2025/3/19 How to Rise Up in the Lord
- Ron Sawka
- Mar 12
- 6 min read
Ron Sawka Ministries
March 19, 2025; 19 Adar, 5785
“How to Rise Up in the Lord
We have just finished the feast of Purim (March 14–15). As with all the feasts of the Lord, it’s like a portal in the heavenlies opened for us to experience blessing. Purim in particular is a time of breakthrough, and I urge you to continue to press in for whatever shift or breakthrough you may need. One of the key points in the story of Esther is that even though they couldn’t revoke the Persian law permitting their extermination, they could add to it, and Esther did. The Jews were thus given permission to gather—to rise up and attack and destroy any enemy that would come against them (see Esther 8:11). They didn’t have to be passive; they could rise up.
How similar for us today. The devil still comes “to steal, and to kill, and to destroy” (John 10:10), but we have been given authority to rise up and attack him and destroy his plans. There is no need to be passive. So many Christians still don’t understand this. They don’t realize they can—and must—rise up. The question then is: “How do we rise up?”
1. Operate in the Holy Spirit—One of the first scriptures the Lord gave me when I began my long sojourn in the hospital after my spinal cord surgery was Ephesians 8:16, which states, “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.” I had known this verse for a long time, but the Lord spoke this very clearly. I knew that each time I prayed, the most important thing was to rely on the Holy Spirit. Yes, the words I was to pray and things I was to pray for were important. But what was by far the most important was to be sure I was conscious of—and committed to—the Holy Spirit being my helper (see John 14:26).
2. It’s a choice of faith—To pray in the Spirit is really a choice of faith. This choice is so simple, yet so profound. Whenever I pray, my choosing to pray in the Spirit is really choosing to believe He is there and helping me. It’s this same faith “without [which] it is impossible to please Him” (Heb. 11:6). Just think about that. Even before you begin to pray, God is pleased and happy because you’ve actively chosen “faith.” I think we all know that when God is pleased/happy, we too will probably sense His joy.
3. We can always be raised up because “the Lord, our banner” is always raised—The same spirit that Esther and the Jews had to rise up and fight against also shows up in Exodus 17 when the Amalekites were attacking the stragglers. Joshua led the troops on the battlefield while Moses prayed from the overlooking hilltop. When Moses’s hands were raised, Joshua prevailed. But when his hands drooped from fatigue, the enemy began to win. So, Aaron and Hur each supported one of Moses’s arms to help keep his hands raised, and they got final victory.
After the battle ended, “Moses built an altar and called its name, The-Lord-Is-My-Banner [Yahweh-nissi]; for he said, ‘Because the Lord has sworn: the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation’” (Exod. 17:15–16).
I wonder if Moses learned something new from all of this. I know I did. I wonder if the reason Moses built that altar was because he came to realize that the Lord was his banner and was always raised. Even if he got tired and couldn’t hold up the “banner” of his hands, he came to see the Lord never got tired and is always our banner. He is always “raised up” to help us. Consider the Deuteronomy 25:18 description of that same battle with Amalek: “How [the Amalekites] met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks, all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary.”
The fact is that all of us get tired and weary. The fact is this Amalekite spirit always seeks to exploit our tiredness and weariness. But the good news and far, far greater fact is that God is always raised up as our banner. Always!
Therefore, we can, by faith and simply choosing to be “in the Spirit,” always be in a position of “raised up.” In other words, because God is always our “raised-up banner,” we too can always be in a position of “raised up” in faith and in the Holy Spirit. Tired or not—weary or not—we can and should always be “in the Holy Spirit by faith”—and always “raised up.”
Thanks for your praying,
Ron and Teddy
I want to continue to remind you of my book about prophetic praise, Judah Goes First. It’s available online in English. Hard copies are also available in Chinese, Korean, Russian, and English.
My most recent book, How to Activate to Prophecy and Revelation Gifts, also has significant updates on prophetic praise, as well as the song of the Lord.
Prayer Corner-Things for all of us to pray for
Please pray for my (and my son Pete’s) upcoming overseas ministry trip. Because of our covenant at Online APC-MPP, I am being sent by you. Some of you will be led to pray regularly; others on occasion. But however you are led, because of covenant you are carrying me (as well as each other). It’s much like Aaron the high priest who continually carried each of the tribes of Israel (written on the stones on his shoulders or on the twelve stones on his breastplate). For those of you who will be led to pray, please ask for the following: 1) impact and fruitfulness; 2) safety and ease of travel; 3) to accomplish all God intends for us to accomplish.
Keep pressing into singing prophetically to the Lord each day. Singing the song of the Lord appeared under David (see 1 Chronicles 25), and again under King Hezekiah (see 2 Chronicles 29). This establishing of praise resulted in huge expansion for each of them. God wants to expand you, so pursue singing the song of the Lord daily.
Thanks for your praying,
Ron and Teddy
Speaking Truth in Your Heart
Adar 5785—The Twelfth Hebrew Month
Speaking Truth in Your Heart
This month is about celebrating the goodness of God. It is also about speaking, thinking, and meditating on His truth instead of being ruled by fear and worry. The highlight of this month is the feast of Purim on Adar 14 (evening of March 13–evening of March 14, 2025). The order had been given for the Jewish people to be destroyed all through the Persian empire. There seemed to be no hope, but God had a plan and executed it at exactly the right time through Queen Esther and her older cousin Mordecai. The result was overwhelming victory and great increase and prosperity for the Jewish people. From then on, joyful celebration of Purim was a must.
This is an important lesson for us. It can be so easy to worry because of seemingly increasing problems in the world. For example, we see the rise of “wokeism,” that in some ways sounds so good, but with a little digging one can see the spirit behind it is a way of thinking that seems to hate the things God loves and love the things He hates. But we are not to worry. We are to keep our eyes on Him.
One great help will be to develop the habit of daily singing prophetically to the Lord. As we worship Him this way, “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24), we will find ourselves strengthened in spirit, as well as being drawn ever closer to Him and His truth. It’s His truth that will continually keep setting us free.
For more information on Adar, click here.
Travel Ministry Schedule
Broadcast Schedule
Weekly
Apostolic Center MPP—Usually on Monday (except for Japanese Public Holidays, in which case it will be on Tuesday or even Wednesday), 6–7 a.m., Japan Time. (Times are listed in Japan Time, UTC +9.)
Schedule: March 24, 31, April 2 (Wed.), 7, 14
How to Join
You can watch on YouTube or join live via Zoom:
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Zoom main room is English translated into Japanese
Chinese translation room
Russian translation room
Korean translation room
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