Ahead of Your Contemporaries:

Genesis 32:22-32

Jacob wrestled not only with Laban and the angel of destruction but he wrestled with Esau his brother from his mother's womb.

The fight in the womb between Esau and Jacob seemingly was about superiority and obviously Esau won that wrestle.

However Jacob took Esau's birth right as the first born child by purchasing them with a bowl of bean soup.

Esau did not realize that he had actually not only given up his birth right but even the blessing that was due to him as a first born child.

Hence a battle and a conflict ensued between Esau and Jacob after Esau realized that Jacob did not only take his birth right but also his blessing.

And to save his life Jacob was relocated from his father's house to his uncle's house named Laban.

For several years Jacob and Laban were at logger heads because throughout his stay with Laban, Jacob was never able to experience Justice because he was played, ripped and cheat by Laban on countless occasions.

Years later as destiny will have it, Jacob finds himself wrestling with a man at the midnight hour after leading his family across the river Jabbok in fear of encountering his brother Esau.

Whom he thought was going to destroy him as a way of revenging after Jacob connived with their mother to acquire a blessing that actually belonged to Esau.

The river Jabbok is tributary of the great river Jordan and the river Jabbok is a short cut to the promise while the river Jordan is the main course to the promise.

The main course to the promise of God for the life of you will many times than not take you and expose you to a process of consecration, and sanctification.

So that when you get into the promise of God for the life of you then you be able to reflect the glory of God for all to behold.

Consecration and sanctification are vitally important because they induce in you an ability to give all the glory to God after understanding that it’s not about you but it all about God.

Jacob imagined that the only way to avoid an encounter with Esau was to avoid crossing the river Jordan hence he decided to take his family and his possessions by way of the river Jabbok

After crossing his family over the river Jabbok Jacob came back without continuing with his family and then he suddenly started wrestling with a man who did not come to bless him but rather to destroy him.

However the man was not able to destroy Jacob because he stood his ground and at the end of the wrestling the man ended up blessing Jacob with the name Israel-the anointing to overcome all trials and all the struggles of life.

Indeed and in fact after the wrestle Jacob was no longer Jacob but Israel and he was left with a limp in his movement to ensure that all his progress and movement in life depends in his right standing with God.

Thus a result Jacob was able to go a head of his family in a miraculous way to the degree that even though his family left him behind he was ahead if his family the next time they saw him.

Jacob's family thought he was going to come from behind but they got shocked when they discovered Jacob was ahead and not behind.

There are those among your contemporaries who think your life is operating behind and they are ahead of you and that you will never catch up.

They believe you running behind and backward because the last time they saw you were in solitude.

However what they don't realize is the fact that the reason why you stay behind in life was to wrestle with God for a future that no man can give but only God.

And in this season of your life you are going to find yourself ahead of your contemporaries to the extent that they will not be able to catch up with you but to only ask themselves how in the world you got to be ahead of them in terms of character, lifestyle and living standard.

Indeed you going to find yourself on a level ahead of your contemporaries and they won't believe once they see you.

God came inform of a man to bless Jacob but because Jacob was too insecure of every man that he ever encountered because many men had played his life and taken his efforts for granted.

And instead of embracing the man who came with a blessing from God Jacob only but wrestled with him.
In this season of your life God is bringing people in your life but dare not delay the blessings of God for your life by wresting those he sends you way but embrace them with trust, confidence , and understanding that they come not to hurt you but to bless you.