Back To Bethel

This week in my quiet time I was praying, waiting on the Lord and word came up in my spirit. 

God  revealed to me that it was word not just for me but it was a word for those who would hear meaning the church.  

The word He spoke to my spirit was this 

Back to Bethel

So as the Lord is speaking this to my spirit over and over I knew what story he was referring to and I’m gonna paraphrase it for you but I’ll give you the scripture address. 

so I went to and I’m gonna paraphrase it for you but I’ll give you the scripture address. 

Starting out it’s 

Let me just give you a rundown of what’s going on right now.

Abraham had Isaac,  Isaac had  Esau and Jacob. Jacob has basically tricked his brother out of his birthright at this point and he is running from Esau fearing for  his life . 

Isaac sent his son Jacob away to find a wife. 

on his journey  Jacob finds a good place to set up camp at sundown.

He ends up having a dream and in the dream he sees a stairway that reaches from earth to heaven

(so this is where we can get a stairway to heaven or Jacobs ladder from.)

But on that stairway he sees the angels of God going up and down the stairway at the top of the stairs is the Lord and the Lord says

“ I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham and your father Isaac. The ground you’re on, belongs to you, I’m giving it to you and your descendants. your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth and they will spread out in all directions, I will protect you.... And I will bring you back to this land one day.” 

When Jacob wakes up and he says “surely the Lord is in this place and I wasn’t even aware of it”.

So he takes a stone and he places it up as an altar and he pours olive oil over it and he named the place  Bethel...house of God 

Beth=House of 

El=God 

many times it seems that when God speaks to me he speaks to me in relation to what’s happening in the world, current affairs.

So I was really listening to see if he had something to say to us about the deception, hate and corruption that is happening in our world, and in particular, the United States

So as you can imagine I was a little surprised when I heard him speak those three words to me; back to Bethel. 

then to confirm my heart  the Holy Spirit said

“ it’s time to go back to Bethel” 

As I said, I knew the Holy Spirit was speaking to me about the place where Jacob had his open have an encounter with God. 

But I had to understand why. expand

So I think we need to ask some questions about Bethel right now. 

What is the significance of Bethel? 

What does Bethel mean to me? 

Why do I need to go back to Bethel? 

What happened at Bethel?

First of all Bethel is where Jacob spent the night when he was running for his life after cheating his brother out of his birthright.

# Remember # 

Bethel is where Jacob has open heaven encounter with God

Bethel is where Jacob vowed to serve God and honor him with this tithes. 

Bethel was the place where Jacob landed when he was running from his brother Esau.

Bethel was a place of weakness. In other words it was a place where Jacob‘s weakness was exposed.

Bethel is a place where Jacob made a pillar of stones and poured oil on it and declared the place to be the gate of heaven. 

Bethel is where Jacob had a personal experience and encounter with God

I know this word won’t speak to everybody right now because some of you hopefully are really walking closer to God than ever in your whole life right? 

But here’s the reality of it today… It doesn’t matter who you are or how close you’ve walked with God or how anointed you are or have been.

we have a tendency to begin to pick up stuff as we go along.

We have a tendency to get lazy, to get sloppy.

We have a tendency to become half hearted about our relationship with God.

We have a tendency to become independent and self-sufficient.

We have a tendency to drift off course.

We have a tendency to think we don’t need to pray like we used to and we don’t need to read and study the Bible like we used to.

Bucket and bricks , start

It happens to us all… That’s why from time to time the Holy Spirit will speak to us, if we will listen, and he will say, it’s time to go back to Bethel. 

Yes we are always talking about going forward,

 the DNA of God is forward 

but sometimes to go forward you have to go back. 

Back to your first love.

Back to the place where you needed God back to the place where you had a personal experience with God.

Back to the place where you were hungry for God.

Back to the place and the time were the most important thing in your life was your relationship with God.

> Bethel is a place of stripping off all the excess. 

> Bethel is a place of returning to our first love. 

> Bethel is a place of getting rid of all the useless junk that we have a cumulated. 

> Bethel is the place where we lay aside every weight and  the sin that doth so easily beset us and run with patience the race that is set before us.

Bucket and bricks end

How did Jacob get to Bethel the first time. 

Jacob came to Bethel the first time as he was running from his brother Esau. 

He was running in fear. 

Jacob was running away. 

At this time Jacob basically had nothing but the clothes on his back.

But he God promised him something his first time at Bethel and years later as Jacob trusted God and followed God, 

Then God blessed and prospered Jacob.

Just like Jacob, your first time at Bethel God has promised to see you through things.

Jacob had increased, and had grown wealthy. 

Jacob was not alone anymore, he had a large family. 

Jacob had many descendants. He had herds and flocks.

Jacob had servants

But true to human nature, even though God had blessed and prospered him, Jacob drifted  off course.

Not only had Jacob drifted off course but everyone in his family 

and everyone of his descendants had drifted off course too. 

What I mean is they had began to accumulate the world‘s junk. 

They began to mingle with the spirit of the culture of the world. 

They had become comfortable with other gods. 

Their hearts had grown cold and indifferent towards God.

!!!!!!Fathers are you hearing me!??

See Jacob is the head, the leader, the captain of the crew and he drifted off course so everyone under him did as well. 

But aren’t you glad for the love in the mercy of God?

He could have just let them fall right off the cliff.

He could have let them self-destruct. But he didn’t, and he doesn’t, he sends us warnings.

He puts up roadblocks. 

One of the most powerful truths you will ever witness are the seven roadblocks on the road to hell.

In other words, God makes it very hard for someone to go to hell.

If you go to hell you’ll have to climb over seven different roadblocks.

The word of God. The mercy of God. The blood of Jesus. The witness of the Saints. The conviction of the Holy Spirit. Your mothers prayers/the prayers of the Saints. The preachers messages.

The mercy of God.

The blood of Jesus.

The witness of the Saints. The conviction of the Holy Spirit. Your mothers prayers/the prayers of the Saints. The preachers messages.

The witness of the Saints.

The conviction of the Holy Spirit. Your mothers prayers/the prayers of the Saints. The preachers messages.

Your mothers prayers/the prayers of the Saints. The preachers messages.

The preachers messages.

See God saw Jacob getting off course and he sent him some roadblocks he sent him a message. What was the message?… Go back to Bethel. 

Genesis 35:1–7 NLT

1 Then God said to Jacob, “Get ready and move to Bethel and settle there. Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother, Esau.” 2 So Jacob told everyone in his household, “Get rid of all your pagan idols, purify yourselves, and put on clean clothing. 3 We are now going to Bethel, where I will build an altar to the God who answered my prayers when I was in distress. He has been with me wherever I have gone.” 4 So they gave Jacob all their pagan idols and earrings, and he buried them under the great tree near Shechem. 5 As they set out, a terror from God spread over the people in all the towns of that area, so no one attacked Jacob’s family. 6 Eventually, Jacob and his household arrived at Luz (also called Bethel) in Canaan. 7 Jacob built an altar there and named the place El-bethel (which means “God of Bethel”), because God had appeared to him there when he was fleeing from his brother, Esau.

Jalen music till altar call starts then Wes take over with instrumental. 

This is what I felt the Holy Spirit saying to me.

And it was confirmed Friday in my office

actually while it is definitely important what is happening in our country, God’s primary focus and his primary concern is not the White House it’s His house.

In other words it’s not the politicians that the Holy Spirit is concentrating on right now it’s the Christians. 

Primarily and most critically it’s the Christians who have drifted away from God. 

You can go to church every Sunday,

pay your tithes,

sing in the choir,

and still be far from God. 

I feel in my spirit today that I am feeling the heart of God. 

I believe that many are being distracted from their  relationship with God and they are drifting off course. 

Notice that these were Jacobs family, Jacobs descendants and Jacob servants… 

Jacob the man who had an open heaven encounter with God. 

Jacob the man who had wrestled with an angel and had his name changed to Israel. 

Jacob had drifted away from God. 

Jacob’s godly influence had faded away till now his family and his servants were worshiping other gods. 

It seems almost impossible. How can it be possible that this great man of God who had experienced such a powerful supernatural divine encounter could drift so far from God. 

It tells me… The same thing can happen to anyone of us.

 If you and I do not stay in pursuit of God we can grow cold and before you know it you have let your heart be captured by other gods. 

Your children become more important than God. 

Your job becomes more important. 

Your reputation becomes more important. 

Your comfort and your complacency becomes more important than God. 

So What do you do? 

You follow the same path that Jacob took you make your way back to Bethel. 

Today this church service can be Bethel for you , it can be the very instrument that God is using to bring you home to bring you back to a right relationship with him.

 I know this word is for us 

I know this word is for you 

and I know this word is for me. 

I know God is calling us back to Bethel. 

Why because we have a hard road ahead of us we need to get back to our first love.

 And I know it’s not an easy trip back to Bethel but I know it will be worth it.