Ok, it’s time for a message.
Now just before Jacob (Israel) died, he had the occasion to bless the two sons of Joseph. The account in scripture is found in Genesis 48:14. This is what is says “then Jacob stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim’s head who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands knowingly because Manasseh was Joseph’s first born”. Now Joseph was not happy with this because he knew his firstborn son, Manasseh, was supposed to get the greater blessing of the right hand. So Joseph grabbed his father’s hands and tried to reverse them. But Jacob knew what he was doing – God had plans to make the younger boy greater, so Joseph would have to live with that. God’s ways are not our ways – we have to learn to live with that. Now many believers are just like Joseph and make this same mistake today, but in a greater way. We say we have given our lives to the Lord – many of us can remember the exact day and time we did so – but then there are those times when we take the Lord’s hand and try to move Him to bless the direction we want to go with things. We act as if our plans for the life we gave Him are better than His plans for lives that are now His.
Listen, if you say you have given your life to the Lord then your life is now His and not yours anymore. To give is to exchange ownership from the giver to the receiver. If you have really given your life to Him, it would be great for you to learn to keep your hands off what belongs to Him. Now don’t be discouraged; I know this can feel like a hard thing to hear. I know because I have been guilty of this sin many times myself, so I am speaking to you about something I know very well. But there are blessings for you in what I am saying. I’ve wanted to go in a different direction than the path I was on. I have taken hold of my life and tried to change things on my own when God was saying “let Me handle this for you – I know what I am doing”.
When you give your life to the Lord and then take it back, you set yourself up to get the lessor of any blessings from Him you would have received because He will not do things your way. If you want the blessings of the right hand of God, you need to learn to keep your little hands off your life and let Him do with it as He pleases. He knows what He is doing – His way will be better and greater for you. We have to learn to live the life that He gives back to us and to stop trying to live the life we gave Him. Live a Delivered Life. Love you.
Live Delivered 