Shout Joyful praises to God

Praise

Praise is mentioned about 596 times in the Bible. I’m just going to use Psalm 66.

Shout with joy to God, all the earth!

Sing the glory of his name;

make his praise glorious!

Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!

So great is your power

that your enemies cringe before you.

All the earth bows down to you;

they sing praise to you,

they sing praise to your name.”       Selah  Psalm 66:1-4

So we are told to (a) shout with joy, (b) sing the glory of His name, (c) make His praise glorious, (d) sing praise.

David and the whole house of Israel were celebrating with all their might before the LORD, with songs and with harps, lyres, tambourines, sistrums and cymbals. 2 Samuel 6:5

They were celebrating getting the ark of God back to the city of David.

So when did we stop giving God the praise He deserves? Isn't He doing wonderful things in our lives, in the lives of our family and friends that we should be celebrating?

Shouldn't we be celebrating His magnificence? His glory? His faithfulness? His forgiveness? His healing? His protection? And the list can go on and on.

In my opinion not only has ‘going to church’ become a habit, a religion; but so has the time of praise. We finally arrive at church after arguing with our flesh or spouse or children….that did not want to get up, it’s the only day they get to sleep…..or we are still thinking on the work we left on our desk Friday….or maybe we are dwelling on some gossip we heard and can’t wait to see if so and so shows up today. You name it, our minds; our desires are elsewhere so we go in and go through the motions. We sing the songs but are we really noticing the words and the meanings? Are we really singing these songs to God? Can you close your eyes and feel His presence and if you hear Him to tell you to lift your arms in worship to Him, will you do it or are you concerned about someone seeing you and ‘gossiping’ about you?

 

I know we are to do all things to glorify God, but when you read about how they praised Him in the Bible; it seems we have lost exuberance.

God has done so much for me that I want to make sure I’m giving Him all the glory every day of my life and when I come together with the body of believers I worship with – I want to be able to put our praises together and welcome His presence in our midst.

One day I was asking God why it felt heavy, like no one was really singing to Him, it was ‘habit’. And I heard Him ask me, ‘What do you want?’ And I told Him (while praise was still going on I stopped to write this down so I’d remember it).

     I want to go into a place of worship and if even one ounce of flesh is on me…..it falls off! There is so much passion for God and for His people that nothing else can come in – we leave our pride, selfishness, fear, sickness, gossip, etc at the door.

Then I heard the Lord clearly say to me, ‘If we don’t come really seeking Him we squelch the Spirit. If we can’t find and rest in His joy we are losing the Light. We are to praise Him with all our might, to know what we are singing and why, it is beautiful to Him.

I believe if you want to see a move of God’s power, we need to know what we are singing, why we are singing it and make sure we focus on giving God the praise.

(c)Has Breath Publishing LLC

Listen to the Holy Spirit and Pray

I feel really impressed to encourage two things. 

The first is to listen to the Holy Spirit.  I want to re-iterate John 16:13-15.  

The second thing that I would like to encourage is to change our desires to be the same as His.  

Read the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13.  

These two things go hand in hand. 

In order to know what God wants, one must listen to the Holy Spirit.  If one is listening to the Holy Spirit, then their desires will start to line up with His.  Let’s shift out focus away from ourselves so that we do not get in the way of what God wants to do.

I have said before, and the same applies now, I need to apply what is written in this piece just as much as anyone else.  With the times that are coming, it is time to be quiet and listen to what God is trying to speak to us through the Holy Spirit.  God is well aware of what we need, and He does not need us wasting prayer time pleading for ourselves.  

Matthew 6:31-32 says “Therefore take no thought, saying, what shall we eat? Or, what shall we drink? Or, wherewithal shall we be clothed?  (For after all these things doe the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.”

On the Day of Pentecost, God left His Holy Spirit on the Earth to help us.  The purpose of the Holy Spirit is defined in John 16:13.  

“He will guide you into all truth.” 

 So when the Holy Spirit tells us to do something, we need to recognize that He is telling us to do it because that is what God does and/or what God wants from us.  One can never go wrong listening to the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit can be consulted about any situation.  If you had a friend that you could ask about anything:  finances, relationships, health, and they always had the correct answer, would you value that person’s relationship?  What lengths would you go to maintain communication with that person?  Well, the Holly Spirit is that friend, and just like any other friend, you need to spend time with him to get to know Him and learn to communicate with Him.  The more time you spend with the Holly Spirit, the more He will teach about you God and the easier it will be to communicate.

One of the most wonderful things that the Holy Spirit can do is telling us how to pray.  I think that it is safe to say that most people do not consult the Holy Spirit when they pray.  Most prayer revolves around what the individual person would like to see happen, and I seriously doubt that the desires of one’s flesh lines up with the desires of God.  What I would encourage everyone, as well as myself, is to learn how to communicate with the Holy Spirit so that he can tell you what the Father wants.  When we are confident in what the Father wants, the focus of our prayer will change.  Instead of praying for the things that God has already promised us, we can start praying for the things that God wants to come to pass.

The past few years have been a time to learn to communicate with the Holly Spirit and to get to know who God is and what His will is.  This time will eventually come to an end.  Those that did not use this time wisely will not be ready for battle and will be susceptible to being fooled by the enemy.  Their use will be limited respective to their knowledge of God’s will.  The entertainment of this world is keeping people from communicating with the Holy Spirit and gaining knowledge of God.  This is Satan’s attempt to gain an advantage in the battle against truth.  The important thing to remember is that we have the victory and Satan knows it.

Faith, Hope and Love

Faith, Hope, and Love

What mountain must faith move to find where we stand?

Where must hope go to gain entrance to our hearts?

What must love do that it may come close?

For the only mountain faith must move is our own desires to allow it to work in us.

Hope must go nowhere; for, it lies in the Scriptures waiting for us to receive it.

Love must only draw near once we submit and likewise have drawn close.

For these things are the individualities of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

by: Nick Mosier