Sunday, November 17, 2013

THE POWER OF PRAISE

Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. Psalm 67:3 Praise is cardinal to the believer, because it is his cheapest access to the Most High God. It is also one of his surest access to the realm of the miraculous. Praise is also a preservative of the blessings of God. Blessings may come without it, but it takes praise to preserve the blessings. It is to one's blessings what salt is to meat - it keeps it from decaying. In Malachi 2, the priests stood the risk of losing God’s blessings, because they had ignored the ways of God. And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you. If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart. Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it. Malachi 2:1-3 By not remembering to give God the glory due to Him, the priests stood to have dung spread on their faces, and you know that dung represents shame and reproach. This is precisely why I want to introduce you to a life style of praise, not a church agenda of praise, so that you will never experience shame or reproach. The greatest obstacle facing you in life will never require more than praise to become a miracle. 


No obstacle can escape the touch of Jesus, and you invoke that touch by intense, hearty praise; not just with the lips, but praise coming from the depth of your soul! Unfortunately, the power in praise has been ignored in the body of Christ. People think it is for those who don’t know how to pray, but that is far from the truth. I have proved in my life that praise is much more effectual than the longest fast any man can engage in. Also, although prayer (no matter how fervent) has it's place, it cannot compete with praise in potency. Praise makes things work cheaply! 

There is a highway of praise. It’s a freeway - you just keep going on from triumph to triumph, victory to victory! Everything keeps going straight for you. Concerning Jesus, the Bible says He was not ashamed to call us brethren. He’s the Lion of the tribe of Judah, so we belong to the tribe of Judah. Judah means praise (Genesis. 29:35). We belong therefore to the tribe of praise; so when we are out of praise, we are out of tune with our destiny. You belong to the tribe of Judah, so triumph is your heritage (Genesis.49:8-12). When praise becomes your life style, triumph becomes your heritage; therefore, the son of wickedness will no longer be able to exact upon you (Psalm. 89:22). Jacob pronounced these terrific blessings upon Judah in Genesis 49:8-9: Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father’s children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? That is where a life style of praise takes you! 

There’s a degree of comfort and restful confidence that comes on those who live a praiseful life style. Do you want to go up? Praise is the ladder to use! Just trigger off that Judaic nature inside you! You will be so restful. You will couch like a lion, and when you wake up, anything you find will be food for you. Also, note that because you belong to the tribe of Judah, you're of the company of those that must be praised by others, by reason of your outstanding results and undeniable breakthroughs! That's your place in God, and it's time to take that place. Nothing greases life like praise! When any system or engine lacks grease, it begins to make a cracking noise. That is how many lives in the body of Christ are today, because they lack the grease of praise. It is time to train up in praise! Training leads to triumph. Every military formation draws strength and victory from training. If you're not trained, you're not ready for triumph. Training is what begets triumph. As we train up in praise, through the things I'll be sharing with you in this book, you will begin to triumph in every phase of your life! 

A man can praise his way out of penury into plenty, out of sickness into health, and out of smallness into greatness! Yet praise is one of the most neglected or ignored spiritual weapons in Christendom, and I think it’s purely as a result of ignorance. God is saying, "It's time to understand the new syllabus." It's not what we are used to. God is restoring the tabernacle of David to the Church. If you look at the prophecy of Amos, it says, "Then shall the tabernacle of David be restored..." (Amos 9:11). There must be a restoration of the tabernacle of praise before Jesus will come. And that's the realm we're entering into now, the realm where nothing answers until praise is offered! Praise is not focusing on happenings, it is focusing on God's faithfulness. It is focusing on the efficacy of Scriptures. It is focusing on the integrity of God and the insight that you have received.