“And they journeyed from Bethel and had but a little way to go to Ephrath [Bethlehem]
when Rachel suffered the pangs of childbirth and had hard labor.
When she was in hard labor, the midwife said to her, Do not be afraid; you shall have this son
also. And as her soul was departing, for she died, she called his name Ben-oni [son of my sorrow];
but his father called him Benjamin [son of the right hand].
Genesis 35:16-18
As Rachel was dying she called her son Ben-oni and rightly so in her mind because she was about
to die. Because of the pain she was experiencing she named him but Jacob gave him another name.
A name of blessing which spoke of God’s plan and purpose for his life.
The temptation is great to listen to the names people call us because we think they “know” us.
We allow the words of man to define us because we think they really do know us. Either because
they have been friends for a really long time or because they are family but the truth of the matter
is that God is the only One who really knows us. We need to look to Him to tell us who we are and
not man.
I am not saying we should stop listening to the encouraging words of friends, family, mentors, teachers
and the other people in our lives but what I am saying is that we need to be very careful we don’t stop
with what they tell us we can be or do.
Rachel is a picture of man who makes decisions about us and speak based on what they see.
Jacob is a picture of God and what He sees. Even when it’s not clear to us or anyone else, God knows
the plans He has for us.
He knows all the great things we will do and that’s what He speaks over us.
“Jabez was honorable above his brothers; but his mother named him Jabez [sorrow maker], saying,
Because I bore him in pain.
Jabez cried to the God of Israel, saying, Oh, that You would bless me and enlarge my border, and
that Your hand might be with me, and You would keep me from evil so it might not hurt me!
And God granted his request.”
1 Chronicles 4:9, 10
Jabez was given a name by man but he prayed for God to bless him. He was tired of being called
Sorrow-Maker. He knew God had something better for him so he prayed and God granted
his request! I love that so much. You don’t have to live by what man says you can or can’t do.
Just because man thinks you can’t doesn’t mean that’s true. What matters is what God thinks and
says about you!
For a long time I lived by other people’s scripts. I was okay with living in the box they made for me. But
when I gave my life to Christ things changed radically. The Lord opened my eyes to what He had in store
for me. He showed me a glimpse of what He had in store which was so much higher and greater than
what man said I could do. Bit by bit the chains began to be broken off.
Don’t let man define what you can do. Let God’s word be what directs you and drives you.
Don’t be limited by all the perceptions and images man has put on you.
God has an amazing plan for your life.
Let go of the words that have been spoken over you that have limited you and live
by who God says you are.
Bless you friends
Rolain
kingspeech 