Ron Hutchcraft Ministries

Okay, here's a quick sports quiz. How many men on a football team? Eleven? Yes, well, if it's the visiting team. If it's the home team with the support of their fans on their field, there are twelve players on the team. You won't find the twelfth man anywhere on the field, of course. He's all those noisy fans cheering for the home team and trying to demoralize the opponents. In sports, those fans are literally known as the twelfth man.

Our "nugget" from the Word of God comes from Exodus 17. It's a true story out of the wilderness experience of God's ancient people. Moses tells Joshua to go and fight the Amalekites who ambushed them. In verse 9, Moses says, "'I will stand on top of the hill...' and as long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning." The Bible says that two men held up Moses' hands when he couldn't. Moses was standing between God and his warriors, bringing their need and their battle into the throne room of Almighty God.

Moses was like that twelfth man in football. He never set foot on the battlefield, but what he was doing was felt by every person in the battle. Are you the faithful prayer warrior for the members of your family, for some servants of God that He's laid on your heart, for your pastor, or for your church leaders?

So often people will say, "Well, I guess all I can do is pray!" What? All you can do is go into the very throne room of Almighty God and pray down His unbeatable power? Man, there is no more powerful, no more decisive position you can play on God's team than that of a prayer warrior. And anyone can play that position anywhere - close by, far away, from a hospital bed, a prison cell, a room alone.

As you support God's home team from the stands of prayer, get excited about the decisive position you're playing. The victories are ultimately not just won by the warriors on the field, but by that prayer warrior on the hill.