Speaker 1: I would like for us now to read the scriptures, if we would stand.
Speaker 1: Now we have an amazing passage, and this is from the Old Testament, genesis, chapter 32, and we are reading from verse 22 all the way to verse 32.
Speaker 1: There are 10 verses, Genesis, chapter 32.
Speaker 1: And the title of the message today is Fight for your Covenant Destiny.
Speaker 1: It is a follow-up of the message last Sunday and the messages this week.
Speaker 1: As we have looked at the open door that the Lord has opened for us so that we can actually advance, I read from the NIV version Verse 22.
Speaker 1: Genesis 32.
Speaker 1: That night, a night do come Jacob got up and so we need to get up.
Speaker 1: And he took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford Of the Jabok.
Speaker 1: After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions.
Speaker 1: So Jacob was left alone and a man, the Bible says, wrestled with him till daybreak.
Speaker 1: Verse 25 goes on to say 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.
Speaker 1: Then the man said let me go, for it is daybreak.
Speaker 1: But Jacob replied why don't we read this part together the reply of Jacob, let's read I will not let go unless you bless me.
Speaker 1: Let's read it again I will not let you go until you bless me.
Speaker 1: And then, in verse 27, the man asked him what's your name?
Speaker 1: Jacob answered.
Speaker 1: Then the man said your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel name will no longer be Jacob but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.
Speaker 1: Jacob said please tell me your name.
Speaker 1: But he replied why do you ask my name?
Speaker 1: Then he blessed him there and I thank God for that.
Speaker 1: So Jacob called the place Peniel, which is a variant.
Speaker 1: Of course.
Speaker 1: You know the name in Hebrew Penuel Peniel, penuel, which means really the face of God.
Speaker 1: Saying it is because I saw God face to face.
Speaker 1: And yet my life was spared.
Speaker 1: The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel and he was limping because of his hip and he was limping because of his hip.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: Let's pray, father in heaven.
Speaker 1: I thank you again that we have the opportunity of gathering around your word and we also have the opportunity of hearing you speak to us and therefore, lord, we open our hearts and our minds and we are ready to receive from you.
Speaker 1: Lord, speak to us In Jesus' name, we pray and we all say amen.
Speaker 1: We may have our seats.
Speaker 1: Worship team.
Speaker 1: Once again, thank you very much.
Speaker 1: The title I say is Fight for your Covenant Destiny, and there are three areas I would like us to visit under this subject today First of all, fight until breakthrough.
Speaker 1: And secondly, fight using kingdom weapons.
Speaker 1: And number three, fight to glorify God.
Speaker 1: I just want to repeat that outline Fight until breakthrough, fight using kingdom weapons, fight to glorify God.
Speaker 1: The theater of what we share today is in the text I just shared, and at the center of it is a man who is alone with God and he later, after the encounter with God, calls the place where he meets God Peniel, which is also Penuel.
Speaker 1: And I know that in our journeys of life there are those moments that we shall have to separate ourselves from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and go to the place and space where it shall be you and God alone.
Speaker 1: Jesus had this practice where he would separate himself from the daily, you know wherewithal, and then he would go to a quiet place and there he would pray.
Speaker 1: Actually, in Mark, chapter 1, verse 35, it is recorded Mark, chapter 1, verse 35, that a little while, very early in the morning, while it was still dark, jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place and where he prayed, and in that place he prayed.
Speaker 1: My prayer is that we shall have this kind of practice where we get out of the busyness of life and we come to a place where it can just be me and God.
Speaker 1: And one time Jesus visited two women, mother and Mary.
Speaker 1: The lady called mother got very busy in the house trying to prepare a meal, I guess for Jesus house trying to prepare a meal, I guess for Jesus.
Speaker 1: But Mary, instead of getting busy, went to the feet of Jesus and just enjoyed the fellowship with Jesus.
Speaker 1: Jesus makes a commentary about what he saw and he said mother, you've become so busy with so many things, but Mary has found the better thing.
Speaker 1: I want to say that, whether in your house or in your workplace, or you're traveling, wherever you might be, those people watching online I know some of you are in Europe, north America, south America, near Asia, far Asia, and also Australia and the islands of the world.
Speaker 1: Wherever you are, it is possible for you to be able to identify a space where you can break from the rituals of the day and come to a quiet place where it can be you and God.
Speaker 1: Now, moments like those ones are and can be destiny.
Speaker 1: Changing Moments like those are and can be turning points in a person's life and that is why, as I share with Jacob in the middle of the text and a visitation that leads to an encounter, I want to invite you to that place where it can just be you and God.
Speaker 1: And I tell you those places and those spaces, you can never exit from.
Speaker 1: A place like that.
Speaker 1: The same Jacob brings his whole story to the space where he meets God and later, like I said, he calls the place Peniel or Penuel, and he comes as Jacob in his entirety.
Speaker 1: He brings his history, he brings his issues, he brings himself to that particular space.
Speaker 1: At that particular time, he has asked his family, the property to be on the other side, and he has remained on the other side, and now it's at night and he is there, and while he is there, there is a visitation.
Speaker 1: My prayer is this that every time you go to that place of separation, where it shall be you and God, that there shall be a divine visitation?
Speaker 1: Is somebody hearing me that there shall be a divine visitation?
Speaker 1: I had an interesting experience yesterday in Kitengela, just outside Nairobi, taking the expressway at the river and then Kitengela and past Kitengela town because a deacon in Eastgate has built a house there and, together with the wife and the children, invited me to bless and dedicate the house.
Speaker 1: And as we did the tour of the house, we went all the way upstairs and we entered a room and they told me Pastor, we want you to know, we have set apart this place as a place of encounter with God.
Speaker 1: They have set a prayer room upstairs.
Speaker 1: Yes, you can give a hand to the Lord, give God praise.
Speaker 1: And therefore, if we are going to see the transformation of Africa and if you are going to see the transformation of families and individual lives, this is going to begin at the private place and it is going to begin at the closet.
Speaker 1: Now, Jacob was a busy guy and we know it's so easy to get so busy with life doing the work of the Lord and not knowing the Lord of the work.
Speaker 1: It is very, very possible.
Speaker 1: He was a very, very busy guy and even from the time of birth he's busy holding the heel of his twin brother called Esau.
Speaker 1: And then he comes into this world in those kind of circumstances.
Speaker 1: This is the kind of guy Jacob is and later on, of course, taking the birthright of his brother and, you know later, the blessing of his brother.
Speaker 1: And because of that an issue came up between twin brothers, esau and Jacob, and Jacob and Rebekah.
Speaker 1: Their mother advises Jacob to flee and go to the home of his uncle called Laban.
Speaker 1: Laban was the brother of Rebekah and therefore the life of Jacob begins to form within another environment under the jurisdiction of Laban.
Speaker 1: Now Jacob, meaning supplanter, meaning deceiver, meaning conman meets another conman and supplanter called Laban.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you, there is a story that says if you want to catch a thief, send a thief, and I know in many of our communities we have that story.
Speaker 1: The two thieves are entering a field walking reverse, one from the other end and one from the other end, and then they bang each other in the middle and they take off in opposite directions and the thieves disappear, and so there is no more thieves in that place.
Speaker 1: You know, laban knows the art and it gets to a time when Jacob wants a wife and the younger girl is called Rachel, the senior girl is called Leah and you know Jacob falls called Rachel.
Speaker 1: The senior girl is called Leah and you know Jacob falls for Rachel.
Speaker 1: And they talk and there's a deal that you got to work seven years and get Rachel.
Speaker 1: But you know he worked seven years and lo and behold.
Speaker 1: That is why normally on wedding days it is important to unveil the bride.
Speaker 1: Yani ufunue uangalie useme huyundie mimi nime jichagulia.
Speaker 1: If you are a gentleman, then you can say this is the lady I have chosen of a 4.3 billion women on planet earth.
Speaker 1: Huyundio nime jichagulia kutoka kwa wengi Ndiyo usije ukafanyo anini Uka chengwa billion women on planet earth.
Speaker 1: This is what I have been trying to do.
Speaker 1: What do you?
Speaker 1: Do you fight?
Speaker 1: Yes, you can fight there.
Speaker 1: And you know, in our cultures, here, especially during the dowry processes, the girls do come out and they are all covered with lessors everywhere and it's up to the gentleman Out of like 10 ladies who are mantled in lessos we call them lessos here or covers it's up to that gentleman to pick the bride from that group and it is never an easy assignment.
Speaker 1: Men, do you agree with me, those who have gone through this kind of arrangement, that it is not easy, but somehow a clue?
Speaker 1: Sometimes, I think the ladies, ambassador Moyo, I think I don't know how it is in Zimbabwe, in your country, but I think the ladies will have a clue either a shoe or something.
Speaker 1: And so when the guy is walking around he knows eventually it is that one, because if you don't get it right, you pay a fine.
Speaker 1: And so Jacob ends up in this terrain and territory where there is another conman, and it is his uncle, and he works for seven years and finds, lo and behold, the girl I've been given is not Rachel, it is actually Leah.
Speaker 1: And he has to work another seven years to get Rachel.
Speaker 1: And so he works 14 years to get his brides.
Speaker 1: Jacob is 20 years in Laban's house, and that stay was not easy.
Speaker 1: By the time he's getting out, he has gone through a struggle, but he must get to this particular spot where the tenure of the struggle and the yoke of the struggle of his over his life must be changed, and changed indelibly, in a way that it shall never come again.
Speaker 1: I'm speaking to somebody here and also somebody following this service online, and I'm saying you have gone through a struggle all this time.
Speaker 1: Today I'm raising an altar called Penuel.
Speaker 1: I'm raising an altar called Peniel.
Speaker 1: This is the day of the breaking of the yoke of every struggle.
Speaker 1: In the name of Jesus Christ, it is a day when that struggle is broken because we have a God who is able.
Speaker 1: The same God who met Jacob, encountered Jacob in the journey of his life those particular days.
Speaker 1: He's the same, and I said this particular days.
Speaker 1: He's the same, and I said this last Sunday.
Speaker 1: He's the same yesterday, today and forever.
Speaker 1: The God who worked miracles in the first century, the God who worked miracles in the 18th century, he's the same God in the 21st century, with all the technology and all the advancements of the human nature and humankind.
Speaker 1: He is able to bypass technology and bypass everything and is able to do a miracle that changes everything about your story.
Speaker 1: How many believe with me?
Speaker 1: God can change your story suddenly.
Speaker 1: I believe it.
Speaker 1: I believe it and therefore this service, the Lord is here and is moving with his power, and the anointing of God is here.
Speaker 1: I am now formally raising an altar called Penuel.
Speaker 1: I'm raising an altar today called Penuel.
Speaker 1: That is an altar, yes, of wrestling.
Speaker 1: But it's also an altar of name change.
Speaker 1: It is an altar of restoration, it is an altar of healing, it is an altar that propels you and gives you momentum to go meet the Esau in your life, but also moves you all the way to your destiny.
Speaker 1: And I want to say, because of Penuel, jacob will say bye-bye to Haran, where he came from, the place of Laban, which was not meant to be his destiny.
Speaker 1: He will say bye-bye and there is a transaction at this encounter that changes everything around him and he'll say bye-bye to that and then, together with his family, we'll march on to meet his brother, esau, in Genesis 33.
Speaker 1: And then he'll go to Bethel in Genesis chapter 35.
Speaker 1: Our God is a God of destiny and God wants us to take us to the destiny he has ordained for us.
Speaker 1: Let me say once again Haran is not your destiny, laban's house is not your destiny.
Speaker 1: God has a destiny for you and that destiny is in Bethel, and Jacob must leave Haran and go back to Bethel.
Speaker 1: Let me say this that God never plays pata poter.
Speaker 1: For those from Australia, I don't know how to help you understand the word pata poter, but it's like a game of cards, and I remember River Road when I was young and I would be walking in town.
Speaker 1: There are these guys, jj, who would set up the tables, and there are cards and I'd say you know a very interesting game.
Speaker 1: And I would stop and think I'm going to make money right there.
Speaker 1: You've broken your money into 50 bulbs or something and you are standing there and the guy shows you the card, then does that and you're supposed to put money there.
Speaker 1: By the time he shows it again.
Speaker 1: It is not the card you believe it was and the guy takes your money.
Speaker 1: How many have ever gone through this?
Speaker 1: Like Pastor Ambrose says, people tend to look nice in church as if they never went through these things.
Speaker 1: But I know you go through these things every day.
Speaker 1: In fact, these days this gambling thing is in radios, eh, especially vernacular.
Speaker 1: You just switch to a vernacular radio and it's about to send some money and there's this promise.
Speaker 1: You never get to Because you're supposed to win some 300,000 or whatever and people are just gambling.
Speaker 1: And you know, going like that.
Speaker 1: I want to say our God and his word is not a game, he's not playing a game.
Speaker 1: What God has said he will do.
Speaker 1: When you read a scripture, you can take it to the bank.
Speaker 1: That word God has spoken.
Speaker 1: You can actually take it to the bank.
Speaker 1: Let's give God praise.
Speaker 1: Can actually take it to the bank.
Speaker 1: Let's give God praise.
Speaker 1: You can take it to the bank.
Speaker 1: And that's why Numbers 23, 19 says God is not man that he should lie, or a son of man that he should repent.
Speaker 1: Has he said, will he not do it?
Speaker 1: Has he spoken, will he not fulfill it?
Speaker 1: And also Isaiah 55, from verse 10 and 11,.
Speaker 1: When the word of God goes forth, it never returns void but accomplishes that which God has actually promised.
Speaker 1: So the word of God carries healing, carries mission, carries hope, carries restoration, carries the whole menu of everything that you need.
Speaker 1: And that is why, coming to the altar called Penuel, for a struggler, for a 21st century man and woman who wakes up every morning, goes to work, comes back, caught between this rushing here, rushing there, there is a place we can go to and God can recalibrate and reconfigure our journey totally and completely.
Speaker 1: And so he comes from a place.
Speaker 1: 20 years he has been harassed, he has struggled and his name is almost prophetic.
Speaker 1: That name seems to speak into his life.
Speaker 1: Everywhere he goes, and this guy is really struggling, but he finds a place that is serene, a place that is peaceful, a place that is an oasis.
Speaker 1: And he is there, ordinary, yet made extraordinary by the visitation he's about to get.
Speaker 1: Suddenly a man comes and there is this whole wrestling and then he says something, and the man says something to him, and the whole story changes from there.
Speaker 1: And you know, the outline I just gave is a summary of what I've just simply shared.
Speaker 1: First of all, fight until breakthrough.
Speaker 1: This fight for your covenant destiny is one that we must not stop.
Speaker 1: We must fight it until breakthrough.
Speaker 1: When you pray for your children and the covenant promise upon your children, pray until breakthrough, praying for marriages, praying for relationships, praying for our cities and neighborhoods, just praying for ourselves, just like Jacob, stay there, just simply stay there until the breakthrough.
Speaker 1: And that's why he's saying I am not leaving, letting you go until you do what Bless me.
Speaker 1: Why is he saying bless me?
Speaker 1: Because you know Jacob has come from Abraham, then Isaac and then Jacob, and there is a covenant promise placed on Abraham that moves on to the next generation and is carried on to the next generation, but for some reason Jacob has been off the mark, and now he comes to Benuel and he's come to the place of encounter and he must recall the covenant blessing upon his life, because God has ordained his destiny in the covenant.
Speaker 1: And I want you to know, beginning from Abraham, genesis 12, 1 to 5, where God speaks to Abraham, gives instructions and then says a number of things your name shall be great and you shall be a father of many nations.
Speaker 1: You shall be called blessed.
Speaker 1: Whoever blesses you, I will bless, and whoever curses you, I will curse.
Speaker 1: And God states a beautiful end vision for Abraham and for his descendants.
Speaker 1: You have one who is about to break the circuit and his name is Jacob.
Speaker 1: But you know, now he has come and he must contend for the blessing, he must contend for the covenant once again, and he is there, and so there is a wrestling around it.
Speaker 1: Let me say this to somebody who is here your struggle will be broken by the blessing of the Lord, not by any strength you have, but by simply the blessing of God.
Speaker 1: Now you remember also that there was a guy called Jabez, 1 Chronicles, chapter 4, verse 9 and 10.
Speaker 1: And he was born in pain and because of that pain he was limited by this pain.
Speaker 1: His life was one series of struggles.
Speaker 1: Then he realized, oh, my goodness, this is not my destiny, I'm going to break free from this.
Speaker 1: And then he comes to God and he says a simple prayer.
Speaker 1: Four parts of Jabezic prayer One oh that you would bless me, oh that you would expand my territory, oh that you would place your hand on me and oh that you would keep me from evil.
Speaker 1: And the Bible says God answered that prayer right there and Jabez shed off the pain.
Speaker 1: I want to tell you that Penuel is a place of shedding off your past and your history and your struggle.
Speaker 1: And the altar I'm raising here is because somebody is going to walk forward here and I'm going to pray with you Because this is a place where you shed off that pain and that struggle.
Speaker 1: And then God ushers you once again in the path of the covenant.
Speaker 1: You see, when God looks at you, he first looks at the covenant it is beautiful and then he looks at you.
Speaker 1: This is what I've promised concerning your life, but look where you are Now.
Speaker 1: You need to connect with God so that this can be mapped into your personal life and also mapped again into the journey of your life and God is able to do it.
Speaker 1: Right now, there is somebody who has been struggling and you've been walking like Jacob for a long time.
Speaker 1: I want to say that past is going to be dealt with right now in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1: Isaiah, you know it.
Speaker 1: That says 43, I believe, verse 18.
Speaker 1: Forget the former things, do not dwell on the past.
Speaker 1: And verse 19 says what See, I'm doing a new thing.
Speaker 1: That's what God is doing Now it springs up.
Speaker 1: Do not perceive it.
Speaker 1: I'm doing a new thing.
Speaker 1: That's what God is doing Now he springs up.
Speaker 1: Do you not perceive it?
Speaker 1: I'm making a way in the wilderness and what else Streams in the wasteland, A wasted life, a desert kind of life.
Speaker 1: Now they're in Penuel.
Speaker 1: There's a divine encounter and the place of refreshment and restoration, because God has a promise, god has a plan and this plan must be brought to this individual right here, and that's what Penuel is all about.
Speaker 1: So Jacob is in that place and there is a divine visitation and there is something God is going to do.
Speaker 1: Jeremiah 29, 11.
Speaker 1: I shared this last Sunday.
Speaker 1: God says Jeremiah 29, 11.
Speaker 1: Do you remember it?
Speaker 1: Verses I know, yeah, jeremiah 29, verse 11.
Speaker 1: Let you remember the verses.
Speaker 1: I know, yeah, jeremiah 29, verse 11.
Speaker 1: Let me ask the group to leak it.
Speaker 1: Can you leak it on the screen?
Speaker 1: Jeremiah 29, verse 11.
Speaker 1: Let's read it together, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.
Speaker 1: Plans to prosper you and not to harm you.
Speaker 1: Plans to give you what A hope and a future.
Speaker 1: That is God's destiny for every person.
Speaker 1: That is God's destiny for every person in Africa and I know in Africa we are facing all kinds of challenges and even in media we have been dubbed this or dubbed that, this tag and the other thing.
Speaker 1: But I say, in Jesus' name, right now all of that is broken.
Speaker 1: Hallelujah, because God is here to break that struggle and he's here to fulfill his promise to Abraham, to Isaac, now to Jacob, refreshing it again, beginning from Penuel, chapter 32 of Genesis, up to chapter 35, 35 and ending there in chapter 35 in Bethel.
Speaker 1: And so I'm here to tell somebody that I have raised an altar called Penuel.
Speaker 1: Hallelujah, and I'm seeing you walking here for an encounter with God, because what we preach is not religion, we preach the move of God and we preach the power of God.
Speaker 1: We just sang a little earlier, thank God for the worship team that there is nothing impossible with God.
Speaker 1: Matthew 19, verse 26 says with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
Speaker 1: Ephesians 3.20 says God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we can ask or even imagine.
Speaker 1: Let's give him a hand clap because he is able and therefore fight until the breakthrough.
Speaker 1: If Naaman, who was given instructions to put himself in the water by the prophet and it was seven times, seven times, go once, go twice, go thrice, if he did six, there would have been no miracle.
Speaker 1: But he had to do seven.
Speaker 1: And then the miracle, you know, when Elijah was on the mountain and praying for rain, sends a servant Seven times, no, six times.
Speaker 1: He's saying I see nothing.
Speaker 1: But the seventh time he says I see a cloud the size of a man's hand.
Speaker 1: In your life I'm seeing a cloud the size of a man's hand and the rain is about to come.
Speaker 1: The rain is about to come.
Speaker 1: Is somebody connecting with me this side?
Speaker 1: The rain is about to come.
Speaker 1: Don't despise the year of small beginnings.
Speaker 1: Chapter four of Zechariah, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin.
Speaker 1: And so Zechariah tells Zerubbabel, oh Zerubbabel, this mountain you see before you, my God is going to turn it into level ground.
Speaker 1: Six times are not enough.
Speaker 1: When God has said seven, and so you must tarry in that place.
Speaker 1: Are you walking around the Jericho?
Speaker 1: That Jericho there you do seven times, seven once a day, and then seven times.
Speaker 1: I want to say seven, seven, seven, and if it's seven times seven, then 49, that means then 48 is not enough.
Speaker 1: God wants us to continue until the breakthrough and I want to say God is coming through, hallelujah.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter the mountain of debt or the disease.
Speaker 1: If you are following me online and you're there in a hospital bed, it doesn't matter how big that disease looks like.
Speaker 1: Our God is able and as a congregation we agree, because the Bible says what we agree on, others agree In heaven, and what we lose, others lose In heaven.
Speaker 1: The healing of those who are following this service, whether here or we have another congregation, by the way, in the pavilion, the people in the pavilion.
Speaker 1: God bless you, thank you very much and those who are following online all over the world.
Speaker 1: We are praying and agreeing.
Speaker 1: Wherever you might be and you are not feeling well, there is a need in your life.
Speaker 1: We are trusting God for that breakthrough and therefore fight until the breakthrough.
Speaker 1: Do not quit.
Speaker 1: That is my word.
Speaker 1: And so in a moment and I will be calling, just come here, let us trust the Lord.
Speaker 1: You may have prayed for a long time.
Speaker 1: There was a woman with an issue of blood and it was 12 years.
Speaker 1: It's 10 year.
Speaker 1: But Jesus came, passing by, comes and touches, you know, she found her way.
Speaker 1: It's a waging of a warfare, and she finds her way all the way, touches the garment and the faith she has.
Speaker 1: She's healed right there, blind Bartimaeus, jesus is passing through in Mark, chapter 10.
Speaker 1: And you find, ah, he knows Jesus is passing and he screams and shouts and people try to stop him.
Speaker 1: I want to say let no shouting stop you, because your hour has come, your Peniel is here and Jesus is here and you're going to have a divine encounter.
Speaker 1: And so the first point there is fight until the breakthrough.
Speaker 1: But secondly, of course, fight using kingdom weapons.
Speaker 1: You realize, in verse 26,.
Speaker 1: Verse 26, there is a wrestling which is physical.
Speaker 1: But then, you know, jacob realizes this is quite something.
Speaker 1: And you know, god has, you know, a way of coming to our level and God has a way of connecting with us at the struggle level.
Speaker 1: You know, by his stripes we are healed.
Speaker 1: He was pierced and wounded.
Speaker 1: For us, isaiah 53, from verse 5 and 6.
Speaker 1: And he has a way of coming.
Speaker 1: The incarnation, you know the word became flesh, dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.
Speaker 1: We have beheld his glory glorious of the only son of God, and he came to his own.
Speaker 1: His own received him not, but to all who believed him he gave them power to become the children of God.
Speaker 1: That's John, chapter 1, from verse 12 to verse 14.
Speaker 1: And so Jesus has a way of coming.
Speaker 1: You know, god has a way of coming to our level and even encounter us at our level.
Speaker 1: And you know, jacob thinks he can win every battle, but here he's found his match.
Speaker 1: And there's a whole wrestling, a whole wrestling, one of the games I used to love long time.
Speaker 1: These days I don't watch it much.
Speaker 1: I find it rough.
Speaker 1: You know it's wrestling and I find those guys very rough.
Speaker 1: But can you imagine?
Speaker 1: Now you see a big screen, jacob and that man as I'm preaching.
Speaker 1: I wish it could show from somewhere, but I'm telling you it was not a joke.
Speaker 1: The ones that happen here only take one hour, two hours, but this thing happens almost the whole night.
Speaker 1: And God has a way of coming to our level.
Speaker 1: And Jacob in the physical, in the physical, is really going point by point with this wrestler here.
Speaker 1: But then Jacob realizes I'm not dealing with an ordinary person and therefore I need to apply weapons that are not physical and weapons that are not human, because at the human level we are kind of matching.
Speaker 1: So he's slightly stronger and eventually, of course, he's touched somewhere, socket somewhere, and he realizes I'm not dealing with an ordinary person and therefore he changes tact and he switches to prayer and he says well, I am not letting you go until you do what you, bless me.
Speaker 1: He has woken up to the realization that a man has a limit to how much he can fight and even struggle.
Speaker 1: And he comes to pick up another weapon and he begins to speak and invoke the covenant by saying bless me, he was inviting the covenant again upon upon his life and therefore he touched the right switch.
Speaker 1: And today somebody needs to know that it is not by power nor by might you will make it, but by God's spirit, for we are fighting not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers and rulers in the heavenly realms.
Speaker 1: And it goes on to say therefore, put on the whole armor of God, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the sword of the spirit, the belt of truth and even the shoes of taking the gospel to the ends of the earth.
Speaker 1: And there is a different dynamic.
Speaker 1: You are here.
Speaker 1: You're a young man, a young woman.
Speaker 1: You have been fighting with that strength.
Speaker 1: Change the language.
Speaker 1: The wrestling has been going on.
Speaker 1: It is the 11th hour.
Speaker 1: Just simply speak in that wrestling and in that situation.
Speaker 1: When you are caught up in that wrestling, the heat of it and the depth of it, turn it into a prayer, like Jabez, turn it into a prayer like Jacob, and begin to say I am not letting you go until you bless me.
Speaker 1: The understanding of the secret of blessing because blessing carries a big package is a very, very important thing as far as the covenant is concerned.
Speaker 1: In fact, it is anchored around God and his blessing blessing of his people by inviting them to be partners in his work so that we can reach the nations for Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: And he got the right word.
Speaker 1: He could have said many words, but the full menu is in this word bless me.
Speaker 1: The full menu of your breakthrough, of your healing and of your restoration is in the word bless me.
Speaker 1: And when you're talking to God and say bless me, there are those young people who come to me and tell me, as a father figure, bless me.
Speaker 1: They come to my office.
Speaker 1: We meet on the road there as I go to the parking lot.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we meet even in the malls and I find a young person come to me and say, pastor, bless me.
Speaker 1: And they bring their head like this and I say I release a blessing upon your life in Jesus name, from the top of your head to the tip of your toe.
Speaker 1: May the power of this blessing move up and down and across.
Speaker 1: And I am telling you, blessing is very, very powerful and if you learn the secret of asking for that blessing, then you'll be very successful.
Speaker 1: And so he asked for the blessing.
Speaker 1: And the blessing of God addeth no sorrow.
Speaker 1: Have you ever read a verse like that?
Speaker 1: The blessing of God addeth no sorrow.
Speaker 1: When you go to Deuteronomy 28, verse 1 to 13, there are 15 covenant blessings Deuteronomy 28, verse 1 to 13.
Speaker 1: 15 covenant blessings.
Speaker 1: Let me give you just two of them Verse 12 and verse 13.
Speaker 1: Deuteronomy 28, verse 12 and verse 13.
Speaker 1: God opening the heavens.
Speaker 1: The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands.
Speaker 1: You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none.
Speaker 1: The Lord will make you what Head and not tail, if you pay attention to the commands the Lord gives you, your God.
Speaker 1: Let me go back.
Speaker 1: If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord, your God, that I give you this day, and carefully follow them Now read the last part with me, the very last part.
Speaker 1: You will always be at the top, never at the bottom, and underline the word always.
Speaker 1: You will always be at the top.
Speaker 1: What force propels you there?
Speaker 1: It is the blessing of God, and when you read this text, you see the dynamism of the blessing.
Speaker 1: And that's why he's saying you are not living until you bless me and therefore, what you need is not more money.
Speaker 1: What you need is not more travel.
Speaker 1: What you need is not more staff.
Speaker 1: What you need is, in that Penuel place, in that quiet place, a short prayer in Penuel and simply God bless me.
Speaker 1: I know there's somebody who has struggled for so long, but the blessing from this altar is changing everything today In the name of Jesus.
Speaker 1: Give him all the praise in Jesus' name, and so prayer doesn't have to be long.
Speaker 1: And, apostle Todd, you agree with me?
Speaker 1: Yeah, in the name of Jesus, when you just proclaim that healing because of the covenant that God made, god comes through.
Speaker 1: And today we are praying.
Speaker 1: Lord, bless me.
Speaker 1: It's a very, very short prayer and I know it recalls the covenant.
Speaker 1: God looks at the covenant he gave to Abraham.
Speaker 1: He looks at your situation and you have invoked the covenant blessing and then suddenly God begins to work something and a new work in right in that place and those things that were not working right begin to work right.
Speaker 1: Yesterday I was in Kitengela and praying for that deacon who built a nice house, and I know him, I know his wife and I know where they have come from.
Speaker 1: I went there two years ago to break ground and I declared to both of them they are called Tom and Maureen.
Speaker 1: I declared to them and I said Tom and Maureen, we are putting our hands to the foundation of this project.
Speaker 1: I want to tell you I will come again when you have finished this project and I will come to dedicate it, and yesterday I was there.
Speaker 1: Let's give a hand to Jesus.
Speaker 1: I was there yesterday.
Speaker 1: You know it is not because they had resources Two years ago.
Speaker 1: That's when we started that project and now it's finished.
Speaker 1: And I just told you, I went with them in their house.
Speaker 1: I found they have a prayer closet.
Speaker 1: Why do they have an altar there inside their house?
Speaker 1: Because they know it is the Lord who has actually picked them from nothing and God who has made them something.
Speaker 1: God is able to pick Jacob at the lowest point of his journey, with all that history and background, and through the blessing, his name will be changed.
Speaker 1: Through this blessing, his destiny will be reconfigured.
Speaker 1: Through this blessing, he'll meet Esau, his brother, and that encounter will not be a struggle.
Speaker 1: He won't struggle.
Speaker 1: It's going to be easy for him From there.
Speaker 1: Actually, it was easy for him.
Speaker 1: It is through this blessing that he comes through, and I thank God.
Speaker 1: When God blesses his people, it's always wonderful, and I also sampled some of the blessings in the form of a sheep.
Speaker 1: I was given a sheep, a pregnant sheep, because this is the ninth month Pregnancy.
Speaker 1: Eh, do you know?
Speaker 1: I was given for real.
Speaker 1: I was given a sheep.
Speaker 1: It was big like this and it is pregnant.
Speaker 1: Somebody later told me it's a dober or something and it is pregnant.
Speaker 1: Somebody later told me it's a dober or something, and I don't know how true that is, and therefore it is carrying twins.
Speaker 1: Pastor, prepare, prepare to host twins from my sheep.
Speaker 1: Then I started figuring out how many sheep will I have in the next three years?
Speaker 1: There's going to be many, and our God is really wonderful.
Speaker 1: If Jacob is blessed and his name is changed to Israel, then he goes back to his covenant position father of nations.
Speaker 1: He's relocated by God once again and he reconnects with his calling and with his destiny.
Speaker 1: Then Jacob will truly be fruitful and his life will become meaningful, and then he will end up in the place where God wanted him to be.
Speaker 1: And so God has a good destiny for you.
Speaker 1: And if you have walked out of the path of that destiny, either by geography, either spiritually, either in terms of career trajectory, either in terms of workplace scenarios and situations, you are struggling and struggling, and struggling.
Speaker 1: I'm raising the altar that recalibrates a life and brings you back to the path and the place where God wanted you to be.
Speaker 1: And in that path let's give a hand to the Lord Path of destiny.
Speaker 1: That's what we are doing by this altar and therefore you fight.
Speaker 1: You fight using kingdom weapons, prayer, scripture, talk to God, like Jacob actually ends up speaking to God instead of physical wrestling.
Speaker 1: He realizes if I use my mouth and I talk to God, my story will change, but finally, of course, fight to glorify God.
Speaker 1: You know, when Jacob comes through now he's Israel, meets his brother, esau, and there is an embrace in Genesis 33.
Speaker 1: If you can give me verse 4, there is a quick walk the Lord does in terms of reconciliation in his journey Genesis 33 and verse 4.
Speaker 1: But Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him.
Speaker 1: He threw his arms around his neck and kissed him and they wept.
Speaker 1: This reconciliation was a work of God.
Speaker 1: He has come from the place, the altar.
Speaker 1: You know the face of God, penuel Peniel, and now he's encountering he will not fight anymore.
Speaker 1: This guy was used to fighting.
Speaker 1: Anything he sees, he starts fighting it.
Speaker 1: He's trying to get even.
Speaker 1: He's trying to get better.
Speaker 1: He's trying to edge somebody else out of the game, but this guy right now you can see what God is doing and the healing of this relationship is a work of God.
Speaker 1: He goes on to Genesis 35 and he's getting to Bethel and he puts his family together, they push idols out and he puts up this new altar.
Speaker 1: Bethel Pours oil to illustrate what God has done and also as a testimony to the nations that when you see the new Jacob, it is God who has done it and it is the work of God, that Israel now is a work of God and while they are there, the nations can see the altar that he has set up and his whole journey now is given to God as a testimony to the glory of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
Speaker 1: In the first service I had the honor of getting a girl called Rihanna and she's going to the United Kingdom to study in a university.
Speaker 1: She's going to study law and I was in their home yesterday.
Speaker 1: So I met the father, I met the mother.
Speaker 1: We were there in the sitting room Wakanipatia samosa moja na boiled maize, nusu na chai kikombe moja Hallelujah.
Speaker 1: I enjoyed in that sitting room and I was very happy.
Speaker 1: She's going to kill University Newcastle in the United Kingdom and I was happy there listening to the testimony of my brother, francis Akuka, and his wife Teresa.
Speaker 1: I brought them up here in the first service.
Speaker 1: I brought them up here in the first service of how the Lord has figured out that home and picked that girl, granted her full tuition scholarship.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine?
Speaker 1: Our God is more than able.
Speaker 1: It was very, very exciting.
Speaker 1: It is not by power.
Speaker 1: Young people of Africa, I see you, I see you.
Speaker 1: I'm seeing many of the young people.
Speaker 1: I love young people and you know I do.
Speaker 1: I see you.
Speaker 1: There's a future for you.
Speaker 1: I see you, I'm seeing many of the young people.
Speaker 1: I love young people and you know I do.
Speaker 1: I see you.
Speaker 1: There's a future for you and the same God who makes a way for Jacob is making a way for you.
Speaker 1: And we praise the Lord.
Speaker 1: In the first service, I prayed for this girl.
Speaker 1: She brought another friend called Kimberly and they were standing up here and I prayed for them.
Speaker 1: I said the house, we were praising God.
Speaker 1: We came here, we were praising God.
Speaker 1: In the first service.
Speaker 1: God will do something in your life so that he gives himself a testimony.
Speaker 1: And when?
Speaker 1: Yes, give a hand to the Lord.
Speaker 1: When God does something for you, don't hide it, bring it out.
Speaker 1: Prophet, do you agree?
Speaker 1: When the Lord does something for us, we do it, we bring it out, because you are the light of the world and you cannot light a lamp and then put it under a bushel.
Speaker 1: It beats every logic.
Speaker 1: But you know, when God has done something for you, then pick that lamp, put it on the table so that it can bring light to everyone and the neighborhoods can know that the Lord has done something.
Speaker 1: So Jacob passed Esau all the way to Bethel.
Speaker 1: God settles him there.
Speaker 1: When you read Genesis 35, verse 1, you know Genesis 35, verse 1.
Speaker 1: And God, you know, settles.
Speaker 1: Then God said to Jacob go out to Bethel, sit and settle there and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you.
Speaker 1: And you can read the whole story.
Speaker 1: The whole chapter is an amazing story about families, how families can do group repentance, group reconciliation, group healing.
Speaker 1: It's a family text and God actually settles him there and the nations around can see what the Lord has done.
Speaker 1: So the struggler comes to Penuel, he's reprocessed and now he goes to Bethel, the place of his destiny.
Speaker 1: As I close, I say somebody has been in Haran for far too long under the jurisdiction of Laban, who is a con, and you have been there laboring and struggling and getting nowhere.
Speaker 1: I have raised an altar called Bethuel and God is at this altar to encounter you and God is going to give you a new name and a new journey towards Bethel, because Haran is not your destiny, bethel is your destiny.
Speaker 1: Of course we know that the ultimate destiny Is to be with Jesus forever.
Speaker 1: 1 John, 5.
Speaker 1: , 11 and 12 says and this is the testimony God has given us eternal life and this life is with his son.
Speaker 1: In his son, whoever has the son of God has life and whoever does not have the son of God Does not have life, and whoever does not have the son of God Does not have life.
Speaker 1: That is our eternal destiny.
Speaker 1: But while here on earth there are those things that God wants us to do and spaces and connect with.
Speaker 1: And Jacob was struggling, he was not getting there.
Speaker 1: He tries, he doesn't.
Speaker 1: Somebody is frustrating the whole process.
Speaker 1: Then the encounter in Penuel changes everything and now he flows easily to Bethel and he knows peace and he knows true rest.
Speaker 1: God has a beautiful destiny for you and today he wants to do something that actually ushers you into that destiny.
Speaker 1: Our God is more than able.
Speaker 1: I had a young girl come to me yesterday morning early before I went to Kitangela.
Speaker 1: Then come back this way the other meetings I was doing, early in the morning, a 15-year-old girl and she told me I was upstairs here and she said, pastor, I want you to baptize me.
Speaker 1: And Pastor Maxi joined me.
Speaker 1: By the way, we had the baptistry in the parking lot.
Speaker 1: We did it in the parking lot and I changed, I put the gown, the white gown, and we went to the parking lot.
Speaker 1: There I called somebody from media to take pictures and you know, 15-year-old girl, we got into the water I was the first into the water and then she comes in and that's the penuel.
Speaker 1: It was her penuel.
Speaker 1: Because of the words she said, I asked her.
Speaker 1: I said are you born again?
Speaker 1: And she said, pastor, I want you to know that I am saved and that Jesus has forgiven me of my sins.
Speaker 1: I am here on behalf of my generation and I want to lead my generation to Jesus.
Speaker 1: Hallelujah.
Speaker 1: So the struggles of the past are broken and I'm entering a new day with Jesus and I call out her name.
Speaker 1: I said, based on your confession of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, I today baptize you and I held her.
Speaker 1: I said you are buried with Christ and you are raised with Christ to walk in the newness of life.
Speaker 1: Hallelujah, I know heaven's opened, matthew, chapter.
Speaker 1: Hallelujah, I know heaven's opened.
Speaker 1: Matthew, chapter 3, yes, heaven's opened and God's affirmation right there God, the Father, son and the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: And this girl is moving under a new move now and it's going to be easy for her, in the name of Jesus.
Speaker 1: There is an altar ready here and you know yourself, you know your scenarios and your situation.
Speaker 1: I'm inviting you to Penuel, the place of divine encounter, the place of divine touch, the place of divine healing, the place of divine reconfiguration, the place where God gives you a new name, the place where God truly blesses you and that blessing changes everything about your life.
Speaker 1: Now, I know that probably if I say people come, then I don't know that this space is enough.
Speaker 1: Pastor Victor, in the first service I saw it and the space was not enough.
Speaker 1: But I think probably what I would do because some people are online and they're following this service and others are actually in the pavilion is actually ask that you separate yourself for God and with God.
Speaker 1: Make that your penuel where you are, because Jacob was alone with God.
Speaker 1: Just turn that place into your penuel, just where you are, and if you are following the service online just where you are turn it into up and well, meaning face of God, connecting with God face to face, and God is going to do something in your life.
Speaker 1: So that place becomes up and well.
Speaker 1: And as I lead us in a prayer, it is very simple.
Speaker 1: God bless us.
Speaker 1: You know, god bless me.
Speaker 1: It's a very simple prayer and I'm trusting God that he will put something new and fresh in your path and that your destiny will be refreshed.
Speaker 1: Your dream is valid.
Speaker 1: You shall be lined up again in the path of that dream, that vision and also that destiny.
Speaker 1: So I ask us to stand up in the name of Jesus.
Speaker 1: Let me pray together.
Speaker 1: Let's pray together, us to stand up in the name of Jesus, that we pray together.
Speaker 1: As we pray together, remember what we started as a journey of prayer, and Reverend Ambrose wrote the seven-fold prayer commitment.
Speaker 1: We took up these cards and in these cards we wrote seven prayer requests, seven people for prayer, seven weeks of prayer and seven prayer expectations, and they were namely God's divine will revealed, god's divine provision manifested, god's divine grace realized, god's divine power unleashed, god's divine wisdom aligned, god's divine presence experienced.
Speaker 1: God's divine transformation actualized At the altar of Penuel is where we bring these cards.
Speaker 1: You may not have it in the physical, but spiritually, by faith, everything you put here.
Speaker 1: We are asking God's hand upon it Because today is the last day isn't it the last Sunday, yes of the journey, of this prayer cycle, and I've raised the altar of Penuel so that we place these cards right there.
Speaker 1: God knows you by name and he knows you are there.
Speaker 1: He understands your scenarios and situations.
Speaker 1: Let us pray, father, in the name of Jesus, I want to thank you so much for a Jacob who realizes that Haran is not their destiny.
Speaker 1: God give us revelation, god give us discernment.
Speaker 1: God open our spiritual eyes to see where we are.
Speaker 1: And just the same way, the prodigal son came to his senses when he was in the garbage pits of life and he was eating with pigs and he had fallen that low in his life.
Speaker 1: Then he came to his senses and he remembered home.
Speaker 1: He remembered his father, he remembered the servants who are eating better than him and said I will arise and I will go back home and I will say sorry to my father.
Speaker 1: And he started on his journey back home, his journey back home.
Speaker 1: Just the same way, jacob realizes that Haran is not my destiny.
Speaker 1: I'm being wasted and I'm wasting my life In this place.
Speaker 1: I'm being wasted In this place.
Speaker 1: I'm wasting my life In this place.
Speaker 1: I'm going through pain In this place.
Speaker 1: I'm just going in circles In this place.
Speaker 1: I'm not advancing In this place.
Speaker 1: I'm not making progress.
Speaker 1: Don't wait any longer, because Jacob must stand up and Jacob must step forth and Jacob must cross the Jabok and Jacob must begin to move in the right direction and Jacob must come to Penuel for an encounter with God.
Speaker 1: My God, I thank you for bringing us to this Sunday service that I call the Penuel Sunday Service A place of encounter, a place of healing, a place of name change, a place of reconfiguration, a place of reprocessing, a place of redirection.
Speaker 1: That Jacob takes a step and moves into the closet in that space with God and wrestles until the blessing comes.
Speaker 1: My God, I thank you for everybody who is listening to this voice, because you told me last Sunday to tell this church that I'm going to say something this Sunday, and it was to raise the Penuel altar, an altar where I reign.
Speaker 1: Every struggle and the yoke of struggle shall be broken and the ease of the move of God in our lives and the grace of God in our lives shall flow like rivers John 7, 38.
Speaker 1: Out of you shall flow rivers of living waters.
Speaker 1: It's not supposed to be a struggle, it's supposed to be a flow.
Speaker 1: It's supposed to be a flow and not a struggle.
Speaker 1: And therefore, god is saying as Jacob is coming to Penuel, I am waiting for you and I am ready to touch your life in a new way.
Speaker 1: My brother, my sister, now come to Penuel.
Speaker 1: Where you are now, I declare, is at Penuel and begin to connect with God, because your journey of life is going to change forever.
Speaker 1: Beginning now, beginning now, beginning now, beginning now, your journey of life is going to change forever and you're going to say bye, bye to Haran and you're going to walk into your destiny with ease, into Bethel, and there you shall raise the altar El Bethel.
Speaker 1: My brother, my sister, god wants to connect with you in whatever area of your life that you have sensed, that you have kind of struggled.
Speaker 1: God is leading you to the promise, the promise destiny, and he did it for Abraham, and he did it for many others and he's doing it for you right now.
Speaker 1: Now, the action is very simple at Penuel, simply lift your hands to God, who is more than able, as a sign of expecting from him, but also as a sign of surrender of your destiny and your life and the direction of everything about you, whether it's business, whether it's school, whether it's career, whether it's marriage, whether it's a neighborhood, whether it's a project, whatever, this is an important moment.
Speaker 1: My God, you can see these hands and therefore I join us in saying, lord, we are not leaving here until you bless us.
Speaker 1: Let it be that desperate that you're saying, god, I'm not leaving here until you bless me.
Speaker 1: You are at that altar and that blessing is going to do a lot of work.
Speaker 1: All you need to do is say, god, bless me, and God will bless you with a covenant blessing that was released on Abraham, on Isaac, on Jacob, refreshed in Genesis, chapter 35, and has been passed on through generations.
Speaker 1: It is called the stream of God's blessing and I am connecting with that flow right now.
Speaker 1: And there is anointing in the house of the Lord.
Speaker 1: You're lifting your hands up to God and you're saying, god, I'm not leaving here until you bless me.
Speaker 1: I can assure you that God opens the heavens every time we play, we say that and God begins to answer that prayer.
Speaker 1: He did it for Jabez, he did it for Jacob, he's doing it for you, he'll do it for your children and he'll do it for generations from you.
Speaker 1: God is giving you a new foundation and he's doing something new.
Speaker 1: Father, now open the heavens.
Speaker 1: Father, pour every blessing in the spiritual realms upon your people, those who are here in the sanctuary in the person, those who are in the pavilion, those who are following online.
Speaker 1: Some are in Germany, others in the UK, others in Italy, others in France, others in the United States.
Speaker 1: There are those in Canada, those in South America, my God, those in Asia, those in the Middle East, lord.
Speaker 1: There are those who are in Australia and New Zealand.
Speaker 1: There are those who are across Africa, north and South and, lord, there are those who are lifting their hands in the islands of the world.
Speaker 1: My God, our faith is in you and, like Jacob, we say we are not leaving here until you bless us.
Speaker 1: And therefore, my brother and my sister receive your blessing now.
Speaker 1: With the anointing I have in union with Jesus, and from this altar, I declare the reception of the blessing of God.
Speaker 1: Receive it now.
Speaker 1: It is your portion and no one can change it.
Speaker 1: Numbers 23, verse 20, says I have blessed and no one can reverse it.
Speaker 1: The blessing you're receiving now is irreversible.
Speaker 1: It is called the divine blessing.
Speaker 1: It is heaven's blessing, it is your heritage, it is your right, it is your portion.
Speaker 1: As you leave this place, everyone listening to this voice, I want you to know you are blessed and because you are blessed, you will arise and shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.
Speaker 1: Because you are blessed, nations will come to your light and kingdoms to the rising of your dome.
Speaker 1: Because you are blessed, you will touch nations.
Speaker 1: You will become a father and mother of nations.
Speaker 1: Your name shall become great.
Speaker 1: You shall lead many to Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Your life shall bring transformation around the world.
Speaker 1: Your life is rising from mediocrity to fruitfulness, because this blessing is going to do a new work and therefore, jacob is no longer Jacob, he's Israel.
Speaker 1: Jacob is no longer in Haran, he's now in Bethel.
Speaker 1: There is change, there is transformation.
Speaker 1: Glory to God.
Speaker 1: The Lord has done something, the Lord has done something and therefore, my brothers and sisters, again lift your hands to God.
Speaker 1: I declare you blessed on Monday.
Speaker 1: You are blessed on Tuesday, blessed on Wednesday, blessed on Thursday.
Speaker 1: Blessed on Friday, blessed this coming Saturday, blessed on Sunday, and you are coming next Sunday with a testimony.
Speaker 1: Glory to God.
Speaker 1: You are coming next Sunday with a testimony.