The Lord is Our Banner… Hands Up!
Exodus 17:9-12 So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose men for us and go out, fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will station myself on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought against Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. So it came about when Moses held his hand up, that Israel prevailed, and when he let his hand down, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands were heavy. Then they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it; and Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other. Thus his hands were steady until the sun set. (What an example of INTERCESSION!)
Have your hands ever been heavy? Were you surprised or did you know (without a shadow of doubt) that THIS “battle” would require hands up prayer for the duration? What did you do? Try to do it all yourself? Give up and let the enemy prevail because you had to let your hands down?
Did God send you your very own Aaron and Hur? Did you allow them to lift and hold you and your arms and the staff of God up in prayer… one on one side and one on the other?
I was reminded of a couple of those “Hands Up Battles” the other day by my very own Aaron (thanks Barb!). We practice this Holy Spirit led battle plan when either of us feel our arms coming down and timing demands them heavenward. She’s my Aaron, not because I deserve the best but because I NEED the best. I am her Hur because I am still in training in Prayer Warfare (Right, Colonel?).
For a long time God allowed me to view the warfare from a naive and protected distance. I was given opportunity to stand beside and hold up the arms of a Prayer Warrior but yet not personally experience the pain and wounds and anxiety of the Warrior. I was blessed with Warriors who were grateful for the little I could offer and I was shown the great and awesome hand of God by their faith in Him.
I stood by, waiting for the call to lift and hold, but never really knowing the heart of the Warrior and never really knowing the danger that the heart was involved in, nor knowing the signs of the enemy beginning to prevail. I wore God’s armor as a cocoon…
I girded (my) loins with truth, I put on the breastplate of righteousness, and shod (my) feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; I took the helmet of salvation (Ephesians 6:13-17)
I knew there was indeed a war, but I wasn’t a fighter, I was at most an assistant (an encourager) to a medic.
Then God said, take up the shield of faith with which I would be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God…
And then… He sent me to war!
Nothing I had ever heard or seen or shared, taught me as much as being thrust into a battle that both broke my heart and, in the end, healed my heart from loving the wrong things (MY WAY is mostly the thing I loved). I realized the need for Side by Side and Hand in Hand ministry Aaron and Hur provide when my eyes were blurred by tears and my head was lost in trying to find all the pieces rather than lifting God’s staff higher.
Truly, though I am no Moses, I learned the value of a battle plan and I learned the agony of fighting beyond endurance. I learned to be wounded and fight on, because GOD is the source of our victory… He IS our VICTORY. He is in our midst wherever two or more are gathered in His name… Matthew 18:20!
Jesus said… I will build my church; and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Matthew 16:18… We are His church and He has plans for us… Jeremiah 29:11-13 For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.
And so… to all the battle wounded and weary… to all the faithful Aaron’s and Hur’s… to all my fellow warriors and their Side by Side brothers and sisters in uniform… let us imitate Moses by lifting up our hands to heaven. Let us stand in the gap for and with each other… KNOWING the ENDING because we seek the Alpha and the Omega – the beginning and the end of all things.
Though the battle for the heart is fearsome, we lift up holy hands like Moses did. And then… like Moses… we build an altar and name it The Lord is My Banner; Exodus 17:15
Give your Aaron and your Hur… a call. It’s “Hands Up Prayer” time, somewhere! Let’s go to war…
The Lord is our Banner!!
**All Scripture quoted comes from the “Bible Gateway” app and is the NASB version of the Bible