2013-01-03

The Lord is my Banner - God or Me for Victory?

What is the meaning of the "Lord is my Banner"? Is the victory due to me marching with the banner or God's supernatural power? The right answer should be both. This is the world that both God and man got engaged in and excluding one from the other does not make sense. It is more important to find out the parts or roles that each play and do the part that belongs to us, man and leave God to be God. While the right order is God initiates and Man responses, God has given man a good mind and a free will to response to Him and the options, staying with God's values and will,  are a plenty to choose from and we are to use our mind with His further strength and favors to accomplish the mission that God has created and given to us for. Don't just split but integrate too. God's love for us ensure His ways for us are good and the outcome are for us and Him because God is glorified through us and when we are most accomplished so will our God (Mat 5:16) because we raise the banner of God.
"The Lord is my Banner" can be found in the story recorded in Exodus 17:8-15. Here is the mind-map and please go through the points carefully:
A typical danger of inductive Bible Study (generalizing from specific instances) is to over extending the meaning of the particular instance. Most instances are situation specifics and are not meant to be generalized. To guard against over generalizations, we need to find other similar cases and discover the pattern. A typical humor shared  by preacher is that someone notice that Jesus healed by spitting and then form the healing school of spitting,

For this case, I am assured that this is meant to be a lesson for us because of v14-15 when God commanded that this story be remembered and especially for Joshua's and an Altar was built with titled "Jehovah Nissi - the Lord is my Banner". I also cited two other similar examples where God supernaturally acted with man asking and supporting and defeated their enemies. 

The Key Lessons are:
  1. This is a Dual World of Spiritual and Natural and God has given man authority to influence both worlds.
  2. Lift up the Name of God by worship and trust. Do all things from, with, and in Him. Know that we are sent by Him.
  3. We are to find out first the Will and Values of God.
  4. We are then to execute, with His strength, and with our mind (See the smartness of Aaron and Hur to use a stone for Moses to seat and to lift Moses hands with theirs)
Hope you are clear about you are with God in living out your life on earth.

Lim Liat (c) 3 Jan 2013

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