Naphtali

Naphtali

Bilhah conceived again and gave birth to another son. And when the child was born, Rachel said, “With great wrestling I have wrestled with my sister, and indeed I have prevailed.” So she called his name Naphtali. The name Naphtali in the Hebrew means “my wrestling,”

There has been a lost concept in the modern church that we see the Holy Spirit birthing and restoring to the body of Christ. It is the spirit to contend. Our seven /eleven mentality has been to get it and get it now and if I have to wait for it I don’t need it. Most of the modern church has no spirit to contend and our lackluster results reveal it. This wrestling of the saints is not appealing I grant you but without it the church is weakened.

Proactive vs. Reactive

We are constantly reliant on someone else to get our breakthrough for us. At some point each individual Christian is given opportunity to wrestle. The Church at large basically functions in a reactive state. When we are in need, or our back is against the wall, or in a state of crisis we wrestle. We wrestle against our flesh, we wrestle against darkness, or we wrestle with God. But there is a position of power when we cease to be reactive and become proactive. The Lord said, “Ask and it shall be given, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be open to you.” Sometimes you can do one or the other, sometimes you have to do all three. When we think of Smith Wigglesworth, we think of mass meetings and “wholesale” healings. But at times he would spend all night in prayer just for one healing. He practiced the art of praying before he prayed. When Jesus came to the tomb of Lazarus He makes a tell tale statement, He said, “Father I thank you that you heard me.” (Jn.11:41) Every translation I know of translates this passage past tense. He did not come to pray, He had already prayed. He was proactive in His spiritual life. We are quick to lay hands and pray in a reactive state and see little to no results instead of being proactive in our lives and learning to pray and contend for the breakthrough before the situation avails itself. The scriptures tells us to “contend” for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints. (Jude 1:3).

We translate spiritual warfare to mean spiritual defense. Christians who are not proactive always function from the position of defense.

In the concept of warfare, “wrestling” is the most up close and personal type of warfare imaginable. It conjures up the image of hand to hand combat and seeing the enemy eye to eye. And a lot of times it isn't pretty. It never looks like some choreographed fight scene from some martial arts movie. It looks more like a real dog fight in the trenches even when you succeed you don’t always come out looking pretty. Jacob walked with a gimp for the rest of his life after a night of wrestling with the Lord, but he walked away with the blessing.

There are two basic directions of wrestling, what you are wrestling for and what you are wrestling against. Paul said, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual host of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Eph. 6:12). I believe all people who God uses mightily in intercession are functional in both playing fields. We have seen time and again God use one man to bring break through for many. Like David when he defeated Goliath, all of Israel enjoyed the fruits of his victory. One person can knock a wall down and watch many pour through the opening that has been created. Daniel contended for an answer and the kingdom of God is still benefiting from his breakthrough and the revelation he received 2600 years ago.

People who do not involve themselves in intercession place no value on this concept of wrestling. For thousands of years the church has stood on the shoulders of men and women who have contended for and received revelation from the Lord. We act as if power comes to the scholarly but power comes to the contenders.

Jacob contended for God’s blessing, “I will not let you go unless you bless me,” is what he said as he wrestled. The person he wrestled with spoke a blessing over him, and what a blessing it was. He said, “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.” Having power with God is key. We seek to have power over and power against but fail to have power with. Israel had power with God.

When it comes to intercession we must sometimes contend against. A classic example of this is Abraham in Gen. 15:11. God makes a covenant with Abraham and Abraham offers sacrifice to God in a Chaldean ritual were the agreeing parties pass between animals that have been sacrificed for the purpose of a blood covenant. But as Abraham waited on God, birds of prey came down on the sacrifices that Abraham had prepared for the Lord and Abraham drove them off. It is tough when you see what you have offered to the Lord come under attack, whether it be your home, your family, your Church, or some other area that you have offered up the Lord in service or sacrifice or covenant. And see the enemy come and try to pick apart your sacrifice, sometimes you have to be vigilante over what you have offered to God in sacrifice. You would think that what is being offered to God in sacrifice would fall under some kind of divine protection and you would not be required to keep some kind of vigil over it. This was not the case in Abrahams life and on one of the most important days of his life. I Pet. 5:8 says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” The word vigilant is taken from the Greek word gregareuo which means keep awake and watch.

In Francis Frangapagne’s book “The Three Battlegrounds,” he effectively deals with three areas of contention for believers. My own version would be the mind (or soul), the Spirit, and heavenly places. It is hard to tell where one arena ends and another begins because they are all connected and they all have overlapping effects. We can be effective in all three when we function from the position of power, “as a prince you have power with God.”

Eph. 6:12 says, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,” for many Christians it would simply say, “For we wrestle Not!’

written by

Rusty Owens

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