How many of us take our prayer life for granted because we don’t believe that God will answer our prayers.
In Exodus 17:9 – 11 Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.”
11 As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. 12 When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. 13. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword. God wants to work in the nations, shaping policies, giving strategies, changing communities and cities but he wants to do it through our prayers. “When Israel faced serious military threat, Joshua and the army went out to fight, but Moses went up on a hillside to pray. When his hands were up, Israel was winning. But when they were down the enemy was winning.”
“Why, we may ask would God allow his people to suffer defeat when there was no prayer? The answer is that God was teaching his people that he chooses to move in response to prayer and that he will not move without it. Though, he is almighty, all- wise, all- powerful and fully able to work without us, God chooses to work through our prayers. He calls us into a working partnership with Him. Without us he won’t work.”
This is amazing and frightening at the same time, because if King God, the reigning, ruling monarch of the universe, who holds all power in his hands, desires to use me to perform his will in the earth, to bring his kingdom into the earth, and will not do it until I participate, then, I am honored that God wants to use me to bring his kingdom into the earth. I am honored that God desires my active involvement to effect change in the nations, in my family, in my town, in my community, in my church. You see the responsibility is not left up to God to do everything while we go scotch free. He wants our active involvement in prayer and when we fail because become too busy, or make excuses like; we don’t really have a burden, we are not intercessors, we can’t pray very well, we are too weak to pray, God might not hear our prayers, those excuses are frightening, because we will not pray. Then we have robbed ourselves and others of the breakthrough and amazing things that God wants to do.
Prayer places the responsibility on us to simply pray and a demand on our faith to simply believe and a pull on God to act on his word. Prayer is not praying our will its praying God’s word, which is God’s will in the earth. Our resolve should be steadfast in our prayers by praying his promises back to him, believing that He is not a man that he should lie.
We also need to understand that our godly leaders and fellow Christians need our prayers and as a body when we lift up holy hands in prayer the church grows strong and is able to break down the gates of hell. When believers in neighborhoods and workplaces lift up praying hands over those around them, the powers of darkness are pushed back.
“What we need most for solving problems on our society is not more money, more education, more ideas or books. Our prime need is hands lifted up in prayer. We can accomplish far more by our prayers than by our work. Prayer…. can do anything God can do! When we pray God works. ”
Be Blessed!
Advancing the Kingdom of God in the earth!