PRAISE REVOLUTION: AMBASSADORS

The praises we have been called to offer are not simply to be spoken or sung, but the WORD says that we are to make known the wonderful virtues and excellencies of God in the earth. This definitely calls us to more than a duty of singing a few songs on Sunday morning and going home. This verse implies the requirement of a life's worth of action and demostration on our part.

The Greek word for proclaim, is "Exaggello" (Strong's # 1804), which means:

To tell, To make known by praising or celebrating, To celebrate

"Exaggello" comes from two Greek words:

"Ex" meaning: the point where action or motion proceeds; out of.

"Aggelos" meaning: to bring forth tidings; angel or messenger, envoy, one who is sent; to accompany something to a place, to bring to a destination, to attach one's self as an attendant, to lead, to move.

We are called to be God's royal envoys and messengers who have become one with the praises we speak or sing. We have become the message to such a degree that we speak or sing. We have become the message to such a degree that we accompany those praises wherever they are sent. The life and essence of every worshiper, and the gloryof God that is in them, accompanies the praises and establishes God's holy, royal kingdom in that very place. When we praise Him, we are like the heavnly host in Luke 2:13-14

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly host praising God and saying "Glory to God in the higest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"

The great host of angels accompanied the good news of Jesus' birth and filled the place with praises that resounded throughtout heaven and earth, filling time and eternity. Now we have been called to accompany the message of praise and declare His eternal Kingdom from one end of the earth to the other.

When Jesus came in the flesh, He used angels to accompany the message of His arrival. In these last days, He wants to use His holy, royal priests to accompany the message of His presence in the earth and His return as Conquering King!

Paul also speaks of this principle as He writes to the Corinthians:

"But praise be to God who makes us strong to overcome in Christ, and makes clear through us in every place the value of the knowledge of him." - 2 Corinthians 2:14

Now read this same verse in the New Living Testament:

"But thanks be to God, who made us his captives and leads us along in Christ's triumpal procession. Now wherever we go he uses us to tell others about the Lord and to spread the Good News like a sweet perfume."

Our praise-filled lives are like a sweet perfume - we affect every place we go and every person we come in contact with. He has commissioned us to accompany the message of praise that we sing and speak. Something of our relationship with Lord and His authority working in and through us affects the atmosphere. We are the royal ambassadors of our King. Through us, and our praises, He unleashes His dominion and makes way for His presence in the earth.

I know that He is able to do all of of this on His own. I realize that all the earth is the Lord's (Psalm 12:1) without our help or permission, but in His infinite wisdom He has directed us to minister on His behalf, and rule with Him in kingdom matters of heaven and earth

As with all royal communiques, the message is more important than the messenger.

(an extract from: Praise Him by Vivien Hibbert)

PRAISE REVOLUTION: GATES

"Enter His gates with thanksgiving His courts with praise;

Give thanks to Him and praise His name.

For the Lord is Good and His love endures forever;

His faithfulness continues through all generations"

Psalm 100: 4-5

How important it is for each of us to know the way into God's presence? How do we enter His gates? How do we come into His courts? The psalmist points out the way that God has ordained: We enter His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. It is only as we come to God with thanksgiving and with praise that we have access into His presence.

The prophet Isaiah likens the presence of God among His people to a city, concerning which he says: " You will call your walls SALVATION and your gates PRAISE" (Isaiah 60:18). The only way through those walls of SALVATION is by the gates of PRAISE. Unless we learn to approach God with praise, we have no access into His presence.

Confronted with this requirement, we are sometimes tempted to look around us at our situation and ask: " But what do I have to thank God for? What do I have to praise Him for?"There may be nothing in our immediate circumstances that appears to give us cause to thank and or praise God. It is just here that the psalmist comes to our help. He gives us three reasons to thank and praise that are not affected by our circumstances: first, the Lord is good; second, His love endures forever; third, His faithfulness continues through all generations. All three reasons are eternal, unchanging facts. If we truly believe them, then we have no alternative but to praise God for them CONTINUALLY!
Like to share with you a song I wrote. You can listen to it at www.reverbnation.com/rickysim or click SONGS @ right column of blog :-

Verse 1
I will enter His gates,
With thanksgiving in my heart
Enter His courts with praise
I will sing of His grace,
For all that He has done
I will rejoice and bless His Name

Chorus
Blessed be Your Name,
My strong and mighty Tower
Blessed be Your Name,
The Rock of my Salvation
Blessed be Your Name,
There is no other name
Jesus the Name above all names

Verse 2
I was glad when they said,
Let us go into His house
There I find peace and joy
The Lord He is good
And His mercies endure
I will rejoice and bless His Name

Blessings
TPWC

PRAISE REVOLUTION: PRIVATE

I Will Bless The Lord At All Times;

His Praise Shall Continually Be In My Mouth

Psalm 34:1 (NKJV)

Thank God for corporate praise when we gather together. It helps us to get among a body of believers as we celebrate and magnify the name of the Lord. There is also a personal private praise which we (lifestyle worshipers) must not neglect. The reason for this is that until we come to the place where we can really enter into that private, personal praise, just between you and the Lord, there are always going to be some hindrances and some holding back when we enter into the corporate praise.

Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty (2 Corinthians 3:17) and God wants us to get so free that when His Spirit starts moving on us at home, in our kitchen, out in your work place, when commuting or driving down the road in your car, we can just let the spirit of praise flow like rivers of living waters in our surrounding.

The Bible says that God inhabits in our praise (Psalms 22:3). The question is, "If He inhabits in our praise, how far does He inhabits it?" The answer is as far as the sound of your voice goes ... "Glory! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Blessed Be the name of Jesus!" As far as our voice sounds, God is living in those words. For example, when we are in our car praising and worshipping Him, our audible praise fills that car. When the devil gets any where near you; do you know what he gets? "Glory!" If he comes through the window of your car, "Hallelujah!" hits him. When he tries to enter by the door, "Jesus!" knocks him off.

PRAISE HAS TO BE VOCALISED. The Bible says, "My lips shall praise Thee "(Psalms 63:3). If you go around with your mouth shut and not praising God, then God is not in your praise and the devil beats on you. Our praise may be as weak as babes, but it is powerful enough to silence the enemy (Psalms 8:2). There is power in the name of Jesus, that means that that power is released when we speak or sing it. When we begin to speak forth or sing our praises in His name, the spirit inside us begins to rise up and the power of darkness outside of us begins to retreat. Let the Devil hit our praise ten or twenty feet out infront of us. Let them stick their fingers in their ears each time they are near us.

Psalms 34:1 says, " ... His praise shall CONTINUALLY BE IN MY MOUTH." Most people have to stop what they are doing to try to get into praising God, but we need to have this reverse. We need to praise God so much that we have to stop praising in order to do something else.

Psalms 113:3 says, " From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same the Lord's name is to be praised." King David was a man after God's own heart. He praised God in the morning, he praised Him at noontime and he praised him in the night-time.

Psalms 119:164 David said, "Seven times a day I praise Thee." The number seven is perfect and complete. God is looking for worshipers who will choose to PRAISE HIM CONTINUALLY AND ALL DAY.

PRIVATE PRAISE is a powerful experience to live in. It is the key to a victorious and abundant life with Jesus. Let us the first fruits of our day to the Lord in private praise.
TPWC (An extract from Private Praise by Elbert Willis)

PRAISE REVOLUTION: A TWO-EDGED SWORD

May the praise of God be in their mouths
and a double-edged sword in their hands,
to inflict vengeance on the nations
and punishment on the peoples,
to bind their kings with fetters,
their nobles with shackles of iron,
to carry out the sentence written against them—
this is the glory of all his faithful people.
Praise the LORD

Psalm 149:6-9

This particular passage of Scripture shows that PRAISE and spiritual warfare go together. With HIGH PRAISES and the WORD OF GOD (A TWO-EDGED SWORD) we have the ability to excute God's vengence, inflict punishment, bind kings, bind nobles and execute judgments.

In spiritual warfare, our enemy is not people. Apostle Paul said that " we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Ephesians 6:12). We must always keep in mind who our enemy is: the devil.

Further, apostle Paul said that "the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds" (2 Corinthians 10:9). We cannot fight a spiritual enemy with natural weapons. We must use spiritual weapons of war to combat our spiritual enemy. PRAISE is one of those weapons. It is a spiritual weapon of war that binds and breaks the powers of darkness.

Psalm 149:7 - PRAISE can execute God's vengence. God does take vengence, for He said, "Vengence is mine" (Romans 12:19). God wants to settle the score in all matters and give just recompense to whom is due. The primary target of the vengence is the devil.

Psalm 149:8 - We see that our PRAISE will "bind kings with chains and nobles with fetters of iron." Let's first understand who the kings and nobles are that the psalmist is talking about. I believe them to be the principalities and rulers of darkness. They are the wicked demonic kings that have set up rulership and dominion in geographical locations and in people's lives. The Bible says that our PRAISE binds them with chains and fetters of iron. As we PRAISE the Lord, we immobilize them. We cause them to desist and stop whatever maneuvers, plans or strategies they are attempting to carry out.

Psalm 149:9a - Our PRAISE "execute (s) the judgment written." The NIV version states it this way: "to carry out the sentence written against them." The enemy has already been defeated and the church has already won the victory. Let us arise with PRAISE in our mouths, as we execute His judgment upon the powers of hell.

Psalm 149:9b - "This honor have all the saints." What honor is the psalmist talking about? The honor of executing God's judgment and vengence on the powers of the air. Spiritual warfare is not a toilsome thing. It is an honor that God has bestowed upon us. It is done with joy in our hearts as we celebrate the victory of our Lord.

Now that we know PRAISE as our spiritual weapon, we should now change the way we view what the devil tries to throw across our paths. When we are confronted by the enemy, we have the privilege one more time of showing the devil who we are in Christ and who he is not. We then lift up our hands, raise our voices in song and dance before the Lord as we acknowledge Him as the mighty man of war who is mighty in battle through us!
(an extract from: Silencing The Enemy by Robert Gay)