Touching God’s heart with heartfelt worship and praiseto achieve a warrior's victory
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| Fireworks photo by DZN. |
We should not prevent
ourselves from praising God
Luke
19:37-40 (CSB) – “ Now
he came near the path down the Mount of Olives, and the whole crowd of the
disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles
they had seen:
38 Blessed is the King who comes in the name of
the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heaven! 39 Some
of the Pharisees from the crowd told him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.”40 He
answered, “I tell you, if they were to keep silent, the stones would cry out.”
How can we
praise God? We can praise with our voice (singing, proclaiming, declaring),
with our hands (clapping and raising them), playing music instruments, and by
dancing (spiritual dances).
Matthew
26:30 – “After
singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.”
Note that Jesus
was with them when they sang a hymn.
Read all of Psalms
47 and 100.
We draw near to
the Lord with praise-filled hearts: Psalm 100:4 [a] (NIV) - “Enter His gates
with thanksgiving and His courts with praise:” If we are born again, then we
carry the “temple” of God within us. (1 Corinthians 6:19 (NLT) – “Don’t
you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you
and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself” and read also 2
Corinthians 6:14-18).
Hebrews
13:15 (NLT) – “Therefore,
let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God,
proclaiming our allegiance to his name.”
Praise is the “sacrifice”
we can offer to God.
Psalm 149:1(NLT) – “Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord
a new song. Sing his praises in the assembly of the faithful.”
Praise God along with other believers who
gather in His name (church services, Bible studies, prayer groups, conferences,
concerts …).
James 5:13 (NIV) – “Is anyone among you in trouble? Let
them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise.”
David was a king-prophet-writer-anointed
musician-choir and dance leader.
2 Samuel
6:14-15 (NLT) – “And David danced before the Lord with
all his might, wearing a priestly garment. 15 So David and all
the people of Israel brought up the Ark of the Lord with shouts of joy and the
blowing of rams’ horns.”
New Testament Christians
Colossians
3:16 (NLT) – “Let the
message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel
each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs to God with thankful hearts.”
Ephesians
5:19 (NLT) – “Don’t be
drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the
Holy Spirit, 19 singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs
among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts.”
The glory of
God
The glory of
God falls on us when there is praise. The following passages tell us that the
Lord’s presence was experienced in an undeniable manner. The Lord manifested
His presence.
Isaiah 6:1-4 (NLT) – “It was in the year King Uzziah
died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of
his robe filled the Temple. 2 Attending him were mighty
seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with
two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3 They
were calling out to each other, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s
Armies! The whole earth is filled with his glory!” 4 Their
voices shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled
with smoke.”
2 Chronicles
5:11-17 (ESV) – “And
when the priests came out of the Holy Place (for all the priests who were
present had consecrated themselves, without regard to their divisions, 12 and
all the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, their sons and kinsmen,
arrayed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps, and lyres, stood east of the altar
with 120 priests who were trumpeters; 13 and it was the duty of
the trumpeters and singers to make themselves heard in unison in praise and
thanksgiving to the Lord), and when the song was raised, with trumpets and
cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise to the Lord, “For he is
good, for his steadfast love endures forever,” the house, the house
of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, 14 so that the
priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of
the Lord filled the house of God.”
The verses from
Isaiah and Chronicles pointed prophetically to the supernatural actions in the
early Christian Church described in the Book of Acts, when the Lord poured out
his Holy Spirit on the early believers. It is also interesting that King David
created a choir of 2,000 to serve the tabernacle – 200 of them were “prophet-singers.”
David mandated for praise to continue around the clock (24/7). While that was
done, according to justworship.com [1], Jerusalem experienced peace during
David’s reign for more than 30 years.
During his
reign, King Jehoshaphat reestablished David’s order of worship and praise, and
also used them as battle weapons. He placed on the battle frontlines singers
and musicians from the tribe of Judah (Judah by the way means “praise”) and
obtained victory – the Lord defeated Jehoshaphat’s enemies. One of the titles
of Jesus Christ is “Lion of Judah” (Lion of “Praise??)”
2 Chronicles
20:20-22 (ESV) – “And
they rose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of Tekoa. And
when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, Judah and inhabitants
of Jerusalem! Believe in the Lord your God, and you will be established;
believe his prophets, and you will succeed.” 21 And when he had
taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the Lord
and praise him in holy attire, as they went before the army, and say, “Give
thanks to the Lord, for his steadfast love endures forever.” 22 And
when they began to sing and praise, the Lord set an ambush against the men of Ammon,
Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed. [*]”
*Defeated.
David’s anointed
music
David was an
anointed musician, and we see this from the effect his music had on King Samuel
who was experiencing spiritual attacks.
1 Samuel
16:23 (NASB) – “So it
came about whenever the evil spirit from God came to Saul, David would
take the harp and play it with his hand; and Saul would be refreshed and
be well, and the evil spirit would depart from him.”
Music resonates
greatly in humans, and that is why it is important to take care of what music
we allow to enter into our soul. It is not only the openly satanic music that
we must avoid, there is other music that hell has inspired with the purpose of
harming people. The songs can include “nice” lyrics and possess pleasant melodies
but may be cursed (the opposite of blessing) by demons. (A helpful article at
this link [2] provides some guidelines for Christians and music.)
The Lord is
preparing musical instruments – and there will be singing!
Revelation
15:2[c]-3] (NLT) – “They
were all holding harps that God had given them. 3 And
they were singing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the
Lamb:”
Diana
Washington-Valdez/Lion of Judah & John the Baptist Ministries
[1] See more
@ justworship.com
