Go Up To Bethel

The place of true blessing in life is to live in the place where we meet with God.

Summary

Every person needs to have their own encounter with God, and live a life dedicated to Him.  The greatest blessing in our lives is to live with God’s presence and favor upon us.  Jacob is an example of a man who inherited the faith of his fathers, but it became real at Bethel.  Later in life, he wandered from the place of meeting with God, and he began to tolerate idols in his house.  It was troubles in his life that caused him to return to the place where he met God.

Outline

1. Jacob went out from Beersheba and went towards Padan Aram.
   1. He left because his brother Esau intended to kill him.
   2. From Genesis 28:1, Isaac called Jacob and told him he did not want him to marry from among the Canaanites – he needed a God given partner to fulfill destiny.
   3. He left in obedience to his parents.
   4. He came to a place and decided to sleep.
   5. In the midst of the hardness of the soil, Jacob slept and had a dream.
   6. He saw angels ascended and descending, and on top of the ladder the Lord Himself was standing.
   7. God Himself spoke to Jacob and ratified the covenant with his fathers.
   8. God promised to be with him wherever he goes – He would not leave until He has fulfilled all that He has said about him.
   9. The purpose of God will be fulfilled in our lives.
   10. When he woke up, he was amazed because God was in that place and he named it Bethel.
   11. The Lord is with us.
   12. What you are running from is not important, what is important is that God meets with us.
   13. There is going to be a turnaround in our lives.
2. Genesis 35 – there is no container we have that is too great for God to fill.
   1. As long as we keep opening up to God, He will continually fill us.
   2. After Simeon and Levi slaughtered a whole city, God spoke with Jacob and told him to go back to Bethel.
   3. God calls us to go back to the place where we meet with God.
   4. Some people are having problems because we are not where we are supposed to be.
   5. Bethel is the place of fellowship with God.
3. Revelation 2:1-4 – to the church of Ephesus – the people were doing everything, but they lost their first love.
   1. We need to go back to that place where we first met Jesus, where He is our all and all.
   2. He wants our hearts to be filled with His love, so that we love Him with all of our heart.
   3. Better is a place of having good dreams, until Jacob got back to Bethel, he had no dreams of heaven.
   4. We need to dream again, and see angels ascending and descending.
   5. It is in the place of fellowship, worship and rest that we get such dreams.
4. Psalm 91:1 – We are to dwell in the secret place of the Most High.
   1. Such people will abide under the shelter of the Almighty.
   2. Jacob was told to dwell at Bethel.
   3. There God will be with Jacob.
   4. In the presence there is fullness of joy, there is anointing, and there is freedom.
   5. Bethel is a place where you have good dreams, where God talks to you about the dreams He has for you.
   6. The absence of Bethel, we fall into spiritual deafness and blindness.
5. Before Jacob went back, he commanded his family to put away their strange gods, to change their garments and to be clean.
   1. Jacob had been with his family this whole time, and he had never said anything before about the strange Gods.
   2. God never addressed the strange Gods, yet when He called him to go to Bethel, Jacob knew the requirements and did what he should have been doing.
   3. All the while, Jacob was satisfied with the increase of his possessions, until God showed up. – the truth is that with all of that, Jacob had not come into the blessing.
   4. When you come into the place of deep blessing you come into the position of authority and dominion.
6. Galatians 3:6-7
   1. For us to be children of Abraham, we need to believe God – we need a personal relationship with God.
   2. Even though God made covenant with his fathers, God had to come down and visit Jacob personally.
   3. The blessing is not just for our personal benefit, but to become a blessing to nations.
   4. Don’t be satisfied with what we have now. Ultimately we need to be satisfied with Jesus. Is our master (Jesus) satisfied with us?
   5. Are we in the place of fellowship? Are we in the place of first love?
   6. We need Jesus in our heart as our Lord and Savior.
7. Problems cannot stop God’s purposes in your life.
   1. The times God showed up in Jacob’s life were the times God showed up.
   2. Problems do not mean the absence of God.