PRAISE REVOLUTION: WARFARE

Have you ever wondered why God commands and desires our PRAISE? Is it because He has as ego problem? Is He insecure? Does He need our PRAISE? The answer to all these questions is emphatically NO. God does not need our PRAISE. Scripture records that there are creatures in heaven that do nothing but WORSHIP Him day and night (Revelation 4:8)

Why then has God ordained our PRAISE? Psalm 8:2 gives us the answer: "because of our enemies." Some people feel they have done the Lord a great service if they spend thirty minutes WORSHIPING Him. The fact is we do not do Him a favour; we do ourselves a favour and the devil great damage. God has not ordained PRAISE because He needs it, but because we need to PRAISE Him.

Ezekiel refers to Lucifer as "the anointed cherub" (Eziekiel 28:13-14). Lucifer was called to lead all of heaven in WORSHIP to the most high God ... but he fell because of PRIDE (Isaiah 14:12-15). Because of a prideful heart, Satan fell from heaven, lost his heavenly anointing and was cast to the earth. (Ezekiel 28:16-18).

The wonderful thing God did was to take what Satan was originally anointed to do and allow us, the body of Christ, to use it as a weapon of warfare to destroy the enemy's plans. Psalm 8:2 says that God has ordained PRAISE because of our enemy, to silence the avenger. The word silence is the Hebrew word "shabath" which means "to cause to fail, to repose, suffer to be lacking, to put down, take away."

As we PRAISE the Lord, we cause the enemy to fail. As we lift our voices to God, we defeat the power of Satan that would bring us into bondage. As we enter into WORSHIP, we begin to take back what the enemy has stolen from us.

When you understand this, SPIRITUAL WARFARE is no longer drudgery. That's why Paul could say, "Fight the good fight of faith" (1 Timothy 6:12). It is a good fight when you know your enemy is fleeing in terror. We are not running from our enemy; instead we have him on the run. we are not in a defensive position waiting for him to attack. Rather we take the offensive and go after his kingdom aggressively. We are God's commandoes who go in behind the lines rescuing those that are held captive. We use spiritual weapons of war to blow up his communications facilities and destroy his method of operation.

Paul said that "the weapons of our WARFARE are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of stronghold" (2 Corinthians 10:9). PRAISE and WORSHIP play an important role in all this because God has ordained our PRAISE to silence him. It is time for the church to arise in this hour and PRAISE the Lord with all it's might. We must become uninhibited in our PRAISE, even as children are (Psalm 8:2 says - "out of the mouth of babes"). Then our weapon of WARFARE - PRAISE - will be unleashed on the powers of darkness and result in their demise and destruction.
(an extract from - Silencing The Enemy by Robert Gay)



PRAISE - THE VICTORY YOU HAVE IN GOD OVER YOUR ENEMIES
Psalm 27:3 - Praise Him when an army comes against you
2Samuel 22:30 - Praise Him when you can overtake an entire troop
2 Chronicles 20:17 - Praise Him when He fights on your behalf
2 Chronicles 20:21 - Praise Him when you can defeat an overwhelming
Romans 8:31 - Praise Him when God is for you and no one can stand against you
Psalm 7:6 - Praise Him when your enemies rage against you
Psalm 27:2-5 - Praise Him when your enemies come against you
Psalm 25:19 - when your enemies are many and are very cruel
Psalm 38: 19 - Praise Him when your enemies are multiplied and very strong
Psalm69:4 - Praise Him when your enemies hate you without cause ...
Psalm 102:8 - Praise Him when your enemies speak against your all day long
Lamentation 3:52 -Praise Him when your enemies hunt you down without cause
1 Samuel 2:1 - Praise Him when you can smile at your enemies becuae of His salvation
Psalm 18:1-3 - Praise Him when you are delivered from your enemies
Psalm 9:3 - Praise Him when your enemies fall and perish at His presence
Psalm 18:3, 48 - Praise Him when you call on the Lord and are saved from your enemies
Ps 23:5 - Praise Him when He prepares a table for you in the presence of your enemies
Psalm 25:2 - Praise Him when He will not allow your enemies to triump over you
Psalm 27:6 - Praise Him when He lifts your head above your enemies
Psalm 27:11 - Praise Him when He leads you on a smooth path in the face of your enemies
Psalm 41:2 - Praise Him when He stands against the will of your enemies
Psalm 119:98 - Praise Him when He makes you wiser than your enemies through His Word
Psalm 143:9 - Praise Him when He is a shelter from your enemies
Micah 7:8 - Praise Him when He lifts you and gives you light in the face of your enemies
2 Kings 17:39 - Praise Him when He delivers your from the hand of all your enemies
Zephaniah 3:14-15 - Praise Him when He turns back your enemies
Psalm 66:3 - Praise Him when His great power cause your enemies to cringe

PRAISE THE LORD!

PRAISE - Our Weapon In Spiritual Warfare

Let the high praises of God be in their mouth,
And a two-edged sword in their hand,
To execute vengeance on the nations,
And punishments on the peoples;
To bind their kings with chains,
And their nobles with fetters of iron;
To execute on them the written judgment—
This honor have all His saints.
Praise the LORD!

Psalm 149:6-9 (NKJV)

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 storng holds" (2 Corinthians 10:9). You 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 the. 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 air. Spiritual warfare is not a toilsome thing. It is an honor that God has bestowed upon you and me. 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)
Have a blessed and victorious week! -TPWC