“Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.” Genesis 32:24

This last Saturday and Sunday we had the privilege of being prophetically ministered to at Mountain Life Church by Pastors Jonathan and Elena Wilkins, friends of our pastors from California. They’d been here about two years ago and I was very excited about their returning. Why? The reason is simple. The last time Pastor Jonathan spoke something into my life that he could not possibly have known, something specific which few people know about me and my deepest longings. His words could only have come   under the Holy Spirit’s direction. The short prophetic encounter flipped a switch in my understanding of the prophetic. It wrecked me for a week.

Don’t misunderstand. From childhood I’ve known about the Holy Spirit, theologically that is, as One Person in the Trinity. But, I did not “know” the Holy Spirit. I had no clue what “Person” meant, that He is real and that He still operates in men and women. Truthfully, I have had to unlearn almost everything that I was taught. Or more specifically, what was kept hidden and not taught. It is to my ongoing bafflement – and probably to God’s great ongoing amusement -that He plunked me into a charismatic, Pentecostal Church under the guidance of Spirit filled leaders. Smile, if you must.

I knew that Pastor Jonathan would bring powerful, encouraging Words to our leadership. This time as I listened to him and Elena speaking to others, I was struck with how much God loves His children and His Church. He knows us more than we know ourselves and certainly loves us infinitely more.

Over and over I heard the word “tenacity” being spoken over our team. It seems we are a tenacious bunch at Mountain Life Church and it seems that God is actually pleased with that. No matter what our age or circumstance, each person has endured difficult seasons. Despite all that, the Word is that we have held on to the Lord’s promises with tenacity and God will be faithful to fulfill His Word.

On Saturday there was a large photo on the screen which looked like El Capitan, the mountain in Yosemite which was recently in the news because two young climbers had “free climbed” the notoriously difficult Dawn Wall. Surely, the choice of photos was not accidental.  As Jonathan prophesies, I stared at it.

The word tenacity means holding onto or gripping something with purpose and almost dogged determination. It implies extreme endurance and almost a stubborn, beyond reasonable going after something we want.   That would certainly describe the two rock climbers who clung to El Capitan with their fingers, with every inch of strength because their lives depended on it.

Tenacity is the dogged persistence of Jacob wrestling with the Angel of the Lord in Genesis 32:24. In fact, his grip on the angel was so strong that his hip was dislocated in the struggle.

When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh; so the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him.… Genesis 32: 25

Jacob held on with a painful, dislocated hip until he got what he wanted. That is tenacious, unrelenting holding on for something not yet received. For his tenacity of endurance Jacob received a new name from God and became the Father of the Israelites.

Tenacity is Job who refused to “curse God and die”, no matter how   dreadfully he was tested. Despite losing everything he had, family, possessions, health, and receiving instead condemnation from his friends and wife, being blamed for the evils which befell him, Job clings to his Rock and continues to bless God.

Though he slay me, still I will trust in the Lord.” Job: 13 :33

For his tenacity of trust Job was given more family, possessions and even longer life than he had before.

Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. Job 42:12

Tenacity is the woman with the issue of blood told in all three synoptic Gospels. She had endured for many years at the hands of doctors who could not cure her. Finally, desperate for healing she seeks out Jesus and in secrecy touches His garment. As the story goes Jesus felt power going out of Him, finds the woman and heals her because of her faith.

            Be of good cheer, daughter, your faith has made you well. Matthew 9:21

Hers was tenacity born of desperation which showed up as clinging, tenacious   faith,  even just for  Christ’s hem. For that she was healed by the Lord and got what no one else could give.

Like the climbers on El Capitan, we also cling tenaciously to a mighty rock. But ours is the Lord, the Rock to whom we run for safety and deliverance. He is stronghold, fortress, salvation, refuge, shield and the one who is always beyond our natural resources.

The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I
take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. … Psalm 18:2

From the end of the earth will I cry to you, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Psalm 61.2

The New Testament reveals Jesus as the Rock, the foundation of the Church he would build on earth.

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my
church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. … Matthew 16:18

The gates of hell won’t prevail  against us in Christ Jesus if we hang on tenaciously to Christ the Rock.   Even when our grip becomes  feeble, we will not slip and fall off the mountain.   If Christ is for us, nothing can prevail against us.

I may question my own tenacity but I never have to question Jesus’ or the Father’s or the Holy Spirit’s. Human perseverance and relentlessness and tenacity for righteousness is nothing if not the reflection of God’s own character. Hasn’t God pursued mankind tenaciously  since the Fall and sent Jesus finish the work? Did not Jesus persevere to the end, holding on to the Father even to the end? And will He  not put all things firmly under His feet in Revelation’s final vision?  The Holy Spirit’s   never ceases  breathing God’s Word into and over us.   We become tenacious for the things of the Spirit because God’s love for us is tenacious first. His Word relentlessly goes forth  in its purposes and will not quit or return unfulfilled.

Christ  the Word  is  the Mighty Rock. Hold on to Him with  tenacious, determined, dogged   faith. Be just like  like Jacob, Job and the woman.  While it might look like you are precariously gripping  insurmountable mountains,   Jesus  will not let go of a single precious finger of your hand in His.

EAG