Ron Sawka Ministries
December 7, 2022; Kislev 13, 5783
www.rwsministries.com
“I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting” (1 Tim. 2:8).
“So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands” (Ps. 63:4).
“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand toward heaven’” (Exod. 9:22).
“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!’” (Exod. 17:15–16, ESV).
When We Raise Our Hands, We Touch God’s Throne
Another reason I know that we, God’s ekklesia, have passed into the end-time harvest is that the Lord keeps upgrading our spiritual weapons. One not-very-well understood weapon is that of raising our hands.
During a recent worship service, I was raising my hands and felt the Lord ask me if I understood what it meant. Like many of you, I had learned to raise my hands in worship after I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. At first it was very difficult to break through the self-consciousness, but once I did I found raising my hands while praising was an important part of worship. It became something I loved to do. I have done it for many years, but didn’t quite see it as a weapon.
As I meditated on this, I was led to scriptures about Moses and Pharoah. When Pharoah refused to let the people go free, God told Moses to stretch his hands to the heavens. God released hail, which was a judgment on Pharoah. Moses did this several other times. The implication is clear—when we raise our hands to the Lord, He releases judgment on the enemy trying to hold us captive. Our raising hands becomes a weapon to set us and others and our territory free.
I then looked at 1 Timothy 2:8, which states, “I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting,” and saw it in a new way. I began to understand that when we make the decision to raise our hands, whether in prayer or praise, we are making a strong declaration. We are declaring we won’t let personal feelings like anger rule. Neither will we let unbelief or doubt rule. We are declaring those things broken, and we petition the Lord with purity of heart fully expecting Him to hear and answer.
I also looked up the Exodus 17 story of Moses holding up his hands while Joshua led the troops in battle below. When Moses’s hands were raised, Joshua prevailed. But when they came down, the Amalekites began to prevail. Aaron and Hur helped Moses hold up his hands, and a great victory was won.
The passage closes as follows: “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!’” (Exod. 17:15–16, ESV). That final part is truly amazing. When we raise our hands in prayer or in praise, it seems we are placing our hand on God’s throne and accessing His blessing, His power, and His authority. God truly wants us to do this. He wants us to touch His throne so He can release blessing on us and judgment on the enemy.
No wonder it’s so hard sometimes to raise our hands to the Lord. The devil opposes it, because he knows it is the same as aligning ourselves with God’s throne, and that it results in us getting the victory He wants us to have.
So, I thank the Lord for more understanding of yet another spiritual weapon—raising our hands. When we raise them, the Lord is honored and exalted. Furthermore, we are actually touching the throne of God so we can receive blessing and victory.
Thanks for praying,
Ron and Teddy
Advance by Keeping Your Alignment—Kislev, The Ninth Hebrew Month
November 25–December 24, 2022
The Lord wants us to keep advancing. We do this by keeping our alignment and growing on the foundation of things previously learned. God wants us to develop warfare strategies. We can rely on prophecies He has given us, as well as using prophetic warfare anointing.
A more complete explanation of Kislev may be found here.
Ron’s Travel Schedule
Dec. 4–8—Korea (WLI)
Dec. 13–18—Pakistan (tentative). We are still waiting for a visa, and will be unable to go if it doesn’t arrive in the next few days.
Weekly Broadcast Schedule (Times are listed in Japan Time, UTC+9:00.)
Apostolic Center Training—Tuesdays, 8:30–10:00 p.m., English/Chinese, registration required
Apostolic for Russia resumes January 6
Prophetic Praise with Pete—Sundays–Thursdays, 10:00–10:30 p.m.
MPP—Mondays–Fridays, 6:00–6:45 a.m.
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Resources
Ron’s new book, How to Activate Prophecy and Revelation Gifts, the first title in our new “Apostolic Center Training Series,” is intended as a tool for training others in prophetic activation. It is now available for Kindle. Print copies can also be obtained from our office in Sano. Contact info@rwsministries.com for information about ordering copies, or to obtain any of the four books from the “Building Apostolic-Prophetic Foundations” series, which are also available on Kindle:
• Judah Goes First: The Power of Apostolic-Prophetic Praise
• Activated to Prophesy: The Essential Experience for This New Church Era
• Apostles and Apostolic Anointing: Raising Up the End-Times Believers
• Apostolic Centers: Wineskin for the New Era
For English or Japanese books, contact info@rwsministries.com.
For Chinese books, chinese@rwsministries.com
For more information or to connect with our ministry team, please write us at info@rwsministries.com or info@mppjapan.com.
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