When You Become Restless
Genesis 27:30-40 NET, Isaiah 10:27 NET Isaiah 54:1-3, 1 John 2:20,27
When God wants you to grow, He removes your comfort in the place you need to outgrow. Yet people often adapt to discomfort rather than address it and move forward. God always provides resources before calling for a breakthrough, preparing everything needed for the miracle in advance. Discomfort comes first, disturbing the familiar and overcoming reluctance and resistance to change. So, when God declares a new season, expect obstacles; they are part of the process required for growth and breakthrough.
Our texts in Genesis and Isaiah underscore a key point: breaking forth requires both restlessness (discomfort) and anointing. Esau lost his birthright because of his irreverence and lack of spiritual awareness. This illustrates the danger for believers today; replacing reverence with an expectation of ease. Esau’s misplaced priorities activated the very mechanisms that cost him his blessing, as he mistakenly believed outward actions could secure what reverence should have kept. The main argument is that spiritual shortsightedness leads to missed breakthroughs, but Scripture offers a path to restoration.
Irreverence will cost many people the depth they require to be grounded and the height they require for influence, because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. We can go on and on about irreverence, but that’s not all the story is about. We see a semblance of redemption for this irreverent man. Having begged with almost no hope of ever being blessed, not that he was actually blessed, he just wasn’t cursed, and there is a big difference. Esau’s redemption was a simple yet powerful statement. Just before Isaac died, he said to Esau, “When you become restless,” the NLT says, “when you decide, you will break his yoke from off your neck.” Now, notice this shift: This changes the game because, by this “not-a-curse” kind of blessing, we see a principle for breaking forth. RESTLESSNESS. Notice: one version says “when you grow restless,” and another says “when you decide.” It might appear to the untrained eye that the two are saying different things, but if you are paying attention, these two are ingredients necessary to initiate motion. This transition highlights the interplay between restlessness and decision.
A body remains at rest or in motion unless acted upon by an external force, according to Newton’s first law of motion. This connects to the spiritual principle: Scripture tells us God works in us both to will and to do His good pleasure. If His good pleasure is for you to break forth on the left and right, with instructions to lengthen cords and strengthen stakes, He may make you uncomfortable with your progress, your current state, your growth, the clutter in your life, and the little foxes spoiling the vines until this discomfort triggers you to act! It may seem God is dependent on you, but His sovereignty gives you choice—He will not do for you what you must do yourself. That’s why He works in you both to will and to do. Notice, you act while He works in you. He is not doing it; you are. You act because He is working. This is the divine partnership that births the miraculous. Now, consider the next challenge after deciding to change: having the power to follow through.
The decision to change things is great until it is not, because there is no power to finance or bankroll it. How many people have already broken their New Year’s resolutions because there’s no backing for it? For by strength shall no man prevail. And this brings us to the second and most vital part of the entire equation: the anointing. The anointing is the burden-lifting and yoke-destroying power of God, occasioned by the presence of the Holy Spirit in us. Our text in Isaiah points out that the anointing is the power that would deliver the freedom God promised the children of Israel, and this is important to remember because the arm of flesh will fail. This is a given. Hence, trusting in one’s ability to bring God’s word to pass is akin to Uzzah’s attempt to prevent the ark from tumbling off its cart, and that’s usually the beginning of a disaster. With this understanding of the anointing, we can now explore how it actually works to bring a breakthrough.
God is all-powerful. His omnipotence is limitless and unquantifiable. However, as I began to read other translations of Isaiah 10:27, something interesting surfaced. The NET says the yoke will be taken from off because your neck will be too large. The footnotes of the verse identify that this statement makes sense to the average Jew because they were mostly shepherds and understand that you require the correct size yoke for the correct size neck of the oxen, else you run the risk of the yoke being unequal and one of the oxen dies (there’s a sermon in there for someone). However, the shepherd understands that due to fatness, the ox may develop a fatter neck. So, Prophet Isaiah, speaking under the unction of God, paints a prophetic picture of what the anointing does. It makes your neck bigger; i.e., the blessing enlarges you to the point that what used to be a comfortable place is now too small, so you have not only outgrown it; if it is forced on you, it will break. Next, let’s look at a practical illustration to further clarify this spiritual truth.
I have a nice pair of summer shorts, but I have put on weight. So even though I may like the shorts, any attempt to put them on now will cause them to tear. Another way God makes you uncomfortable in a place is to make you bigger than the place you need to break out of. Elisha’s ministry grew so much that the place where they were became too small for them. The Prophet didn’t hesitate when his disciples asked permission to move to a bigger space. Drawing from these examples, let’s summarize the process: When you become restless and make a decision to move, the supply of the Spirit kicks in and the anointing (translated literally means fatness or oil) powers you up and makes you bigger until status quo, race, educational background, family background, finances and any other common excuse people have for complacency becomes too tight to continue with, so they break off. If you’re struggling with anything here, this is how we break free: we become restless, and the anointing makes us bigger than the struggle, so much so that they cease to be a problem to us any longer. We’re in March, and some of you are already noticing discomfort in certain areas, and the Lord has already begun telling you what changes you need to start making. Don’t sit still, get to work. Engage the Holy Spirit. He is the Anointing. 1 John 2 tells us this. The anointing pairs your God-motivated decisions with the power necessary for fruition. The kingdom of God is not in words but in power. Power backs the restlessness that is required for the yokes to break and for you to break forth. The anointing can teach you what to do and how to do it to bring to fruition the expansion that God has planned and decreed for you.
In closing, God wants you to break forth, and He has sent me to encourage and instruct you on how to do so, because you have come into that season. What appears to be a ceiling is about to be broken through and turned into a floor to stand on. This is the smallest you will ever be. Embrace this moment with faith, determination, and full reliance on God’s power. Take intentional action, trusting that no obstacle is insurmountable with Him by your side.
