If you read the story of Jacob in Genesis under the light of God’s clear shining and with the glasses of God’s economy on, you will be very much encouraged concerning your Christian life and church life.
Jacob started by doing his best to supplant his brother even from their mother’s womb, and he succeeded in getting his brother’s birthright, stealing his blessing, robbing Laban of his riches and family, and accumulating a lot of possessions.
We may not have been as bad as Jacob, but sometimes we are just like him, trying to obtain and gain something from others in every situation.
But Jacob the supplanter went through a long process of dealings, breaking, transformation, suffering, and maturity, and something was wrought into him. Jacob’s supplanting hands eventually became blessing hands, and at the end of his life all he did was to bless others and even prophesy with blessing.
People may say that Jacob suffered many things outwardly, but the truth is that, if you look at the end of his life, he was being reconstituted with God Himself so that he may be one with God as he blessed Pharaoh, his sons, and his grandsons.
At the time of Genesis 49 Jacob prophesied with blessing for each of his twelve sons, and he was a God-man, a man that was filled with God, constituted with God, and even reorganized with God.
He knew God and His heart’s desire, and he knew clearly what the situation of each of his sons was. He was full of the riches of Christ, and, even though he was weak in his body as he was dying, he had a strong and active spirit.
Therefore, instead of lying down and resting in peace (as an old man at his age would do), Jacob prophesied with blessing over each of his sons, and he had such a strong spirit.
We need to be those who cooperate with the Lord today to grow in life unto maturity so that we may be filled with the riches of Christ and be able to bless others with the Christ we have experienced and enjoy.
The Supplanting Hands Eventually Becoming Blessing Hands
But Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it upon Ephraim’s head—although he was the younger—and his left hand upon Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands with insight, even though Manasseh was the firstborn. Gen. 48:14
In Genesis 25:26 we see that, even from his mother’s womb at the time of his birth, Jacob tried to be the first. He was a supplanter, a heel-holder, one who usurped the place of someone else through intrigue and under-handed tactics.
He tricked his brother Esau into selling him the birthright, he lied to his father so that he may get the blessing his brother should have received, he did his best to trick Laban to get Rachel and a lot of herds and possessions, and he used many under-handed tactics to supplant others.
But at the end of his life, in Genesis 47-48, we see that Jacob’s supplanting hands have become blessing hands, and he was no longer trying to gain things or be the first but he simply blessed everyone.
At the end of his life, Jacob brought people into God’s presence and he ministered God into them so that they may enjoy Him.
A supplanter, a heel-holder, became the greatest person on earth at that time – he blessed Pharaoh, thus being greater than Pharaoh. He became such a person in the way of life, by passing through a long process of dealings, breaking, transformation, and maturity in life.
As believers in Christ, we need to grow in the divine life until we reach maturity in life so that we may be filled with Christ and be able to bless others.
We need to go through the lifelong process of dealings, breaking, transformation, and maturity so that Christ may fill and saturate our being little by little, thus making us those who can bless others with the very Christ they have enjoyed and experienced.
Don’t look at your present condition and don’t pay attention to other’s seemingly pitiful situation; simply pray for more growth in life unto maturity so that you and the saints may be filled with the divine life which transforms us.
We need to take the way of life, the way of the Lord, to grow in life unto maturity until we are able to bless others with the very Christ we have enjoyed, experienced, possessed, and participated into.
Lord Jesus, grow in us today. Bring us through the process of maturity. Lord, bring us on to maturity so that we may be filled with Christ and be able to supply others with the Christ we have enjoyed and experienced. Fill us with Christ. Grant us the growth in life for today, and may Your divine element saturate us and permeate us until we overflow with life to others for their growth in life and enjoyment of Christ!
Being the God-men who Prophesy with Blessing over Others
In order to prophesy with blessing, we must have the knowledge of God, the knowledge of people and their situations, the riches of God, and a strong spirit. (Witness Lee, Life-Study of Genesis)
At the end of his life, just before he died, Jacob prophesied with blessing concerning each one of his sons (see Gen. 49).
At this time he was a God-man, a man filled, constituted, permeated, and even inwardly reorganized with God. What he spoke was what God spoke, what he thought was God’s thought, and whatever opinion and prophesying he uttered was God’s opinion and His prophesying.
Paul was also such a person who, even though he didn’t have a clear command from the Lord concerning a certain matter, he gave his opinion / feeling on the matter saying, “but I think I also have the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 7:10, 12, 15, 25, 40). Paul was so one with God that what he said, even though it was his own opinion, became part of the Scriptures as the word of God.
Neither Jacob nor Paul said, “Thus sayeth the Lord…”, but what they spoke was part of the word of God since they spoke in the principle of incarnation.
As believers in Christ we are God-men, men having God living in us as the Spirit with our spirit, and we can exercise to be one with God in the principle of incarnation to speak what God speaks and even think what God thinks.
For this, we need to be filled with God to the extent that we are constituted with God, permeated with God, and even inwardly reorganized with God so that what we speak is what God speaks.
This process of maturity entails sufferings, loss, breaking, transformation, and dealings, but in this process we are being emptied of what we are so that we may be filled with God.
Furthermore, in order to prophesy with blessing, there are four requirements:
- We must know God, the desire of God’s heart, and the purpose of God. In order to bless others we first need to know God, the source of blessing. We need to know the desire of God’s heart, digging deeper into the word of God with a heart unveiled and turned to the Lord and having an exercised spirit. We need to be open to the Lord to be infused with His purpose and intention.
- We need to know people, that is, we need to know the actual situation of every person involved. We may think we know people and their real situation, but actually we don’t. We think we understand what others go through and we know where they are at, but most times we don’t. We need to know others according to the spirit, by exercising our spirit to touch the Lord and get His view of others, and then we can bless them.
- We need to be full of the riches of Christ. As we go through all the things sovereignly arranged by God to deal with us, break us, transform us, and bring us to maturity, we should pay the price to be filled with the riches of Christ. If we don’t have the riches, we have nothing to bless others with. But if we are full of the riches of God, we will bless others with God’s riches enjoyed by us.
- We need to have a strong and active spirit. Our outer man is decaying, but out inner man has to be renewed and become strong day by day (2 Cor. 4:16). Jacob’s physical body was ready to die, but his spirit was strong and active as he prophesied with blessing concerning each of his sons. We need to have a strong spirit, being daily strengthened into our inner man by the Spirit (Eph. 3:16) and fanning our spirit into flame so that we may have a strong and active spirit.
Lord Jesus, gain many who are mature in life and able to prophesy with blessing concerning the saints and the churches! Lord, fill all the local churches with people of blessing, people filled with the Triune God as life and overflowing with life into others! Lord, we give ourselves to You to be those who know God, know the desire of God’s heart, and know the purpose of God. We want to know people according to the spirit and be filled with the riches of Christ. Keep us exercising our spirit to be strong and active in spirit. Lord, keep us under Your blessing and make us blessing people!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ed Marks’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Genesis (msg. 97), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (3), week 9 / msg 9, Blessing.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Lord, I’ve seen Your purpose. / Your heart’s unveiled to me. / Now I’d just like to see You gain me fully. / Though You I often limit / And fail by compromise, / Keep me in the index of Your eyes. (Song on Knowing God’s purpose)
# O Lord, fill now with Thy Spirit / Hearts that full surrender know; / That the streams of living water / From our inner man may flow. (Hymns #268)
# Let Your life within me saturate, / Let Your life within me permeate. / May all Your fulness be expressed through me / And my being be conformed to Thee. (Song on Being Saturated with God)
