 God sees where you are in life right at this very moment. You have His attention. He can hear you. He can see you. He knows your thoughts and he understands your heart. And he knew that you needed to hear this right now. Before God will bless you, He has to break you. But there is blessing in brokenness. There is blessing in being purified in the fire. Perhaps you're in a season right now, this could be you. You're in a season where you just feel the pressures of the world coming against you. All of the cares, all of the concerns, it seems like one thing after another after another. But I have an encouraging word for you. The very thing that you thought would drive you further from the Lord is actually what He's going to use to pull you deeper. The very thing that you thought would break you down is actually the key to your breakthrough. God knows where you are. God understands your situation and perhaps you feel alone. You feel disconnected from the Lord and from people. This is the season of brokenness. But this is a season of blessing. I want to talk to you on this edition of Spirit Church about wrestling with God. And really we wrestle with God through these seasons of our lives. And I'm telling you, get ready because God is going to draw you closer to Himself than ever before. You're going to grow stronger than ever before. You're going to walk in His blessing like never before. You just have to make it. You just have to make it through this season. The key here is clinging to the Lord. I'm going to talk to you about that in just a moment. But first, as usual, Stephen Moctezuma is here with me. He's going to lead you in worship. And then we're going to get right into this message. I know, I know, I know that this is prophetic. There are going to be those watching. As they watch, they're going to be weeping. And they're going to be saying, that's me. That's where I am exactly. Because remember, the Lord knows exactly where you are. Here is Stephen Moctezuma. I want to go to Genesis chapter 32, verse number 22. During the night, Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two servant wives, and his eleven sons, and crossed the Jabok River with them. After taking them to the other side, he sent over all his possessions. This left Jacob all alone in the camp, and a man came and wrestled with him until the dawn began to break. When the man saw that he would not win the match, he touched Jacob's hip and wrenched it out of its socket. Then the man said, let me go, for the dawn is breaking. But Jacob said, I will not let you go unless you bless me. What is your name? the man asked. He replied, Jacob. Your name will no longer be Jacob, the man told him. From now on, you will be called Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have won. Please tell me your name, Jacob said. Why do you want to know my name? the man replied. Then he blessed Jacob there. Jacob named the place Paneel, which means face of God. For he said, I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared. The sun was rising as Jacob left Paneel, and he was limping because of the injury to his hip. You've often heard it said, or repeated I should say by preachers, that no man has seen the face of God. And this at first when I heard this seemed to me to be a contradiction because I said, but Jesus said that if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. The scripture teaches that if someone sees God, they die. Yet people saw the face of God when they looked at the face of Jesus. The scripture says that Moses talked with God face to face, as one would talk with a friend. And at first to me this seemed like a contradiction, until the Holy Spirit spoke to me. He told me everyone who sees the face of God, who sees the face of Jesus revealed, indeed does die. It is the death of self. Everyone who sees the face of God dies to self. God will not reveal himself to someone who is not broken, who is not dying to self. I'm not talking about the revelation of salvation. The Holy Spirit reveals that and that causes men to repent. I'm talking about walking in greater depths of fellowship with God. The scripture says that the secret of the Lord is with them who fear Him. There must be this death to self. There must be this peeling away of the ego. If we are to truly catch a glimpse of the face of God, if we are to truly receive the transformative touch of the Holy Spirit upon our lives, we must rid self of self. We cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit if we are filled with ourselves. The Holy Spirit will only bless what is surrendered. And He will only fill what is empty. God wants you to be emptied of yourself. God wants you to be filled with His Holy Spirit. God wants you not to carry the countenance of self, but He wants you to carry the countenance of Christ. He wants you to reflect the image of Jesus. He is jealous over you with righteous jealousy. And the truth is that not all jealousy is evil. You see, sinful jealousy is based in fear. But godly jealousy is based in love. Who among us who is married would not be jealous if our spouse were to go out with someone else. That's holy jealousy. And God has a holy jealousy over you. And He wants to draw you deeper into fellowship with Him. He wants to reveal more of Himself to you, but you must be broken. You must be dead to self. If the work of the Holy Spirit is to be complete in our lives, if it is to be free, that work is to be free. If that power is to flow through us, we must surrender self. And Jacob finds himself in a place where he is pressured and alone. You see, if you don't know the back story between Jacob and Esau, Jacob had taken the birthright from Esau. He had taken a blessing from Esau. And he hadn't spoken to him in years. And then he receives word that his brother Esau is coming to see him, and he becomes fearful, thinking that perhaps his brother might come to kill him. He hasn't talked to him in years, so he doesn't know where Esau is in his heart. But he's feeling the pressure, and in this case it's the pressure from his past catching up to him. And if you go on to read the Scripture, he sends gifts along the path behind him so that as Esau is approaching, he's appeased with each gift. He's trying to fix his own problems, his own way. Here he is, pressured, possibly fearing for his life. And the Scripture says, in verse number 24, this left Jacob all alone in the camp, and a man came and wrestled with him until the dawn began to break. Jacob was alone. You know there are those seasons where God will disconnect you from people. You'll reach up to God, and you'll feel as though there's no response. And you'll reach out to people, but they won't reach back. There are seasons in life where you are just so positioned you're isolated. You're alone. And this usually comes at the moment when you're sensing all of the pressures around you. And again, as I just said, you reach out but nobody reaches back. And this isn't because people are evil or selfish. We all make mistakes. None of us are perfect. In fact, it's possible that those around you themselves are dealing with their own struggles and they cannot possibly reach back in this season. But God will position you in some seasons to be alone. Am I saying that we should live isolated, free from the accountability of our brothers and sisters? Absolutely not. The Scripture doesn't teach that. The Scripture teaches just the opposite. It encourages connection. What I'm saying is that there are those seasons where we find it difficult to connect. Where we feel that loneliness in our heart. And as I said, we even reach up and it seems that God himself is not reaching back. The rejection of man is often the calling of God. Every rejection you receive could very well be an invitation from God. You have your pressures. You have your troubles. They come upon you and you go for help and you find none. You go to the Lord. There seems to be a disconnect. And in these seasons, I'll tell you what God wants you to do. He wants you to seek Him. He wants you to pursue Him. Jacob was under pressure. He was under stress. And he found himself alone. And the Scripture says he begins to wrestle with God. Let's go read verse 29 again. Please tell me your name, Jacob said. Why do you want to know my name? The man replied. Then he blessed Jacob there. Jacob named the place Peniel, which means face of God. For he said, I have seen God face to face. Yet my life has been spared. He wrestled with God. What does this mean? Well, I believe that this wrestling with the Lord, he finds himself alone. He finds himself pressured. And this wrestling with God is the shedding of self. Because it was after this wrestling that Jacob received that new name. It was after that wrestling that Jacob received the new nature from God. But he wrestled with him first. The Scripture says that as he's wrestling with God, that this man, the Scripture calls him in that portion of the Scripture, but then it goes on to reveal that it was the Lord. But the Scripture tells us that as he's wrestling with God, that God recognizes that Jacob isn't going to give up. Now this is the Lord. He could at any point overpower him. But what does he do? Verse 25, when the man saw that he would not win the match, he touched Jacob's hip and wrenched it out of its socket. What did he do? He broke him. God wants to break us because sometimes our flesh is just too strong. You know, you can be delivered from demonic beings, but you can never really be delivered from the flesh. You will battle the flesh for the rest of your life. There are seasons where the flesh loses and gains power, depending upon our obedience toward God. But ultimately the flesh is not completely destroyed until we receive a new body. And so Jacob is wrestling with God and God has to break him. You ever go to pray and as you're going to pray or as you're going to read the Word, there's this squirming that comes up within you? You go to read the Bible and you can't focus on the words. You can't pay attention to what the Scripture says. But this manifestation of resistance is even stronger when you go to pray. When you go to just minister to the Lord. When you go to just fellowship with God. There's this squirming. There's this uneasiness that comes over you. You find it difficult to discipline yourself to remain in prayer. You find it difficult to remain in that place of reverence and solitude. You find it difficult to motivate yourself to go and pray. Why? Because the flesh is fighting you. We must say to our flesh. We must grab hold of our flesh, subject the flesh and say you will pray whether you like it or not. Do you know why the flesh fights you when you pray? It's because the flesh knows that when you pray, it loses its power. It loses its power when you pray. And so we need to be spiritual men and women of God who subject the flesh by our obedience, by our decisions to obey the Word of God, by our decisions to discipline ourselves to prayer. Jacob wrestled with God. There was this fighting. There was this conflict. And God broke him. Why is it that God will sometimes seem distant? It's not that he's trying to withdraw from you. It's that he's trying to get you to seek him again. We get so comfortable where we are. We get so familiar with our surroundings that God has to shake us up. God has to send the pressure. He has to allow for the loneliness so that he can get us all to himself because as I said, he is jealous over you. So that he can get us all to himself and in that place change our nature. In that place wrestle with us. God will take us to the loneliness, take us to the pressure so that we can deal with the flesh and come out changed. But before God can change you, before God can give you a new name, he has to break you. When he broke Jacob's hip or socket, out of its socket, he caused Jacob to lean. It caused him to become dependent upon God. When you're broken, you have to lean on the Lord. When I am weak, then he is strong. You know, I think about my situation in ministry. And from the outside looking in, it looks pretty fun. I mean, I do enjoy ministry. Let me tell you something. You know how preachers will tell you, oh, it's not what you think. There's sacrifice and, you know, I understand there is some sacrifice or there's some challenge. I wouldn't necessarily call anything a sacrifice because everything I give up, God replaces with something better. I do say there is challenge in it, but I'm not going to lie to you. It really is great. I mean, I get to preach the Word of God. That's what I do. That's my life. I get to preach and minister the Word of God. I get the honor of ministering the Word of God. And so, while I do say that there is challenge in ministry, it's a blessing to be able to preach the Word of God. But if I'm just being very honest with you, that blessing isn't enough. I've seen hypocrites who can preach the Word better than I can. You know, I get to travel all over the world. I get to see cities and, you know, for the most part, most of my traveling is I see the airports and the hotels, the airports and the hotels. It can become a notness, but there are those times where I get to see places like Puerto Rico or the Philippine Islands or the Fijian Islands or I've been to several different states and countries and I get to experience all sorts of different cultures and people groups. And that's wonderful. And it's a blessing. But again, if I'm being honest and at the risk of sounding unappreciative, it's not enough. I get to see miracles all of the time. I saw this woman who was completely paralyzed. This is just recently, just thinking just a couple of weeks back. A woman completely paralyzed because of a stroke in her left arm. No movement, no feeling. God healed her instantly in that service that I ministered. And she begins to move her arm. She begins to feel she was healed. I saw a miracle. I see blind eyes open, deaf ears open, but if I'm being honest with you, though it is a blessing, that's not enough. I get to minister on television and on the media and on several different platforms. There are times where I've spoken to at one moment hundreds of thousands of people. But you know, it's emptiness, really, in and of itself. Do you know what preaching to a few hundred thousand people over the media in one moment feels like? It feels the exact same as preaching to a dozen people over the media. Do you know what preaching to thousands feels like? It feels just about the same as preaching to a hundred or so as far as the fulfillment one gets from it and ministering and being in front of people and being able to communicate. I love communicating. It's a blessing, but it's not enough. I'm certain that when the day comes when we're ministering to millions at once, it will feel just like ministering to hundreds. I get to travel with my wife, my best friends. I come to an office where I work. My workers are great employees. I'm in a good place in life, financially, relationally, emotionally, spiritually. Why am I telling you all of this? I'm not bragging. I'm telling you this because the blessing I'm talking about has nothing to do with any of those things. If I just had those things, I'm telling you right now, it wouldn't be enough. Because after a service where I witness the power of God, I have to go back to my hotel room and I have to shut that door and no one else is there. And if it wasn't for the presence of Jesus, there would be emptiness in everything that I do. I don't care how blessed I look from the outside. I don't care how glamorous the media or the television portion of it look. I would be empty were it not for the presence of Jesus. Jacob told the Lord, I'm not letting go until you bless me. But he didn't get Jacob out of the situation he thought he was in with Esau. You read the story later, you find that Esau was not coming to kill him. He didn't change his circumstance. He didn't give him anything of material value. What did he do? He broke him and changed his name. He is the blessing. The reward is a closer fellowship with him. All of those things I mentioned to you and I'm telling you this with all that I have, I want you to believe it because it's true. All of those things without the presence of Jesus bring nothing but emptiness. Only his presence can fulfill. And God wants to take you to the place where he breaks you and causes you to realize that he is your only source. He wants to cause you to become desperate and dependent so that you know it is only by his strength. So you're feeling the pressure, you're feeling alone, you're sensing things around you, pushing you toward desperation. It's a good place to be. It is the season where God breaks you. It is the season where God strips you of self. It is the season where he reveals himself. And where he transforms your nature. But here's the key. Here's the key to getting past that loneliness. Here's the key to getting past that pressure. Here's the key to getting past the flesh. Here's the key to allowing God to truly break you. Even when it hurts, you don't let him go. You say, I will not let you go. Even if you break me, it will just make me more desperate for you. Even if you break me, it will just make me rely on you more. Do not let him go. That's a word for someone. Don't let him go. His presence is all you need. We go through these seasons like Jacob. We're alone. Jacob was alone with God, the Scripture says. He wrestled with God. He fought for the transformation of his nature. He sensed the pressure all around him, but it was in this season, it was in this moment that God got him alone and God was able to break him. I want to pray with you now that God would reveal himself to you in a greater way than ever before and that this season would not be wasted but that you would come into a place where you were broken before God and that you find the blessing in brokenness and that you find the blessing in wrestling with God. Father, in Jesus' name, I pray for that one watching. And we declare, we will not let you go. You are the source. You are the reward. And I pray, Father, by your Holy Spirit, that you would touch that one receiving this prayer now. That they would be strengthened and encouraged because you've spoken to them right where they are. You see them. You know where they are in life, Lord. We will not let you go. Change our nature, Father. Change our hearts. Make us more like you. Empty us of self. Fill us with the Holy Spirit, I pray. In Jesus' name, I want you to say it with me, say amen. I want to welcome now the new members of Spirit Church. There you are up on the screen. We love you. We are praying for you. I always say that because I always mean it. And if you would like to join the Spirit Church family or the Spirit family as we call it, use the information at the bottom of the screen to find out how. Also wait until the end of the video. We'll provide you with a link where you can click and it will take you right to where you can sign up. If you're not watching this on YouTube, that clickable link will not appear at the end of the video. Perhaps it will appear some other form on some other platform. I want to read now your comments. So these comments are being read from last week's teaching entitled The Blood of the Lamb. Our first commenter writes, I would love to hear more from this channel. God bless you all. Well, thank you so much for writing. And that is a comment from India. So if you would like to hear more from this channel, don't forget to subscribe. And I pray that you continue to be blessed by the programming. Another commenter writes, Indeed, the blood of the Lamb is precious. And I really encourage you to take a look at that teaching entitled The Blood of the Lamb. It will bless you and it will cause you to see the blood of Jesus in a whole new way and appreciate it in a deeper way. Anthony Garza writes, I just want to say thank you. God bless you and your ministry. Well, Anthony, we're so glad that the Lord touched you. And this is one of the things that really I believe the Holy Spirit enjoys doing through our videos. He's able to flow because we allow him to flow. You never know when a word of knowledge is going to come or when the healing anointing is going to start flowing because the Holy Spirit has been given full authority, full reign on this channel. This is the Holy Spirit's channel. Another commenter writes, Our final comment. Thank you for this lesson, Pastor David. I suffer from migraines and I received my healing through your prayer. All glory to God. May God bless you more and more in Jesus' name. And that is from Mozambique. And you know words of knowledge, when they come forth, you can claim it for yourself too. So even if someone else claims a word of knowledge, that doesn't mean that you can't say by faith, I'm going to receive that word as well. I mean we do it all the time, especially from New Testament readings where we see things that Jesus told to people who received their healing. And we by faith lay hold on those promises and say, Jesus, me too. So when you hear a word of knowledge and God is speaking to you and it has to do with you, just say, Lord, I receive it, me too in Jesus' name. Well, that's it for the comments. If you don't turn off this video, I want just to tell you one more thing. I'm just going to take about a minute. We're coming along with our ministry expansion campaign. Here's where we are on the campaign. Remember that we do this all to win souls. And really what this campaign is for is to expand the ministry. We're going to enter into a new facility. We're going to open a 24-7 prayer room. We're going to be doing live broadcasts from the set. There's so much that we're going to do. You know, I can't even really say it all in one video because it will take too long. But the bottom line is this. Become a partner. Sign up and become a $30 a month partner. And when you do, you're going to help us reach our goal. And when we reach that goal, we're going to expand this ministry. You can find out more about it in past videos where I've talked about it. But in a nutshell, we're going to be able to win more souls and we're going to be able to build more believers than ever before. I believe we are on the verge, of reaching millions of people for Jesus. I'm talking millions of souls and it's going to be big. And I want you to be a part of it. You can help make a difference. You can help make an impact. Ask yourself, how much is a soul worth to you? Partner with me today. Help me take the gospel all around the world through events and media. Now, we're doing something a little different. If you're watching this right now and you're not watching this on YouTube, you're going to see some information and that is where you can go to make your donation one time or become a monthly partner. If you're watching this on YouTube, then stick around because right when I'm done talking here, a link is going to come up on the screen and you're going to be able to click that link even watching on your mobile device and that link will take you to where you can donate. Well, that is it for this edition of Spirit Church. Until next time, remember, nothing is impossible with God. Help me win souls by spreading the gospel through events and media. Make a one-time donation or become a monthly supporter by clicking on the donate link now.