January 27

The power of prayer Exodus 16-18

In the battle against the Amalekites we are taught some very important lessons. These lessons mean the difference between living a victorious life, or living a defeated one. Exodus 17 records a battle in which Joshua is fighting in the valley below and Moses is praying on the mountain above. Which is more important for the victory? Both are necessary but without the prayer there will be no victory.

This battle started with the people of God being attacked. “The Amalekites came and attacked.” The attacks in life will occur daily when we desire to walk out of slavery into freedom. Satan doesn’t need to attack someone in slavery. We will see in our reading this year, that we are locked into a fierce cosmic spiritual battle. The question isn’t, “will you be attacked?” The question is, “when you are attacked, what will you do?”

One lesson here is to both fight and pray. We need to be Joshua fighting in the valley at times. But even as we are locked in the valley fight, our ultimate weapon is prayer on the mountain tops. Whenever Moses’ hands were lowered they started losing the battle in the valley. If we want to experience a victory in the valley it will take prayer on the mountain top. There are no exceptions to this rule.

Notice the importance of having a prayer partner. When Moses hands were lowered the battle turned against them. So Aaron and Hur held his hands up. This lesson points out the critical nature of having a prayer team surrounding you. For my first years of ministry I had the support of several prayer warriors. One of them was Grammy Taylor. She was my Moses in the mountain praying for me. Over the years various senior citizens have been part of my prayer team.

The final lesson is the impossible odds that the Israelites faced in this battle. If this battle were to be on the Las Vegas points spread, the Amalekites would have had a 10 touchdown advantage over the Israelites. On paper they had years, decades and even centuries of fight experience. The Israelites were slaves who still had the scars of the shackles on them. Plus the top quality of the Israelites was their complaining. They were experts at complaining, which makes for a terrible army. The Amalekites had weapons while the Israelites had garden tools. Everyone knew the outcome of this battle even before it started. But nothing is impossible with God, especially when you have mountain top prayer. And in the end the Israelites routed their enemies.

3 Lessons from this reading:
1. Pray at the start, pray in the middle and pray at the end of every battle.
2. Have a prayer teammates supporting you. Ask two people to be part of your prayer team.
3. There are no hopeless situations in life. There are only people who have become hopeless because they don’t believe in the promises of God. With our God ... all things are possible.