Praise

Praise is a powerful key to pulling supernatural blessings into our life. Praise is not for God’s benefit- He surely doesn’t need our praise to know He is almighty, powerful and amazing. Praise is for our benefit.

When we go through a difficult situation, our natural inclination is to worry, complain, become angry or frantic, anything other than having an attitude of praise to God. But if we go against what we see with our natural eyes and instead focus on what we know to be true from Scripture, we can muster up a bit of praise to God.

“Through Jesus therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.” (Heb 13:15)

Notice the verse says “through Jesus.” This is showing us that Jesus is the door through which we have access to God. In other words, through Jesus sacrifice on the cross for our sins, we are now righteous (in rightstanding) before God therefore we now have the ear of God the Father. So when Christ followers offer praise to God in Jesus’ name in the midst of suffering, we are acknowledging that our relationship with Jesus can change our circumstances. We are not agreeing to be victims of whatever comes our way.

Praise Stops Satan In His Tracks

Let me give you a picture of what is going on in the unseen supernatural realm.

All negative situations in life are from Satan and his demon forces. Satan doesn’t have a body, he is a spirit and therefore needs to get into “some body” to carry out his evil ways. Satan is here to kill, steal and destroy everything and everyone, and he does this by manipulating our thinking.

Therefore, if we aren’t thinking along the line of Scripture, standing on the things God has promised us, we are being manipulated. Our mind will start to circle the drain of Satan’s suggestions.

God Created the heavens, earth and everything in it. Whatever God says is true- everything else is a lie. Sickness isn’t supposed to be a death sentence, poverty can turn around quickly, addictions can be cured instantaneously. He wrote the instruction manual to life! Therefore, God’s Word is our ticket out of hell, in other words, out of the situations that Satan manipulated. The Word of God found in the Bible, is powerful to overcome everything.

” For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God”(Romans 1:16) Scripture tells us that when we are at odds with a situation or person, we are actually at odds with the negative spiritual forces that caused the situation.

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12)

We Must Be Careful Of What We Say

If we speak about a situation in our life as futile, or we speak fearful thoughts, we are inadvertently agreeing that Satan is more powerful than God.“He that breaketh a hedge, the serpent bites.” (Ecc 10:3)

This verse means, when we talk negatively about our situation we break down the hedge of protection God places around all Christ followers, then Satan the serpent can walk right in to our life and start destroying things: our marriages, family ties, health, finances- you name it!

In the Bible was a man named Job: “This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.” (Job 1:1b). Even though Job was in right standing with God his life was overcome by great tragedy. Why was the life of an upright man overcome by tragedy? Two reasons, he feared it would.“For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, And what I dreaded has happened to me.”(Job 3:25) And secondly, for an unknown reason to all, God allowed Satan access to afflict Job and his family.

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”(James 4:7)

Resist negative thoughts and situations by not accepting them, resist them with praise, or by quoting a verse of Scripture that directly speaks to the situation. When we do this it shows that we agree that God is more powerful than anything that is afflicting us. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”(John 16:33)

Jesus beat the powers of Satan when He rose from the dead. There is nothing harder in this world, nothing more insurmountable than resurrecting from the dead. So if Jesus was able to accomplish this, and then gave us His Holy Spirit to empower us, we too as obedient Christ followers, can overcome the attacks of Satan (problems) in life. The only problems left in our life will be those the Lord allows to strengthen our faith.

“6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”( Peter 1:6-7)

We begin to manifest this promise of God by thanking God for all of the good in our lives. Then we must read the Bible and align our lives with it’s teaching. These are the two keys- praise and obedience- for an overcoming life.

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.“

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”(Phillippeans 4:4-9)

Praise Is One Of The Four Pillars Of Our Strength

The Holy Spirit’s power within us can work when we have the Word implanted in our heart. Then the Holy Spirit can call to mind Scripture that speaks to our situation as well as remind us that we should rejoice always. Lastly The Holy Spirit will remind us through a verse, that the safest way to live is to stay within the confines of God’s teachings. Let’s recap: our strength comes from

1. Unwavering faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word
2. The recitation of specific Scripture that speaks contrary to our problem
3. Continual praise/ thankfulness to God
4. Obedience to the Lord’s teachings

Praise and worship songs are an easy remedy for fearful and destructive thoughts. It such a simple thing to praise God yet it’s something many of us forget to do. Let’s keep our devices tuned to Christian radio and remember to use one of our great tools for fighting Satan- Praise!

Food For Thought,

Lisa

This is a link to my favorite Bible with excellent teaching points. click here