us think that because God isn't visibly working the situation that he's working at all.
I've learned that when I don't see the hand of God over my situation, it's probably because he's got his hand in me. And it's not the external he's going to change like I would like him to. It's the internal that he's trying to change. He's trying to draw something out of me. And I'm over here looking for the hand of God. Where's the blessing? Where's the manna?
It's not on the ground. It's because he's trying to work something in me. He's trying to take something that is internal and bring it to the surface. He's trying to make something manifest in my life. So I can't deal with, I can't deal with the external the way that I always have and expect a different result. That's why nothing changes, church. Because when something scary happens, you default to fear.
And what do we do? God, take away the scary. God's like, no, take away the fear. You're always saying, God, calm the storm. Calm the seas.
Calm my situation. Calm these kids. Calm the people. Calm this storm. God is saying, no, no, calm down. Calm down. Because I'm trying to give you a new name, says the Lord, to identify, to match the identity that you claim.
You still with me? Jacob's story is slow. I like to go through it slowly. I like to go, I like to take my time with it. But Jacob is wrestling with this man and he's winning. He's winning. He's winning.
The Bible says the man could not prevail against him. How many of us know that you can win a battle, but not win the war, right? And so that was probably going to be true of Jacob's life. If something didn't change in Jacob, he was eventually going to lose. All of his life, Jacob would look for an easy way out. I mean, his name is defined by so many negative things, supplanter, deceiver, follower, so many things. And many times the name, listen, the name that you are carrying, if left unchecked for too long, can override that identity.
If you live there too long, the name will overtake your identity as child of God. See, we know that Lucifer, he was an angel of light. His name literally means bearer of light, morning star. He was beautiful. He was full of splendor. He was created to worship the living God, but he lived too long in the name of pride, which later resulted in a whole new identity known as adversary. Jacob needed to change his name.
How many of us need to change our names? Because you worry too much. You're scared of too many things. You're way too prideful. God has been trying to work that pride out of you for such a long time, and you're a child of God, but you still deal with the pride. Pride goes before the fall. The name that you carry can override your identity as child of God.
So Jacob, man, he is in desperate need of a name change. So what I find interesting in the story is that it almost seems like God is the one who plays dirty this time. Because it says, when the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket and Jacob's hip was put out of the joint. So what man could not do against Jacob, God had to do against Jacob. Sometimes we pray for a touch of God, but the touch that we are thinking we need is not the thing that God delivers. It ain't pretty. It doesn't feel pretty just because God's hand is on it.
Doesn't make it not uncomfortable. God had to put his hand over Paul because he was destroying the people that he was called to reach, and it blinded him. It knocked him off of his horse. It messed him up. That's one of my prayers so many times. Lord, for the people that I'm praying to come to salvation, do what you need to do. And what I've seen so many times in life is that people come through these doors in a broken state.
It's not everything is going well in their life and you're like, you know what? I'm going to go to church today. I'm going to get saved. No, people come to God in a broken state so that he can heal what needs to be healed. And so when you're praying over that sibling, when you're praying over that child, God, bring them to their knees. Understand what that might mean. If God places his hand on them, it might be very uncomfortable for them.
It might be some loss. It might be some injury. It might be some heartbreak. Because in order for God to really make a change in us sometimes he needs to force us into the change. So that's what he does with Jacob. I'm going to touch you and it's not going to feel good. And though Jacob is still clinging to this man, he's still clinging, but he's the one who's injured.
And now there's no way out for Jacob. There's no deceptive move that he can make. There's no trick, tricking his way out of it. No, he can't lie his way out of it. He can't disguise his way out of it. At some point, I believe God will back us into a corner so that we have to confront reality where we can no longer just default to what's given us a sense of victory before. Child of God, you're not always going to be able to cry your way out of things.
You're not always going to be able to lie your way out of difficult situations. You can't always leave the room because you just can't deal right now. Sometimes you're going to have to be present and face the situation. Sometimes you're not going to be able to buy your way out of situations or drink your way out of things. There will be a time where God has to change your name. And so Jacob is still hanging on to this last bit of strength. I'm going to have hanging on, hanging on.
He's clinging to this man. The Bible says that Jacob recognizes this man to be God. For the first time in his life, Jacob is at the mercy of God's grace. I like how one commentator put it. He says, the night-long battle that was one of physical struggle was now a battle of words. Jacob's got nothing left but to wait for his blessing. He can't go anywhere.
His hip's broken. All he's got is what he can cling to. Are you hearing me? Sometimes God will break you. He will mess you up. He will take things out of your life that need to be removed. He will put you on your back and all you've got is your strength that you were clinging to.
Continue to cling to it. Because now Jacob is in this moment of desperation. There's nothing that he can do. He can't go anywhere. He can't lie his way out of it. He can't trick anybody out of this. He's on his back and he's just got this guy in a neck lock and he says, I won't let you go until you bless me.
That's all I got. Got no tricks up my sleeve. All I have is a petition of grace. Are you hearing this? I think the old Jacob would have let this man go if he wasn't hurt at the hip.
He would have said, man, just leave. I'll figure it out myself. The old Jacob would have stopped clinging because sometimes you wrestle with God through prayer and I don't know how many have been through it, but I've wrestled with God through prayer with no evidence that is doing anything. But Jacob says, no, I'm going to hold on until you bless me. That's it. That's it. God had to break Jacob for Jacob to finally see a new side of him that he hadn't known before.
And so this is that pivotal moment where he says, okay, what's your name? What's your name? Remember, this isn't a casual question. They're not just, they're not just two guys in the middle of a fight all night long. And then all of a sudden he's like, hey man, what's your name? No, this is, remember a name is hardly ever a name. Also, a formal change of name was only done by somebody who had the authority over another.
So this man isn't asking Jacob what his name is out of curiosity. What is he asking Jacob? Jacob, who are you?
Who are you? That's a question for so many of us to analyze. Who are you? I want you to admit it before the Lord, man. Sometimes you got to do that. Sometimes you just got to admit what you're going through, what you're feeling. You got to present it to the Lord because we try to give God a pretty face and deep down, we're worried, but we're like, no God, you can't see my worry.
God can see your worry anyways. He's trying to call it out of you. Who are you? I'm worried. I'm scared. I'm bitter. I'm angry. I'm unforgiving. I'm hurt. I'm hurt. I'm jealous.
Who are you? What's your name? I'm Jacob. I'm Jacob.
I'm a deceiver. I'm a supplanter. I'm a trickster. I try to do things all by myself. That's who I have always been. I'm a child of God. That's my identity, but my name is Jacob and I'm ashamed of it.
The man says today, today, you shall no longer be called Jacob. You shall be called Israel. Israel, because you have striven with God and with man and you have prevailed. The name Israel, it's got so many, it's got various meanings, but in this context, it means he who strives with God. No more will you strive by yourself. No more are you going to try to do things your way. No more will you feel like you are left alone in the fight against life and against men and against spiritual forces.
No, no. From now on, you will strive with God. From now on, you will strive on your knees. From now on, you will learn how to depend on me because you don't even have the strength anymore to depend on yourself, Jacob.
I took that away from you. From now on, your name will be Israel.
God fights for you. I don't know who this word is for. I don't know if it resonates with you, but I pray that at least it serves as a reminder that in different seasons, the I Am is calling a new name out of you. He's calling a new name out of you. Please, please hear me. It's no wonder that we were created in the image of the I Am, that license to fill in the blank. How many of us have called upon the many names of Yahweh before in different moments of desperation?
Well, sometimes God is looking to you to represent Him in different situations of your life. I'm calling you out of this. I'm calling you out of fear. I'm calling you out of pride because you're a child of God. That's not your name. God is saying, I want to give you a name that matches the identity of child of God. And it's a painful process. It's uncomfortable.
I'm preaching this from experience. You know, when you preach from experience, it hits a little bit different because there's been times where I've tried to do it the only way that I know how to God, this is who I am. God is saying, but you're going to learn how to be somebody different. You're going to, you're going to learn how to do things a little bit differently with the power, with the strength, with the wisdom that I'm giving you. And it's a painful process because it's something new. And I've always been this. And now God is calling me this.
It's so odd to me that Christians allow God to define our identity, but allow the world to give us our name. So we let a loss of income, call us worried. We let a diagnosis, call us fear. We allow stress to call us anxious, but God calls you a conqueror. God calls you courageous. God calls you a warrior. God calls you holy.
God calls you blessed and highly favored. We need children of God who don't just know their identity.
They know their name. And I don't know what that is for you today. I want you, I want you to stand. I want you to stand with me. Thanks for listening. If you'd like some more information on NUMA church, visit us on our website at mynumachurch. org. If you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe or share it with your friends on social media and tag us at mynumachurch.
Thanks again, and God bless.