Jehovah Nissi!

Ex 17:8-15 The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. 9 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." So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. 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. 14 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven." 15 Moses built an altar and called it The LORD is my Banner.

Here we have an amazing story of a battle, where God intervened in a mighty way. When the battle was all over, God told Moses to make sure Joshua remembered what happened. God wanted to make sure that Joshua knew where the power came from to win the battle. So Moses built an altar, a memorial to say “this is what God did here on this day”, and he called the place "Jehovah Nissi", God is our banner of victory.

We have a God that is our banner. He is our strength and our victory. He is the one that gives strength to the weary. He is the one that wins our battles. As a matter of fact HE HAS ALREADY WON THE BIGGEST BATTLE OF ALL. THE BATTLE AGAINST DEATH, HELL, THE GRAVE, SIN., SATAN, DISEASE AND LACK THROUGH THE BLOOD OF THE CROSS!

How does God manifest his victory and strength in us?


I. GOD IS OUR BANNER- HE GIVES THE GRACE (POWER)WE NEED TO HANDLE HIS GOODNESS.

A. Will good things cause me to leave God?
Last week we talked Jehovah Jireh, our provieer. we talked about pressing in to ask a good God for good things but one of the strongholds of the enemy that keeps us from asking our good God for good things is the thought that perhaps God is withholding good things from me because he knows if I had them I would just leave God and go off on my own. Now if you believe that the good things from God are going to make you leave God, or rebel, are you going to press in and expect to receive from God? The answer is no. So we can fail to walk in the full goodness of God because of this lie of the enemy.

But I am here to ask you, if God gives you a good gift, can't he also give you the grace to enjoy and deal with that gift? Yes he can and he does. To believe otherwise is to blame God for giving you the gift. You can't blame God's blessings as the cause for people sinning against God. In the garden of Eden Adam blamed God for his sin by saying,

Gen 3:12 The man said, "The woman you put here with me--she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."

In other words, Adam was saying, "I sinned because of your blessing to me."

Doesn't that sound crazy? Yet we say things like: "God won't bless me with that because it may cause me to leave God."

For the Lord is a sun and a shield: the Lord will give GRACE and glory: NO GOOD THING WILL HE WITHHOLD from them that walk uprightly." (Ps. 84:11)

We have allowed the devil to deceive us into thinking any good blessing might cause us to stray. Yet God assures us that if we walk uprightly then He will not withhold any good thing from us:

One of the things Jehovah gives us for our victory is grace! This scripture tells us that the Lord will give GRACE. The word "grace" means "divine favor" but it always means divine enablement.

I like to define Grace as
God's Riches And Christ's Empowerment

Grace means not only receiving from God but also the ability to handle the blessings of God.

Rom 15:14-16 I have written you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God

God gives us the grace to enable us to handle the things that come our way. Bad and Good. Moses and Joshua didn't think that the promised land was going to make them stray from God. No, they knew that they needed to press in to receive it. So when the attack came, they considered it an opportunity for God to glorify himself. For Jehovah Nissi to arise and show his power.

Unfortunately many of us do not have the same minds set. For instance:

For instance, some people had everything material they could ever want. Then through some calamity they lost everything. This led them to cry out to God and like the prodigal son they came to God and were forgiven and restored. Because their poverty was part of the reason to seek for God, they decided that poverty was a good thing. Now they think that if they succeeded again it would just take them away from God again. So they don't press in to believe in Jehovah Nissi. And fail to overcome.

Just because God has brought good out of your calamity, doesn't mean that the calamity was from God and that He wants you stay in it. God doesn't want you to stay sick, and poor so that you will stay near to him. He wants to bless you with every good thing. No good thing will he withhold from the upright. And he wants to give you the grace to handle it.

God does not sit on the throne, worrying that if He blesses you, it might cause you to rebel against him. There is nothing in the Bible that can prove that God will withhold His blessings because of the possibility that his people might sin.

"Luke 15:11-13Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them. "Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.

If the father in this story is a type of our Heavenly Father, then he probably knew giving his son would blow the inheritance. But nevertheless, the Father gives him his inheritance even though it was an unwise request. The Father blessed him because he was a son, not because he earned anything.

Later in the story, the son came back in repentance. The father could have said, "Son, I'll forgive you and take you back, but I've learned not to give you any of the good things that I have anymore. No more blessings for you. Just learn to live in poverty. It's for your own good. It'll keep you from going astray again."

That is what he could have said. Instead he said something different:

"Luke 15:22 "But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the BEST robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate.

Even after his son returned, he showered him with the BEST that he had. Our Heavenly Father is much loving than any human father. Shouldn't we expect the same from Him? God is good!!

Jehovah Nissi our banner of victory is able to give you the grace to handle the blessings he has for you. People should not withhold from themselves all that God has made available because they think it has the potential to cause them to turn away from Him. Otherwise, they become afraid to claim all that God has made available to them. This fear comes from Satan. Do not let Him lie to you. If the grace of God can provide you with His blessings, then that same grace can enable you to keep it from becoming a problem to you.

II GOD IS OUR BANNER- HE GIVES THE GRACE (POWER) TO CHANGE CIRCUMSTANCES IN MY LIFE.

A. Whatever Happens In My Life Is God's Will For Me?

Here is another lie that can hinder Jehovah Nissi from manifesting his goodness. Many people truly believe whatever happens in their life, whether it is negative or positive, is actually the desire of God for them. Most of the time it is NEGATIVE things that happen to people such as accidents, failures, sickness, death, etc. that people claim to be God's will or desire..They blame this on the SOVEREIGNTY of God. When we speak of the sovereignty of God we are speaking of His absolute rulership. He is the all powerful God and He rules and reigns the universe. This is all true and I believe in it whole heartedly. But some have taken this to mean that whatever happens in their lives, God desired it, because nothing can happen unless He desires it. Even if it can be proven that it was Satan, then they will say, "Satan cannot do anything without God's permission." So people have it set in their minds that whatever happens to them is God's desire and that there is nothing that they can do about it.

It is true that we cannot prevent some things from happening, but, it is also true that there are many things that we can prevent and even change. Though God is sovereign, He has given man the power of CHOICE. You and I can choose to have God's intervention in our life and we can choose not to have it. We can choose to unleash Jehovah Nissi, God our Banner of victory over many things in life right now.

There is nothing in the Bible that tells us that we MUST accept everything that comes our way. On the contrary, the Bible tells us that we can make changes and how we may go about doing it. But lets's see how Jehovah Nissi changes things.

1. Prayer Unleashes Jehovah Nissi
Many people feel that whatever has happened to them was God's doing and therefore it would be selfish to ask Him to remove it.
Going back to our story with Moses and Joshua. They didn't accept the attack of the Amalekites as God wanting to defeat them. No, they looked at it as an opportunity for God to show himself as Jehovah Nissi. So Moses climbed the hill and began to pray. When he kept his arms up in prayer they would begin to win the victory when his arms lagged, they began to lose This is incredible . It shows how intimately we are involved with God's plan for his people to win. He doesn't just do it on his own. No, there is a cooperation. Prayer changed the outcome. The lesson is: if they hadn't prayed they would have lost the battle.

Many people face battles of sickness and adversity and they say “oh well I guess it's time to go. God has sent this into my life. Might as well pack it in.” but no. Moses changed the situation through prayer. Moses knew his Jehovah Nissi. He saw things from a different perspective.

If it had truly been God's desire for Israel to lose, no amount of prayer or crying in the world would have changed anything. But it was God's will for them to overcome!

Many people are getting sick and dying apart from God's desire and yet there is nothing God can do about it. It is because they have accepted the verdict. Too many times we accept the verdict of the world or of the devil, when we could turn to Jehovah Nissi. Will you pray and raise up the banner of victory through prayer!

B. Faith Unleashes Jehovah Nissi
Daniel's Definition of Faith: Believing, Declaring and Acting on the Word of God!

Let's go back to our story about Moses and Joshua. One key thing I want to point out is notice that it wasn't just about prayer. They had to partner with Jehovah Nissi in fighting. Joshua had to get on the battle field and fight. Jehovah Nissi showed himself strong on their behalf but not until they prayed AND stepped out in faith. There was prayer but there also was fighting. Moses and Joshua could have looked at the opposition and said well if it was God's will for us to have this land, he'll just hand it over to us with no fight on our part. But that would not have been faith.

Over and over again in the scriptures, God is shown as the responder to faith. The woman with the issue of blood was not the only sick person that was around Jesus . But she received her healing because she was the one who touched him with faith. Faith is the switch that turns on the power of God. She did not accept her condition as the final word of God.

She didn't say whatever will be will be. No! She acted on her faith and changed her situation. Same thing with MOSES AND Joshua, they didn't just pray, they fought the battle.

Most people allow things to happen in their lives because they do not TRULY know the desire of God. Faith goes no further than the revealed will of God. Acting on faith can change your situation. Study God's promises and find out His will for you. Moses knew God's will. The woman knew God's will. It was to receive the promised land. It was to receive healing.

C. Exercising Our Authority Unleashes Jehovah Nissi

You know before Moses climbs up that hill he tells Joshua that he will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in his hand. The staff of god was a symbol of God's delegated authority. When Moses was praying it was an authorized prayer.

It was an authorized prayer that unleashed Jehovah Nissi

Another example of the staff is when Moses got up to the Red Sea. The Egyptians were closing in behind them. Everybody was panicking Ex 14:15 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. 16 Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. You see God is not going to do for you what he has given you he authority to do. He actually rebuked them for praying to him. God was in essence saying: I have given you delegated authority , now lift the staff and watch the water part.

It is the same thing in the spiritual realm for us. And here is the good news we have authority in the spiritual realms because of the Jesus Christ.

Luke 10:18 He replied, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.

You see too many people are praying and asking God to do something about the devil.
But Jesus has delegated His authority to you and expects you to use it. The devil will have a wonderful time with you until you make up your mind that YOU will do something about it and stop waiting for God to do it. Jesus taught us how to use this authority:

Christians are constantly asking and begging God to move obstacles that are in their way. When these obstacles are not removed then they assume that it's the will of God for them to be there.

But He has delegated the authority to you. It's up to you to exercise that authority in dealing with Satan and the attacks he brings your way. Satan's greatest trick is to make you assume that what he is doing is the will of God for you.

Do not receive it. Rebuke him. Command the circumstances and problems to leave in the Name of Jesus and God will back you up.

We must deal with the storms that come into our lives. We must not accept them as the will of God but we must deal with them. A lot of us today, we scream and ask God to do something when He has already made the means necessary for us to deal with the problems.

Learn to exercise your delegated authority and CHANGE the situations. Unleash Jehovah Nissi by raising up your hand and exercising your authority in the spiritual realms.
Jehovah Nissi: God is our banner of victory. Will you unfurl his banner and pray with expectation to receive grace to manage all the blessings? Will you unfurl his banner to pray and receive victory over circumstances, act on the Word to see change, and exercise authority over the enemy to see him flee before you?

Taking Control Of Your Mind

2 Cor 10:3-5 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

There is a battle that is raging although you may not even be aware that it is taking place. The battle is truth versus falsehood. The battle is for your mind. Satan is after your mind because if he can get your mind, then he can get your life.

Sow a thought, sow an action. Sow an action, sow a destiny.

Thoughts determine your destiny.

But God hasn't called us to that bondage. No, the Bible says that Jesus came to set the captives free. Jesus came to set at liberty those that are oppressed of the enemy.

Our minds are so key. That's what separates us from the animals. If our minds are in the hands of Satan, then we are going to receive what Satan says. Our mind is meant to be the guiding force of our lives. That's why our minds need our attention so seriously. We need to think the thoughts that God wants us to think.

We will draw to ourselves what we constantly meditate on. Negative thoughts lead to negative feelings, and that leads to negative people. So our thinking determines what we are going to bring into our lives.

The results of wrong thoughts

Wrong Emotions
For example, if you have ever had anybody wrong you? If your focus is on what they did to you instead of love and forgiveness, then hate and anger fill your heart. If you are walking around all hateful and angry, guess what?-- you are going to repel people. Because no one wants to be around that kind of person.

If you meditate on depressing thoughts. You will live a depressing life. We feel like what we think about. We think discouraging thoughts, we will be discouraged. Etc etc

Emotional Problems.
Sometimes people say "Pray for me I have emotional problems." Most of the time, most people--their emotions are working just fine. "My emotions are messed up." No, your emotions are working just fine. You are thinking bad things and therefore your emotions are coming into play.
"Pastor I'm so depressed."
"What are you thinking about."
"I'm thinking how I'm about to die and about my funeral."
That's not an emotional problem. Your emotions are working just fine. It's a thinking problem.

Emotional problems may exist if you think of God's goodness and are still depressed. There would be a problem if you were thinking good thoughts and you were still depressed. But most people have a thought problem, not an emotional problem. We are anxious because we are thinking anxious thoughts. We are depressed because we are thinking depressing thoughts.
Garbage in, garbage out.

So we need to think differently. It all starts with our minds.
But if we focus on God's truth. If we focus on God's word. We will have faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

The Joy of the Lord is your strength. How do we get joy? By believing what God's word says about us. If you want the right emotions, we need to start thinking the right thoughts.

Wrong Attitude
If you think. "I'll never amount much to anything. Nothing ever works out for me. I always get a raw deal", are you going to have a highly motivated attitude? You will not marshal all your resources to win if you are dwelling on failure. And if your resources are not marshaled, what are your chances for success? Not much. And then when you don't succeed, you say, "see I told you so." Negativity becomes a self fulfilling prophesy.

John Maxwell tells a great story about 2 shoe salesman that go to this island in the South Pacific and learn that none of the people there even wear shoes. They both dash into two phone booths to call their overseas office. The first says. "Book me on the next flight. Nobody wears shoes over here." The second salesmen says "send be 50 cases of shoes. Nobody even has shoes over here!"

You see we can see the same things, but how we think about those things affects our attitude.
Look, we all get knocked down from time to time by life and can have periods of mourning or depression, but we don't have to stay there forever. That is why praise is so important. But isn't' all that praise just psyching yourself up? No and Yes. Of course praise is more than that, but praise is "psyching up" if by "psyche" you mean the mind. We are reminding ourselves of the goodness of God, of our adoption by God of the favor of God, of the promises of God.

Sickness
Another thing that wrong thoughts produce is sickness. If you constantly say. "I 'll always be sick", then you will be. You are setting yourself up to receive what you expect. If your mind is on scriptures, you will get healed.

Prov 4:20-22 My son, pay attention to what I say; listen closely to my words. 21 Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; 22 for they are life to those who find them and health to a man's whole body.

God said to Moses make a bronze serpent. When the Israelites were dying they were told that anyone who looks at it with a fixed gaze would be healed. Who has believed the report of the Lord? Will you fix your eyes on your healer?

Set Your Mind On Things Above
Col 3:1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things

First thing we need to realize is that we can choose our thoughts. Nobody can make you think about something, although the devil will try. If we focus on what God has done for us and Christ, if you believe on what God is saying--His report, you will have victory. We have control over what we are going to think about and we have to choose to set our minds on things above.

We need to focus our faith on God and his greatness. Set your hearts on things above--not just a momentary look, but set your hearts there.

Jesus example
John 16:33 In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

How do we become of good cheer? You have to focus on the goodness of God instead of focusing on the tribulation. You have to focus on the fact that Jesus has overcome and because we are united with him we are overcomers. I said we are overcomers.

See even Jesus was not immune to tribulation. Yes he went through good Friday but then came Resurrection Sunday! Some of us might be in a good Friday mode right now. But praise God, Sunday is coming. You see what was Jesus thinking about while he suffered?

Jesus was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy he knew would be his afterward. Now He is seated in the place of highest honor beside God's throne in heaven.
Jesus wasn't thinking tribulation. Jesus wasn't thinking about the nails, the crown of thorns. No he was thinking about His seat in the heavenly places. He was thinking of victory! He was thinking of salvation. He was looking towards the future!

But you might be saying "but you don't understand what I am going through." But it's not what you are going through that has you down . It is how you are thinking about it that has you down.

You may be going through right now but think about God and his plan. If you think about God's power you will attract strength. Strength to overcome and go through the trials. Jesus said in this life you will have troubles but I have overcome the world. He wasn't saying it was always going to be nice, but that in the midst, we can choose to believe that Jesus is greater than our problems!

How do you get control of your mind?

You are the gatekeeper
You are the ultimate gatekeeper for your mind. Jesus said he stands at the door and knocks. The devil bangs at the door. But only you can determine who you will let in-- who will you entertain? You can't control who is going to knock on the door, but only you have the power to open and let the person in.

"Oh your not going to make it financially. Your not going to succeed. Your going to die early."
Don't invite him in. There's an expression, "you may not be able to keep the bird from landing on you. But you don't have to let it build a nest on your head."

Ask, "Why I am thinking that. That's just the devil talking. But instead I am going to listen to the thoughts of Jesus. Lord show me what your word says in this situation cause I want to think your thoughts."

No Denial
I am not saying that we should stick our heads in the sand and pretend like things are great when they aren't. The difference is your mind. What are you thinking about? I am not saying you should be like an ostrich and deny reality. All I'm saying is just don't dwell on this reality only! Dwell on the greater one who is within you!

Some people are deniers. "I don't want to go the doctor because I don't want too hear the bad news." No, people of faith say "no I want to face the problems-- face the reality-- so I can find out about what God says about it, so I can overcome."

I don't know when, but God is going to turn this test into a testimony. Sooner or later he's going to turn this mess into a message. Refuse to give up.

Dismiss it immediately
Take action against it. As soon as that thought flashes through your mind. Don't let it settle there. Dismiss it . Say this thought is not from God. I rebuke it in the name of Jesus. You may not want to do it out loud at work. But hey. Do what you have to . Don't let it fester in our mind. Don't delay. Deal with it immediately.

Replace the thought with the Word immediately
Find our what God says about your situations and memorize it . Quote it . Write it on an index card. I've been known to walk around with cards and pull them out throughout the day. Why?

Rom 12:1-2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will.

We have got to renew our minds with truth. We can't lay back and expect this transformation to happen to us just suddenly. No we are going to have to discipline ourselves to toss off the old thoughts and put on the new. Start dwelling on the good things of God.

Stop thinking "I can't" Start thinking " I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
Stop thinking "I'll always be sick." And start thinking. "By His stripes I am healed."
Stop thinking "God hates me" Start thinking "I am accepted in the Beloved."

This takes effort especially if we have years of bad habits in our thinking. We have to be on guard and we all have different problem areas.

I heard a funny story about two farmers, one negative , one positive. When it rained, one would say "wonderful my crop is being refreshed," the other would say" Boy if this doesn't let up my crops will drown. " When it was sunny, one would say " Great my crops are getting nourished", the other would say, "Man if this doesn't let up, my crop will be scorched. They went goose hunting together. The positive farmer had a hunting dog. They went out on a boat. When the positive farmer shot a goose, he sent his dog to fetch it. The dog literally walked on top of the surface of the water, got the goose and brought it back. The negative farmer said. "Dog can't even swim!"

What do you think God really thinks about you? Do you know that he loves you and wants you to succeed in every area of life? The devil says you don't have enough. Enough Money, time good looks, talent.

God says you can do all things through Christ. God's thoughts will enable you to walk in victory and freedom. Let's store them up.

Blessings!