Perfect Redemption Plan 7: Perfect Redemption Plan, #7

By Gery Malanda

JEHOVAH NISSI THE LORD IS OUR BANNER, THE LORD IS OUR VICTORY. The word Rephidim means balusters: in other words many balusters have been placed around a location to form a balustrade which is a row of balusters, joined by a rail, serving as a fence. Rephidim or Rephiydiym is the plural of the word Rephiydah which means bottom. Therefore Rephidim also means bottoms. In our Christian pilgrimage we might find ourselves in places we do not like, it may seem to us as if we have reached the bottom of the bottomless pit. We do not know how we will ever come out of that bottomless pit. We have nobody to help us; we have nobody to provide for us, we have nobody to vouch for us, etc. Here we see the children of Israel in the wilderness, they arrived at Riphidim, and they did not know how their thirst would be quenched in the wilderness!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hopfan
• Release date: Mar 10, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201913342

Gery Malanda

Brother Gery Malanda: Is an extraordinary bond servant and apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, with a strong, Prophetic and Evangelistic gifting, born in the Republic of Congo, expounds in his Bible Studies on his youth and Christian upbringing, as a personal testimony and example! He has a very close relationship with Jesus and has furthered his Knowledge of the Bible at The New Covenant Church Bible College in Manchester, United Kingdom, and graduated in 2010. Having personally had an encounter with our Lord, he has the vision of evangelising and discipling the 50 European Nations, starting with Glasgow, Scotland. To this end, The Lord set him the seven year task of writing this significant series of bible studies called My weekly milk! These are written in English, his third language, having spent many years in France, but have retained his personal style and character! They emphasise how Jesus is using ordinary people, who want to move forward in ministry, with power, healing and miracles. Now with a regular slot on TBN, he is presenting a program called "Voice of Healing", a spirit led preaching and teaching, accompanied by prayer and live word of knowledge.

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Perfect Redemption Plan 7

Jehovah-Nissi: the Lord is our banner, the Lord is our victory

Exodus 17:1 And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: but there was no water for the people to drink.

Exodus 17:2 Therefore the people did chide or did contend with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, why do you chide or contend with me? Why do you tempt the LORD?

Exodus 17:3 And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?

Exodus 17:4 And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, what shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.

Exodus 17:5 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with you of the elders of Israel; also take in your hand your rod, with which you smote the river, and go.

Exodus 17:6 Behold, I will stand before you there upon the rock in Horeb; and you shall smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

Exodus 17:7 And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding or contention of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?

Exodus 17:8 Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim.

Exodus 17:9 And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us some men, and go out, fight with Amalek: tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.

Exodus 17:10 So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

Exodus 17:11 And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.

Exodus 17:12 But Moses’ hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur supported up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.

Exodus 17:13 And Joshua discomfited or defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

Exodus 17:14 Then the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out or blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.

Exodus 17:15 And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-Nissi:

Exodus 17:16 For he said, because the LORD has sworn: the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

1. The Rephidim of our Christian pilgrimage

The word Rephidim means balusters: in other words many balusters have been placed around a location to form a balustrade which is a row of balusters, joined by a rail, serving as a fence. Rephidim or Rephiydiym is the plural of the word Rephiydah which means bottom. Therefore Rephidim also means bottoms. In our Christian pilgrimage we might find ourselves in places we do not like, it may seem to us as if we have reached the bottom of the bottomless pit. We do not know how we will ever come out of that bottomless pit. We have nobody to help us; we have nobody to provide for us, we have nobody to vouch for us, etc. Here we see the children of Israel in the wilderness, they arrived at Riphidim, and they did not know how their thirst would be quenched in the wilderness! They felt like they had reached the bottom: not just were they in the wilderness and not in the promised land, flowing with milk and honey; but they were about to die of thirst. They cried out to Moses: give us water to drink; why have you brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us, our children and our livestock with thirst?

Coming out of Egypt corresponds to our salvation, when we became born again; and going through the red sea, corresponds to our baptism: death and resurrection with Christ Jesus. Many times when we are born again, the enemy is not happy at all, for we are no longer his slave, but have been set free. He fights us with all He can, to discourage us in this journey to experience the manifestations of our God given inheritance. Sometimes believers might even think that it was better when they were in the world, just like the Israelites told Moses, at least we had food and water in Egypt! It is the enemy’s plan to attack us with all he has, so that we will return to be his slaves. Sometimes Christians might feel they had less attacks when they were in the world; but since they were born again, it is as if all hell broke loose. The children of Israel also experienced the same thing, when they came out of Egypt; Pharaoh and all his army pursued them to kill them (Exodus 14). They thought they would all die there before the Red Sea, by the hand of the Egyptians.

But what we must realize is, that even when we feel like we have reached the bottom, that our life and our children’s lives are in danger, our business or source of income is about to be destroyed, God has placed a balustrade around us, or placed a fence around us. Satan even complained to God about Job saying: have You not made a hedge or fence, around about Job, around his household and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the works of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land (Job 1:10). The fence God has placed around you, not only protects you on every side, but your entire household too, and all that you have, all your businesses, your employment, all your properties, etc.

The enemy cannot touch you, because the fence of the Lord is around you. David knew that the Lord had put a fence around him and he said: the Angel of the Lord, who is Jesus Christ (Isaiah 63:8-9), encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them (Psalm 34:7). David had also reached the bottom, he knew the Lord Jesus encamped all around Him to deliver him, he said: though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me, Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me (Psalm 23:4). David said: where shall I go from Your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from Your presence? If I ascend up into heaven, You are there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall Your hand lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me (Psalm 139:7-10).

David knew that he was only going through, he was not dwelling in that valley of the shadow of death. You and I might be going through some things, but we know that God is with us, and Jesus encamps around us to deliver us, His presence is, or His faces are with us, even when we make our bed in hell. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all (Psalm 34:19). The prophet Zechariah said: for I, says the Lord, will be a wall of fire all around her (Jerusalem) and I will be the glory in her midst (Zechariah 2:5). The enemy is kept outside the fence God has placed all around us. The Lord Jesus, your Redeemer, will arise and deliver you. Job Said: I know my Redeemer (Jesus) lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth (Job 19:25). He will fight my battles, he will get me out of that valley of the shadow of death, He will provide for me in Rephidim, my children and I will not perish in Rephidim, nor will our source of income (livestock).

2. Jehovah-Nissi: the Lord is our banner

Many times when people say Jehovah-Nissi, they only think about the God of war who gives them victories. Yes, the Lord is the Man of war Jehovah or Yahweh is His name (Exodus 15:3); But the first meaning of Jehovah-Nissi is, the Lord our banner, but what banner? Is it the banner of one of the armies of Israel: lion, ox, man or eagle? This is what God says: His banner over us is love (Songs 2:4). As long as we do not know it, we will not serve the Lord willingly. Not the Love that we have for Him but the unconditional or agape love He has for us. We love Him because He first loved us (1John 4:19). Though the Lord has made us soldiers of Christ; He wants us to know that it is not because we can fight for His kingdom that He saved us, or because we can serve in His kingdom that He saved us, no, it is because He loves us. All these things we will do, but they do not commend us to God. He said: I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for My anger is turned away from him (Hosea14:4).

The thief on the cross with Jesus said: Lord remember me when You come into Your kingdom. Jesus said to him: verily I say to you today, you shall be with me in paradise (Luke 23:42-43). The banner Jesus placed over him was love, the thief had never served Jesus on earth, had never fought any battle with the Lord to advance the Kingdom of God. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to die for us, so that we will be victors in life, no longer victims. When the Hebrews were in captivity in Egypt they could not defeat Pharaoh, they could not fight for their own freedom. But God, who is love, and placed the banner of love over them; said to Moses: I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey (Exodus 3:7-8).

God is our Father. Which father on earth, seeing his son or daughter being afflicted, crying night and day, will not come to them and deliver them or comfort them? God said to Moses: you shall say unto Pharaoh, Thus says the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn; And I say unto you, Let my son go, that he may serve me; but, if you refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay your son, even your firstborn (Exodus 4:22-23). Israel could not fight for himself; God was the one who plagued Egypt with the ten plagues and then delivered Israel from the bondage of Pharaoh. It is the same thing for our salvation, as we explain in length in the Perfect Redemption Plan part I, how God, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, defeated Satan, who was trying to hold us in bondage all those years, and kept our inheritance. It was the blood of the lamb that the Israelites put on their doorposts and lintels, that caused the angel of death to pass over them. In other words it was the death and the resurrection of the Lamb of God, Jesus, that delivered them from their captors. God gave them the victory over their arch-enemy Pharaoh, because He loved them, Israel is His son.

Now Pharaoh in Arabic means crocodile. The Hebrew word Tanniym means: a marine or land monster, a serpent, a dragon, whale, crocodile (all reptiles). In Ezekiel 29:3 God says: thus says the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon (Tanniym) who lies in the midst of his rivers, who has said, My river is my own, and I have made it for myself. The bible never used the name of the king of Egypt, but always called him Pharaoh. In the Nile River, they had crocodiles, so they called their king after that powerful crocodile, which is a cruel, voracious and mischievous monster. So was Pharaoh to the people of the land, and especially to the Hebrews. God was prophetically telling the people that it is not the physical Pharaoh, king of Egypt who has kept you in bondage; but the great dragon or serpent of old, your arch-enemy: Satan. I, the Lord, am against Satan who is at work through Pharaoh. Jesus also came down from heaven to deliver us from the power of the dragon, because He so loved us.

All the victories we ever had, and we will keep on having, are because God so loves us, and decides to fight for us. He says: the battle is not yours but God’s (2Chronicles 20:15). I, the Lord (Jehovah) the Man of War (Exodus 15:3), will fight on your behalf because I love you and my banner over you is love. Not only does God fight your battles, but He says: the war is God’s (1Chronicles 5:22). He will fight not just one battle, but the entire war, until you experience the manifestations of the blessings of the promised land, and have rest all around, from your enemies. The Lord will drive out from before you, great and strong nations; but as for you, no one will be able to stand against you. One man of you, shall chase a thousand, for the Lord your God is He who fights for you, as He promised you (Joshua 23:9-10). We do not have to beg God, for Him to fight our battles or wars, He promises to do so. All His promises are yes and Amen in Christ Jesus (2Corinthians 1:20). We just need to ask Him to come to our rescue.

When we are born again, we have been spiritually delivered from the power of darkness (which is the equivalent of the bondage of Egypt) and translated to the kingdom of the Son of God’s love (which is our spiritual promised land) (Colossians 1:13). We are not in a spiritual wilderness, even if, physically we feel like we are in that spiritual wilderness. Paul tells us: we walk by faith and not by sight [Greek word eidos which means: view, appearance, sight, physical senses] (2Corinthians 5:7). It is because people are walking by sight, or feelings, or appearances, that they think they are spiritually in the wilderness, walking to their promised land or Zion, and they come up with the songs like: we are marching up to Zion; beautiful, beautiful Zion, we are marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God.

It is because they are looking at their physical circumstances and think they are in a wilderness spiritually. Paul tells us: you have come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of Abel (Hebrews 12:22-24). You are not marching up to Zion; but you have come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.

So spiritually, every born again Christian, has been delivered from the power of darkness, and been translated to the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, even the promised land. We are not in a spiritual wilderness regardless of how we feel, or how things appear in the physical; we are not in the spiritual wilderness marching up to the promised land. But we are in the promised land, fighting the forces and powers of darkness that have illegally kept our possessions. We are living the book of Joshua, for Joshua is a type of Jesus, who gave the people rest. Under the leadership of Joshua, the people stepped into the promised land and fought to utterly destroy all their enemies who occupied their promised land. Paul tells us: For if Joshua had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest to the people of God. For he who has entered into His rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did from His (Hebrews 4:8-10).

Spiritually we are in Christ Jesus, our Rest; we have come to Mount Zion, our heavenly Jerusalem, our spiritual promised land. What we should pray, is what Jesus told us: Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Luke 11:2). We have seen spiritually that we are in the promised land, we need to pray that the promises God made to us, of that land flowing with milk and honey, be done on earth here, as it is in the spiritual realm. If you do not understand that Christ Jesus is the fulfilment of all the Sabbaths, and is our ultimate Rest, and for the Hebrews it was entering the promised land, you will still be thinking that you are in a wilderness spiritually. We have a better covenant in the blood of Christ Jesus. Our fight is against the powers and forces of darkness that are occupying our promised land.

3.Jehovah-Nissi: the Lord our victory

Many times we do things and we do not have the same result the people in the bible had. God says: I am the Lord, I do not change, and therefore you My son Jacob, are not consumed or destroyed, or will not fail (Malachi 3:6). And furthermore it is written: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Since the Godhead does not change, why is it that we do not have the same results believers of old had? There are many shadows in the Old Testament, if we do not understand what they meant and act according to the faith of the believers of old, we will not experience the same victory. Jesus is the Substance or the body that answers all those shadows and types, found in the Old Testament. My prayer is, that we will have the same revelations the early believers had, and become doers of those revelations.

3.1 Christ our Rock

Our victory over sin, and the power of darkness which held us bound, was won through Jesus Christ. The Israelites killed a lamb for the Passover, so that the blood of the lamb would save them from the angel of death (Exodus 12). The Lamb they offered was a shadow of Jesus Christ, who is the Lamb of God (John 1:29). Now that Jesus has come and died once for all to sin; no one should be offering animal sacrifices again. For David saw the day when the substance, Jesus, would come and fulfil the shadow and said of God: You do not desire sacrifice or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering (Psalm 51:16). Then I, Jesus, said: behold, I come; in the volume of the book, or in the scroll of the book, it is written of Me. I delight in Your will, O My God, and Your Law is within My heart (Psalm 40:7-8). Jesus came according to the scriptures, died according to the scriptures, and was raised by God according to the scriptures (1Corinthians 15:3-4). Whoever believes it, repents of sin toward God, and puts his faith or her faith in this finished work of Jesus, has victory over the power of darkness. He or she is now born again; sin has no more dominion over him or her. Everybody must have this first victory: being born again. Jesus paid for it, we only need to receive it freely by faith.

Being born again is the greatest victory Jesus won for us with His own life. God will make sure that all the other battles which are before us will be won too. Let us look at how Jehovah-Nissi fought for the people then. When they needed God to provide water for them, God said to Moses to take the rod of the Lord, and strike the Rock, and water will come out of that Rock. The rock was a shadow pointing to Jesus. Paul explains: they all drank the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ (1Corinthians 10:4). Striking the Rock with the Rod of the Lord, was symbolic of God crucifying Jesus, as Isaiah explains it in Isaiah 53. The death and resurrection of Jesus provided all the redemptive truth we have been studying in the Perfect redemption plan series.

There is no, absolutely no area of our spiritual life or physical life that is not covered; God has given us the victory over all our enemies. Jesus defeated Satan and all his cohorts when He rose on the third day, as it is written: He disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them (Colossians 2:15). Our arch-enemy Satan is a defeated foe. Jesus our Rock defeated him and all his demons for us. Let us stand in the victory our Lord Jesus conquered for us. It was the same for the Hebrews, Jesus our Rock fought for them, and gave them the victory. God explains to Moses, so that the people and us today will be wise, saying: O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock [Jesus] had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up (Deuteronomy 32:29-30)? He is the Rock [Jesus], His work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he (Deuteronomy 32:4).

We have explained that when Moses struck the Rock at the instruction of the Lord God, water came out of the Rock (Exodus 17:6). When water came out of the Rock [Jesus Christ], it quenched the natural thirst of the people, and gave them life. When Jesus our Rock was smitten of God according to Isaiah 53, and raised from the dead; spiritual water also came out of the resurrected Jesus Christ our Rock, to quench our spiritual thirst. Jesus our Rock smitten by God, tells us: If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink (John 7:37). Whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life (John 4:14). He who believes on Me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spoke He of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified or risen from the dead (John 7:38-39).

Thus it is the resurrected Christ Jesus, the Rock, smitten by God who gave us the living water, even the Holy Ghost. And the power of that Holy Ghost is what gave us the victory. Mary asked the question of the angel Gabriel, how God performs the miracles, saying: How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon you, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow you: therefore, also that Holy One which shall be born of you, shall be called the Son of God (Luke 1:34-35). And that is also the answer the angel gave to Zechariah, as it is written: the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, do you not Know what these be? And I said, No, my lord. Then he answered and spoke unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might [collective abilities, resources or wealth or riches of a group of people, an army], nor by power [your personal ability, your personal wealth and riches, your personal strength], but by My Spirit, says the LORD of hosts (Zechariah 4:5-6).

In the New Covenant the resurrected Christ Jesus, the Rock, smitten by God, dwells in every born again Christian. And water, even the Holy Ghost, is flowing out of that Rock, and since that Rock now dwells in you, therefore the water of the Holy Spirit is also flowing out of you. Jesus told us: Whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life (John 4:14). He who believes on Me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spoke He of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified or raised from the dead (John 7:38-39). Our victories today are still through our Rock Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit that flows out of Him. Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1Corinthians 15:57).

3.2 Christ the Rod or Branch

When Moses was before the red sea with the Hebrews; Pharaoh was pursuing them with his army to kill them. Moses cried out to God. The Lord said to Moses: why do you cry out to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. But lift up your rod and stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea (Exodus 14:15-16). Moses said to the people: the Lord will fight for you and you shall hold your peace (Exodus 14:14). Here is Moses crying out to God, and God tells Him: why do you cry out to Me? But lift up your rod. What is so special with that rod that God would say to Moses: why do you cry out to me? Just lift your rod: the Rod of The Lord. The rod is a branch which was cut off from the tree; it has no more life in it, for the sap which once used to flow through