How Praise can be a weapon in Spiritual Warfare
In the Old Testament
Israelites cross the Red Sea, the Pharoah and the Egyptians were destroyed. Moses and the Israelites began to praise the Lord.
Exodus 15:3
The Lord is a man of war;
The Lord is His name.
Israelites saw how He defeated the Egyptians.
Joshua 5:13-14
And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?
[14] And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant?
The people was suppose to enter the land of Canaan. But the obstacles the wall of Jericho.
In this story we see God as the captain of the Lord
We seen Him as gentle father loving but there is another side to Jesus Christ, He is a mighty man of war.
PRAISE AS A SPIRITUAL WEAPON
2 Chron. 20:1
It happened after this that the people of Moab with the people of Ammon, and others with them besides the Ammonites, came to battle against Jehoshaphat.
2 Chron. 20:15 And he said, "Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the Lord to you: ’Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.
2 Chron. 20:17 You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you."
2 Chron. 20:21-25 And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying:
“Praise the Lord, For His mercy endures forever."
[22] Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated. [23] For the people of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir to utterly kill and destroy them. And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another. [24] So when Judah came to a place overlooking the wilderness, they looked toward the multitude; and there were their dead bodies, fallen on the earth. No one had escaped. [25] When Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away their spoil, they found among them an abundance of valuables on the dead bodies, and precious jewelry, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away; and they were three days gathering the spoil because there was so much.
Spiritual Implication:
Praise lifts your eyes from the battle to the victory, for Christ is already Victor, and you have the Victor in your heart that you might have His victory in your life. It is interesting to see that the opposite of praise to blame. Could it be when we don’t praise Him we are angry with God and blaming Him for a situation in our life
Have you ever noticed the way God multiplies your faith when you begin praising Him? There are times when it is more important to praise God than to pray to Him a prayer of intercession. Praise lifts your eyes from your circumstances to your almighty Father who is Ruler over all. Not one circumstance in |Your life can come without His permission, and that means that He has a way of causing it to work together with other things for His glory and your good.
Praise lifts your eyes from the battle to the victory. For Christ is already Victor, and though we do not yet see all things under His feet, they are there in a divine reality (Heb. 2:8; Eph. 1:22).
When you need faith there are two steps to take; go to God’s Word, and begin praising Him.
These two go together as naturally as hydrogen and oxygen together make water. Stop worrying, fearing; try praising. Do you need faith? Praise the Lord!
Praise in warfare is not telling God what to do, but rather when we believing that he knows what the best possible means to win the battle. We are not focusing on the enemy or the warfare but we are transferring the battle into a mighty man of war. And the victory is a sure thing.
Praise does not flatter God to incur his favour. It enthrones him back on His throne where He belongs.
Daniel 11:32 Those who do wickedly against the covenant he shall corrupt with flattery; but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.
In the New Testament
Acts 16:25
But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
We have the story of Paul & Silas in prison.
IN THE SERVICE THE DEVIL ATTACKS THE PRAISE & WORSHIP SEGMENT THE MOST!
Because the evil one does not want you to have the victory.
Praise is a commandment!
Psalm 150:1
Praise the Lord!
Praise God in His sanctuary;
Praise Him in His mighty firmament!
God does not need our praise! He is commanding us to praise Him because it is for our benefit.
When you praise Him you lifts your eyes from the battle to the victory.
When we come before Him in Praise and worship is not a good time to focus on yourself. Some introspection is good, but we can be so engrossed in introspection that we neglect the priority of blessing the Lord or we disqualify ourselves that we are not worthy.
The basic posture of a Christian is not “Bless me, Lord,” but rather I will bless the Lord.
Proverbs 11:25 The generous soul will be made rich,And he who waters will also be watered himself.
Why!
Praise lifts your eyes from the battle to the victory. For Christ is the victor!
PRAISE IS A PREOCCUPATION WITH WHO GOD IS AND WHAT HE HAS DONE AND WHAT HE IS GOING TO DO!
1 Peter 2:9
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
It is our individual responsibility to praise HIM!
We are members of the New Testament priesthood. And we must accept the responsibilities for our role as ministers in the congregation.
We must prepare ourselves for worship.
There are a few things that we need to deal with.
1. Deal with any known sin in your life before getting into the worship service.(otherwise we would spend time getting ourselves right before God and loose opportunities to praise and worship). If sweep under the carpet then don’t get a full release into the worship. (enemy will use sin to distract us from worshipping.)
2. Invest ourselves in prayer for the service.
3. Bring an offering.
Psalm 96:8 Give to the Lord the glory due His name; Bring an offering, and come into His courts.
Rather than always acting like a beggar we need to come to see how much we can bless his name.
4. Invest energy
Psalm 66:2 Sing out the honor of His name; Make His praise glorious.
Sleep early so that we give him the very best of ourselves. We make his praise glorious. Our praise are not automatically glorious.
5.Self-motivated in our praise and worship.
Spontaneous worshippers are people who don’t wait for someone to tell them to raise their hands.
A true worshipper –worships at every opportunity and does not demand some stimulus from someone else.
5. Enter wholeheartedly into the praise of God.
Luke 24:25 Then He said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!
We become slow of heart when we are slow to worship and recognize Him. We must stir up our own souls when it is time to praise the Lord.
We must motivate ourselves to praise and enter enthusiastically into the worship service.
6. Be cheerful before the King
Present our very best.
7. Worship despite distractions
Psalm 34:1 I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
8. Be a worshipper all week long.
Psalm 91:1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
There is a cost of praise
Praise is not free, It involves cost to those who involve themselves in it.
1. Energy-Tired
2. Cost of Preparation
Psalm 24:3-4 Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? [4] He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully.
3. Cost of time
Living a life of praise will inevitanly require a sacrifice of time. We cannot dash in and out of the presence of the Lord; there times when we need to stay and commune for a while. A sacrifice of praise is not something fun to experience. It might be fun to sing about, but when it actually comes time to offer up that sacrifice, it will cost.
When we bring our praise with no ulterior motives, no attempts to “twist God arm” to come to us. Our praises will become a powerful weapon against the enemy.
