God Has Crossed His Hands by Apostle Johnson Suleman: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Genesis 48:14-17 — The Crossed Hands

Jacob stretched out his hand and laid it on Ephraim's head, the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh's head, guiding his hands wittingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn. Genesis 48:14-17

When Joseph saw his father's right hand on Ephraim's head, it displeased him and he tried to move it. Joseph said, "Not so, my father, for this is the firstborn. Put thy right hand upon his head." His father refused: "I know it, my son, I know it."

Overcoming the battles of life is a function of the words you hear. It's important that you don't just listen, you hear. Many of us have our body present when the word is coming but our spirit is absent.

The Hand of God

• The hand of God is the key to sustenance in famine
• The hand of God is the key to elevation — every elevation at its root had the hand of God
• The hand of God sponsors festivity

Psalm 109:27 — "That they may know that thy hand has done it."

Acts 4:30 — "Grant thy servant with all boldness by stretching forth thy hand that signs and wonders may be done in the name of thy holy child Jesus."

Ezekiel 37:1 — "The hand of the Lord carried me in the spirit of the Lord."

Jacob was a typology of God releasing blessings upon Joseph's children. Joseph held his father's hand to try to remove it from where it was placed — there are hands contending God's hand on your head, hands challenging God's hand on your life. God has stretched his hand to bless you, to uplift you, to make you — but there is a hand questioning that hand.

Ephraim, the firstborn, was brought to the right hand position. Manasseh, the second child, to the left. The father crossed it. God has crossed his hands over your life. You don't like my face, but over my life God has crossed his hand.

The Right Hand of Support

In Jewish custom, the right hand speaks of the place of support. When the Bible says Jesus is seated at the right hand of God, it's a typology of support, assistance, fortitude, preference. Joseph brought his sons expecting Ephraim to receive that place — he had humanly strategized how the blessing should manifest. But rather than placing his right hand on Ephraim, Jacob placed the left on him and the right on Manasseh.

The Body He's Looking For

Birds have nests, foxes have holes, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Jesus was not stranded — he was a carpenter, and accommodation was not his problem (Mark chapter 2 — they broke through the roof of a house he was already in).

Foxes are a typology of witchcraft, birds a typology of flying spirits — the camp of darkness has vessels available to it. God is looking for a body — the church — to lay his head on, to display his power, to shelter himself in.

Fasting is good, prayer is good, but there's an element heaven values more: consistency.

Joshua's consistency

Moses had 70 elders, a sister, a brother — not one succeeded him, except Joshua. Exodus 33:11 — the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend, and when Moses turned back into the camp, Joshua his servant did not depart out of the tabernacle. Joshua witnessed Moses' personal divine encounters. That's followership, that's consistency.

You are not going to heaven because you are holy — you're going to heaven because you continually stay holy. You can't be holy yesterday and not holy today.

Hannah's continuity

Hannah didn't get a baby by coming to Shiloh once — she got it by coming again and again. In continuity there is festivity; in continuity you are made a celebrity. The lack today is a bankruptcy of consistent believers — those with roller-coaster faith, fasting and praying today, cold tomorrow. "Because you are neither cold nor hot I will spew you out."

Commerce vs Expectation — The Ten Virgins

Matthew 25:9-10 — the wise virgins told the foolish, "Go outside and buy." The foolish missed the bridegroom not because the oil was fake — it was real oil, but they had sold it. They were genuinely anointed, genuinely calling, but consumed by commerce instead of expectation. Ministers who are fake are few — the greater problem is ministers living in error, genuine but commercial.

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Apostle Johnson Suleman

Omega Fire Ministries International

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You must reach a point in your life where nothing makes you drift from continuously expecting the bridegroom.

Define Where You're Going

Jonathan didn't know if he was a son of Saul or a friend of David, so he was confused — Saul was the revelation of where he was coming from, David the revelation of where he was going to. He died in Saul's disaster because he tried to maintain both.

Moses saw an Israelite and an Egyptian fighting — the Egyptian was a typology of where he was coming from, the Israelite of where he was going to. He killed the Egyptian — he killed his past and disconnected from where he was.

God Will Impose You On Your Haters

Joseph brought his sons intending Ephraim to get the priority blessing, but his father told him nothing could be done about it. God will impose you on your haters:

• Matthew 1:19 — Joseph was contemplating putting Mary aside; the angel said don't, "we impose her on you"
• Esther chapter 6 — the king had Haman honor Mordecai, the very man Haman conspired against
• Acts 10:13 — Peter didn't want to go to Cornelius's house, called it unclean; God said, "Who are you to call unclean what I have made clean? I impose this assignment on you."

God will impose you on those who hate you — whether they like it or not, you will prosper, flourish, and do well in their midst.

Let Your Past Be Past

Manasseh means "to cause to forget." Joseph named him that because "the Lord has blessed me and made me to forget my sorrows." No matter your level of blessing, if you stay tied mentally to where you came from, you may find yourself back there. If you don't allow your past to be passed, you will soon be passed with it. Stay too long on the spot and you start looking like the spot.

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God Crosses His Hand to Frustrate Expectations

Someone is working hard to see that what you're working hard to achieve doesn't happen. Acts 12:11 — "contrary to the expectation of the people." If the expectation against you is contrary to God's plan, it shall not stand. Job 5:12 — God disappoints the devices of the crafty so their hands cannot perform their enterprise. Lamentations 3:37 — "Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?" Every contrary expectation over your life is frustrated.

Ephraim — Idolatry and the Hope of Change

Psalm 78:67 and Hosea 4:17 — "Ephraim has joined himself to idols, leave him alone." One of the greatest sins even in church today is idolatry — people who don't bow to graven images but worship their own will. But Hosea 14:8 — Ephraim shall say, "What have I to do anymore with idols? I have heard him and observed him." There is hope of change for anyone bound to idolatry. God doesn't hate the sinner, he hates the sin.

Areas of Walking With God

1. Love for God

   Love for God is stronger than faith in God. 1 Corinthians 13:13 — faith, hope, charity, but the greatest is charity. Faith fails because your own approach of faith can fail — Luke 22:32, "I have prayed for you that thy faith fail not." Proverbs 13:12 — hope deferred makes the heart sick. Faith is substance with a time frame; hope is substance without a time frame. Love keeps you whether it happens or not — sold out to God whether or not the answer comes.

2. Consecration

   To be consecrated means to be set apart, deliberately, consciously — not because of what it produces, but because you are dedicated, sold out to God.

3. Word addiction

   Your addiction to God's word determines your addiction in this world. Luke 5 — the crowd pressed on Jesus by the lake of Gennesaret to hear the word, not for signs and wonders; that's where Peter's net-breaking, boat-sinking miracle came from. Be permanently intoxicated by the word.

   There are three levels with alcohol — drinkers (still in control), drunkards (losing control), and the drunk (naturally high, it takes them over). Let the word of God overwhelm you the same way.

   Jeremiah 15:16 — "Thy words were found, and I did eat them." Acts 19:20 — the word grew mightily and prevailed. Colossians 3:16 — let the word dwell richly in you. Psalm 138:2 — "I have exalted my word above my name." Hebrews 1:3 — upholding all things by the word of his power. Hebrews 4:12 — the word is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. Isaiah 40:8 — the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God abides forever. Acts 20:32 — the word of his grace is able to build you up. Matthew 24:35 — heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away.

4. Kingdom addiction

   Kingdom addiction is interest and pursuit of kingdom advancement. Walk into God's house looking for a need to meet, a problem to solve. Whenever you see a need in the kingdom, meet it — don't wait to be asked. This is not prosperity teaching, it's responsibility — in Islam, zakat and sadaqah are forced as a prescription: if your brother is hungry, don't pray, give him food. There's too much irresponsibility in the body of Christ.

Why God Crosses His Hand — Breaking Patterns

There is an element called patterns. Until patterns are dealt with, they repeat themselves in a circle. There was a pattern against firstborns — Ishmael before Isaac, Esau before Jacob, now the sons of Joseph. Genesis 12 — Sarah was fair to look upon; Rebecca was fair to look upon — a DNA that attracted them to the same kind of people. Evil patterns and evil DNA can be broken, shattered, destroyed, altered.

Personal testimony: Around 1969-70, the preacher's father, an army paymaster in Kaduna working under General Gowon, was falsely accused after a musician sang about him having a son who would take care of him — he was arrested, investigated, and tried before being discharged. Later a woman falsely claimed he had promised to marry her. Years later, the preacher faced a similar false accusation in ministry. His father told him, "This thing came for you" — a pattern of accusation running in the family.

Genesis 25:21 — Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife because she was barren, and the Lord was entreated of him, and Rebecca conceived — breaking a pattern of barrenness that ran from Abraham's household. Every demonic pattern that stopped your father, mother, brother, sister can end today.

Declaration Against Patterns