In the book of Exodus we see the Israelites fight the Amalekites. The Amalekites, in this case, could be compared to the obstacles you face towards your joy, spiritual and emotional fulfilment. You have dreams but something keeps coming up that you have to fight and overcome. So in the book of Exodus the Israelites on their journey to the promised land faced the Amalekites in battle. Just like the Amalekites attacked the Israelites, the enemy attacks us in different cunning ways using situations, people and anything he can find. The aim of these attacks is to make you fail.
Now when you are attacked and the enemy intents to use whatever is at his disposal to stop you, it means he is threatened, but it also means you have to fight. That is what the children of Israel did.
8 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.” Exodus 17:8
However, fighting as we see in this passage does not mean winning. You could be fighting against your enemy but be still losing as a Christian. This happens if you depend upon your knowledge and rely upon your own strength. When your hands are fully grasping the world and you want to fight the enemy of the things of God using the same hands the battle could be fatal. On the other hand, when we rely on the help from God’s throne, we have success. The situations you face in life could reach a point that they overwhelm you and you feel like giving up. Just lift your hands, let God intervene with his angelic force.
10 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. Exodus 17:10-13
When we lift our hands unto God, connecting ourselves to heavenly help and surrendering our own minds and ways which have failed us again and again. When we decide to lift our hands in obedience to God’s instructions, our obedience in this physical body will give us victory in the spiritual world.
You might be relying on your own strength, as you have done for so many years without change. What God’s telling you is to lift your hands. Maybe you thought you could succeed and be stable in every way of your life without obeying God and his word, but the enemy has been beating you to a point where you are about to despair because of that disobedience you think is insignificant. As useless and foolish as Moses lifting his hands in obedience to God’s spirit seemed, that is what he required for his great victory. Some of the instructions God gives you in life seem insignificant, but they are all that matters. Without following that instructions the enemy can still thwart all your efforts and hope. What you are required to do is to lift up your hands in obedience to that instruction that God gives you or gave you. He may have told you one thing and you have been doing another. You have to consider lifting your hands. You have to consider obeying because God is not joking, when He gives an instruction you have to follow it. The enemy too is not joking, he means war, unless you wake up early and lift up your hands. Unless you obey that instruction God is giving you now, you might live to regret it.
Lift up your hands and win. Stand with the staff of God in your hand like Moses. Stand upon the rock which is Jesus Christ and lift up your hands.
