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

It Is Well

Have you ever been a passenger in a car and before you knew it; your foot was applying pressure to that imaginary brake pedal on the floorboard?  Well, you are not alone! This is the example the Holy Spirit has given me to learn how to give God complete control in every area of my life.  To start this lesson, I was lead to John 21:15-17 where Jesus asked Peter three times, if he loved Him and each time, Peter told the Lord that he did, without a doubt, love Him.  Then I heard in my spirit, “Do you trust me?”  After repenting, the Holy Spirit revealed to me some areas of my life that, if I would give up control, He would ensure that all would be well.   As I was getting ready for bed that evening, I asked the Father to teach me about trust, and show me what I needed to do to trust Him completely.  That next morning I woke up with the refrain from the song “It is Well with My Soul.”  Since all I knew was the refrain, I went to the internet to get the complete song.  The song is beautiful, however; it was the biography of the writer, a prominent lawyer by the name of Horatio Spafford that stuck a cord with me.  Here is just a snippet of his life: Following the death of his 4-year-old son, he experienced financial ruin after the great Chicago fire and the economic downturn of 1873.  Later, he planned a trip with his family to travel to Europe on the SS Ville du Havre.  At the last minute, Mr. Spafford sent his family ahead and stayed in Chicago to tend to some unresolved business. While crossing the Atlantic, the ship that carried his wife and four daughters sank after colliding with a sea vessel.  All four of his daughters died.  His wife was the only one that survived.  On the way to meet his grieving wife, Mr. Spafford was inspired to write the words to this song as his ship passed near where his daughters had died.  He and his wife later had three more children, one of which died in infancy.  They moved to Jerusalem and helped found the American Colony, a mission to help the poor.                  Click here to watch a video - Mr. Spafford After wiping my eyes and blowing my nose, I opened my daily devotional and the title for that day was “It’s All Good” with 2 Kings 4:8-37 as the reference to read.   After reading the text, I took time to read the story about the Shunammite woman who, when her young son died, was not moved by what she saw or felt.  Instead, she said, “It is well.”  I’m not familiar with the lyrics to the song I woke up with, but I sing the refrain all the time now and the peace that comes over me is indescribable.  Since that day, I have made a choice to learn how to trust God.  Interestingly enough, I am discovering how trust has a direct correlation with faith.  Without faith, there is no trust.  I have much to learn about both.  My journey has just begun and I have a trustworthy driver.  He has a good plan for my life.  We are taking His vehicle and the route is loaded into His GPS (God’s Protective Shield)!  There may not be a radio, but I have a new song to sing.  I am along for the ride and “It is Well with my Soul”.                        It Is Well With My Soul - YouTube

Life of Praise

A Life of Praise

Psalm 34:1 says, “I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in mouth.” 

Meditate on that scripture a moment.

Notice that David says that he will bless the Lord at all times, not just sometimes or not just when everything in his life was going great. 

David constantly had enemies pursuing him, yet David chose to bless the Lord at all times. 

How many of us are actually hiding from enemies that are out to kill us? 

The faith and trust in God that David had was pretty intense. David knew that the Lord was upholding him, no matter what the circumstances looked like.

Psalm 63:8 says, “My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.”

 David had a revelation of the importance of being close to God and not only that, but the importance of praising God. 

Some of us may have this idea that worship is in the sanctuary or worship is with music, but it is so much more than that. You can praise him with your mouth throughout the day whether you’re at work or in your car…anywhere. Notice that David didn't say he praised God when it was convenient or when he knew that he was safe from his enemy…no, it says that he would bless the Lord at all times.

I know that I need to work on this and I believe that the closer we cling to God that this will just be a natural product of that, but today I just want to challenge you to open your mouth more and praise God despite your surrounding circumstances. Know that God is with you and that He will never leave you nor forsake you. Remember that praise is an act of surrendering to God. 

Psalm 145:14 says, “The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.” There is something about bowing down and surrendering to God and living that life of praise that makes the enemy cringe. 

Psalm 149:1-5

Psalm 149:1-5

Do you realize that choosing to give God praise in the midst of what seems like impossible circumstances will cause you to be joyful?

-*

God actually takes pleasure in you when you choose to give these things over to Him!

 

It says He will beautify the humble with salvation. That means He will gave you everything you need to overcome and shine through what looks like the impossible!

Salvation does not just mean that you have fire insurance from hell, but it means that God has provided everything that you need to defeat the works of satan!

Make a choice today to be joyful each day no matter what that day brings - by praising God for the victory in each situation!

              

                                

Ready to Preach the Gospel

Thank you Peter, for this powerful message.

Consuming Fire

Deuteronomy 9:1-5 Consuming Fire and Righteousness

“Hear, O Israel: you are to cross over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, cities great and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the sons of Anak?’  Know therefore today that he who goes over before you as a consuming fire is the Lord your God. He will destroy them and subdue them before you. So you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as the Lord has promised you.

“Do not say in your heart, after the Lord your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you. Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

Deuteronomy 9:1-5

When my husband read this today, two things jumped out at me.

One was 'he who goes over before you as a consuming fire is the Lord your God.' 

It reminded me that no evil can stand up against my God. I do not need to fear because He goes before me.

Now with that said, we cannot expect God to go before us as this consuming fire if we have not been spending time in His Word, in prayer, in listening and inquiring of Him. God does expect us to seek Him and His wisdom in all things. So if you went running into something just because it was bothering 'you' and you haven't been to church/fellowship, have not been in His Word, you have not been praying according to His Word and you have not been listening to the Spirit but listening to your flesh or the world......or maybe you go to church for show or because it's a habit but you don't do anything with what you are learning, you leave it at the door.......don't be surprised when you feel the 'fire', when you don't see the Lord doing what you think He should.

It is very important that we know our Father, we know His ways and we KNOW that His Word is His protection over us; it is not to harm us.  We want His fire to go before us, He makes the path.

I fought this for a long time. I did not want to change my ways because I felt God was never there for me, especially in my childhood/teen years. The only way I knew God was from people that had 'religion' and from 'men' that abused me. So it was a journey for me to even be able to call God my Father.  

I'm so thankful He is a patient God, wanting none to perish. I'm grateful for those that were praying for me and loving me even at my dirtiest. And I rejoice that I can now call Him my Father and I know His love for me.

I know that as I obey Him when things come up all I have to do is pray, listen and then obey because then -- that he who goes over before you as a consuming fire is the Lord your God – will go before me and give me the victory.

The second thing in this passage is - “Do not say in your heart, after the Lord your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you. Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart..

When the Consuming Fire has gone before you and destroyed the resistance, the evil before you – do NOT take credit for it. Be careful that you don’t say, ‘well I did this and that, yes I heard God but “I” did it. Watch out for pride that says ‘I’m so upright and righteous that all this took place’. NO it is always God and His righteousness that defeats the enemy.  It is because of the wickedness that God moves through them and makes a path for us. He is fulfilling His promises.

So when you know, hear and obey God; you see Him going forward as the Consuming Fire, erasing your debt; healing your body; giving you the money to pay your mortgage; blessing  you on your job; opening doors of opportunity that people said would never happen……..don’t take any credit for it !

Give God all the glory, honor and praise!

(c) Has Breath Publishing LLC                                                                                                    

There Is A Work To Be Done

The Wrestling Match

In the last couple of years, the Lord has really been moving in this body of believers to become pure and holy before Him. There is a work to be done that requires us to be willing and obedient to leave behind anything from our past including separating emotional ties with it. For most people that is a difficult thing to do, but if we will simply trust Him to help us, we will complete the work that is set before us and finish the race capturing the prize our King longs to give us!

Jacob was a man that loved God and honored Him. Unfortunately, he was given a name that he heard every day and that name meant: supplanter, schemer, trickster, swindler. That is how Jacob lived his life at times. Let’s take one instance to illustrate the point I wish to convey. Jacob tricked his father into believing he was his brother Esau and as a result swindled Esau out of his birthright. The choice he made in that moment caused him to live in fear of his brother for a good portion of his life and make choices rooted in fear.

Now the time has come that he must face his brother and he doesn't know what to do, so he seeks God for an answer. Go to Genesis 32 to read about this. Verse 7 tells us that Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. In Verse 12 God assured him that he would prevail. Now with God telling him that, it would seem like he could relax and listen to how God wanted to go about restoring their relationship. But Jacob is really no different than most of us.

Being motivated by fear, Jacob decides to come up with his own plan on how to soften Esau’s heart before he faces him. Isn't that like our flesh? We tend to take things into our own hands instead of taking time to listen to God’s solution for our problems.

Jacob ends up in a Wrestling Match with God because he was too stubborn to listen and change. God ultimately had to put him in a position in order for him to listen and quit fighting Him. God was not his enemy, but just like Jacob that’s how many people view Him.

 Jacob’s mindset of what had been spoken over him daily had to be changed in order for God to get through to him. Once he realized that, released the fear and listened to God, God gave him a new name, Israel….one that spoke blessing over him the rest of his life.

Oh…the end of this story goes…God restored Israel’s relationship with his brother Esau.

 If only he would have listened in the first place and trusted God completely, he could have saved himself so much heartache.

So…Are you wrestling with God about something? It’s time to repent, release it and move forward as God shows you.

 He has your solution. Seek Him and when He answers you…do it!