Made for the Desert - Raising a Red Banner for Me!

Made for the Desert - Raising a Red Banner for Me

It isn’t easy being in the desert alone. You want to ask the question of the Lord, why? It is a natural question to ask because the desert is a dry and lonely place and it often is so foreign that you might feel lost and undone. So, what is the purpose? To be honest sometimes I think I know and then sometimes, I question if, I will ever move out of the desert. We are going to explore some reasons why we are in the desert together for, I too am here with you in my own desert. 

The first thing I know is that, God is in control. He knows exactly why you are where you are, and He is perfecting you in it. So how will you respond to your desert? Will you get bitter or better? Will you blame God, or will you trust Him? Will you ask Him to remove you from the desert, or will you trust Him to lead you through the entire process?

These are some hard questions and we often default to the first response, rather than the correct response. It is hard to be stretched. It is hard to trust. It is hard to be in a new place. It is hard to not ask, why? So, what are we to truly do in our desert?

A few months ago, God gave me a word and told me He was my red banner. What could this mean Lord? Honestly it didn’t make much sense to me until I began to study it out. In one place a study showed that there were different colors of banners and they were symbolic of different things. Such as a green banner could symbolize healing. But a red banner, (the lord is my banner) is meant to be that we are covered by the blood of Jesus.

There is only one mention of Jehovah-Nissi (The Lord is my banner) Exodus 17:15. This is when Moses was in the wilderness that he built an altar unto the Lord. He called it the Lord is my banner. But the key point is He built an altar in his dry and lonesome place. The second thing we must do is, we must build an altar in our weakest place, and it is there that God can begin to shape us and shift us for His glory. It was his dry and lonesome place but here the Lord met Moses and it is there that the Lord will meet you too!

The third thing we need to know is, we are in a spiritual battle and we wrestle not against flesh and blood Ephesians 6:12-13. It is important to know that we must put on the whole armor of God in order to even stand in the fight. When we are in battle, He is our red banner. He is our covering and we are covered by the blood of Jesus when we fight and war in the spirit, if we put on our armor and let Him fight for us in the battle. Yet, we must go to war on our altar in our desert for Him to activate, His banner in our lives.

We have a challenge in this desert to more than we have done before, to pray harder than we have before, and most of all to wait in that desert. When we wait on the Lord and trust Him, He will lead us to the water. What is a banner really? It is a form of victory! It is God raising a standard above our enemies! Psalms 18:48 Song of Solomon 2:4

The fourth thing we need to know is that God is fighting for us! A banner is a standard which the lord raises up and causes the enemy to flee! It literally means he makes a way of escape! Just as in battle flags or banners are raised to symbolize surrender or victory! Isaiah 59:19 The red banner is the blood of Jesus being applied to your life, when you make an altar in your desert the lord is fighting for you. He is raising a standard and the enemy must flee! He cannot stand where the lord is standing, Ephesians 5:10-20 when you’ve done all to stand the lord fights the battle. He places his banner upon your life and nothing the enemy does or says cannot make it come to pass in your life. When the lord raises up a standard, He is our banner, He is our Jehovah-Nissi in the wilderness and He becomes our banner for victory!

In conclusion: we must 1) trust God and know that He is in control, 2) pray in our desert 3) put on the armor of God 4) know that God is fighting for us and that He is our banner.

We can’t walk this walk alone. We can’t do it without waking with the Lord and trusting his plan. We must be willing to pray, “not my will but thy will be done.” Then we actually have to mean it! We must die daily on the altar, the altar of repentance, the altar in our desert, the altar of self-will, and the altar of dying out to our own plans. This is hard for a fixer like me. I see something and I have a plan in motion in my mind. This is good sometimes, but it is not always God’s will for my life.

A few things I know about God’s will. It doesn’t change according to my emotions. It doesn’t change daily. It is about being rooted and planted. God’s will line up with the Word of God. It is a life submitted to authority. It is a life, living and serving, while doing everything you do as unto the Lord. In order to operate in God’s will, you must be faithful, consistent, prayerful, will to take correction, and to have a teachable spirit. These are just some things I have gleaned along the way. It is challenging and the enemy will fight you about having the right attitude and being submitted to authority. In order to have authority and you have to be under authority.

Don’t be discouraged in your desert! Just know that if you are there, God trusts you to be there! He knows where you are, and He has a perfect plan! God knows the right timing to take you from your desert, just keep doing what you’re doing for the Lord, and know that God’s got this! We were made to be in the desert to perfect us and He raises a banner to protect us in that fight!

“When you walk, I am the ground beneath your feet, when you’re weary, I am your strong tower, when you can’t see the way I am your light. I know right where you’re at and I have not forgotten you, I have not overlooked you, but rather I have kept you. I am not mad at you and I am not punishing you but rather I am preparing you. I have set you aside and hidden you because you are my precious treasure. I am preparing you like Esther for greatness and in that there is a season of preparation. She was anointed but she was hidden. She was prepared but she was alone, but you are not alone for I the lord God go with you wherever you go.”