Victory is in your praise!

“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds.” 2 Corinthians 10:4

Did you know that one of the greatest weapons of your warfare is praise!  Yes, victory is in your praise!!   It’s no wonder to me that the MIGHTIEST warrior in the bible, was a musician…yes David!  If you go back into the book of Samuel and read  some of these stories of the battles he and his “mighty men” fought are downright out of this world!  I believe that David experienced so much victory in life because he lived a lifestyle of worship (Psam 34:1). No matter how dangerous or difficult a situation he was in, David praised the Lord!  No matter how troubled he was, he yet praised the Lord!    No doubt, David knew that praise was a powerful weapon!

One psalmist wrote, “May the praise of God be in their mouths,  and a double-edged sword in their hands.” Psalm 149:6

Why is praise a weapon?  Because when you praise God…you draw him to your situation.  You invite God in to handle your battle.  Psalm 22:3 says that God inhabits the praises of his people.  After Paul and Silas had been beaten and jailed, they praised God at the midnight hour…and there was a great shaking of the prison!  And the shackles where loosed from them and they were freed!  See, praise can loose you from your situation!    Praise takes us into the throneroom were God is.  In fact, Psalm 100 says that we enter his courts with thanksgiving, and enter his gates with praise!  If you want to get into the holies of holies, praise him!  No matter how bad the situation is, praise him!  Don’t wait for the circumstances to get better, praise him in your low place…from your prison.  When you take a blow from the enemy, praise God anyhow!

Elisha–a man who demonstrated one of the greatest manifestations of God’s anointing on the life of a mere man–knew that sometimes the anointing depended on getting into the throneroom through worship.  In the book of 2 Kings 3,  Jehoshaphat  and Joram (son of Ahab) were headed to battle with Moab and called upon  Elisha to get a word from God.  But who did Elisha call in, a musician to get him into the throne room where he could get a word from God!   The bible says when the musician played, the hand of the Lord came upon him and he was able to get the word from God to lead them into victory!  Worship allows you to push pass the issue and see God!

Or how about in the third book of Judges, when the Israellites had been taken over by Moab, they cried out to God and he sent Ehud, a left handed man,  to deliver them!  It is no coincidence that Ehud’s name means “He that praises.”  Or…how about in the book of 2 Chronicles 20, the King of Judah, Jehashophat found himself the target of 3 armies… the Ammonites, Moabites, and and the Meunites. During this time, Jehosophat was ruling over Judah in accordance with God’s laws. King Jehoshaphat sought the Lord for direction and help against their enemies. The prophets told Jehoshaphat that he would deliver their enemies over Judah. So on the battlefield, Judah which means “praise”… praised the Lord and worshiped him. And guess what happened…their enemies were so confused by their praise that they annihilated themselves!  Praise will confuse the enemy!  Or how about when Joshua lead the Israellites into the promised land, did not their shout cause God to tear down the wall of Jericho.

Many people pray, but not everyone will praise and give thanks to God during their situations.  But prayer and praise should go together.  If you really want to get into God’s presence..set the atmosphere of praise before you pray in his holy spirit!  Something will loose and break forth!  And really, this is the model that Jesus himself gave for us for prayer.  In the Lord’s prayer…he began and ended his prayer to the father with praise!  I have noticed that there are a lot of hidden messages in the bible, because God conceals a matter so we can search it out. Proverbs 25.2  Jesus says this,  Matthew 11:25, he says to the father…I will PRAISE you as a hint!  “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.  What has God revealed to children that we don’t know?  Matthew 21:16, “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?”  See children know, when you need your parents to do something for you, you cry out!  You shout!  When we need help from our Father we should cry out!  David knew they same thing, and he said that praise silenced his enemies.  In psalm 8:2, he says ” From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.”

The weapon of praise is a weapon of warfare made mighty through God for the pulling down of strongholds!  So the the next time you are in need of victory, don’t get in a rut of despair.  Has the enemy have one of your love ones in his grasp?? Been praying for salvation for someone?…Cry out to God with your praise!  Shout out to God with a voice of triumph! Psalm 47:1   But we should know that it’s continual praise, that produces a victorius life. Psalm 34:1, David says, “I will bless the Lord at ALL times, his praise will CONTINUALLY be in my mouth.”  How did the saints transcend into the power evident in the pentecost, well where where they when the book of Luke ends…” And they stayed CONTINUALLY at the temple, praising God.”  Continual praise precedes the manifestation of God’s ultimate power! So if you’re now a worshipper, listen to the words of Fred Hammond and “Let the praise begin!”

*Remember to praise him in spirit and in truth! John 4:24 True praise should satisfy God…it’s really one of the few things we can offer him!

We have neglected the greater work…prayer!

“I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me and what I have been doing.  He will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.  And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.  You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”  John 12:12-14

What are the “greater works than these” that Christ says we shall do?   Now we know that Jesus had an amazing ministry on earth, but he promises us an even greater ministry.  And he tells us what it is right in the next line…it’s the “Asking in his name.”  The greater work is prayer!!!  How can we bring in the souls as Christ commissioned us?   It’s in the petition of prayer!! Because God has gone to the father, he has given us the holy spirit to help us pray.  And it is through praying in the holy spirit (Ephesians 6:18), that the power of God is released to bring in the harvest of souls.  Matthew 9:37-38 says this “The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.  PRAY ye therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborer’s to his harvest.”  See when we pray, God will send out the laborers!  People will feel impressed to go out to different places to preach the gospel.  Our prayers will burden them to do God’s work.  In fact, the greatest first missionaries (Paul and Barnabas)  were sent out from a prayer meeting in Acts 13. We can see from the scripture above from John…when we do the greater work of prayer, God promises to do anything we ask when we ask in his name!!

The enemy knows this!  He knows the power of our prayers!!!  So, being the master of deception…he thinks on how he can keep the harvest of souls for being gathered by the saints.  So he does it by bringing in a false gospel.  As gospel of prosperity.  So that the saints are continually looking for their next breakthrough or promotion…while souls are perishing.  And God warns us of this scheme in  Mark 4:19.  He warns that the seed, which is the word (the gospel) will fall among thorns, but the the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth,  and the desires for other things choke out the word and make it unfruitful.  He does it by roaming to and from the earth, causing suffering among the saints so that they may lose their faith and turn from doing the greater work. I Peter 5:8-9.  The enemy keeps the saints preoccupied with their troubles, success, or personal desires…so no one is planting the seed on ground where it can multiply.  The scariest thing about deception is this…no one knows they are being deceived!  [**discussed in detail in The Frustrated Chritian Series].  So they go on and on…from one blessing to the next, one frustration to another, while the souls are perishing!

BUT…if we pray…It will be like that seed sown in good ground that produces a crop, thirty, sixty, or a hundred times what was sown!!!  Now that is a real prosperity gospel!  Some of us ARE the laborers who will go out and produce the harvest.  But it all begins with our prayers. Our prayers have the power to send the laborers out…they have the power to change the hearts of sinners and bring them to repentance.  When the disciples tried to heal the demon-possesed boy, they asked why they could not.  Jesus told them, ”this kind can come out only by prayer.”Mark 9:29.  The greater work has absoloute power to come to pass….But, “We ask not.” James 4:3.  We ask not, for opportunities for God to use us to witness.  We ask not, for God to position us to meet people who God has readied to receive the gospel.  We  ask not, for the Lord to prepare to send our our ministers to spread the gospel.  When we do ask, we ask amiss…as James says, so that we may consume ourselves on our own pleasures.  But we must remember that prayer that is the greater work.  We should measure our impact as christians by the measure of our prayer lives.  If we do not pray, what use are we doing the greater work of God?   If the salt loses it’s flavor, what use is it?

What drove Jesus to do his greater work was this…compassion!  Matthew 9:35, says that “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.  When he saw the crows, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” That is when he made the commission for the saints to pray for the lost.  It was his compassion for them that moved him.  When we see the lost, do we shake our heads and point fingers?  Or are we moved to pray for them?  We must be careful not to lose our compassion for sinners because they are perishing. May we, instead pray for them so that we may not be ashamed (Philliians 1:20) but see hundreds and thousands of souls making it in because we prayed!   Because we saw that they were lost and didn’t know the right way!  We can see the right way…but how can the blind see.  Shouldn’t we be a lampstand to the lost?   Matthew 5:14.

The bible says the fervent, effectual prayer of the righteous man availeth much (James 5:16).  There is something about praying in the spirit that realeases God’s hand to work.  When you pray in the spirit, Romans 8:26, says that the spirit makes intercession for us…because we know not what to pray. The scripture goes on to say that the spirit searches mind of God so that we pray God’s will!!  We know from I John 5:14, that when we pray in God’s will…God promise that anything we ask will be done!!  That’s efficient prayer isn’t it?  An effectual prayer is heard and has power with it because it’s in the will of God.

Our prayers to God go up like an incense before him (Psalm 114:2). In fact, in Acts 10:4, God speaks to Cornelius and tells him that “Your prayers and gifts to the poor has come up as a memorial offering before God.”  Not one prayer is wasted…but he keeps them before him as a memorial!  Revelations 8:8 says that God keeps the prayers of the saints on a golden altar before the throne along with the smoke of incense.  God values our prayers so much that that come up to him and he stores them away on his heavenly altar!  How else do we know that God values prayer?  He says that “my house is a house of prayer.”  Matthew 21:13.  Why didn’t he call it the house of preaching?  Or the house of singing and dance?  Because at the thrown of grace…at the altar of prayer…is where his hand is released!  It is where the greater work happens!  And through his spirit he allows us to participate in bringing in the harvest.  He calls us co-laborers in his great work!  1 Corinthians 3:9 says, For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.”  Yes you, are the house of prayer!  You are God’s building!

May we do the work of prayer, in the spirit, and also other kinds of prayers (Epehsians 6:18) and so fulfill the will of God to bring in the harvest.  We all have the ministry of intecession.  We are all called to be prayer warriors.  Any church or ministry will lack power without the vehicle of prayer!  Our ministries are only as strong as our prayer lives.  Paul knew this…that’s why when he writes to Timothy about the church he says…first of all prayer is of utmost importance..!!!

“I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers,intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone– for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.  For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. I Timothy 2:1

God is concerned about salvation, first of all!!  If we can do nothing else.  If are not able to go out an get the harvest, let us atleast pray that the Lord of the harvest send out laborers.  May we be filled with compassion for the lost…those who are like sheep without a shepherd.  May we cry out for them with all kinds of prayers and fasting.  Amen.  Please receive this in Love…whatever I speak I speak into my own life first.