God trains my hands for battle!
2 Samuel 22:35 "He trains my hands for battle, So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.”
THERE IS BATTLE IN LIFE! Life is not going to be hunky-dory all the time! There are series of battles that you have to fight on the way, yep series of battles – not one - so we need to get this into our system. If we fail to understand this, then we sure are naïve, stupid and senseless, are you listening? In one of his interviews, Vivian Richards by his own admission said, he would not mind dying while playing cricket. In fact, for him, nothing would have been better than dying on the 22 yards. (April 10, 2020, Indian Express) West Indies legend Viv Richards was an attacking batsman. He would take the bowlers to the cleaners. And such was his passion for the game, which is rarely seen these days, that he would take on fast bowlers of any stature without wearing a helmet.
However, we don’t fight like the world nor live like the world, are you listening? Apostle Paul talks about putting on the armor of God in this world: The Armor of God
Ephesians 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.
11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.
What is the meaning of training? Training is the process of learning the skills that you need for a particular job or activity. I got to go from basics, so that you understand it well, how can your arms bend a bow of bronze? Tell me. Not possible, until you get them trained. Do you understand? Likewise, your hands get strengthened spiritually for war ONLY through prayer and reading His Word.
There are many who brag about their physically strong hands and they even slam their fists against the wall to show power. Well, when storm strikes the roof of the house, dude, that doesn’t help in any way, people end up bashing each other with their strong arms because they had not trained them spiritually to tackle problems. Are you with me? Today I am talking about spiritually strong hands: hands that carry the Bible to church, hands that hold the Bible painstakingly for hours and read the Bible, hands that stretch out to heaven and pray, hands that help the servants of God, hands that work hard and supports the work of God etc. When you do this, the devil will flee from your home, your children will obey and you would have overflow in your home.
One particular aunty would always come late for a weekly women’s meeting but would sit for a couple of hours after the meeting and chat. She would climb the stairs of her home and water all the plants herself but alas she was spiritually weak. I saw her family deteriorate day by day……such people never ‘see’ spiritual decay in their life. You may bake the best cake, keep your home spotlessly clean with your super-duper hands but my question today is how many chapters do you read from the Bible? Someone told me, “I am not good at reading”, what????? Such careless, brash attitudes will take your family down to the pit of hell, be warned. Train yourself to read minimum ten chapters everyday if you want a successful life. Many pastor’s wives have lost not only their husbands, but also lost the church, ministry, joy and peace because they failed to diligently read the Word of God.
God trains my hands for battle / PART 2
Exodus 17: 9 “So Moses said to Joshua, "Choose men for us and go out, fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will station myself on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand."
Thoughts kept flowing again and again about this subject, ‘training my hands for battle’, hence I continue the second part as well. After my encounter with Jesus in the emergency ward of a hospital, my life took a drastic change and affected every area of my life, that’s called ‘born again’ experience. The woman who didn’t know the meaning of ‘ministry’, I stretched out my hands to heaven and asked God to use me, I mean I literally stood like a beggar with my hands stretched towards God, He did train me…….
Moses had just tackled the exasperating problem of the Israelites grumbling for need of water, they cursed Moses saying, “have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?" Pretty harsh, this could just shatter any person after all the struggle and pain; however, God gave them water from the rock. Now before Moses could relax after this emotional strain and drama, the Amalekites suddenly attack the Israelites. Bang, one after another! Now you know why I talk a lot on this subject, anybody there?
Besides Moses, there were three people connected in the battle against the Amalekites: Hur, Aaron and Joshua. When Moses held his hand up, Israel prevailed, and when he let his hand down, Amalek prevailed, well, the attacks were getting fierce and Moses could not do this alone, he got weary and tired, at this juncture, Hur and Aaron took a stone and put it under Moses, and he sat on it; and Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other, thus Moses hands were steady until the sun set. So Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. Hurray!
Please understand here, as soon as you take water baptism and join the Christian circle , you should learn to do spiritual war fare, are you listening? Not many are educated about this, they keep dancing too long, so the enemy very easily and quickly slithers unexpectedly and attacks them. Shrugging off responsibility to pray, fast and read the Word leads to disaster; during the initial days of salvation, I was always looking for prayerful people so that I could join hands with them and pray, my husband was/is my standard prayer partner.
God would never forget the ‘men’ who held the hands of Moses during the battle against the Amalekites, Bezalel was the grandson of Hur (Exod. 31:1-2), the Hebrew name Bezalel means “in the shadow of God”, the Lord said, " I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all kinds of craftsmanship..” It was Hur’s grandson who constructed the tabernacle. Isn’t that awesome? God said: “Then the LORD your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands..” (Deuteronomy 30:9)
God trains my hands for battle / PART 3
Nehemiah 6:9”They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, "Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed." But I prayed, "Now strengthen my hands."
I woke up at 4 am, while it was still dark to pray, after an hour of prayer, I picked up my Bible to read - BAM- in the quietness, I felt His nearness and the relevance of His Words, the Lord started talking to me, after an hour of Bible reading, I joined my family for morning prayer and I shared my ‘HOT’ conversation with God that day. We were all rejoicing and praising God, I will be sharing portions of the revelation that I received in the wee hours of that day.
Nehemiah! Matching his passion and commitment is tough! I’m awed; I wonder if I could squeeze ‘Nehemiah’ into this small devotion of mine, he is a huge subject, let’s concentrate on what we need for our subject matter today. The above scripture is just awesome, awesome, awesome…… the enemies were trying to scare, frustrate, intimidate and chase them away from the mega project of building the burnt walls of Jerusalem , but Nehemiah knew who to call, he said: Lord, Now strengthen my hands! Hurray!
Listen to me friends, the moment you decide to rebuild the ruins in your life, the nasty devil will come against you, are you listening? However, read my entire series on ‘God trains my hands for battle’ and be strengthened. Right from chapter one, when the enemies come against him, all I saw Nehemiah do what is to call the Lord! Amen. Prayer was his weapon! Since the people had a powerful leader like Nehemiah, they brushed aside the threats of the enemy and continued to employ their hands to work on building the wall. People would come to mock, guffaw, shout and stop your work but I encourage you today to never quit. Someone said, “ I have no need to work on my marriage which has already deteriorated”, my answer, ‘to escape is easy, to stay and get it healed is challenge’, you don’t need this message to tackle ordinary problems, I write so that you dust yourself and arise to do gigantic stuff.
Nehemiah got murderous threats and warnings; yet, he kept going, Nehemiah said,” the men of the guard who followed me, none of us removed our clothes, each took his weapon even to the water.” This is incredible! (Nehemiah 4:23)
Well, if you ask me: how did Nehemiah build the walls in 52 days? From where did he get the strategy? How did he manage to overcome the threats of the enemy? How was he able to keep the spirit of unity among the workers? Go back to chapter one, when Nehemiah heard the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire, we read:
“he sat down and wept and mourned for days; and was fasting and praying before the God of heaven!”
That was key right there! Keep reading the above verse again, again and again until it penetrates into your heart. All that he needed for building the broken walls of Jerusalem he got at the Feet of the Lord. Nehemiah was not a ‘fast-food’ guy, he trusted his Lord for strategy! God bless you!
