This was the topic of discussion for the first meeting of the new year, held on January 6, 2011. About a year or so back, I was leading worship in a Sunday service and it was an obvious struggle for people to enter in and get past all the cares and concerns that they came in with. From my perspective, there was no real joy in the room or freedom that occurs when one is fully engaged with the object of our worship - the Lord. I don't like the "cheerleader" style of worship but something had to be said or done to bring the people up and out of themselves. At that moment, I could hear the Lord speaking to me about wearing rags, that when we come into His presence in this sad and pre-occupied manner, we are actually wearing rags for clothing. It dawned on me then that none of us would ever get up in the morning and purposely put on rags and go to work or come to church but in fact that's exactly what we've done when we enter into worship without joy or victory or true praise. It's the same as dressing in rags! So that verse of scripture must be applied from Isaiah 61:3, that we must PUT ON the garment of praise.
Praise is more than lip service. The Lord is always worthy of praise based on who He is and what He has done in Christ and not how we feel at any given moment. The Hebrew text in Isaiah actually means to wear praise or wrap or cover ourselves, leaving no opening through which hostile elements can penetrate. This garment of praise repels and replaces the heavy spirit. Are you oppressed by fear or doubt? PUT ON the garment of praise, the Word says. In Psalm 50:23, whoever offers praise glorifes the Lord and it is to the one who praises and watches his conduct that the Lord will offer His salvation. Let me offer one more scripture on praise to set the tone of the depth of discussion we had at this meeting. Hebrews 13:15 says to offer the sacrifice of praise. Sacrifice denotes that something must die. As Christ died so that we may live, the same principle applies to our walk. Death brings forth life. We must die to self, in other words, we must kill our pride and offer praises instead. Pride keeps us from praising at all times. Pride keeps our focus on ourselves and our problems and our fears and doubts. That's why praise is a sacrifice. Pride is being put to death! Pride is filthy as RAGS!
The discussion held went in an interesting direction. Rather than the reasons why we should praise, which are always centered around the great love and sacrifce of Christ, we discussed the weapon of praise. 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 states that we have powerful weapons at our disposal that will defeat the works of darkness that pushes to control our flesh. Praise is one such weapon. Wear praise like a garment and it dispels a spirit of heaviness. Let your mind absorb that a minute. What you feel that prevents you from praising may take the form of sorrow, doubts, fears, worries, angers, etc., but they are actually spirit in nature and cannot be dispelled by natural or physical means. We are not fighting things in the natural yet we behave as if all of our troubles can be cured by therapy, medication, shopping, drugs, alcohol, etc. While some of these are harmful and others are not, and I am certainly not in contention with the good that can come of therapy and medication, these should not be the first response to our life's problems, especially if we call ourselves Christians. Leaving God either out of the equation or making Him the last resort is not how Christ meant for His Church to behave. He said that we would receive power. The Holy Spirit was given to empower us to be like Christ in character and deed and further His earthly ministry. The question is, have we been trying to remove our heaviness or deal with life's problems in the natural when all along it's a spiritual battle?
We must have "sight" beyond the visible or natural world into the invisible or supernatural world. Praise produces sight which works with faith. It is impossible to please God without faith and if we praise in faith something in the spiritual realm is birthed. Sight beyond this world that can see the future glory comes from praising the Lord. A new perspective is formed about one's circumstances. Paul, the Apostle, calls his own troubles light and momentary because faith working through praise produces hope and perseverence in all that the Lord has promised. Praise operates by faith in God's abilities, His victory and His power. It does not operate by our feelings. When praise is offered always and continually it is effective as a weapon because it trains the mind to worship God first. Remember the greatest commandment is to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, MIND, and strength. As we offer our bodies as living sacrifices (there's that word "sacrifce:" again!) we are transformed in our mind, the way we think, the emphasis we place on earthly things. Praise takes us up to that realm where God is. The reward of a renewed mind is the promise of the fullness of Christ. What is the fullness of Christ? All honor, power and authority belong to Him and by His own words, the Lord Jesus commissioned His Church to move in His fullness, doing greater things than even He did. This is powerful stuff and then you realize that we have been living beneath our calling and potential and if we would begin with a simple act of faith by praising God always, what power is unlocked!
It makes perfect sense that Satan wants to keep us from this because we would be such threats to his kingdom. Praise ambushes the enemies plans, plain and simple! The classic biblical historical occurrence of this truth is found in 2 Chronicles, Chapter 20. Imagine the scene. An army of several nations of surrounding enemies has gathered and you are outnumbered. The only natural outcome is your own defeat. What would you do? This king "inquired of the Lord." HE PRAYED FOR GOD'S DELIVERANCE!!! This is the key. He did not try to take matters into his own hands. He didn't retreat or give up. HE PRAYED AND GOD HEARD HIS PRAYERS with one of the greatest deliverances ever! They totally relied on God. They praised, worshipped and WON! (It's a fabulous story that you must read for yourself and not just once. I read and re-read it because my faith is stirred each time!) Faith, humility, obedience and praise = VICTORY!
This great deliverance came about by a decision. To trust in God is a decision. To praise Him is a decision. "I will bless the Lord at all times...." Give my next statement some very serious thought. The goodness of God is the why of praise and we can affirm that praising God is not about our feelings. So not praising God can easily and subtley become a refusal to enter into praise. Oh, we don't see it that way exactly in the moment because we will self-justify but whittle it down and fears, doubts, pride keeps us from praising. There are always things we will do first before we trust in God. That's been the problem all along...keeping the Lordship of Christ first. The chapter of scripture that formed this lesson (Isaiah 61) was the very scriptures quoted by Jesus when He introduced Himself to the Jews as the long-awaited Messiah. He stated who He was and why He came and what He brings with Him, and best of all, what WE, THE CHURCH, will do because He has come! When we do not praise God first and always we are actually denying who we are and what we are called to be. Praise identifies us with God and who He is and becomes a witness to the world of the one we love and serve. Very strongly put, not praising God identifies us with those who hate the Lord. Jesus made reference to those who will call out to Him to enter the Kingdom and He will say I never knew you. He was teaching the people about a true heart of obedience not just following the law. Praising Him is an act of obedience, a decision to use His game plan to win the battles of life and enter His kingdom.
Satan doesn't want you to praise because he knows how powerful a weapon it actually is and he doesn't want you to know it. Are you going to let him win? I've quoted several important scriptures here and believe me, there are many more. The Word of God gives us the way of praise and the why of praise. NO WORD...NO PRAISE! Know His Word. Love His Word and grow deeper in knowing, loving and obeying Him!!
Our next meeting of the Young Women's Mentoring Fellowship is scheduled for Thursday, February 3 from 7:30 - 9:30 pm at my home. Email me if you would like to attend: nancy@gatewaycitychurch.net
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