SOP 23 May 2020

Exodus 17: 8-16

Jake shared a word from this passage, in which Aaron and Hur held up Moses’s arms while Joshua fought the Amalekites. While they were up, the battle went Israel’s way; while they were down, the Israelites lost ground.

As we move towards the ”Pentecost” that God has prepared, with its coming revival, there will be a great battle in the heavenlies as the enemy tries to prevent it. Storm clouds are gathering in the spirit realms now. This is a season of unceasing prayer to support our leaders, spiritual and temporal, and to call in the revival. The raised arms stand for three things:

1. Prayer and praise.
2. They point to the Lord as a prophetic symbol of His victory.
3. They keep us focussed on the things that are above, not our current situation below.

Moses stood, then sat, on the hill, supported by Aaron and Hur, with his arms raised up until sunset. We need to keep praying for the light to overcome the darkness. As we pray, the light has the supremacy. If we stop praying, the clouds gather.

This is a strategic call to use the weapon of PRAISE. Praise declares the greatness of God. It is different from worship, which expresses our personal devotion to the Lord. Praise lifts us into the heavenly realms, from which we get the understanding that leads us into worship. Pat shared from a testimony how when we praise God for His greatness we get rid of everything that holds us to the earthly realm; as we keep praising we sharpen our focus on Jesus and His victory. Anne pointed out that the Israelites were fighting for their lives here. When we engage in warfare praise we don’t know what enemies we are up against, but we do know who has the victory!

So while worship is a channel for our intimacy with God, It’s praise that is a weapon against the enemy. Psalm 149 vs 5-9 makes this clear:

“Let the saints be joyful in glory;
Let them sing aloud on their beds
Let the high praises of God be in their mouth,
And a two-edged sword in their hand,
To execute vengeance on the nations,
And punishments on the peoples;
To bind their kings with chains,
And their nobles with fetters of iron;
To execute on them the written judgment—
This honor have all His saints.”

As we waited on the Lord, I saw a river of fire coming down from heaven, and then then a tree – one of those whose leaves are “for the healing of the nations.”  Elaine saw the fire of our praise going up, then in some way transformed in the Spirit and coming back down to Earth to bring a harvest. David confirmed this from Scripture with Psalm 67 vs 5-6:

“Let the peoples praise You, O God;
Let all the peoples praise You.
Then the earth shall yield her increase;
God, our own God, shall bless us”

So let us commit, as an army, to let our praise ascend to the heavenlies then come down, transformed into God’s Pentecost fire, to bring a harvest of revival to earth. And as we do so, let us support our leaders in prayer, and to reach out to one another for support if we find ourselves getting weak.

“I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised;
So shall I be saved from my enemies.” (Ps 18:3)