Let's turn to the word of God in
Isaiah 53.
In the Old Testament, people had the idea
that if you suffered, it was because God
was angry with you, it was a punishment.
And if you were prosperous, then of course
God was pleased with you.
And that a man with whom God was
pleased, they felt would have no problems in
his life, no sufferings, no trials.
But it's when God was not happy with
a person that he went through trials and
difficulties and things like that.
There are verses in the Old Testament where
God told Israel that if you will obey
me, you will always be the head and
you will never be the tail and all
your enemies will be subdued under you and
you will be prosperous and you will have
many children and lots of money and many
things like that.
And then in the midst of that, Isaiah
came with this message about their future Messiah.
And he spoke about a Messiah who was
not attractive, Isaiah 53.
Who was despised and forsaken, verse 3.
And who was rejected by everybody, who did
not get justice in the courts.
And whom the Lord, verse 10, was pleased
to crush.
It pleased the Lord to crush him.
He was numbered, verse 12, with the transgressors.
Now this was so totally different from their
idea of how a faithful servant of God
would be blessed.
That Isaiah had to say in the first
verse, Lord who has believed our message?
Who is going to believe this message?
That the Messiah, the deliverer of Israel, is
going to be like a lamb with his
mouth shut.
He is not going to get justice, they
are going to slap him, they are going
to smite his back and God is not
going to send any angels from heaven to
deliver him.
This was so totally different from their understanding
of how a deliverer should be.
That they could not believe it.
And that's why when Jesus came and he
never delivered the Israelites from the Roman rule.
And he allowed himself to be ill-treated
and abused and called all types of names.
And he never would punish them.
You know in the Old Testament somebody criticized
Moses, his sister, criticized Moses for a small
thing like the wife he married.
Why did he marry this woman who is
not a Jew?
And for that, just questioning a small thing
like that, she got leprosy.
It was a very serious thing.
We read of one time when some young
people made fun of Elisha because he was
bald.
They said, you bald head, why don't you
also go up like Elisha?
And it says some bears came from the
forest and killed them.
It was a serious thing.
Even to make fun of somebody's bald head
in the Old Testament.
But when it came to Jesus, they called
him the prince of devils.
And nothing happened to the people who said
it.
No bears came from the forest and they
didn't get leprosy, they didn't get anything.
They were hale and hearty.
And what is even more amazing is little
later, they killed him.
Killed Jesus.
Still nothing happened.
Still they didn't get leprosy.
And still the bears did not come out
of the forest to eat up anyone.
Then people begin to wonder, is this the
great deliverer?
Why does the Lord in heaven allow his
son to go this way?
It pleased the Lord to crush him.
And when Jesus says to us, follow me,
he's not calling us to follow Moses, whose
critics got leprosy, or Elisha, whose critics were
eaten up by bears.
He's calling us to follow him, whose critics
got nothing, but love and forgiveness and goodness
from Jesus' heart.
And the Lord says, do you want to
follow me?
Do you want to go this way?
Have you understood that the New Testament is
different from the Old Testament?
That the New Testament prophet is different from
the Old Testament prophet?
That in the New Testament it is not
mighty power that shuts lions' mouths and sends
bears upon my critics, but it is the
way of brokenness and being crushed, so that
God can manifest his mighty power through a
broken vessel.
If you have not understood that, I would
say you have not understood the number one
thing in the New Covenant.
Brokenness is the most important thing.
Jesus was broken.
Every time we break the bread and we
eat it, we are testifying.
Brokenness is the most important thing in the
Christian life.
So many people break bread and they don't
even know what it means.
I am to be like broken bread.
Every time we pour out the wine, we
are testifying.
My life is to be like poured out
wine for other people.
This is the Christian life.
And Jesus said, whenever you break the bread
and drink the cup, do this in remembrance
of me, because that's the way he went.
That is the way to glory.
Once Jesus was walking with two disciples on
the way to Emmaus after the resurrection, and
they were gloomy and said, you know, we
really thought this Jesus was going to be
a great person.
They didn't know it was Jesus walking with
them.
This prophet from Nazareth, we thought he would
really do some wonders, but what to do?
He was there like a helpless lamb when
they beat him and spat on him, and
they finally killed him and he couldn't do
anything and he died.
And Jesus said, you fools, don't you know
that the scriptures say that it is through
this suffering that the Christ has to enter
into glory?
And he opened their eyes from Genesis to
Malachi and showed them that throughout the Old
Testament, he also, the way of brokenness and
giving up one's rights and opening our palms
and giving up was the way of blessing
and the way of spiritual power.
In Genesis 32, we read of a man
called Jacob whom God met with one day
and he broke him and changed his name
from Jacob to Israel.
Israel means a prince of God, a man
who has power with God and power with
men.
That's the type of people you and I
want to be, right?
Men who are princes of God, who have
power with God and power with men.
And when you look at his life and
you see how he became that prince of
God, it's not the way we think.
God calls himself the God of Israel, the
God of Jacob.
If you look at his life, you find
things that encourage us, not only encourage us,
but show us that God can pick up
the most useless person and if he allows
himself to be broken, God can make him
a mighty prince.
And there's tremendous hope when we look at
the life of this man.
Consider, for example, how he began.
You see the characteristic of the human race
in the way Jacob came out of his
mother's womb.
It says in Genesis 25 and verse 26,
you know, earlier on we read in verse
22 that when Rebecca conceived, not only she
had twins, but verse 22 it says the
children struggled within her.
And I'm pretty sure it was Jacob who
was the leader in that struggle.
He started his battling even before he came
out of his mother's womb.
He was struggling and I think he was
struggling to come out first, before his brother.
And somehow he didn't succeed.
Esau was a little stronger and managed to
come out and we read that Jacob came
grabbing his brother's leg.
It's one of the most unusual births of
twins.
He says, boy, I missed it.
If I had been two seconds earlier, I
would have been out first and I would
have been the elder.
But now, just because this fellow got ahead
of me by one second, I'm going to
be the younger for the rest of my
life.
He grabbed his brother's leg and therefore they
named him Jacob, meaning grabber.
That's the meaning of his name.
Grabber.
Because he came out, Genesis 25, 26, grabbing
his brother's leg.
And this grabbing spirit is characteristic of all
unbroken people.
That is why I say it's characteristic of
the human race.
We are always grabbing.
You know, all children are born like that.
Have you ever tried putting a little finger
into a child's palm?
Always grab it, any child in the world.
It's characteristic of human race to grab, to
get.
And as that child grows up, it will
grab not only its toys but other people's
toys.
Grab the biggest piece of cake from the
plate.
Our lifetime, all of us are like that.
Grab for ourselves, grab the best.
We come into Christian work and we're still
grabbing different things from here and there.
That's how Jacob was.
A little later, we read that he grabbed
his brother's birthright.
He was very clever.
He saw this brother of his coming tired
from work and he made this very tasty
porridge or soup or whatever it was and
made sure that his brother smelled it.
And he knew his brother was hungry.
And he said, I'll give you this if
you give me your birthright.
You know, that's what he wanted even from
his mother's womb.
He wanted to come out first.
He missed it.
He said, OK, I'll get it now.
And he gave that bowl of porridge and
grabbed the birthright.
You know, he was shrewd, just like all
of us are.
The Bible says, he looked very simple.
And I've seen a lot of believers who
look very simple like sadhus, but boy, they're
shrewd.
They're always calculating.
They look like simple sadhus, brothers and sisters,
but their mind is working in very shrewd
ways.
How can I get the best for myself?
That's exactly how...
And I tell you, these people are more
dangerous than the others who are openly, you
know, the grabbing type.
These quiet type of people who are shrewd
and seeking their own.
That's exactly how Jacob was.
Now, if you find yourself like that, you
can have hope when you look at Jacob's
life.
That God could pick up such a deceiver,
such a grabber and make him the head
of the tribes of Israel.
And that's written for our instruction.
But he couldn't do it till he had
brought him to a certain place.
We read later on that Jacob, when he
knew that his father was dying and was
going to give the birthright, the blessing to
his older brother.
Because the father never knew about this little
transaction where the birthright had been given to
Jacob.
So one day the father says, I'm going
to die.
So Esau, go and get some food for
me and I will give you the blessing.
And then scheming with his mother, he puts
on the skin of an animal to pretend
that his hands are rough.
And he deceives his father and grabs the
blessing for himself.
All his life he was grabbing, grabbing, grabbing,
grabbing, deceiving according to his name Jacob.
And when Esau heard it, he wanted to
kill him and he had to run for
his life.
And that's when we read in Genesis 28
that God meets with him for the first
time.
You know, in the history of Jacob there
are two meetings with God.
One in a place called Bethel in Genesis
28 and the other in a place called
Peneo in Genesis 32.
And I have often thought that in the
lives of many believers, it's something like this.
In the history of many, many, many godly
men, you'll find they had two encounters with
God.
Two significant encounters.
One when they were born again.
And another, maybe 14, 15 years later, when
they were broken.
And then they became Israel.
So the history of Jacob is very similar
to the lives of many, many people.
We must not be happy with merely the
fact that we have been born again.
And you look at Jacob's life here.
It says he ran away in Genesis 28
and verse 10.
In verse 11, he came to a certain
place and spent the night there because the
sun had set.
And we can say in Jacob's life also,
the sun had set.
A period of darkness was beginning in his
life.
Spiritually, the sun had set.
He had done a lot of wrong things
and now he was running away.
And then he sleeps there and he sees
this vision of the ladder from heaven to
earth, the angels of God ascending and descending
there.
And then he wakes up and God speaks
to him.
God spoke to him actually in the vision
from the top of the ladder, verse 13
of Genesis 28.
He says, I am the Lord, the God
of your father Abraham and of Isaac.
And I'll give you this land.
Look at the tremendous promises he makes.
Your descendants, verse 14, will be like the
dust of the earth.
You'll spread out to west, east, north, south.
All the families of the earth will be
blessed through you.
I am with you.
I will keep you.
Verse 15, wherever you go, I'll bring you
back to this land.
I will not leave you until I've done
what I've promised.
Such tremendous promises that reach out into the
future, where he's going to be a blessing
to the whole world.
All the families of the earth will be
blessed.
And look at Jacob's response to this.
He says in response, he says, Lord, I'm
not thinking of all these great things.
Verse 20, if you'll be with me and
give me enough food to eat and clothes
to wear and protect me from all these
robbers and other people.
And if I can come back to my
father's house in safety, I will give you
10% of everything I get.
What a miserly response to a fantastic promise.
This is how we are when we first
meet with God.
We are miserly.
God says, listen, I want to make you
a blessing to the world.
I want to bless you with every spiritual
blessing in heavenly places in Christ.
I want to make you a prince of
God.
And we respond, Lord, just give me enough
food to eat and clothes to wear and
take care of me and I'll give you
your 10%.
That was Bethel.
That's where Jacob met with God first.
The sun had set in his life and
it was a period of darkness that was
going to come.
And you see his whole attitude.
He's only thinking of his personal protection, his
physical circumstances and food and clothing and that's
all.
And do you know the vast majority of
believers, even after they have encountered God once,
they are born again, their entire life is
occupied with material prosperity and blessing.
If God will do these things to me,
I will give God 10%.
We can say the sun has set on
the lives of all these believers.
And the sad thing is, in the lives
of many believers, the sun never rises.
It sets and they die in that condition.
I'm seeking to deliver you from that condition.
And as you look at Jacob's life, you
find that when he went, his nature was
still the same.
And he went to his uncle's house and
there he saw one of the daughters, a
pretty girl, and he wanted to grab her.
This grabbing spirit never ceased.
Whether it was grabbing the birthright or grabbing
a pretty girl.
And there are believers like that.
They see something they want, somebody they want
to marry and they say, how can I
grab her now before somebody else gets her.
See a man of faith doesn't live like
that.
He says, if God wants me to marry
someone, there is an invisible reserved sign put
upon her.
Nobody can take her.
At the right time, God will give her
to me.
But a man like Jacob doesn't have faith.
He has to grab for himself.
But see how God deals with this man.
He deals with Jacob by putting him with
another fellow who is smarter than him.
Who is cleverer than him.
And God has amazing ways of breaking us.
You think you are very smart and clever.
God will one day put you with somebody
who is smarter than you.
And that was his uncle.
And his uncle had a plan.
Which Jacob never knew.
Here was Jacob working for seven years.
Thinking he is going to get this pretty
girl to be his wife.
And he is encountering an uncle who is
smarter than him.
And the uncle says, ok, well tonight is
the wedding.
And I will give my daughter to you.
He makes sure the wedding is at night.
Because then you can't see who the bride
is.
You see, this cleverness all the way through.
And those days, these brides used to come
with a veil.
And I think Laban made sure the veil
was thick.
So that you wouldn't see who is underneath
it.
But just to be doubly sure.
He said, let's have the wedding feast before
the wedding.
And it says in Genesis 29.
That they had a great feast.
Verse 22.
And Jacob was thoroughly drunk.
That made absolutely sure.
That he will not know whom he is
marrying.
It was dark.
The girl was wearing a thick veil.
And Jacob was half drunk.
Didn't know what was happening.
They made him hold his hand and say,
ok, you are married to her.
Go.
And after he gets out of his drunken
stupor in the morning.
He looks and says, hey, who are you?
That's when he realizes his father-in-law
was smarter than him.
And my brothers and sisters, I have seen
through the years.
How God uses fathers-in-law to break
people.
Mothers-in-law to break people.
Many in-laws, many other things.
The whole purpose of God.
Is to break this strong, stubborn man.
Who thinks he can do everything.
Who thinks he can handle everything.
Because God has got a purpose for him.
If God doesn't deal with you like that.
It's because he has put you on the
shelf.
That would be tragic.
Thank God.
If he deals with you and brings you
into circumstances.
Where you are broken.
Where you encounter people who cheat you.
And all the smartness and cleverness that you
think you have.
That confidence in it is gone.
And then when Jacob discovers that he has
married the wrong girl.
He goes to his father-in-law and
he says, well.
We don't normally give the younger daughter before
the elder daughter.
So if you want the younger one as
well.
You got to work another seven years.
See he was smart.
He was going to get at least 14
years of work.
From Jacob for free.
And then he gets the other daughter.
And you see.
This shrewdness of Jacob is still there.
You see later on.
I don't have time to go into it.
When he makes an agreement with Laban.
That I'll take all the spotted lambs.
The sheep and you take the ones which
are not spotted.
And by some clever mechanism.
Which I've never understood how he did it.
It's too smart for me.
He gets all the fat sheep.
To mate and produce these spotted ones.
I don't know how they did it.
But he did it.
And the end result was.
All the weak lambs were the ones unspotted
and Laban's.
And this clever man has managed to get
the best of the flock.
And then one day he decides to run
away.
He spent 20 years.
Still the same unbroken smart man.
He got cheated once or twice by his
father-in-law.
But he got his own back.
And now he's become a wealthy man.
And he's going away after 20 years.
And God decides to break him finally.
And that's the second time he meets with
God.
20 years after his first encounter.
See, I see in the life of a
Christian.
God takes us through many many circumstances to
try and break us.
To humble us, to crush us.
Because he wants to make us Israels.
He wants to make us princes.
He wants to make us people who have
power.
But we resist it.
We resist it.
And if God loves you.
And he sees that you are sincere.
One day he will break you.
Once for all.
And then you'll be a different person.
That takes time.
But when that happens, you'll never be the
same again.
And that's what happened to Jacob after 20
years.
We read in Genesis chapter 32.
He's still the shrewd person.
He hears that Esau is coming against him.
And he divides people into teams.
And he keeps himself at the back.
He says, even if the others are killed,
I will escape.
And that's how he lives.
The shrewd calculating man.
And in that situation.
It says he was left alone.
Genesis 32 and verse 24.
And you are a blessed man and a
blessed woman.
If that time comes in your life.
When you are left alone.
And there is fear.
What will Esau do to you?
And that's the time God wants to meet
with you.
You've done so many wrong things in your
life.
You called yourself a Christian.
Maybe a Christian worker.
But there's been shrewdness.
There's been manipulation of people.
You've been exalting yourself.
You've used people to promote yourself.
The world is full of Christian workers.
Who use other people.
To promote their own name.
Themselves.
Make themselves big.
And never mind these other people.
Let them be unknown.
So long as I'm big.
Everywhere in Christendom, you'll see it.
Jacobs.
Who are manipulating people.
Get the best of the flock.
The best of the lands.
Build the best houses for myself.
With the Lord's money.
And say I'm serving the Lord.
So God has blessed me.
And all this type of stuff.
Is going on everywhere.
And I feel a lot of these people.
God has placed on the shelf.
Because they never seem to get light.
On what it means to be really broken.
To become a real Israel.
They are happy with their activities.
They are happy with their statistics.
They are happy with the amount of money
they get.
In the Lord's work.
But never come through to that life.
Where they have power with God.
And power with men.
And that's because they never get alone with
God.
They are always with people.
It says here Jacob was left alone.
One of the things you need to learn.
Is to be alone with God.
Many people always like to be with other
believers.
That's good.
Fellowship is good.
But we need times when we are alone
with God.
When God can speak to us.
And show us.
Tell us what exactly He thinks of our
life.
And it says here.
There was a man who wrestled with Jacob.
Until daybreak.
That was God.
Maybe in the form of a man.
Trying to show Jacob.
Do you know.
That all these 20 years.
You have been struggling with me.
I have been trying to break you.
But you are too strong.
And that's the message that God has to
speak to many of us.
I'm trying to break you my son.
My daughter.
But you are too strong.
Of course God can crush us.
It's not difficult.
But the brokenness He wants.
Will not come that way.
He wants you to respond.
Then only the brokenness will come.
Which He desires.
And so He struggles.
It says the whole night.
He was struggling with Jacob.
Trying to teach him.
I've been trying to break you for so
long.
And then.
At the end of that whole day.
Whole night rather.
It says.
God saw that He did not prevail.
He could not succeed.
In breaking this man.
All the circumstances that God had arranged for
him.
Still did not break him.
Then finally.
Finally.
He dislocates.
Jacob's.
Thigh.
So that.
He cannot walk properly anymore.
This proud.
Self-sufficient.
Strong man.
Is finally given one final blow.
And broken.
And that's what I said earlier.
You're really a blessed man.
You're a precious person.
If God.
Prevails with you.
To that point.
Where one day.
He gives you one final blow.
These little little little little things.
That went on for twenty years.
Did not succeed.
Finally with one blow.
He has broken you.
And you'll never be the same.
For the rest of your life.
He was broken.
He couldn't.
Walk anymore.
From that day.
Maybe he was only forty years old.
But from that day.
He needed a stick.
You know it's pretty humiliating.
For a forty year old man.
To walk with a cane.
But Jacob couldn't walk.
Without this staff.
Because he had been broken.
And I love that passage in.
Hebrews.
In chapter eleven.
Where it says.
By faith.
Moses split the Red Sea.
And by faith Joshua pulled down the walls
of Jericho.
By faith Daniel.
Shut the mouths of lions.
And in the midst of all these fantastic
things.
It is written.
By faith Jacob.
Verse twenty one.
Leaned on his staff.
It looks like a.
What a stupid thing to say.
In the midst of a chapter.
Where people did such fantastic miracles.
But Jacob leaned.
Upon his staff.
But you know.
That mentioned there in verse twenty one.
Of Hebrews eleven.
Is a far greater miracle.
Than the splitting of the Red Sea.
Than the pulling down of the walls of
Jericho.
When one human being.
Is broken.
To the point where he now.
Leans only upon God like.
See Jacob leaning upon his staff.
It says he leaned upon his staff.
And he worshiped God.
That was symbolic of a life.
That would never again.
Stand on its own feet.
But like he leaned upon his staff.
He was saying.
I now lean upon God for everything.
And when God can bring you to that
place.
Where you are so broken.
Where you cannot be this great.
Strong upright mighty man.
You have been all these years.
And you have to lean.
You are dependent.
You are helpless.
That's where God has begun.
To do a work in you.
And we read in Genesis thirty two.
That.
He tells Jacob in verse twenty six.
Let me go.
Because the dawn is breaking.
Jacob says these wonderful words.
In verse twenty six of Genesis thirty two.
I will not let you go.
Except you bless me.
What a change has come in this man.
This man.
Whose name was Grabber.
Who came out grabbing his brother's leg.
Grabbed his brother's birthright.
Grabbed two daughters of his uncles.
Grabbed his uncle's property.
Grabbed, grabbed, grabbed.
Property, women, birthright, everything.
Now.
Who is he grabbing?
God.
Wonderful.
His hands are empty.
Of lambs and sheep.
And property.
And Leah and Rachel.
It's all gone.
He says Lord.
I am grabbing you.
I will not let you go.
Unless you bless me.
That's what happens to a broken man.
A broken man.
His hands are.
He is not strong now.
In his earlier days.
He was strong.
To grab property for himself.
To get people subject to him.
To manipulate people.
To do so many things.
But now his hands are empty.
He is weak.
He cannot grab.
Now he grabs hold of God.
And he says.
Oh God.
I want only you.
I want you.
I don't want these other things.
I spent 20 years looking out for.
I want you.
Have you come to that place?
Or are you still grabbing for.
I see the number of people in the
world.
Who are grabbing for position in Christian work.
Advancement.
Honor.
All types of things.
They are not broken yet.
A broken man.
His hands are empty.
He is not strong.
To go and fight for.
Eldership and leadership and directorship.
And position and honor.
He is weak.
He is broken.
He clings to God.
He leans upon God.
Like Jacob leaned upon his staff.
And says.
Lord I cannot live without you.
When you come to that place.
You are broken.
When you are satisfied with other things.
When you are satisfied with a ministry.
You are not broken yet.
A broken man.
Is never satisfied with ministry.
Or people or anything.
He is only satisfied with God.
He is not grabbing anything.
If his brother does not share.
His property with him.
He says take it.
I don't want it.
And if somebody else pushes him down.
And takes some ministry.
He says please take it.
I don't want it.
I want God.
And nobody can take him away from me.
That is the mark of a broken man.
And then the Lord asks him.
In verse 27 of Genesis 32.
What is your name?
Many years earlier.
His father Isaac.
Asked him.
When he came with the animal skins.
And pretended to be Esau.
He said son.
What is your name?
And he tried to speak with a gruff
voice.
And said I am Esau.
He was a deceiver.
Deceiver.
Grabber.
Cheater.
God picks up such people.
Thank God.
Otherwise there would be no hope for you
and me.
Don't you think we are like that?
Don't you think all of us are people.
Who are always seeking our own.
Trying to push other people down.
Don't think you are so holy.
We are not.
We are always seeking our own gain.
We are always seeking to grab something for
ourselves.
Even those who look very holy and pious.
They are all seeking their own in some
way.
And when God asks him for his name.
He doesn't say I am Esau.
All the pretence has gone.
He says Lord.
I am a deceiver.
My name is deceiver.
Grabber.
Cheater.
And the Lord says to him.
From today.
That will not be your name anymore.
What blessed words.
When you are honest with God.
And say Lord I look like a sadhu.
I look so simple.
But in my heart I am crooked.
I am lustful.
My name is lustfulness.
My name is pride.
My name is arrogance.
My name is seeking my own.
My name is grabber.
My name is deceiver.
My name is cheater.
When you come in honesty to God like
that.
When he asks you.
What is your name?
That is the day.
He will say to you.
You will not be like that anymore.
God's ways are not our ways.
For 20 years we pretend.
I am a holy man.
I am a man of God.
God leaves us alone.
Till the day comes.
When you are broken.
And you say Lord this is the truth.
I am a crook.
Right to the core of my being.
With all this religious whitewash.
I am a crook.
I am a deceiver.
That is the day.
The Lord will tell you.
Your name will no longer be deceiver.
Your name will no longer be cheat, crook,
grabber.
From today your name will be Israel.
A prince of God.
Because you have grabbed hold of God now.
And you have power with God and power
with men this day.
It is through brokenness that we get power.
Not through smartness and cleverness.
God can use smart people and clever people
if they are broken.
If they are not broken He just sets
them aside.
Has God been working with you?
Trying to break you through little, little, little
things?
Has not succeeded?
Is it a picture of you?
The man struggling with Jacob and not prevailing?
Not bringing you to the place where you
are honest?
Not bringing you to the place where you
say, Lord, I will never grab anything else
in the world.
I only want you.
I grab you.
And then we read Jacob and says here,
God blessed him there.
This was a second blessing.
The first one he got twenty years earlier.
Here was another encounter with God, verse twenty
-nine.
At Peneo.
He said, I have seen God face to
face.
The broken man sees God face to face.
And he is amazed that he is still
living.
And see these words, verse thirty-one.
The sun rose.
At last the night was over.
The sun rose.
The sun that had set in Genesis twenty
-eight.
In Jacob's life after twenty years the sun
rose in his life.
And he was limping.
And ever after he walked with his stick
leaning upon God.
He got discernment.
He came to know God in a way
even his father Isaac did not know.
See Isaac never went through all those difficult
times that Jacob went through.
Jacob went through difficulties.
I told you that people like David and
Joseph who came to the throne through difficulties
had a better reign than those who came
to the throne easily like King Saul and
King Solomon.
It's true in Christian work too.
Those who have gone through the grind, been
ground by God in the mill and powdered
and crushed.
They are the ones to whom God gives
a ministry that becomes a blessing to people.
But those who have resisted that grinding, those
who want to quickly come out into a
ministry when they are young.
I believe God wants to give you a
ministry when you are young.
But only if you are broken.
If you are not broken you will be
a hindrance in God's work.
However gifted you may be.
It's not gift.
Primarily I believe in gifts.
But a gifted man who is not broken
is a danger in God's work.
It is better if he is not gifted.
At least he will not create confusion.
But gifted and unbroken and there are multitudes
like that in Christendom today.
Gifted but not broken.
God wants to break you.
Because when you are broken you have discernment.
You have God gives you supernatural discernment about
people.
You know one of the great tragedies I
have seen in Christian work through the years
in this land is godly sacrificial missionaries have
come to this country.
A tremendous sacrifice.
Godly people and they start a work and
they appoint over that work Indian people who
are self-seeking seeking money and their whole
work is destroyed.
How is it these godly people could not
discern?
What type of people are you putting into
your work?
I don't want to judge them.
But there certainly was a lack of discernment.
You go to all the mission stations in
this country and I have travelled throughout the
length and breadth of this country.
Seen many many mission stations.
I know many of them were started by
godly people.
But see what happened after they left.
The type of people who are running those
places today.
All seeking their own.
The second level of leadership does not have
one percent of the vision of the man
who came and started the work.
A lack of discernment or perhaps an eagerness
to build something quickly that will impress people
never mind the quality of the leadership.
It's a tragedy.
In the long run it dishonours God's name.
It's better to do a small work that
is pure.
Where the leadership is godly.
Jesus spent his time producing eleven people like
himself.
It was not very impressive but those eleven
people turned the world upside down.
And you see Jacob.
He got discernment.
Isaac when he was old he couldn't see
properly.
And he was so blind spiritually that he
thought that God had chosen Esau.
Even though at the birth God had said
the younger the elder will serve the younger.
The younger is going to be blessed.
But even though he heard it years later
he still wants to bless Esau because he
likes the curry which Esau cooks.
Can you imagine a man of God who
is impressed by good food that he will
give you the anointing and the blessing because
the other fellow cannot cook as well as
you?
That is Isaac because he had an easy
way through life.
He could not discern who has God chosen.
Esau or Jacob even though God had told
him.
But you see Jacob when he is an
old man he also can't see and he
is sitting in Egypt blind man and Joseph
brings his two sons.
You read that toward the end of Genesis.
Ephraim and Manasseh and Manasseh is the older
one.
So the older one must get Jacob's right
hand and the younger one must get Jacob's
left hand.
So Joseph brings Manasseh this side and Ephraim
this side and this blind Jacob crosses his
hands and Joseph pulls his hand and says
no no no father it's not like this
Manasseh is here and he says those words
I know my son I know and he
crosses his hands that's discernment because God had
planned to bless Ephraim more than Manasseh that
was the result of being broken he came
to know God you don't get fooled even
if a man like Joseph godly man comes
and says please put your hand on him.
If you are discernment you will say Joseph
I know you are a godly man but
I am sorry I can't accept your opinion
think of that think what discernment he had
physically blind but spiritually he could see clearly
into the future and he prophesied about his
children exactly like it was see that is
what God wants to make you a prophet
one who can see things that other people
cannot see the old testament prophets were called
seers s-e-e-r-s people who
could see things which other people couldn't see
God wants to give you discernment vision about
spiritual things the true condition of your co
-workers of the people you work with you
will never have it till you are broken.
If you are an unbroken person like Isaac
you can be 100 years old and you
won't have discernment but if you are a
broken man God will give you discernment and
you will say like Jacob I know I
know God has shown me you don't have
to tell me I know do you want
to be a man like that but you
know the price you will be broken you
will be humiliated you will be crushed people
will misunderstand you God may use various means
to crush you you may not get what
you want but you will be satisfied with
God himself but you will be an Israel
you will be a prince in the land
you will be a man who can accomplish
God's purposes wherever you go you will be
a prophetic voice speaking for God wherever you
go so what's my advice to you let
God break you humble yourself under his mighty
hand let's pray there may be areas in
your life that God is speaking to you
about where he is seeking to break you,
respond to him say Lord I want to
submit to you I want to surrender to
this breaking process it's different ways in which
God deals with each of us it may
not be with fathers-in-law and mothers
-in-law, it may be through other circumstances
he brings into your life but if he
loves you he'll break you, it please the
Lord to crush Jesus that is the way
he wants to lead us all because he
wants us to be princes and princesses of
God in your generation determine with all your
heart that you will work along with God
and you will never resist him or fight
him and say Lord I want to be
a broken man I want to cling to
you and empty my hand of everything else
that I've clung to all these years I
want you, not even my ministry I want
you and when you have him you will
have a far greater ministry than you can
ever have otherwise Heavenly Father give us wisdom
in these days that we will be that
we will recognize the situations and circumstances you
arrange for us for our good that you
might deal that final blow upon our life
whereby we can never stand straight again but
always lean upon you till the end of
our life and be Israel's princes who have
power with God and power with men help
us Lord all these young people here what
tremendous potential there is to shake this country
for God and many other countries around us
help them to understand the value of brokenness
we humbly pray in Jesus name Amen