Praising God – what can it do in and for you?

When I was at church yesterday
evening, a word came from the Lord through the pastor’s wife that He
wants us to praise, because those who are worshippers are those who
hear the voice of God. If you want direction from the Lord in any
area of your life, get into praise. This puts you in such a place in
God where you can hear His voice clearer.

This morning as I was praying the
Lord spoke to me and said that our family needs to get more into
praise, because in that there is strength for us. We become trong as
we praise God. I then asked the Lord to give me some Scripture that
shows that praising God will bring strength to you, IT WILL MAKEYOU
STRONG. He reminded me of a Scripture in Psalms:

Psalm 16:8 I have set the LORD
always before me; Because He is at my right hand I shall not be
moved.

The Lord showed me that when we
praise God, we are setting the Lord before our eyes. And what is the
result of that? We shall not be moved! We shall be so strong that we
will be immovable when the enemy tries to shake us from the place
apointed by God for us. We will be imovable when temptation comes,
when trouble and trials arise or when discouragement hits.

I then did a small study on the
word praise to see how as a result of us praising God we get
strengthened. Well… I got reminded of the fact that praise is a
tool in God’s hand through which He can destroy our enemies.

Here are some
examples in the Bible:

“But You are
holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel. (Psalm 22:3)” When we
praise God, God is enthroned in our lives and being enthroned, it
provides a chance for Him to do what He wants in our lives, to put
things in order according to the order of His kingdom. ‘Your kingdom
come, Your will be done”. Since He get enthroned when we praise
Him, therefore praise brings the Kingdom of God in our lives and
circumstances.

Another verse
says: “Let them give glory to the LORD, And declare His praise …
The LORD shall go forth like a mighty man; He shall stir up His zeal
like a man of war. He shall cry out, yes, shout aloud; He shall
prevail against His enemies.” Isaiah 42:12 – 13

From this verse
we learn that as we give God glory and praise, He starts to act in
battle for us and prevail against His enemies in us (which might be
sin, a negative attitude, discouragement,etc), His enemies in our
lives and in the lives of others.

We can see the
same effect in 2 Chronicle 20:22 Now when they began to sing and to
praise, the LORD set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and
Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated.

God defeated the
enemies of the children of God as they began to sing and to praise,
and He will do the same in our lives. One particular enemy that He
specifically says He defeats when we praise is the spirit of
heaviness, the spirit that makes us feel opressed, discouraged,
disheartened, sad, unhappy, cast down in our soul:

To console those
who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for
mourning, THE GARMENT OF PRAISE FOR THE SPIRIT OF HEAVINESS; That
they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD,
that He may be glorified.” Isaiah 61:3

Another powerful
example of how God starts to fight against our enemies is the battle
at Jericho. The battle was won through praise. God defeated a giant
of an enemy that was seating in the way of the future of God’s
people. God was enthroned in the praises of His people, and He went
forth as a mighty man of war, and defeated the enemies for them. He
obstacle standing in the way of God’s people’s destiny was removed
and they could thus take possession of the promises of God for them.

I myself found
by experience that praise does quite a number of things in our lives.

Firstly, it
makes us put our eyes on God rather than our circumstances. It makes
us gain the right perspective between who God is and who we are, it
puts us in our place, so to speak. It reminds us who God is for us
and makes us confess the truth of the Word of God and of who God is
for us, which can bring faith and encouragement to our souls.

It also brings
us into a place where God is enthroned in our hearts and our hearts
get softened and malleable in God’s hands for His purposes and plans.
We start to let go of our plans and agendas and let God take over. It
brings us into the presence of God, into the holy of holies, where we
can hear God’s soft voice speaking to us about our present, past or
future. I have found that the best way to get into a place where I
can truly hear God with confidence is by praising God until my heart
is utterly stilled from the noises and distractions of the things
around us and I am truly still in my soul.

Then I wait upon
the Lord, ask Him to speak to me and wait quietly before Him in faith
expecting Him to speak. And He does, maybe not each time, but when He
decides that I need to hear something specific from Him. I do not try
to force Him to speak through these actions (I can’t anyway), but I
make myself available to listen in case He wants to speak to me at
that time. If you think God SHOULD speak to you each time and you
wait believing He will speak every time, this attitude can lead you
into hearing the wrong kind of voices which can lead you astray. So
our attitude is one of humble servant, showing up before the Master
just in case He has any specific instructions for us. If He doesn’t I
carry on doing what He previously spoke to me about or just doing the
general will of God written in Scripture.

I have also
found that when I had problems that were beyond my control, if I
would start praising God for let’s say half an hour or so, I
sometimes saw that God moved to turn things around. When we were
running a web hosting business, the server crushed when the data
center was closed, it was right after the business hours were
finished and the workers were on their way to home. Usually they do
not come back to fix your problem,you have to wait till the next
morning, but after praising God for half an hour, one of the workers
decided to go back and fix our problem, even though he did not have
to. That was inconvenient for him, but God moved him so we would not
loose our customers.

Also, if I felt
down or discouraged at times, or hurting or oppressed, I would CHOOSE
to praise, against what my feelings were telling me to do, and I
would sing those things about God, who He is towards me, the opposite
of what my circumstances were screaming at me. Sometimes it really
hurt to sing those things, as it did not fit my present reality, but
this is what a SACRIFICE OF PRAISE is, something that hurts to do and
the results are that God starts to move in your life.

So I hope this
encouraged you to praise God and see His miracles unfold. We all need
miracles. You need miracles. So why not invite God to take over
through praise and defeat your enemies? I would encourage you to
apply what I have said above and then write in the comments below the
testimonies of what God did for you through practicing this teaching.
Looking forward to reading your testimonies of miracles!