What Is Crossing Over?

When you hear the phrase “Crossing over,” some of us are familiar with the concept it denotes of stepping into the promises of God. Today, I want to deal with what that looks like from the point of view of an identity shift. When you step into a new season, there is a change that happens in your identity. Abram became Abraham when God gave him His blessing. Abraham had a shift in his identity, and the blessing was released. Similarly, Abraham’s wife Sarai became Sarah, Saul became Paul, and Jacob was changed to Israel. Often the identity shift was revealed in the giving of a new name in the Bible. Crossing over is not just about changing your outer circumstances. There is a direct link between who you are – your identity – and where you are going – your destiny.

When you step into a new season, there is a change that happens in your identity. Share on X

Jacob’s Cross Over

Many of us know the story of how Jacob wrestled with God and was changed to Israel instead of Peniel. The identity shift that Jacob received had three phases.

Phase 1: I Am Not Enough

Jacob is the perfect textbook example of someone with an identity crisis. His name at birth was supplanter or deceiver. Imagine how it would feel if that had been your name! That is a hard way to start life. Jacob spent the rest of his life as Jacob trying to compensate for what he feels he lacks. Not only did his name have a negative connotation but he wasn’t the favorite of his father either. His father, Isaac loved Esau more than Jacob, (Genesis 25:28). Many of us can relate with Jacob for although we might not have had a negative name at birth but certain things have followed us and become a part of who we are.

The devil twists things and lies to us about who we are. Scholars believe that the naming of Jacob wasn’t actually done with bad intentions on the part of Jacob’s mother. When she saw Jacob holding his brother’s heel at birth, the naming rather bore the meaning of may he protect his brother. Theologians have said that it was Esau who twisted the name’s meaning to something negative when he called Jacob, “heel-grabber.” The name Jacob wasn’t a clear cut description – it could have been may he protect, or deceiver and it was really up to Jacob through how he lives his life to determine what that name means for him.

There is a direct link between who you are – your identity – and where you are going – your destiny. Share on X

Attack On Identity

At the beginning of your life, the devil plans that if he can distort your view of who you are in Christ, then he can cause you to self-sabotage your destiny. That is why Jacob was plagued with the idea that he was not enough. This is why Jacob conspired with his mother to get the blessing of his elder brother. Then he thought the prophecy that the elder would serve the younger would be able to come to pass. However, God does not need human help to fulfill His promises.

So Jacob deceived and supplanted his brother, becoming the very thing that he didn’t want to be as if God could not bless him any other way. God is greater than man’s custom of birthright blessing; He didn’t need that to bless Jacob. In the same way, God chose David, the least likely and last born of his father, Jesse, to be King.

Your Place Of Crossover Is Unique

This is what happens to many people in the first phase of their identity – the feel like they are not enough. This leads to trying a lot of things to have a solution or change. Wearing someone else’s shoes won’t take you where God wants you to be. The blessing that he took from his brother was for his father’s land and flocks.

Its interesting that once he deceptively got the blessing, he had to flee from his father’s land. When we take steps in somebody else’s shoes, we will find ourselves outside of what God is doing for us. I want you to reflect, what are the names that life has given you? Are you trying to achieve God’s promise by being someone that you are not? Maybe you are not where you are supposed to be because the devil has tried to redefine who you are and you believed the lie.

Phase 2 – I Am Enough (But Just In Case)

Jacob worked hard for his family but still used ‘backup plans.’ Interestingly, Jacob got a taste of his own medicine in what it was like to be deceived. He ends up serving Laban, his uncle, for 20 years to get his family and possessions, being cheated 10 times in his wages.

Many of us get out of the first phase fairly quickly but tend to get stuck in phase 2 because we never outgrow our need for backup plans. The same was the way Jacob used the sticks to increase the size of his herds. It was more like a backup plan than actually trusting God to fulfil His promise by Himself. Jacob’s life was full of just in case. I trust God but just in case (Genesis 30:37-42).

Do you have backup plans? Are we truly relying on God, or are we trying to intervene? Do you say you trust God but still have a backup plan?

Jacob gets out of Laban’s house and begins to return to his father’s land. Esau responds by coming with 400 armed men. At that moment, Jacob was afraid. He divided his family into two camps to protect the ones he loved most, just in case.

Phase 3: He Is Enough

This is the phase God wants everyone to get to. Jacob wrestles with God (Genesis 32:22-30). At what point did Jacob know that it was God he was wrestling with, not one of Esau’s men? He realized he was wrestling with God after being crippled with only a touch. We often think that Jacob strong armed God into blessing him and use it as an allegory for prayer. But, nowhere in the scripture do we see that Jacob was in a spiritual or prayerful state; he was on the run, fearing for his life!

The fact that the first thing out of Jacob’s mouth, once he realized it was God, was “I will not let You go unless You bless me,” lets me know that he doesn’t think he is blessed. Do you know why he doesn’t feel like he is blessed? Because at every critical moment when God was trying to intervene, Jacob got his hands in the midst. So, it was hard to see that it really was the blessing of God because he always had his backup plans. A lot of people have the same issue; if we are Christians, we proclaim that God blessed us, but add that we also worked really hard to get where we are. We keep intervening to help God bless us at critical moments when He is trying to.

God Fights For Us

Jacob thought he was fighting an unfair boss, a name that had been following him his whole life, and that he had to fight for what God wanted to bless him with. When Jacob realized that he was crippled in his own ability and self-sufficiency, that was when he crossed over into God’s blessing. God’s message to Jacob was that he didn’t need to fight anymore. Our identity is rooted in God’s ability, not our own.

Our identity is rooted in God's ability, not our own. Share on X

The limp that Jacob had for the rest of his life was not remembering that he fought with God and won but that he only prevailed with God – it is only with God that I am enough; it’s His ability, not mine. You may not be enough but God is enough. You cannot step into God’s promise without a limp.

i want you to know that you will not cross over into the destiny that God has for you until you have a face-to-face with God. God is not looking at whether or not you are spiritual enough but He will even meet you in survival mode, like Jacob was.

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