“My Father will Feel Me”
Genesis 27:12 KJV
“My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing.”
Genesis 27:21 KJV
“And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not.”
The Bible says in Genesis 27:1-4 KJV, “And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son: and he said unto him, Behold, here am I. And he said, Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death: Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison; And make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die.” The problem with Isaac’s request is that his wife overheard him. Rebekah then goes to Jacob, their youngest son, and creates a plan to get that blessing from Esau. The plan would go as follows: Jacob was to go and take from the flock two goats and Rebekah would prepare a meal that his father would love, and then Rebekah would dress him in Esau’s clothes and cover him with goat’s hair. Jacob then makes a profound statement that brings us to what I want to deal with in this writing. Jacob told her, “My father will feel me and know that I am a deceiver.” What a thought! The child knew his father was a man of intimacy. They proceed with the plan and something very interesting happens. Isaac makes this statement in Genesis 27:22b, “The voice is Jacob’s, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”
I believe we, as the body of Christ, must focus on what comes from the lips of the Father, rather than his hands. What is coming out of the head of the body is more important than what comes from the body. What do I mean? Hearing God’s voice in my life is just as important to me as seeing the works of the Lord. Many times it’s learning to “hear God” when you can’t “see God”. Judas, the Bible records, was sitting at the table with all the other apostles, eating the Passover and the question came up, “Lord who is it that will betray you?” Christ responded, “It is he who dips his hand with me in the dish, the same will betray me?” What a statement. Can I tell you that in the last days many leaders in the body of Christ will have a hand in the bread basket and a heart for the devil? We can see that all around us. The bread represents the word. We’ve never lived in a time of more “revelation” than now! The “laying on of hands” is commanded in scripture, but it profits nothing if the heart is far from God!
Jacob said, “What if my father feels me?” This statement rang inside of me for a while. I thought to myself that one of our problems is that we are, by nature, a little too prideful to be completely honest with God. Feelings are a part of life. Feelings are not altogether good or bad. The flesh feels, as well as the soul and spirit. We are taught as Christians, by leaders of the church that we are not to live by feelings. This is an accurate statement; however, the other side of it seems to not ever be dealt with. Nothing in you has the ability to respond to the will of God as God would have you too. You must first get, well…a feeling! A person must be convicted before they come to God. Feelings are a part of life. They must be regulated. You must say to your feelings, “Feelings, you can live and work here, but you can’t be the boss because you don’t own the company.” Faith doesn’t say with brash rebellion, “I don’t care how I feel, I live by faith.” No, Faith hears your feelings. Why? Because sometimes that little bump you feel may be God saying, “Slow down, stop, or go.” Then, after faith hears your feelings, that same faith tells you to stagger not at the promise of God. A child of God has a gut feeling from the Holy Ghost, a witness that guides him through life. That is a spiritual feeling! There is a danger that comes with taking every feeling you have and calling it the devil or God. We can’t substitute blissful emotions, or feelings for the Spirit of God’s voice.
Yet, feelings get bashed too often. God made you. He didn’t make you a stoic, lifeless, emotionless robot. God gave you feelings. They are ok. They are of God. We, in the New Testament, can feel God without a veil to hold us back. More than us feeling God, God feels us. He feels! My father will feel me. God will lay claim to his possession that was purchased by His son. God, you can live here because you are the owner. We often say or pray, “Lord, touch me” or “Lord, lay your hand on me.” The problem is that in itself. We tend to hate for God to get into our most secret part. The Father doesn’t need human hands to feel. He’s not trying to find me because he already knows where I am. He is a high priest that can be touched with the feeling of our infirmity! Have you ever wondered why God wants you to ask Him for things He already knows you need, or tell him specific pains that He already knows you have? I believe the reason is that God wants you to come into a reality and an agreement with the fact that He knows how you feel. He feels my struggles and pains. If I were to attempt to rob God of his privilege of intimacy with me, I couldn’t. I can’t get “HOW HE FEELS” out of him. I can’t change God’s mind about me. I cannot change God like I can my fellow man.
In the life of David, there is triumph and tragedy. One tragedy in particular is when his son Absalom murdered his other son Amnon. Amnon had raped Tamar, Absalom’s sister. Absalom flees the country and we come to a place, where the writer of 2 Samuel, tells us that the soul of the king longed for Absalom. Did you hear that? David mourned for his son every day, according to the Bible. Even in disarray the king’s heart was toward his child. Do you and I know what this is? This is an inner longing for someone. I have heard the story of many mothers who in the middle of the night would wake up with a “feeling” that something was wrong with their child and be right about it. Do you know what it is to be David here? What is that? To love the person, but hate what they have done; to have love and hate in the same heart; to have fear and faith toward the same situation. This is a part of life.
Isaac says to Jacob, “Come here son, I just want to feel you!” It’s an eye opening thing when we take for granted those we love and when they are gone we say, “Oh, if I could just touch them again.” I’ve heard people say about someone who had passed, “I can still hear their voice, but I just wish I could hold them again.” Isn’t it strange how we desire intimacy too late? The father of Jacob says, “Come to me, son.”
Jacob is hiding and pretending to be someone else. Maybe you’ve said to yourself, “If I come to God, He will know!” Know what? What you already know? Huh? It’s a little too late for that I think! So we dress up, tape it up, and put on a face and then just eat up time, hoping all the while our demons will just go away. Somehow we think we can “recipe” our way through life. We think to ourselves, “I’ll put a little of this and a little of that and bam I’ll be me.” All the while the Father of Heaven is saying, “Come near and let me feel your hands and hearts!” Yet, we don’t see God blessing the real us. I’ve often said that there are 3 people you are: Who you think, who others think, and who God knows! We just can’t see God blessing the part we know He knows. Somehow we think we have to impress God, so we flex our jobs, money, homes, pride etc. I have found a great constant with many of us, and it is that deep inside, we never feel like it’s good enough. We can never do good enough to “feel” like we please God. If I come near Him he will show me my flaws. It’s okay, you can’t fix them anyway. My father feels me. This issue must be settled inside your heart or else you will look to another god.
The Bible calls this salvation “a great salvation”. Truly its greatness can be seen in the story of the prodigal son. Luke 15 tells us of a boy who left his father’s house with his inheritance, spent all he had, and nearly ate from a pig trough. Then the young man said, “I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of they hired servants.” Is it just me, or do we always come to the Father with a transcript in our hands?! We have a plan. We have a plan to repent. We think, “I’ll do this or I’ll say that.” This boy had a recipe, he thought. He had even thought of what he would say to his Father and what he would say about his own self: “I’m not worthy, just give me a job!” This is us in a nutshell. We flop and then try to work our way back to God’s lap of love. The father sees his son coming from down the road, and the Bible says in Luke 15: 20b, “But when he saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.” What a dad! However, if you think you can love your children, you can’t ever fathom how much God loves you. The father then had the servant kill the fatted calf, put a ring on his hand, and put new shoes on his feet. They were going to celebrate with a festival. Can I tell you that many of us, as God’s children, never get to the festival? What’s this? One real issue is settled at this festival of the Father, and it is that God loves you and there is no controversy between you and God. You don’t have to prove anything. Is God a judge? Absolutely! Yet, God disciplines us in grace. God doesn’t solicit the devil to do his work, whether it be healing or killing! However, God’s not trying to kill you, but save you. What is the evidence that you have accepted God’s love to you? It is a quiet, unassuming, child like rest in Him! Let the Father feel you today.
