How To Pray Breakthrough Prayers The King's Church International Audio Podcast

In our series on Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, we see how God had a great plan for every generation. He made promises of limitless multiplication and of the land of Israel to the Jewish people.
But each generation had to learn how to take hold of their blessing. The third generation, Jacob, also had to press through to receive his blessing. 
 
God warns against praying with vain repetition, saying the words but they’re not from the heart (Jeremiah 29:13). Jacob was a man who got God’s attention with a breakthrough prayer and in doing so got his life, family and future back on track (Genesis 32:24-28). 
 
This is a message of hope for you and for your family. You might be ‘on the run’ from God, ducking and diving, putting on a brave face to cover your desperation or wondering if there’s a future for you. Well God has not forgotten you. God loves you, He still has a plan for your life, and He wants to introduce you to the new life He has for you, just like He did for Jacob. Jacob didn’t assume God’s blessing on his life was automatic. To receive his blessing, we see some key points from Jacob’s life: 
  
1. Jacob had to be brought to a place of desperation (Genesis 25:22-23; Genesis 5:24; Genesis 25:29-33; Genesis 27; Genesis 31; Genesis 32:7-8; Ephesians 2:8) 
2. Jacob had to cry out in his desperation (Psalm 34:17; Genesis 32:24; Psalm 145:19) 
3. Jacob had to push through (Genesis 32:25-28) 
4. Jacob was changed forever (Genesis 32:27-32) 
 
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1. Jacob had to be brought to a place of desperation. Jacob had a past that had caught up with him. He had been a deceiver and he had been deceived. After a long time of barrenness, his mother Rebekah became pregnant with twins (Genesis 25:22-23).
Being born first meant that Esau was entitled to the birthright - the inheritance, wealth and blessings from his father. The name Jacob means deceiver/supplanted/heel grabber (be careful how you name your children!) - and Jacob went on to live up to this name (Genesis 5:24). To get ahead of his older brother, Jacob tricked Esau into selling him his birthright (Genesis 25:29-33). Then, when his father Isaac was at his life’s end, he wanted to bless his firstborn son, but Jacob and his mother plotted to steal the blessing from Esau. Jacob successfully conned his father into giving him Esau’s blessing, which enraged Esau (Genesis 27). Jacob had become a deceiver and got what he wanted. But sure enough, when he was forced to leave the family home, he began to reap what he had sown. Whilst working for his uncle Laban, Jacob was deceived into marrying the wrong woman after a 7 year wait, and then had to work another 7 years to get the wife he had been promised (Genesis 29). Additionally, his uncle Laban changed his wages 10 times (Genesis 31). It was at this time he decided to return to his father’s household and face up to his past that was catching up with him. So Jacob sent a message to his brother along with some gifts to pacify him.

The message came back to him that Esau was on his way to meet him with 400 men, and Jacob was terrified. Desperation brings us to a place where we acknowledge our deep need for the Lord. For Jacob that was after his brother had vowed to kill him, forcing him to run for his life. Trouble drives us to our knees (Genesis 32:7-8). Jacob prepared for the worst and tried to put things right by sending gifts ahead of himself. Spiritual death comes when we think we have everything under control. When you are brought to a place of desperation, you realise your breakthrough isn’t going to come from your own efforts. You realise that something bigger than you is needed. God is not looking for our performance, He’s looking for our surrender, our admission that we’re undone without Him. Jacob had to come to a new humility. God is not out to humiliate us, but to bring us to reality so that He can give us a brand new life (Ephesians 2:8). What matters in your crisis i