The Legacy of Jacob - Moriel Ministries

Feature Article – Continued
ties we have (which God gave us), God is not
going to use them until they have gone to the
cross. The natural man has to go.
There are four stages in Jacob’s life. Genesis
25-27 is Jacob as he was. It is encouraging
when we see the way he was and some of the
things he did and yet God loved him and chose
him anyway. It gives me a great deal of assurance
and solace. Genesis 28-31 is the testing
and breaking of Jacob, but then comes the real
crisis point in Genesis 32-36, the “Jabbok Experience”—the
dislocation of his natural life.
And finally in Genesis 37-50 comes the peaceful
fruit of righteousness. Yet even then at the
end of his life and as an old man, Jacob said,
“My life has been difficult” (Gen. 47:9). Not
too many of the great men of the Bible died
happy, but they were mostly all happy to die!
When we have it too good in this world,
we all must have a cross. Why If we do not,
we begin to trust in this world and begin to
get comfortable in it. The cross is for our own
good to keep us out of trouble. We are very
good at getting ourselves into trouble because
we are new creations living in a natural man.
Again, Jacob had the promise of God but was
always trying to get it in his own strength.
He was clever. He was good at scheming
and out-manipulating other people who were
themselves clever and good at scheming. The
blessings were provided to him in the promise
of God, but he felt he had to get them in his
own strength.
It says in Timothy that there are good
works He foreordained for us, and the calling
is from eternity (2 Ti. 1:9). We are not simply
born-again to go to heaven—that is ultimately
true, but we are born-again to do something
now. At some point in life God will show us
what that is—our gifts, our ministry, etc. But
the natural propensity of our human nature is
going to be to get it according to our human
abilities. “I’m a good businessman,” “I’m a
good teacher,” “I’m a good speaker,” “I’m a
good organizer,” “I’m a good musician”—the
natural propensity is going to be to try to get
it according to our own natural devices. That
is what goes to the cross.
Jacob’s Ladder
What happened to Jacob at Bethel “Bethel”
means “the house of God” and it is also
where his father had a turning point experience
in his walk with God (Gen. 12:8; 13:3-
4). Turning point experiences in our walk with
God will always happen at Bethel. If we are
not in church in fellowship, at least a place of
Christians and meetings, we are not going to
reach that turning point with God.
We have a very big problem now. All over
this country, because of the things like the
“Toronto Experience” and the “Lakeland Fiasco,”
because of financial manipulation and
exploitation of Christians, because of false
doctrines, there are Christians who have no
church, so they are meeting at home. These
people in home groups are beginning to meet
with other people in home groups in schools
and things like that. The point is, the church
may not impress us, the church may disappoint
us. In fact the church will disappoint us
because the church is made up of people just
like us.
Jacob was bored in church (at Bethel)—he
fell asleep (Gen. 28:10-17). But what did
he see
He had a dream, and behold, a ladder
was set on the earth with its top reaching
to heaven; and behold, the angels of
God were ascending and descending on
it. (Genesis 28:12)
What do we see in the Gospel of John Jesus
was talking to Nathaniel.
And He said to him, “Truly, truly, I say
to you, you will see the heavens opened
and the angels of God ascending and descending
on the Son of Man.” (John 1:51)
This is describing “Jacob’s Ladder.” We
may not think much of church, but when God
lowers the ladder from heaven, that is where
its base arrives: it comes to the Body of Christ.
That is where the ladder comes to and He
climbs down. When we find people who are
out of fellowship when they have a viable option
to be in fellowship, they have a problem.
Today, in this country, we have a crisis. We
have received many letters and messages from
people being thrown out of their churches
because of things like Toronto. We once had
a man walk into our office from Lister Hill
Baptist Church in Leeds who was very much
into Toronto, very much into women leadership,
very much into ecumenism, and he was
thrown out because he objected to the following:
a trans-sexual transvestite had himself
castrated, wears women’s clothes and women’s
hairstyles, comes to church and breaks
the bread in holy communion at an Evangelical,
charismatic, Toronto Blessing Baptist
church. The people in this church accept
“her” as a sister in faith, and her “ministry” is
breaking the bread for holy communion even
though the DNA in every cell of his body says
he is not a “sister” in faith. He is a backslidden
brother, if he was a believer to begin with,
and he needs to repent. They threw this guy
out because he said this is an abomination.
People say to me, “What is going to be
worse than what took place in Toronto or
Lakeland” Most of us have seen these videos
of Rodney Howard-Browne, Kenneth Copeland,
Todd Bentley and company, and are absolutely
appalled. What is going to be worse
It is going to come to immorality. What we
see in Lister Hill Baptist is only a harbinger of
what is going to come. The Word of God gives
us patterns, and these things are going to come
to immorality. So we have people with nowhere
to go. Every day we get requests from
people, “Where can I go What can I do”
Jacob does not realize it while he is there,
so God shows it to him in a dream.
So Jacob rose early in the morning, and
took the stone that he had put under his
head and set it up as a pillar and poured
oil on its top.
(It was an anointed place.)
He called the name of that place Bethel…
(“The house of God”)
…however, previously the name of the
city had been Luz. Then Jacob made a
vow, saying, “If God will be with me and
will keep me on this journey that I take,
and will give me food to eat and garments
to wear,
(He was not asking for much, just his needs.)
and I return to my father’s house in safety,
then the LORD will be my God. “This
stone, which I have set up as a pillar,
will be God’s house, and of all that You
give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”
(Genesis 28:18-22)
The church is an anointed place.
One of the problems of the natural man is
he thinks he does not need the fellowship of
other believers—that he does not have to come
to the house of God. I was at a Full Gospel
Businessman’s meeting and there were those
standing up and saying, “God has shown me
to get away from this” and “I’m fulfilled in
the Lord so I don’t need this.” That is not
God. It is an anointed place. If we want Jesus
to come down from heaven and meet with us
on that ladder, He is going to do it in the house
of God; that is the place He has ordained.
That was a turning point, a pivotal place for
Abraham as well as Jacob, and it is going to
be for us as well. But the natural man thinks
he can stand alone. No, the Bible says, “Iron
sharpens iron” (Pr. 27:17).
God is sovereign. He did not come to save
you, He came to save all of us. Jesus is not
coming for you, He is coming for His Bride.
You have to be part of it. The natural man
thinks he can stand alone, but he cannot. He
thinks He can meet with God on his own
terms, but he cannot. It is in the house of God
that the ladder is going to come down.
Again, I feel very sorry for those people
whose only choice seems to be between Kenneth
Hagin’s church up the street or the ecumenical
one around the corner or the Toronto
one beneath the bed, but God has a solution
for that problem. I do not know what it is yet,
but Jesus still wants to come down that ladder
and meet with us, and it is going to happen in
the house of God.
The Character of a “Shrewdy”
God knew what Jacob was like. Look how
Jacob “made a vow” (Gen. 28:20). “If you
give me this, I’ll give you that.” Jews love
to negotiate. How are we going to negotiate
with God God lays down the terms of the
covenant. God knew Jacob wanted to make a
deal. God knew that Jacob was going to try to
attain these blessings and purposes and callings
of God in his own strength. Did God try
to rebuke him and say, “Jacob, don’t do that”
No. I could speak until I was blue in the face
and try to tell you, “Don’t do that” because I
Moriel Quarterly • March 2012