Today’s Key Scripture  

“Lift up a banner on the high mountain, raise your voice.”

— Isaiah 13:2

One of the names for God is Jehovah Nissi, “the Lord my Victory” or “the Lord is my Banner!” This name of God is used only once in the Word of God (Exodus 17:15), when Moses fully recognized that Israel defeated the Amalekites because they were under the Lord’s banner.

Kathryn Kuhlman proclaimed:

The Holy Spirit is not only the mighty Comforter. He also lifts up a standard against your enemy… Our Lord and Savior has made provision for victory for everyone of His own. Not one of us needs ever go down in defeat, not for a second, for when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord…shall lift up a standard against him. You do not fight your own battles.… The Spirit of the Lord, the Holy Ghost, fights our battles for us!

Immediately after describing the spiritual armor required for battle, the apostle Paul said we should be “praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:18).

Through the centuries, raising the banner is both a signal of assembling for war and a sign of victory.

Let us raise the banner high as we begin the New Year!

 

A Prayer for Today

Precious Lord, I lift Your banner high! I proclaim that You alone are my victory. Show me anything in my life that would hold me back from standing with You triumphant in every circumstance. I want more of You today. I desire to be used in Your service to reach others. May every stronghold of the Enemy that seeks to enslave and destroy be barricaded from the unsaved. I thank You for every door that You are opening, and I surrender myself to You, even as I desire to walk closer with You every day. I pray that the harvest fields will be filled with people of all ages and cultures who feel Your Holy Spirit drawing them to You. Return me to my highest calling and greatest victories. I pray all this in the name of Jesus, amen.

 

*All Scripture references are NKJV unless otherwise noted.