Lift up your hands in holiness and bless the lord!

Transcription

1 Lift up your hands in holiness and bless the lord! BRENDAN Mc CROSSAN

2 Lift up your hands in holiness and bless the Lord Brendan Mc Crossan

3 Lift up your hands in holiness and bless the Lord Brendan Mc Crossan One Bless the Lord For years I had been going to the Charismatic renewal and in all those years I sang a song called, lift up your hands in holiness and bless the lord, some of you may remember this song. But in all these years, and after when I started going to born again churches, I still lifted up my hands, but never gave it any thought for this was what I learned to do all those years ago, and in all these years I never ever heard a sermon on why we need to lift up holy hands and I say need to, and are told to by God. I know it is embarrassing for quite a lot of people to actually hold up their hands in church; so they lift up just the one hand; and I congratulate you on having the courage, to do this in places where it is an acceptable part of the services but not very many do this; so again I say, well done. I ll share this we story with you; one night I was attending a youth meeting and when I walked in most of those young people were standing with a hand raised in the air, and the first though that came to me where was Hitler. Giving a talk after the worship I remembered this thought, and I shared with them some scripture as to why we should raise our hands, and not one hand; and I told them of my thoughts standing behind them; and they laughed. But when they finished off the meeting by singing some more worship songs; ever one of them had raised both hands. And I see those kids in places today and I see they still hold both hands up to God when worshipping. 1-Timothy 2:8 - Berean Literal Bible - Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands, without anger or dissension. What is God saying through Timothy- I want the men{not just the men} everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands, without anger or dissension; so

4 when you go to lift up holy hands you first need to get rid of anger and dissension. {Dissension means conflict, disagreement, dissent, discord, or rebellion} So what is God saying to you? He wants you to lift up your holy hands he calls your hands holy as well as calling you holy righteous, spotless, clean. Psalm 134- Lift up your hands in holiness and to the sanctuary and bless the Lord [affectionately and gratefully praise Him]! God has given us the privilege and power to bless him; think of what this is actually saying, you and I have been given the right by Father God to actually call a blessing on him. What an honour to be given this by God to bless him by the words of your mouth; for there is no other way you can bless him, for he has everything, and there is nothing except praise and worship that he can receive from us, bless you Lord You may very well ask, how can we lift up holy hands and bless God. Well the truth is he has made us holy; so our hands as well as every other part is holy; so blessing him is just a gift from a loving father God, and why is he saying this is so many scriptures from the Old Testament to the New Testament! It is important for us to know why we call a blessing on God it reminds us that we are holy and have holy hands and it keeps us focused on our holiness before God and what he has done for us. If you do not know that you are holy and therefore your hands are holy, you will miss out on every opportunity to give god the glory and honour and reverence he deserves; for you will think you are not worthy, as the enemy will tell you; for your ignorance will give him a footing in your life. God knows what he is doing; especially more than you do, and knows the fullest meaning to be called to bless him and in return he will bless you exceedingly more than you can bless him; you cannot outdo God is giving blessings Ephesians 1Living Bible (TLB) 1 Dear Christian friends at Ephesus, ever loyal to the Lord: This is Paul writing to you, chosen by God to be Jesus Christ s messenger. 2 May his blessings and peace be yours, sent to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. 3 How we praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every blessing in heaven because we belong to Christ. 4 Long ago, even before he made the world, God chose us to be his very own through what Christ would do for us; he decided then to make us holy in his eyes, without a single

5 fault we who stand before him covered with his love. 5 His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by sending Jesus Christ to die for us. And he did this because he wanted to! When God decided to make us holy did he leave out our hands or any other part of us? No! We are completely holy including our hands. Psalms 119:48 - My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes. There are numerous scripture that tells us about holding up holy hands to God, there is only one reason not to lift up your holy hands and that is if they are not holy, having sinned by using them to sin. None of us would lift up our hands to God for him to see if they were used to murder someone or to harm someone either. We Christians are holy people John 16:10-Living Bible There is righteousness available because I go to the Father and you shall see me no more; Righteousness means that we are holy before God at all times, including our hands. Two Half a blessing; When God says lift up holy hands and bless the lord he is serious and it is not a request. Psalm 134- Lift up your hands in holiness and to the sanctuary and bless the Lord [affectionately and gratefully praise Him]! God is saying here lift up your hands in holiness to the sanctuary; the place where God dwells and that is in heaven above us; and he tells us to bless him. What an astonishing thing it is to have God tell us to lift up our holy hands and bless him. Did you know that scripture says it is someone who is greater than them that have the power to bless, and yet God in humility is telling us to bless him, that is something I find hard to believe except if God says it I will do it because he knows best? Lift up your hands and bless me he is saying, he has given us the power to bless him, and yet all we see when we go to church is some people trying to raise their hand like in a Nazi salute, I find this disturbing to say the

6 least,, it shows that people haven t been taught the importance of lifting up holy hands and calling a blessing on Almighty God. When I lift up my holy hands, first of all, I am aware that my hands have been made holy by the person I am blessing, and that is Almighty God the creator of all things; so I have become aware that I am in his presence, and am lifting up my holy hands to him in full awareness of who it is I am lifting my hands up to and, I say, bless you lord for all you have given me, I bless you for giving me Rose my wife and I bless you for giving me my children, so that one day they also will bless you to with holy hands lifted up to you in love and adoration. In other words I am fully aware of God in church now, because I am thinking of ways in which I can bless him; I bless him for the healings and for the miracles he does through me; I extend my gratitude to him aware of him and not just lifting a half holy hand up to him and insulting him in ignorance. Scripture says in many places to lift up your hands to the lord, it does not say lift up one hand in a Nazi like salute, it specifically says lift up both hands and bless the lord and as the first scripture I placed in this book says get rid of anger and resentment and dissension. 1-Timothy 2:8 - Berean Literal Bible - Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands, without anger or dissension. Dissension means rebellion, a lot of people have dissension against their Pastor, or against members of the church for one reason or another and God is saying get rid of it before you lift up your holy hands; even though he knows you have resentment and anger against people in your church or at home or whatever he still says lift up holy hands, but first get rid of these things for the blemish you. Losing out on a blessing Three Do you know that when you bless God he in turn calls a blessing upon you? So if you don t lift up your holy hands you in turn don t receive a blessing from Father God. Common sense tells us if the bible say lift up your hands or lift up holy hands that is what God has commanded, so if you refuse or are too embarrassed to lift your hands to him you lose out on your blessing from him. If you lift up one hand then you are half blessing the lord. Now if you lift up one hand during the worship, and by the worship in church I mean the music, then you have a hand lifted up to your Almighty God and singing a song and not calling a blessing; sure your song is great and I m sure the words are amazing but are they calling a blessing or singing words that are not telling you

7 to bless your God. Sure they may be singing nice things about God to him or about him but few are actually blessing him. In worship without music you are called to lift up your hands and bless the lord so that you can verbalise your gratitude to him by thanking him for his blessings by blessing him with words of gratitude like bless you lord for loving me; bless you lord for my salvation; bless you lord for giving me your Holy Spirit; bless you lord for giving me tongues in which to pray and all of these things are verbalising your blessings and thanksgiving; they are in fact increasing your awareness of who it is you have holy hands lifted up to; lift up your hands in holiness and bless the lord,. This song is a blessed song for it is telling us what to do; lift up your hands and bless the lord lift up your hands in holiness and bless the lord, Bless the lord, Lift up your hands in holiness and bless his holy name We bless you lord; we bless you lord We bless the name of Jesus We bless you lord, we bless you lord We bless your holy name This song is perfect in worship for it is telling the congregation to lift up their holy hands and bless their God who loves them and blesses them in return, it explains to them what to do, bless his name to bless not only his name but makes us aware his name is holy. Church has forgotten the word of God in this area and church is not to blame for we have an enemy who has taken it upon himself to blindside us into singing lovely songs that have little to do with blessing our Holy God. In my years of ministry I noticed that most songs either spoke about themselves or about something concerning them and not focus on him and what he done. I didn t realise at first when the lord started giving me songs to sing to him, that those songs were prophetic and glorified him for what he done for me and us. Not me and what I can do as some songs have in their words, and those songs he gave me through his Holy Spirit told me that I was one in him and one through him, and that his heart and mine beat now as one heart, to name but one song; so I am aware that his heart and my heart beat as one, so now I can sing with gusto with holy hands lifted up to him and sing a blessing of gratefulness to him glorifying him alone and I have nothing to add about me. What a wonderful God we have who says he shares his own glory with us now, where in the Old Testament God said he will not share his glory with anyone,

8 then he changed that when he sent Jesus to die for us, and now he says we are his glory. 1-Thessalonians 2:12-Living Bible That your daily lives should not embarrass God but bring joy to him who invited you into his Kingdom to share his glory. Wow! Is this not a great reason to bless God for; sharing his glory with us human beings. Lord I bless you for sharing your glory with me your son or daughter! Exodus 10:21-Living Bible Then Jehovah said to Moses, Lift your hands to heaven, and darkness without a ray of light will descend upon the land of Egypt. God said to lift his hands up to heaven for we do not know when we lift our hands up to heaven, heaven bends down and touches our hands with supernatural power; look at what happened when Moses obeyed God to lift up his hands to him, and darkness without a ray of light will descend upon the land of Egypt. How would you like to experience that awesome power? We also can experience this power and more when we obey God s word and lift up holy hands to him in thanksgiving and honour. Psalm 28:2-New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition Hear the voice of my supplication, as I cry to you for help, as I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary. Crying for help in times of trouble is another reason to lift up holy hands as this man done. He knew when he was up to his armpits in trouble, all he had to do was to lift up his hands to God, and God would answer; and did you know his hands were not even made holy, only we who have Jesus living inside of us have been given that overwhelming power. Psalm 63:4-New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition So I will bless you as long as I live; I will lift up my hands and call on your name. The Psalmist knew also the importance of lifting up his hands to the lord to bless him, and yet we have never been told the importance of lifting up holy hands in our churches or Christian meetings. Not the leaders or Pastors or

9 Priests fault, it is the enemy who has caused this blindness to overcome our leaders in our churches. If the leaders or priests or pastors knew the importance of lifting up holy hands they would teach this in the churches every year at least so that new people would know what to do with the new found holy hands. Nehemiah 8:6 - and Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the LORD with [their] faces to the ground. It seems that the Muslims have taken this scripture on board for they have the Old Testament included in their Koran. Have you seen them in their Mosques worshiping their God Allah, they kneel down and raise their hands up to their waists and face down to the ground; they bend up and down praising their God and we have the true God and we don t even do this. Psalm 63:5-Complete Jewish Bible Yes, I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands. Does these scripture tell us anything of importance that man has learned about their God? They say they will bless him as long as they live, that means they are forever thinking about him, are we his new creation his beloved children thinking about him all the time? Here are some more scriptures telling us of the importance of lifting up holy hands Psalms 63:4 - Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name? 1 Kings 8:54 - And it was [so], that when Solomon had made an end of praying all this prayer and supplication unto the LORD, he arose from before the altar of the LORD, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven.

10 1 Kings 8:22 - And Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven: Exodus 9:33 - And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh and spread abroad his hands unto the LORD: and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth. Lifting up holy hands give great power to a man who knows the blessings involved in blessing the lord! Amen.

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