Everyone in life comes to defining moments when they can’t go back, and they don’t know how to go forward. How do you react in such moments? How can you overcome panic and pressure? How can you move into a better future, the best future, when a bad past threatens to undermine you?

These were issues faced by one of the most famous characters in the Bible. There was a moment in Jacob’s life where he came to a great crisis and feared for his life and for his family. But this moment became the turning point where he moved with freedom and restoration into his God-given destiny (Read Genesis 32:22-32). We see some powerful lessons from this story.

1. You need to overcome your past (Genesis 25; Genesis 27:36-41; Genesis 32:22; Luke 5:5)

2. You need to learn how to call out to God in your time of great need (Genesis 32:7; Genesis 32:9-12,24-26; Luke 18)

3. You need to change (Genesis 32:25,31; Genesis 32:28; Genesis 33:4)

Apply

1. You need to overcome your past. Every one of us has a past. And at some point, unless we have overcome all the things in our past, these will catch up with us and hinder us from stepping into all God has for our future. Jacob was a deceiver by nature, who twice deceived his older brother Esau. He took advantage of his brother when he was very vulnerable, and took his birthright as the firstborn (Genesis 25). And again, with the help of his mother, Jacob deceived his father Isaac into giving him the blessing due to Esau before their father died (Genesis 27:36,41). As a result, Jacob lived 20 years on the run. He knew that Esau was coming for him. Over time, Jacob acquired wives, many children and possessions, and although he had managed to overcome many challenges in his own life, the one thing he couldn't run away from was his broken relationship with his brother. To go forward he had to overcome the past. And there came a moment when he was confronted with his past (Genesis 32:22), hearing that his brother and 400 men are coming to meet him. Jacob was petrified. Have you been fully set free from your past? What words or experiences have shaped you and made you see yourself as you do? So many people have suffered many things in their lives, including abuse, dysfunctional families and broken families, or bullying. People can be successful, but they can carry the sense of being a victim because they have been marked in their spirit by being bullied/ They can feel, however successful they are or how other people see them, that they are a fraud. So many live with imposter syndrome, just waiting to be found out that you aren’t as good as people think you are. Maybe you can relate to this. What is your fear? Do you live with the fear of failure, of not making it? There may be something in your past that today you have to overcome. Because you have to overcome your past to move forward in life. Just as when Jesus told his first disciples to launch out and prepare for a big catch of fish, Peter had to overcome his mindset of past failure before he could move into his future (Luke 5:5). Many of the world’s greatest inventors didn’t see their failures as failures. They saw them as stepping stones for how to succeed. You can’t run away from your past, and you can’t let the past keep hanging around in your present. If you don’t overcome your past, it will overcome and rule you. Maybe you need to be healed from the pain of grief. Unless you’re healed then you will be set back. Time is not a healer, you just get better at dealing with things. But the Lord can heal your past. No matter the past financial position of your family, or past addictions or unfaithfulness in your family, you can overcome it. You can overcome the mindset of it being inevitable that certain things will just keep repeating in your family line forever. So, no matter your past, just like Jacob, you need to overcome to have a new future.

2. You need to learn how to call out to God in your time of great need. Jacob was in a time of great need, and he knew that the only God’s miraculous intervention in this situation could rescue him, nothing and no one else would do (Genesis 32:7). So, Jacob prayed (Genesis 32:9-12, 24-26). Jacob called out to the God of his fathers, and reminded God of all the promises he’d received despite his unworthiness. But more than that, Jacob called on God to come and save him. Jacob wrestled with the man and refused to let him go. As far as Jacob was concerned, he was wrestling with God Himself. Jacob knew the promises of God over his life, but he was worried. And that night, he had his encounter alone. You cannot rely on your husband or wife, your parents or anyone else for the encounter that only you can receive. You have to cry out to God, and keep on until you know you have broken through. Like Jacob, it might mean a whole night in prayer, wrestling with the Lord to overcome. It may mean that you take some time off or clear your diary so that you can just pray and call out to God so that you can receive a life changing breakthrough (see story of Billy Graham and Stephen Olford). The call of God is one thing. The anointing of God is quite another. And the anointing of God comes when you say to God, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me’. Jesus taught a parable in Luke 18 about a persistent widow who would not stop bothering the unjust judge until she received her breakthrough. We too need to have that kind of persistent faith. Decide that whatever your situation, you will call out to God with absolute determination.

3. You need to change. To overcome and walk in the way God wants us to, we have to change. Jacob had a call on his life but wasn’t ready for what was to come. He needed to change. Something had to give. Something had to change. And that was Jacob himself. There were changes in 2 main areas of change. Firstly, Jacob had to be weakened to depend on God (Genesis 32:25,31). God was opening up new opportunities. But he no longer walked so self-confidently or with his previous swagger. His encounter with God had changed him. Secondly, Jacob was given a new name. Names in the Bible signify identity. So by being given a new name, God was giving him a new identity. Before he was called Jacob which meant ‘deceiver’ Now he was to be known as Israel, an overcomer (Genesis 32:28). He'd broken through to another level with God and with people. And God blessed him. And God wants to do the same for you. But first God wants to change you and remove things in your nature, your past, your reactions of anger, harshness, bitterness, negative speaking or living by your emotions. When you encounter God, you will be changed, and it will be evident to others. It was a new day of change for Jacob. And it was evident to everyone afterward that Jacob had encountered the Lord and been changed because he walked with a limp afterwards, and he had a new name and new nature. He'd broken through. God had made the way for him not only to be saved, but for him to see reconciliation in his family and a new future (Genesis 33:4). Today, you can overcome your past. You can call out to God in your time of great need, and you can be changed, ready for the great future the Lord has ahead of you.