Week in Review

Unusual assignments bring miraculous results - Are you taking your position?

Preached in 2007

Today, we will look at some important points through the life of the king Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat was the king of Judah and he took reign after his father Asa died. A little history about his father, In 2 Chronicles chapter 15 & 16 gives us the end of Asa’s reign. God sent his prophet to Asa and told him to turn to him and he obeyed. Starting with verse 8-12 of chapter 15, Asa became a reformer and turned the people to God. He renewed the altar of the Lord, even though this altar was probably no older than 35 years old, yet it was in disrepair. This shows us, when God’s ways are rejected; we see a quick decaying or death of true worship and devotion. We also see a quick death or decaying of things set aside for God that even includes us. Asa also removed his mother from being queen (vs. 16) because she had made an idol. So Asa was even willing to remove those in places of authority if they were not worshipping the True God. That is what a reformer does he or she removes individuals from a place of leadership that are not willing to allow God total access, no matter what position they may hold. Asa is restoring God’s people to seeking God and bringing their best before him. He has determined to stand for God.

Oh But in the 16th chapter, Asa became comfortable or complacent. When he became complacent, he became distracted. When he became distracted he began to rely on his ways and not Gods. Asa turns from his first love, which was to be a reformer for God and begins to lean to his own understanding. Asa took from the temple of God the gold and used it for his own purpose. As he was taking the gold out of the temple, he was moving further and further away from God. He was taking those things that should have been set-aside for God and using them for his own purpose. God gives gifts and provisions that should be used to build the kingdom, but if we are using them for our own purposes, we too move from God purpose to our own benefit. God had protected Asa against the battle with the Ethiopians. God’s wrath against Asa was that he had shown himself faithful to Asa, yet Asa turned away from the faithful God to rely on lesser things, man. I believe God’s wrath is strongest against his people who know him, and have seen his power and have felt his protection, yet they turn from him to lesser things for help or instruction. Asa relied on the power of someone else other than God and when he was corrected for it, he became angry. He had a tantrum.


I saw a child do the funnies this when he has a tantrum. What he does is he will sit down, fold his arms and close his eyes. I guess he says if I can’t see you, then what ever you say won’t count, you don’t count. After awhile of him keeping his eyes closed, he fell asleep.

So that is what Asa did in a sense. He became angry at the words of correction of God; he sat down, refused to stand for God anymore, folded his arms – a show of defiance, closed his eyes – refusal to see or acknowledge God’s presence and fell asleep - died spiritually. Because of this disobedience, he lost the favor of God. He was diseased and died sick (you can see that at the end of this chapter, vs. 12-13). He refused to turn to God and seek his healing and because of it, he died filled with sickness and disease. He turned to other things for the healing, but the only one that could do it was God and Asa refused, so he dies in his sickness. I don’t know about you, but surely I do not want the sickness of sin to lead to my death, do you?

So this is where Jehoshaphat reign begins. Now let me give you a bit of the history of Jehoshaphat. What amazed me is like Asa; Jehoshaphat had some of the same tendencies. We should note, these tendencies in Asa and Jehoshaphat are also in us. In chapter 17, Jehoshaphat came into power as a reformer. A reformer is someone who brings about a change, improvements, or a transformation. He came in setting things in motion for the Lord. In other words he was waking the people up spiritually to the things of God. He was making them take a stand. They had priest and teachers, before this, but they were not speaking God’s word or teaching God’s truth, so now Jehoshaphat was making improvements so that the people would receive teaching in the ways of God and the priest would function in the ministry of God and no longer be vessels of destruction or following their own ideas and ways. But even as much as God was leading him, Jehoshaphat did the same thing his father did, he turned from his first love, he became comfortable or complacent, he then became distracted and finally he began to rely on his own idea. This tendency in Asa and Jehoshaphat is present in us, when we become comfortable in what we are doing, we can become distracted. Now let me give you an overview of chapter 18, where Jehoshaphat turns to his own ideas (return next week for the next installment).

Words of Encouragement

Wrestling for your Breakthrough

That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." The man asked him, "What is your name?" "Jacob," he answered. Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome." Jacob said, "Please tell me your name." But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared." The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, [g] and he was limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip was touched near the tendon. ~ Genesis 32:22-32

Jacob is seeking God's mercy as he prepares to face his brother Esau. He is afraid that Esau will hurt him because of what had transpired between them before he left home. Jacob finds himself along and he begins to wrestle with a man. Jacob wrestled with this man from the night time until the breaking of day. At that time the man saw that Jacob was not giving up and he touched him on his hip. Jacob said he would not let the man go until he blessed him. The response of the man was, what is your name? Jacob told him his name and he changed it to Israel.

Have you been in a place where what you faced was overwhelming? You did not see how you would come out alive. Bills and finances, emotional difficulties, unsaved loved ones and so many other things pressing on you until you felt divided, just like Jacob when he divided his family and sent them in different directions. Are your situations pulling you in different directions?

Maybe you are at the night time and you are all alone. There's no one with you and you find yourself wrestling for your answer. You are wrestling all through the night, and now day break is finally dawning. What does that mean? Sometimes we are in some dark places and we are wrestling through our prayers seeking God to answer us, bless us, bring us a breakthrough for what is overwhelming and soon to be upon us.

We must be willing to learn from Jacob's example. We have to be willing to wrestle through the night not giving up, not letting go. We have to wrestle so until God has to put his hand upon us to move us. And when He sees we are not backing down from seeking a blessing from him he will speak to us as he did with Jacob.

He will ask us what is your name? Strange question, not so. God knows your name, he simply is asking to get your thinking ready for what he is about to release in your life. He ask us, who are you? Who do I say that you are? By what name do I call you? And when we answer him, he is ready to tell us I have answered you and given you a new standing, a new name, your breakthrough. Jacob's name means "He supplants".  Jacob had gotten somethings because of trickery and being quick (first one out of the womb). Yet, God was now telling him you will no longer be mighty because of your own hands but because of mine. His new name is Israel "He strives with God" or "Prince with God".  It is also said to mean, Let God rule.  Jacob was now elevated by God to be worry of the honor of a prince, "a royal priest hood", and one led by God.

When we are going through some of our difficulties and things seem to be overwhelming us, let me encourage you as I encourage myself that God has a plan in place. He is allowing these situations because he wants to bring us to that place that our faith in him will not let us stop seeking him, crying out to him, even to the place where we will wrestle for our breakthrough. We will come away from our wrestling time with God broken. Yes, broken. God has to break some things in us so that we will always remember how we were humbled during our time with him as he prepared us for our breakthroughs.

Is your name changed? Have you moved from being one know by doing it in your own power to one that allows God to rule? Today, let us seek God's hand to break somethings in us so that we can receive the breakthroughs in our lives.

Prayer: Lord today, we seek a breakthrough for our situations and circumstances that seem to be overwhelming us. We will not back down, we will not give up. While it might be night time and we feel all alone, we will stand here until the light shines upon our situations and we see your answers. We are wrestling for our breakthrough today. Let it come, in Jesus name, Amen.