TRANSFORMATION

You remember that when God and Jacob are wrestling, the Bible says that God dislocated Jacob’s hip. He pulled it out of the socket.
Bible says this, Genesis 32:31 (NLT) “The sun rose as Jacob left Peniel and he was limping because of his hip.” After you have had a genuine encounter with God, you’re going to have a limp. What is the significance of this limp? Three things:
ONE, for his entire life Jacob had run from conflict. He’d run from his brother. He’d run from his dad. He’d run from his wife. He had run from his father-in-law. He’d run from God.
God said, “We’ll fix that. No more running. I’m just going to touch your hip so you will limp the rest of your life. You’ll never solve a problem by running from it.” SECOND, it was a daily reminder to trust God. He touched him on his thigh. You know what your thigh muscle is? It is the strongest muscle in your body. It’s the biggest muscle. God touched Jacob at the point of his greatest strength. He said, You’re no longer going to rely on self-strength any more. You’re going to rely on Me.
THE THIRD meaning of it, when he walked with a limp, is that Jacob emerged both stronger and weaker. He was weaker because he couldn’t walk on his own power any more. And he was stronger because God said you’re going to walk in my power. You’ll never walk the same again. You’ve got a new identity.
God’s champions, the men and women that God has always used greatest in life have always walked with a limp. There may be an emotional limp, a physical limp, a mental limp, a relational limp. But there’s going to be something in your life that keeps you remembering it’s about God not about you.
Paul said it like this: “To keep me from becoming conceited I was given a thorn in the flesh [a limp] to torment me. Three times I pleaded with God to take it away from me. But he said, ‘My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I boast about my weaknesses so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”