Isa. 59:19 “So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him”. Listed are some of the effects of lifting the banner: –

1. The gentiles will seek him. Unbelievers will seek God. Evangelism will be sweet. You don’t need to preach for too long before they follow Christ. Whenever you lift the banner, heaven backs you up; so never submit to satanic pressure. Do you know that any time you are under pressure, the spirit of just men made perfect as well as innumerable company of angels are at work? Sometime ago, I enrolled for an MBA programme and during the course of the programme, the “elders” of the class, some of whom are deacons in their various Churches, invited me to a meeting where they decided to go and bribe a particular Lecturer. As soon as they made their intentions known to me, I was so annoyed that they invited me to such a meeting in the first place so I walked out on them. I never knew that heaven took note of my reaction. On the day of examination, none of the things the Lecturer taught us came out because it turned out that the questions were set by another Lecturer entirely from another campus. There was uproar in the examination hall that day but in the midst of this, the Holy Spirit ministered to me to write with residual knowledge. I complied and was able to answer all the questions. To the glory of God, when the results were released, I was the only one that scored an ‘A’; all the others scored ‘C’ in that particular course. The God we serve in Holy Ghost Fellowship is the God of consecration; don’t be part of the mess out there if you want to enjoy the fullness of the benefits that are loaded in the ministry. When the gentiles look at your lifestyle, they will desire to follow you to Christ even without any preaching.
2. His dwelling place shall be glorious. The Church of God will be honoured, there will be dignity; that aura of piety will be restored.
3. Vengeance. The Lord will fight for his people. Whenever you display the banner of the Lord, you are allowing the Lord to fight for you. However, if you can fix it, God will leave you.
4. The dread anointing will be released. The enemy will begin to fear the name of the Lord. One of the things that have left the Church today is the anointing of dread and that is why people can go into the Church to steal.
5. The Lord will draw men unto himself. God himself will direct the right people to you; you are not called to pastor everybody.
6. There will be all-round victory. God is interested in giving his children comprehensive victory. In Exo. 17:13-16, observe that the Amalekites were completely routed. If you want the Lord to fight against your enemies, keep lifting the banner of the Lord. The last sentence in Psa. 60:8 says, “triumph thou because of me”. May you triumph because of your connection to the Lord, in the mighty name of Jesus.

Early in 1999, I had an experience that compelled me to set seven (7) weeks apart to seek the face of the Lord in prayer. During that period, I did not accept any outside invitation to minister. On the seventh day of the seventh week, I had a wonderful spiritual encounter the summary of which is that I was given a fresh mandate to keep lifting the banner on high; the exact word the Lord gave me is “keep lifting my name on high”. Hallelujah. That settled it and that is exactly what I have been doing ever since. I call upon you today to do the same thing, keep lifting the name of the Lord on high in every area of your life. Endeavour to be an enforcer of righteousness.

The Bible says righteousness exalts a nation and if righteousness can exalt a nation, you can imagine what it will do to you and your family. Where everybody around you is dancing, be an ambassador of Jesus Christ and heaven will back you up with the limitless resources. When everything around you has sunk, you will still be lifting the banner because your ship will be like the ark of Noah. The flood that sank all other ships will lift yours on high. The Lord is mightier than the noise of many waters and the mighty waves of the sea.

TO BE CONTINUED