Download The Storehouse

The Storehouse
01 September 2013
Richard Preston
THE SHAPE OF THE INAUGURATED KINGDOM (No. 7)
THE PRESENCE OF GOD No. 4
Connecting with God face to face.
1. INTRODUCTION
 so many people, so many times find themselves in God’s presence
with no change  stirring worship, inspirational preach, stunning
testimony
 this is not a new phenomenon – the Bible is full of this
Jacob
- # Gen.28:10-22
- life changing encounter with God
- dream  stairway  angels  THE LORD
- given the promises of Abraham
- covenant
- “house of God” and “gate of heaven”
- makes covenantal vow
i.
serve God
ii.
build His house
iii.
tithe
- notwithstanding all of this, not much evidence that it really
changed him
- Jacob means deceiver, supplanter, slanderer, conniver,
manipulator, schemer, swindler
- this was done prophetically. It really was his nature  we
would call him a con artist
- how do you have this kind of encounter with God and not
change?
 he had entered into a heavenly realm
 yet his nature did not change
2. FACE OF GOD
 about 20 years later God meets with him again
 at a place called Peniel = face of God
 wrestled with “a man”  angel of the Lord  God
 “wrestling”
- God could have won in 1 second
- waiting patiently
 Jacob wanted protection from Esau
 God wanted to go deeper
 not only going to get a promise, but a new
nature
 deal with the Jacob nature
 what is your name?
- strange question in a wrestling match
- who are you?
- “Jacob”
 deceiver, swindler
 what God was looking for <honesty> NB
 Jacob confessed his heart
- renamed to Israel = wrestle, persevere!
  40 years old
 has Abraham’s promise
 will become a nation
 the Messiah from his lineage
 only now is he really changed
 he had to journey from the house of God (Bethel) to the face of
God (Peniel)
- up to this time God referenced as God of Abraham and
Isaac, never Jacob
- Jacob would say “the God of my fathers”.
- after Peniel and after his nature changed he built an altar
and inscribes on it “the God of Israel”
- “He is my God”
- David Psalm 23 “the Lord is MY shepherd”
- he then only stepped into his true destiny and became the
father of the 12 tribes of Israel and gave his name to the
nation.
3. THE TENT OF MEETING
<car racing game
<place of wrestling
<place of honesty
4. TRANSFORMED INTO THE IMAGE OF JESUS
- disciples like Jesus
- passion for God
presence of Holy Spirit
prophetic
power
proclamation
purpose