Exodus 17:8-16
Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose for us men, and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, The Lord Is My Banner, saying, “A hand upon the throne of the Lord! The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.”
Coming out of a time of fasting, prayer, and consecration, we are imbued with fresh
Power in the Holy Spirit
Perspective
Pruning
Peace.
How do we keep these things once we've left the mountain?
Lift Up
Amalek comes from the root word Amal meaning: wearing effort and worry.
It is what Jesus referenced in the parable of the sower (Matthew 13) saying that even when there is understanding and a root system (private life developed in Christ), the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desire for pleasures or other things come in to choke the Word making it unfruitful in your life.
This means that God's gospel ambitions and kingdom directives are no longer your own.
A kingdom principle we will never get around:
As long as Moses' hands were raised, the Israelites were winning; when they were lowered, the Amalekites were winning.
Consistency counts in the kingdom and in life.
It is the product of faith in someone (Jesus) being willing and able (Matthew 8:1-4) or that something (laying hold of His throne in prayer) works. If you have faith, it produces the fruit of the Holy Spirit which is faithfulness.
This is the prayer life of the church (I Timothy 2:8) beginning with the leadership on behalf of the people who are in the fight of faith.
Psalm 121:1-8
I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.
If you are going to lead, you've got to go up the hill to have a bigger perspective than just your individual life (Acts 6:1-7). The staff of God represented God's authority, power, and direction as the good shepherd.
"Use me, God. Show me how to take who I am, who I want to be, and what I can do, and use it for a purpose greater than myself."
- Martin Luther King Jr.
How can we make that express the love of God to make things better for people on earth while inspiring the reward of heaven when we stand before Jesus one day?
Link Up
You need to go up with Aaron and Hur.
LinkedIn Profile for your Aaron and Hur:
1) They are with you on the hill.
Here is a case where proximity matters.
2) They are of the same family (of faith).
Here is a case where the perspective/person you get your counsel from matters.
When attempting to follow Christ, many people continue to indulge on the advice and support of those who have no love for God just because they've known them longer and there is comfort there. The lesson of the gospel though is that Jesus continually builds new communities of faith wherefrom you derive your counsel while you bring others along who you know and love (Moses left the courts of Pharoah to be united to his Hebrew kin who would by faith, go into God's directive of the promised land.) See Psalm 1:1.
3) They are in the same fight.
Here is a case when where people are pointed matters.
"If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward."
- Martin Luther King Jr.
Joshua overcame with the sword.
Use the same sword of the Spirit that Jesus uses in the wilderness to overcome the devil's temptations, that you relied on to fight and was bread to nourish you in the time of consecration.
"A hand upon the throne of the Lord" - The Lord is my banner.
God's design is that through trust in Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross and victory in His resurrection from the dead, God will make war on the wearisome effort and worry from generation to generation.
"It is not the strength of your faith but the object of your faith that actually saves you."
- Timothy J. Keller
Second City Church: Let's Go! Sermon Series 2017